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“Idon’t know if this was such a good idea,” I told Natalia as she dragged me into the heart of the party. I don’t know what I had expected, but it hadn’t been for the party to be so loud. Music was blaring through the speakers, and while some people were talking, most people were dancing with cups in their hands. I had never been to a party, but I hadn’t expected it to smell so much like beer and sweat.
“I can’t believe that you came!” Natalia screamed over the music. She was pulling me through the crowd of writhing bodies.
“I wasn’t doing much,” I told her with a shrug.
“You weren’t doing that handsome husband of yours?” she asked with a wink. “I don’t think that I would let him out of my bed.”
I smiled uncomfortably. Natalia’s leash had been just as short as mine when we were growing up. The difference between the two of us was that Natalia had found a way around her confinement, and she’d always been a little more wild than I had. I’d spent my life too scared to defy my father.
Look at where that got me,I thought to myself.
“Dominic is out,” I said.
Natalia looked me up and down. Her stare made me uncomfortable, as if she was seeing something in me that I had missed. I had dressed in a pink knee length pleated skirt and a white blouse, which I was realizing made me incredibly out of place.
“That’s too bad for him, though that means we can have some fun!” Natalia pressed a cup into my hand, and brought it up to my nose, wrinkling at the musty smell.
Looking around, I couldn’t imagine how this party could be fun. Natalia was clearly drunk as was everyone in this party, and as I watched them, I couldn’t help but think about the rules that Dominic had set for me. I was breaking them.
“Let’s go back to my house,” I said. “You should see how much space I have now.”
Natalia rolled her eyes at me. “Come one!” We are only going to be young once she said. It was the last thing that she said to me before pulling me into the center of the dancing. I stood awkwardly for a moment as Natalia started to shimmy and shake in front of me.
“Natalia…” I said, feeling awkward.
Natalia stopped. She leveled me with an intense stare, and for a moment I wondered if my cousin was really as drunk as she pretended.
“Don’t do this,” she said.
“Do what?” I asked.
“Stand there looking so out of place.” Natalia grabbed my free hand. “You are free now. Enjoy it!”
Natalia’s words stuck with me. She was right. I had been shaped and molded like clay by my parents, and when I was to their liking, they sold me off.
Screw them,I thought to myself, as I brought that beer to my lips and downed the entire thing.
“There you go!” Natalia yelled, and I smiled. My cousin was wild, but I was starting to think that I needed a little bit of wildness in my life. The beer tasted sour on my tongue, but it helped to loosen me up.
“Let’s dance!” I said. I laughed as Natalia twirled me around. My skirt flared up around me, and I felt free for the first time. I didn’t care about my parents or my new husband. For once, I was only thinking about myself, and it felt good.
“I’m going to go and get more beer,” I said. I wasn’t a drinker, and the beer was nasty, but at the same time, I liked the way that first drink was already making my limbs heavy and warm.
Natalia didn’t say anything. She was shaking her ass against the crouch of some dude.
I smiled as I lined up at the keg.
“Excuse me,” a deep voice asked. I tensed as I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I turned to see a handsome blonde guy standing behind me. He was about my age, and he had a wholesomeness about him that made him endearing.
“Do I know you?” I asked. I didn’t think that I knew him. He didn’t look like a Bratva member.
“I think we have Organic Chemistry together,” he said.
I smiled as I took another cup of beer. “I don’t think so,” I told him. “I haven’t started classes yet.”
