Page 59 of Vasily the Nail

“I’m glad you’re doing okay,” Alex says.

“Oh my gosh, you shouldn’t be worried about me!” I blurt out. “Look at you! What can I do for you? Is there someone you want me to call so you’re not stuck here with these idiots? Your, uh, girlfriend or parents or something? Your brother? Niko’s your brother, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve already talked to him, but I told him not to worry. Or call our parents. They’re up in Chicago. It’ll just freak them out. No girlfriend.”

“Really? A looker like you?”

Alex coughs his laugh. “Not feeling pretty right now, if I’m being—” He cuts himself off with a Russian curse as the arguing behind me flips to English.

“She stays with me!” Vasily shouts.

Artyom fires back with, “It’s not safe.”

“She’s staying in Flagstaff!”

Artyom huffs in exasperation. “I just mean your apartment. She can’t be here now.”

“You think I’m gonna leave her on her own when Alex was just jumped by those skinhead fuckers while he was walking down the street in broad daylight?” As he shouts that, he reaches out for me, and I immediately toddle on over, just as predicted, and take his hand.

Artyom switches to Russian again, but he grumbles something as he gets his phone out and makes a call. While he’s chatting, Vasily fully engulfs me within him like I’m his favorite teddy and big brother’s threatening to take me away. Once Artyom wraps up his phone calls, there’s a short, calmer conversation with Vasily before Vasily spins me to face him and says, “Kseniya and Miguel are on their way to pick you up, okay? They’re going to take you back to the apartment so you can pack an overnight bag and you’ll spend the night with them. They know you’ve got the audition tomorrow, so Miguel’s gonna cook while you and Kseniya go over lines, whatever you need. AndKostya and I will pick you up in the morning to take you down to Phoenix for your audition. Does that sound good?”

No, I’d rather spend the night with Vasily now that I know Alex was jumped, and I’d much rather Vasily and I go to Phoenix without Kostya, as much because I don’t like Kostya as because I want to see if there’s some way other than drugs to help Vasily quiet his agitated mind. I don’t want Vasily to worry or to irritate him further, so I smile and nod.

I ignore the way he swipes a pill out of a little cup by Alex’s bed on our way down to the waiting room to meet Kseniya.

Day 10

Analiese

Vasily fucks mein Kseniya’s guest bathroom when he picks me up for the audition. It’s fast and rough, and with him behind me so his piercings rub just right while facing the mirror so I can watch as his eyes go so bright with his orgasm I feel like he’s going to set me afire? All that seems like a great idea.

Three hours later, when I’m getting up on stage and my panties squish, it feels less like a great idea.

No, it was a great idea. The fact that I let him bully me into not cleaning up before he pulled my panties up and buttoned my pants was the bad idea. God, I need to get some control in this relationship.

Or whatever it is.

The first two rows of the theater are filled with students. The director, his assistant, and the musical director are sitting in the center of the theater. Vasily stands at the head of the walkway to the exit, a compromise that was made when the director informed him that this was a closed audition and Vasily informed the director that he would not be leaving. I’d already gotten pulled away by a few classmates who wanted to know where I’d been, so I didn’t get the specifics of the conversation, but apparently this was what was agreed upon.

All eyes are on me as I talk with the pianist about which song I’ll be auditioning with. It’s not unusual that eyes are on me, of course — I’m literally on the stage of a theater, a stage I’ve been on hundreds of times before — but something feels different now. Most of the group is reading over their lines or having quiet chats or staring at me with disinterest, but there are a few boys who are whispering excitedly. It’s enough of a distraction that while the pianist tinkers out a couple bars to get the music in her head, I look out into the crowd.

I know all four of the boys causing the disruption. I had to kiss Trevor Johnson last year in a production of Hamlet. My brother was furious about it, so I told him Trevor’s gay even though he’s actually a bit of a Lothario who’s asked me out multiple times, and actually, he makes me uncomfortable.

He’s grinning at me like he knows something I don’t, something that gives him power.

They’re passing a phone between them. Hunter Degrassi looks at the screen, at me, back at the screen, and then at Vasily. His lips form a wide O.

Jaxson Smith next to him makes an obscene sexual gesture at me, and suddenly I realize what’s on the phone.

I’ve already signaled to the pianist that I’m ready when she is, and she launches into the intro bars as my throat dries up, robbing me of my voice. Vasily, who seemed to be casually leaning against the wall scrolling through his phone, suddenly straightens up, and before I can do anything to show why I’ve panicked, he’s moving.

I shrink back, already telling myself this audition was doomed from the beginning and everything will be easier ifI don’t get the part anyway, but Vasily doesn’t head toward me. After one quick scan of the students assembled, he plows straight through to Trevor’s group. They’re laughing until they see the violence written in his features, but they’re stuck where they are, other students having filled the seats surrounding them.

Vasily doesn’t care about the other students. He pushes through them and grabs that phone in one giant hand and crushes it in his fist.

The melody trails off, the pianist watching this unfold same as I am. We exchange a look, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one whose panties have just dampened further.

But he’s mine. I’m not irritated with Kayley for being attracted to him, but he’s mine. “Go on,zvyozdochka,” Vasily purrs from where he stands next to the assholes. “Sing for me.”

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