Chapter 2
Marya had made up her mind. If Hélène tried to sit with her again, she would just find somewhere else to sit. She couldn’t stand her, and the way she brought about desires that Marya had tried to keep hidden inside of her for the longest time. Scanning the lunch room, she didn’t see Hélène anywhere. She let out a sigh of relief, and began to eat her lunch. Even though she didn’t want Hélène to sit at her table, it would be nice to have someone else to eat with. Her friends were in different lunch periods, leaving her alone at a table with only her thoughts to keep her company. She tried to block out the flurries of thought, about how she’d look into Hélène’s eyes and lose focus on her surroundings. About how she got butterflies in her stomach every time she smiled. About how someday, if things were different, they could run away together and be happy. She couldn’t handle her thoughts at the moment, with the Kuragin girl on her mind. She put in her airpods, blasted her music, and focused intensely on her food.
After lunch, she went to the bathroom to fix her hair, as she had been twisting it in an attempt to distract her from her thoughts. As she fixed her knotted hair into a bun in the mirror, she heard a sob from the largest stall. She knocked on the door, and upon hearing another sob, slowly opened the door. The sight in the stall was logically not surprising, but still shocked Marya. Hélène was slumped over on the floor in tears, empty white claw cans surrounding her. Marya pondered for a second how she managed to sneak them into school, let alone drink all of them. Deciding to try and comfort the girl, Marya quickly stepped toward her. Marya raised a hand to wipe the tears away from her cheek, causing Hélène to flinch. As Marya came closer, she could see that her concealer had faded from tears to reveal a few harsh bruises on her face. Moving more slowly this time, she gently wiped the tears off of her face and tilted her chin up, forcing Hélène to look her in the eyes. Her lip was trembling, and her usually sparkling brown eyes were full of fear.
“Who did this to you?” She asked, trying to mask the rage in her voice, as to not scare the other girl.
Hélène looked into Marya’s eyes with her voice shaking slightly.
“It is not of importance, ma cher. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to get to.” She said, trying to push past Marya quickly to avoid further questions. Marya, not thinking, grabbed Hélène’s wrist angrily. Hélène let out a cry and collapsed back to the floor as she began to sob again.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” Marya muttered, scolding herself for not thinking.
She slowly sat down, and wrapped her arms around Hélène, pulling her into a hug. Hélène wrapped her arms around Marya, squeezing tightly and not ever wanting to let go. She sobbed against Marya’s shoulder as the bell rang. Hélène quickly pulled away, standing up as if she was going to class. Marya called out after her,
“Hélène, wait.”
Hélène turned around, her curls bouncing in their messy bun.
“I can’t let you go to class like this.”
“Where else am I to go? Back home to Vassily, that sorry excuse of a father?”
“Is he the one who did this to you?” Marya felt a rage rising up inside of her at whoever had dared to lay a hand on Hélène.
“Anger may be a good look on you, ma cherie, but what does it matter? I’ve got class to go to.” She said, in an attempt to regain her past confidence, stumbling and tripping over her feet while trying to walk past Marya. She fell over into Marya’s arms.
“The queen isn’t so graceful now that she’s intoxicated, huh?” Marya joked, looking down at the girl resting in her arms.
“Funny.” She said flatly, rolling her eyes in mock offense. “What do you suggest I do then?”
“Let’s just ditch, we’re already too late to make up what we’ve missed.”
“Wow, I never took you for a rule breaker, Dmitrievna.” Hélène said, raising an eyebrow and getting back into a standing position.
It was Marya’s turn to roll her eyes.
“What should we do then? We could go shopping! After all, retail therapy has hurt nothing but a wallet.”
“I already had an idea, if that’s okay with you.” Marya responds. “Why don’t we head out to my car?”
As the two girls made their way out of the school, they ran into one of the security guards. Marya turned to Hélène, trying to figure out an excuse to leave. Hélène, however, seemed to already have a plan. With a worried look on her face, they attempted to walk past the security guard.
“Why aren’t you girls in class?” He called out, getting both of their attention.
Hélène burst into sobs, and started spinning a tale about how her father fell, and he couldn’t get up, and the ambulance was too expensive. Through her tears, she frantically told the security guard about how he called and needed her to drive him to the hospital. Seeming to have exhausted herself, she buried her face in the shoulder of Marya’s sweater. Marya shrugged sympathetically to the security guard who motioned for the two of them to leave.
Once both of the girls were sure they were out of his sight, they broke into laughter.
“How did you cry so easily?” Marya asked Hélène, as they opened the doors to her car.
“With Vassily as a father, I’ve had plenty of experience manipulating my emotions.” Hélène responded
Marya paused, unsure of what to say. Hélène smirked.
“So, where to now?”
“It’s a surprise.” Marya said, turning the keys in the ignition.