The Bear’s Mail Order Menage

Still too afraid to protest. Still too afraid to do much of anything at all that he hadn’t given them his express permission to do. And so they drank the next shot just as they had the first before Andrew decided to show his mercy by giving them a bit of a break.

“So, brother, you said you wanted to talk, right? So why don’t you talk? What exactly was it that you wanted to talk about?”

“About what happened. We’re sorry, Andrew. Really, we are.”

“We? So you two are referring to yourselves as a ‘we’ now? Interesting. Are you like, a couple now? Is that what’s going on?”

“No,” Joshua said quickly, “nobody is saying that. I just know that she’s afraid. And I know you better, anyway. I thought things would be easier for her, for all of us, probably.”

“Well ain’t that sweet. Always thinking of other people, aren’t you?”

“Andrew, please.”

His eyes shot to Alina, who was looking at him with veiled eyes. They were eyes that had clearly seen many things, eyes that had seen terrible things that he could see he was reminding her of with his actions and demeanor. A week ago that was something that would have bothered him, but now?

Now he didn’t give a sh*t how she felt. Not either of them. It wasn’t like they had given him a whole lot of thought before they did what they did. Hell no, they hadn’t. He hadn’t been present anywhere in that room, either in body or in spirit. It was like he hadn’t existed at all.

“Yes? Did you have something you wanted to say now? I thought you weren’t in the mood to chat.”

“I just don’t want for you to put all of your anger and your blame off on him. It doesn’t seem quite fair, does it? I was there too, after all. It was me who asked for him to come and meet me. If you want to be angry, be angry with me.”

“Oh, don’t worry sweetheart, I’m of the opinion that you’re both pretty much pieces of sh*t at this point. I’ve got plenty of hatred to go around for the both of you.”

“Andrew! Jesus! I don’t get this, man. Honestly, I don’t. Hatred? We’re talking about hatred now? How can this make you that angry?”

“You don’t understand? Well then how about this. Drink.”

Another round was poured, much to Alina’s distress. She picked the shot up gingerly, started sipping on it slowly and grimacing each time the liquid passed her lips. So much for being a Russian, Andrew scoffed to himself. Where was all of her badass Soviet savvy now? It appeared that a mere six months in the States had made her soft. Not Joshua, though. He downed the liquid like a pro, maintaining his eye contact throughout the process.

That came as somewhat of a surprise; confrontation wasn’t really his thing. Never had been, not since they had been six years old together and first forming the friendship that was supposed to last them a lifetime. Even as children, Andrew had been able to tell Joshua what to do and he had always done it without much of a complaint.

He could tell him to do pretty much anything. Perform some kind of a prank with questionable and possibly dangerous results, take the blame with their parents for things he had not actually done.

Joshua had stood lookout for Andrew on the many evenings when he sneaked out of the house to meet some girl or get into some other kind of trouble. He had been both the fall boy and the voice of reason and he had never said anything about it. It had just been the dynamic between the two of them, right up until Alina had come to town. And look at him now, the fire of defiance flashing in his eyes and his hand brushing reassuringly over Alina’s. This was not the brother he remembered.

“Alright, Andrew, there you go. I drank. Now explain it to me. How can you honestly say you hate me, hate either of us over a thing like this? Does it really mean all that much to you? Does she?”

“What does that matter?”

“Because it does, goddamnit! It does matter, if not to you, then to me. If you’re willing to hate your brother over something like this, it damned well better matter.”

“Your brother? You want me to call you my brother after this? You should have thought about that, shouldn’t you? Before you flat out betrayed me and the arrangement we had! You ain’t any kind of brother to me. I can’t trust you. Neither of you. Doesn’t surprise me about the girl. You can’t trust a girl like her, can you?

Nothing but a glorified hooker desperate to make her way over the ocean to some kind of another life. She wouldn’t care what she did to a couple of friends, and why should she? As long as she gets what she wants? Just another little sl*t, and you were dumb enough to fall for it.”

That was when Alina started to cry, a soft, slow stream of tears that she didn’t even bother to wipe away. She looked so sad that Andrew already regretted saying the words, but not enough to offer an actual apology to her. His family was as good as gone now, broken after what had happened and what he had done in response.

 She was a part of that fissure and she was the only one involved that he did not love. At the end of the day, she wasn’t much more than an easy target for the rage he didn’t know what to do with. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Watch it, Andrew. You’re crossing a line. Are you ok, Alina? Don’t let him hurt you. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Andrew watched as Joshua put his arm around her in consolation. The gesture was so full of love that he wanted to throw his glass across the room and listen for the satisfactory crash of it hitting the wall. He didn’t want to see this sh*t, this love between them. Why should he have to see it, any of it?

He didn’t even want the two of them to be human at this point. Just walking punching bags for him to take everything out on until he started to feel better. Because the odds were, he would start to feel better if he was allowed to beat up on them for long enough.