Chapter 3

Niko's POV

David had told me like fifteen minutes ago about his cousin coming over but I didn't expect to find a cry baby.

"So what would you like to have?" I asked as I pulled open the fridge. David and I were more of takeout guys and it was already late so we had to make do with whatever there was in the fridge which happened to be little.

I surveyed the fridge, shaking my head disappointedly. We only had two eggs, leftover rice from two days ago that I was optimistic about, half a block of cheese and a sad looking bell pepper that had seen better days.

"We have eggs," I called out, my head still in the fridge. "And rice. I can make it not terrible.”

She sniffed. "Whatever."

Whatever? I scrunched up my face. I was trying to cheer her up and she just said whatever?

"Enthusiastic. I like it."

She blew her nose again.

I was pulling the rice out when the bathroom door opened and David came down the hall in a cloud of steam, towel around his neck, stopping dead when he saw his cousin sitting at the counter.

"Zaria." He crossed the kitchen immediately. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." She straightened up, wiping her face but her bloodshot eyes couldn't hide the fact she'd been bawling her eyes out.

David looked at me over her head.

I looked back at him and mouthed crying and then mimed a lot of crying with my hands, the full theatrical version, shoulders shaking, pretend tears running down my face.

Zaria turned around and caught the tail end of it. I did not stop immediately. That was my first mistake.

She stared at me. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing." I turned back to the stove, fidgeting with the lighter. “Would you like a big portion?”

“No.” And I didn't say anything for the next ten minutes. David was still consoling her but her crying got louder.

“I ended my lease all because of him. I wanted to get my own place,” she sniffed and David patted her back as she blew her nose.

“Zaria, you can't kill yourself over a man.”

“He's not just any man David.” She cried. “I gave him everything. My time, love, peace, everything he demanded for, I gave him and what did I get in return?!”

I butted in. “Heartbreak.” I turned to face her and she was glaring at me. “Zaria, a man who truly loves you won't just kick you out. He never loved you and you ignored the signs.”

“I ignored the signs?” She got up abruptly from the stool. “Why'd he claim to love me if he never did?”

David reached for her, pulling her back and she broke down in tears again. “If I wasn't up to his class like he said, why lead me on?”

For a solid five minutes, she continued crying and I held it in but Zaria saw me.

"You were just—" she gestured at my face. "Mocking me."

"I was illustrating—"

"You don't know me or my situation or what I've been through tonight so I don't know who gave you the right to sit there and laugh but you can shut the hell up."

I looked at her. She looked back at me, jaw set, eyes still red, daring me to say something else.

"You're right," I said. "I don't know you."

"Exactly."

"Cry all you want." I turned back to the eggs. "That cheater isn't coming back either way so you might as well get it out of your system."

Silence then, from David, very quietly, "I'm just going to—"

"Sit down," I said. "Food's almost done."

He sat down.

Zaria sat there for a moment with her mouth slightly open then she pulled another tissue from the box and blew her nose and said nothing, which I took as a ceasefire.

I made the eggs and reheated the rice and it was not terrible, which I had promised, and the three of us ate at the counter.

David started talking about the upcoming away series. Line changes, the new defensive setup the coach had been drilling them on, whether Petrov's knee was going to hold for the full season.

"His knee is fine," I said between mouthfuls. "He's milking it and he knows everyone is buying his bullshit."

"He literally had surgery—"

"Minor surgery. Three weeks ago. He's milking it."

David pointed his fork at me. "You have no compassion."

"I have plenty of compassion. I just won't extend it to Petrov."

Zaria made a small sound that might have been a laugh. I didn't look over.

My phone was face up on the counter. I saw the notification pop up and when I looked at it, I instantly felt a headache.

It was a video of me at Keller's party in October doing the most bizarre things. I watched all forty-three seconds. It had four hundred thousand views.

"Niko." David had stopped talking. He was looking at my face.

"It's fine,"

My phone rang. The name on the screen was one I never wished to speak to, especially in a sour situation like this.

FATHER.

I picked up the phone and stood from the stool. "I'll be back in a minute."

I walked to the window at the end of the kitchen and picked it up. "Father."

"Do you have any idea—" he started, and I could hear the rage in his voice. He'd probably seen it. "Any idea at all what this looks like?"

I pinched my glabella. "I'm handling it."

"You are handling nothing. You are sitting in some apartment while forty-three seconds of footage destroys everything—"

"It's not going to destroy anything."

"It is already destroying things, Nikolai. My phone has been ringing for the past hour. Do you understand what it cost me to build the relationships you have been so casually—"

"That I have." My voice came out quieter than I intended, which was worse than if it had been loud. "The relationships I have, Father. It's not about you or your name."

"Without the name you would have nothing, you ungrateful piece of shit!"

"I would have everything I have now because I built it. I went through the proper channels. I took the right meetings. I did not call in a single favor from you or anyone connected to you and I will not start now so whatever you're about to offer you can keep it."

"You are embarrassing," he cursed."Not just to me but to yourself and everything you could have been if you had any sense of what you actually come from." Another pause. "I have given you space to do this your way and this is what your way looks like."

"Then stop watching," I yelled. I’d promised myself I wouldn't stoop to his level but his words irked me so bad. "Goodnight Father."

“D—”

I ended the call and stood at the window for a moment with the phone in my hand. Then I put the phone in my pocket and turned around.

David was in the hallway. "I'm going to bed," he said, with the decency not to pretend he hadn't heard any of it.

"Good call," I smiled.

He paused. "You good?"

"Go to bed David."

He didn't push it.

I cleaned up the kitchen, stacked the plates, wiped the counter, and put the leftover rice away. Zaria had disappeared at some point during the phone call, her tissue mountain the only evidence she'd been there. I turned the lights down and sat on the couch in the dark for a while and thought about forty-three seconds of footage and Patterson's face and my father's voice.

I had built this myself. Every piece of it. That was still true.

My phone buzzed on the cushion beside me. A text from Dmitri.

“Seen it. Don't panic. Call me in the morning.”

I put the phone face down.

The apartment was quiet. From somewhere down the hall came the small, muffled sound of Zaria crying herself to sleep, soft enough that she clearly thought nobody could hear.

Two people in the same apartment, I thought, both having the worst night of their lives for completely different reasons.

I almost found it funny.

Almost.

---

I was on my second coffee the next morning when Dmitri called and I knew before I picked up that the morning call never meant good news.

"The league office called," he informed me.

I put the coffee down. "Talk."

"They're reviewing the morality clause in your contract." He exhaled. "Niko. They're talking about termination."

The kitchen was very quiet. "Say that again," I said.

"They want a meeting by the end of the week." A pause. "I'm sorry."

I stood there with the phone in my hand and the coffee going cold on the counter.

"Set the meeting,"

"Niko—"

"Set it Dmitri." I took deep breaths to calm myself down. “Just set the meeting.”

I hung up and stood there for a long moment then I got a piece of paper and a pen and started writing.