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It also pissed me off, and I did something rash and called my mom. When she answered, I said the words she’d been waiting to hear. “I’ll do it. I’ll marry Kiran.”
Axel
She wouldn’t answer my texts or calls. I’d been to her dorm, and she wouldn’t answer the door. I even waited for her to come out of her dorm room, but I never saw her. I was losing my mind.
I’d taken the last final of my college career and was hitting the gym to blow off some steam. Starting off with some leg presses, I went hard, pushing myself to the limit and basking in the pain. Hoping muscle aches would replace the ache in my heart. God, I needed to punch myself in the face for sounding pathetic.
I saw someone in my peripheral vision. Dmitri was standing beside me, curling a fifty-pound dumbbell. “Did you get lost?” I gritted my teeth at rep twenty-five. Five-hundred pounds started to weigh on you, literally. “The vanity mirror is over there.” I managed to point behind him.
“I don’t need a mirror. I know how good I look.” He easily curled the weight up and down.
“Okay. That obviously went over your head.”
“No, it didn’t. I need to talk to you.” That was Dmitri. Dry, direct, and to the point.
“About?”
“Your shitty disposition and how you need to change it. STAT.”
Feeling the burn in my muscles, I dropped my legs and swiped at my brow. “Hold up. What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I could take—okay, tolerate—advice from guidance counselor Nick, but this robotic motherfucker, who had zero personality, was accusing me of having a shitty disposition?
“It means… whatever you need to do to make things right with Natalie, you need to do it because I can’t take your depressing shit anymore.”
I did a double-take. “Excuse me?” Okay, I probably was depressed, but having to take advice from Dmitri just flat-out pissed me off.
“Yes. And the worst part of it all is that I have to hear it from Sorina, who’s worried about your pussy-ass because you’re ghosting her on playing video games and staying huddled in your room in a fetal position. And when she’s not happy, I’m not happy.”
“It’s bad enough that I have to hear this from Nick, but you, too?” I sat up and clutched my hands between my knees. Exhaling in frustration, I tugged on the ends of my hair. “I’ve tried, but she won’t see me, man.”
He set the dumbbell down and stretched out his arm. “Try harder.”
“How?” I couldn’t believe I was asking for advice from this guy. I guess I was desperate. “Besides, she’s getting married.”
“Bullshit.”
“Yeah. Arranged marriage.”
“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go back to her dorm room and get her. Kidnap her if you have to.”
I was on board with his idea, but… “I don’t know if kidnapping a girl would work in this day and age. In a democratic society.”
Dmitri shrugged and eyed me with a straight face. “You don’t know that for certain until you try. But I do know she’s not in love with whoever she’s been told to marry. She’s crazy about you.”
“How do you know?”
“I know these things. Don’t question me. Now, go and make this shit right before I have to resort to desperate measures. I’ll bring Roman into this drama, and you know how that will go.”
Fuck, he was right, but I wasn’t letting this go. I was gonna take his advice and kidnap her ass if I had to. “Not necessary. I was trying to figure out a way to resolve this. And you’re right. She’s mine.” Standing up, I held out a hand to him as we bro-hugged. “You are naming the child after me, right?”
His eyes narrowed into slits, and he only responded with a snarl.
“All right, then, keep thinking about it.”
He growled louder behind me as I left the room, thinking about my next move. Dmitri was right. I needed to be more persuasive.
The next morning, I coaxed someone to let me into the main doors of her dormitory, hoping to have the element of surprise on my side. Loping up three flights of stairs, I thought of all the words I’d say. Now that time had passed, and I’d dissected our last conversation to death, I knew she wasn’t trying to marry someone else because she loved him. She couldn’t… because she loved me. She had to. And I was going to get it through her stubborn head and make her admit it.
Actually, I should probably apologize first, since she wouldn’t speak to me. Then I’d tell her that I love her, too. Because I did. I’d never admitted that to anyone. I’d shied away from ever putting myself in a position to fall in love. But with her, I just wanted to put myself in a position to have a chance to be with her. To love her.
