Don't Blame Me for Being Me

Part 2
It was not too late yet, but boys wanted to return to the hotel. Boys were rubbing hurted spots of their bodies, especially asses. When we were seeing Anya off to a subway, she invited me to her place. I promised to come to her after delivering my American guests (and stars in addition xD) to their hotel rooms. So we said byes as she took a wagon to her home.
I wanted to see her again and again. Waiting a wagon for our company I realized how much I was just happy to see her. I sensed all the time that passed since I had moved from the homeland.
*************Soundtrack – “Young Life” by Anberlin****************
Brendon wanted to go with me and I had nothing to object. So when we all returned into our hotel rooms, the rest of our company intended to have a rest. I changed my jeans. They were wet from snow and ice as I fell some times at the skating-rink to an enormous joy of Brendon xD. I put on black warm tights, black sweater and white mini. Brendon watched my outfit and made decision to put on black pants.
“I love when we match each other in clothes”, he explained.
“So you’ll better put on a mini as mine”, I joked pulling on black suede boots.
We slipped into our own overcoats and walked out of the hotel. I insisted on going by subway, ‘cause going to Anya’s apartment by taxi would be much longer and slower. Before coming down to metro, we walked into some shop to buy something for Anya and her family. It’s discourteous to come with empty hands. And we decided that a bottle of whisky, a box with chocolate candies and some fruits will be fine.
“Do you understand that Anya and me will speak Russian and you won’t get anything?” I asked Brendon during our ride in a subway wagon. “She or me neither will translate you our conversation”.
“Well, I guessed. And I hope you two won’t be so cruel to address to me in Russian too”, he grinned.
“It’s your decision to come with me”, I said.
“And I still have a courage to do it”, he snapped kindly.
I smiled and rubbed his leg beside mine with affection.
The door of Anya’s flat got opened by Anya’s dad. He always likes to joke, tease and make fun of me xD. And I always appreciate his sense of humor. Anya’s mom came to greet me too. I explained them a presence of Brendon in their apartment xD. They greeted him.
“Do your parents know you two keep this adult life together?” Anya’s dad asked me pretending to look strict and serious.
I just smiled as I do in such cases. And as usual Anya’s mom interceded for me xD.
“Joking again. Let off, dad”, she said as Brendon and me took off our overcoats and boots. “I made a cake for you, so…”, she said to us.
“Later, mom, okay”, Anya walked to us.
I hugged her greeting the second time for this day. But I was ready to do it non-stop xD. Then I recalled about the presents Brendon and me had for her. But Brendon recalled about it earlier ‘cause he was holding a package with our purchases.
“This is for you”, he said handing it to Anya’s dad.
“Oh, you didn’t have to..”, Anya’s parents replied smiling.
Brendon and me shrugged our shoulders as if saying it didn’t cost much to us to make you feel good xD. Anya led us to her room and we established ourselves at a small sofa. She asked how the rest of the boys feel themselves. We replied with a hope that they’re fine.
“I’m even surprised how you”, I turned to face Brendon ‘cause he was behind me. “how you didn’t stay with them to heal your hurted spots”, I smiled.
“Not much is bruised, I can sit and it’s very good”, he replied.
Anya and me laughed.
“I would like to listen to what he’ll say in the next morning”, Anya said.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and say what it would look like”, I patted her hand snickering.
Soon we started speaking our native language. We talked about our common friends and ex-classmates. Of course, she has known about their lifes more than me. Not all of them have e-mails - the easiest and the most inexpensive way to keep in touch. So I missed many events in their lifes, unfortunately. Such events like marriages of some of my childhood friends; an arrest of a boy who had studied in our class for not much time, but he had been kind and I couldn’t believe he was in jail. Also I didn’t know about birth of child of my ex-classmate . Many important events…parts of their lifes.
Anya advised me a good social network to keep in touch with our friends and her in particular. She said web-address and showed me how it works on her computer. Sometimes I was glancing at Brendon worrying if he got bored. But any time I looked at him, he was expressing enthusiasm xD.
“It’s so convenient, Anya”, I said in English and turned to Brendon. “We can talk about everything”.
“Okay, I let you hide your secrets from me”, he replied smiling. “Use my ignorance”.
“As if I was gonna ask”, I shrugged.
But then Anya and me started talking about trips and traveling and decided to involve Brendon in conversation. Then Anya showed at her computer pics of places she or her family had been. Some time later Brendon excluded himself from that occupation after finding Anya’s guitar.
“You play?” he asked her with a surprise.
“Still learning”, she replied.
“She also plays piano”, I exclaimed. “She’s very talented”.
“Oh, thanks”, Anya smiled politely.
“Can I?” Brendon asked already holding the guitar in his hands.
“Sure”, Anya nodded in approval.
