Emotions rule. Ira Lav

between fingers. The heat was rising up between their hands, but stupidly enough they never dared go further than that. What unhealthy suppression of emotions, wasn’t it?

      In the morning the newly-made trio was awakened by some noise from the kitchen.

      ‘Is your Mum back?’ whispered Tanya to Filip as she saw him open his eyes.

      ‘No, can’t be,’ reassured her Fil and got out of bed to see what was going on.

      ‘Morning!’ said Yulya joyfully, ‘I brought some sandwiches and coffee. Where are the girls? I hope you’re not a maniac and they are alive.’

      ‘Mhm, looks great,’ said Filip ignoring the question about the girls and sat to table, ‘No need to wake up the girls. I might want another helping of this yumminess.’

      ‘Heeeeeeey, you,’ came the loud protest from behind. Tanya rubbed her eyes and joined in munching, ‘I’m hungry too, no helpings for you today, man!’

      Overhearing the kitchen talk Katya had the resilience to get up as she didn’t want to face Filip. She didn’t understand him and herself as well. Why wasn’t any of them making the first step? But she made herself get up, head to the washroom first, and finally join in in the breakfast.

      Filip hardly dared to look at Katya either. And both put on the I-am-so-important mask. And when their eyes occasionally met, the wooden look covered their eyes and the WhatevEERR glance was on.

      Chapter 6

      Did Sven feel a little sad about having missed the terrace dinner? He was on holiday while all his other friends were working, only Filip and the Russian trio were not. So why be bored? He invited everyone to his place to try his Eintopf. The ladies were to learn that Eintopf was a German dish that combined the first and second courses, basically, a soup with lots of different vegetables and meat, but thicker. It could be called a stew as well.

      Just before the Eintopf party, the trio was getting themselves ready to the sounds of the TV music. Tanya was feeling energized from inside. Was it positive or negative energy? In a little more than a week, she would have her periods. She was in a hyper mood but in the mood of a sex-hungry lassie. She knew the feeling but she couldn’t do anything about it at the moment so she nudged Blondie instead, ‘Hey, Katushka, when on earth will you or Fil make the first step? You know the time is racing, we’re leaving soon.’

      ‘Whenever I feel like doing it… Another half of the question I guess wasn’t addressed to me,’ Katya snapped back.

      ‘We know why you are waiting, but what’s holding him, I’m in doubt,’ commented Yulya exhaling a cloud of smoke through her nose. She was sitting on the windowsill, being first to have dressed.

      ‘Maybe he is gay,’ suspected Tanya putting on her huge earrings.

      ‘He is not gay,’ retorted Katya again putting on her red tank top.

      ‘Who knows…Men normally take what they want right away and don’t hesitate so long,’ kept on Tanya.

      ‘Why don’t you mind your own business!?’ retorted Blondie, her voice gathering up notes of malice, ‘Besides, if you hadn’t been much flirting with him, it could’ve been easier for me to figure out his inclinations towards me.’

      ‘Beg your pardon?’ asked Fringe with an air of bewilderment turning around to face Blondie. Katya turned around to face her opponent in response.

      ‘Yes, you heard it. I said to mind your own business. You know I fancy Filip. And I know you don’t. So leave him alone. You just have this stupid habit of flirting around, basically, with anyone who stares at your breasts, well, even with those who don’t. You just fucking marvel why a guy doesn’t stare at your ‘big blue eyes’, so you instinctively begin to flirt intensely,’ finished Blondie and turned to the mirror.

      ‘You’re just being jealous!’ Fringe defended herself but was obliged to recollect her behavior with Mr. Curly Hair. Perhaps the latter was right a bit and Tanya had been behaving herself with a flirty air, but she couldn’t help it, she was a woman. How else was she supposed to be around men?

      ‘Mhm, maybe I was flirting a bit. But that’s me. I do flirt with men. I’ll try to hold myself back a little. Deal, Virgin?’ Tanya uttered in her slightly raucous voice willing to make up and stretched out a hand like a businessman. With men, she behaved like a flirting little birdie while with her like she was rather unpretentious and business-like.

      Katya stared at Tanya’s hand and took it, ‘Deal, Boobie Witch!’

      Fringe instantly pulled Blondie into her embrace, ‘Witch yourself! Boobie? Boobster sounds better!’ They both burst out laughing, their hug dissolving the remaining hints of offense in their bodies.

      ‘Sounds like new food for your tongue-twister inspiration,’ Red-haired commented on the hug scene and put out her ciggie adding, ‘Baby Boobie Boobster boosted boobs to become a blockbuster bosom.’

      Katya and Tanya turned to Red-haired uttering simultaneously, ‘Not bad!’

      The gang of Yulya, Tanya, Katya and Filip arrived at Neukölln district. They popped into a supermarket to buy some wine. Done.

      Here they were. Two-room apartment. Also vinyl records but not as many as Mr. Curly Hair had. Very hot outside. Windows wide-open. Bon appétit to everyone. Yummy-yummy. Wine bottles got empty pretty fast. Nice music on. Silly pics were taken. Music videos were watched. Already dark. Yulya and Katya got out to buy some chocolate. Brought it home. So hot outside that the chocolate was more like a Nutella paste. The girls asked for spoons. Did anyone want some melted chocolate? No, thanks. What perversity it was to eat melted chocolate on a hot eve. Everyone was chilling.

      Having munched the chocolate Katya went to another room to stare out of the window. She sat down on a sill.  Mr. Curly Hair approached from behind observing a picture A Girl on a Windowsill.

      ‘Bored?’ he asked sitting down near Katya.

      ‘Nope, just taking some fresh air…like smokers would have a smoke,’ chuckled Katya thoughtfully.

      ‘I see. How come you don’t smoke while your besties do?’ he wondered, even though he was not really interested.

      ‘Donno, why should I? I guess smoking didn’t have that positive effect on me… you know, like using smoking to make friends-smokers and have a chat outside over a drag, or have a break after some stress, or smoke instead of eating… never thought of it… I might smoke though for fun when drunk or something… but I don’t do it properly anyway and a ciggie always falls down through my soft drunk fingers half-way burnt,’ summarized Katya with a vague smile.

      ‘What do you do in Moscow?’ asked Fil all of a sudden.

      ‘Study English and German, why? What’s that sudden interrogation about?’ Katya asked smiling and frowning at the same time.

      ‘Yes, I know that. Anything else? Work? Hobby?’ insisted Filip ignoring her slight indignation.

      ‘No, not really. Whenever I think of earning some money my parents stop me saying that I will have enough time to work after the uni, so that I’ll get sick of it… Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Girls and I are going to be English teachers. German is just a second language we learn. But we all want to learn as many languages as we can. That’s why we try to pick a language from native speakers,’ Katya tried to make herself clear.

      ‘Do you really wanna be a teacher?’ he looked at her with suspicion.

      ‘Not really. It was my Mum’s idea. After school, I didn’t know what to study. My Mum thought I was good at languages, so she suggested that I should apply to the Foreign languages department,’ Blondie explained.

      ‘But what do you really wanna be?’ Filip kept on asking as if it was an interview.

      ‘An