I also nodded - in a desire to hear him playing some stuff - and started guessing what he’d pick. He chose Panic’s “The Only Difference…” firstly. I was glad ‘cause I didn’t listen to their old songs for a long time. After finishing that he glanced up at me and grinned. Next song he played was Good Riddance of Green Day. What a smart boyfriend I’ve got – my fav song of my fav band xD. I couldn’t curb from singing along. To be honest, I made the whole verse 2 and choruses after xD. Brendon, Anya and me agreed it’d be a musical evening. After some songs played by Anya (in Russian, she and me singing), we came to a living room, where Anya’s piano is settled. First player was Anya herself. She performed some of her own stuff – all are nice melodies.
“Do you record your music?” Brendon asked Anya.
“Yeah, for me and the family”, she replied. “By the way, I have a suggestion for you, Ira”.
“What’s it?” I asked with a curiosity.
“I remember you write lyrics sometimes… May be you’ll think up something for my music… May be, for the second piece I played?” she said.
“You want me to write lyrics for you?” I inquired looking at her in amazement. “I almost gave up this my hobby”, I smiled.
“I remember your lyrics you had been writing. It was very good. Try for my melody”, she was convincing me.
“Okay, give me your record. I’ll think”, I agreed.
“I can offer my help”, Brendon said.
“No!” Anya and me both protested. “It’s our own project”.
“Then I will play now”, Brendon got up from a couch and sat down at the piano.
“Play Nine in the Afternoon”, I said.
“No, I wanna try one song guys and me will play at UK BBC soon. It’s cover of The Zutons. The song’s called Valerie”, Brendon announced seeking for right keys and tune.
“Anya, make yourself comfortable, we’ll watch a long piano concert”, I said giggling.
Anya laughed, but followed my advise and we huddled together looking at Brendon.
“I can make it very short”, he snapped without any meanness.
“Just play and sing”, I requested.
“So, Valerie”, he said turning to the piano.
Anya and me liked that light and romantic song. As for me, I especially loved the line “I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress”. As musician Anya esteemed melody mostly. The Brendon started playing Let It Be of The Beatles and we couldn’t curb from singing along. Hearing a chorus of our voices, Anya’s parents came in.
“Join us!” Anya exclaimed.
They took seats too and started enjoying Brendon’s solo gig. I asked him to play Panic’s Nine In the Afternoon and When the Day Met the Night (he had revealed me the names before when we had been talking about their new album xD). So he did it in his best. Next hour he and Anya were trading places and playing by turn, asking each other “do you know this?” and playing together in four hands. We all had much fun which we longed with drinking tea and eating the cake Anya’s mom made. Brendon was complimenting her cooking all the way. I had one of the best hearty evenings. In general, nobody loved that we had to took apart soon. Standing in a doorway Brendon and Anya’s dad shook their hands farewell like good pals xD. Anya gave a CD with her recorded pieces of music and a parting hug.
“Let me know if you come to village”, I said to her.
Brendon and me said goodbyes for the last time and walked out from the apartment. There were cold and dark outside, so we had to be very careful on our way to the subway.
“So you write lyrics?” Brendon asked when we were riding in a metro wagon.
“Oh, I don’t consider it worth your attention”, I smiled and huddled to him.
“Really? Why?” he put his arm around me.
“Because they’re simple and…I don’t know… I don’t want you to see them”, I replied. “And that’s all. Let’s talk about tonight. Did you like our visit to Anya?”
“Sure. It was very warm. Like family evening. And my hands had their rest”, he said.
“So music is your rest”, I half-asked.
“Completely”.
“Behind being on stage or including it?” I felt curiosity.
“What going on stage is my job, I think. Playing music for friends is a good relaxation. Even if I’m asked to play Panic’s songs”, he replied and looked at me with a hint.
“Oh, I just wanted to hear new songs!” I rolled my eyes snickering. “As if you were against so much”.
“No, I’m glad that you would like to hear them”, he said.
When we finally reached our hotel room, there was Jon lying on our bed (our nice wide double bed) and sleeping peacefully. We were greatly surprised ‘cause, fuck, he’s known where each of us sleeps. Hearing us come back Dasha walked to our room.
“I have the same situation. Ryan and Spence are sleeping together. They just came from the rink and crashed on a bed being exhausted. While my attention was on them, Jon silently crawled in your room…and here he is!” she complained.
“We need to bring him out of there”, I said firmly. “I wanna sleep in my bed”.
I came into the bedroom, found Jon’s clothes and threw them into the lounge.
“May be you’ll help me?” I looked at Dasha and Brendon while taking Jon’s hands and starting to pulling him out.
Brendon grabbed the most of motionless Jon’s body, I was helping with his legs as Dasha was doing the same with his head. Carefully we brought Jon to the lounge and laid him on a couch there. Dasha piled his clothes and began covering him by some blanket.
“We have our bed back”, I said to Brendon wrapping my arms around him and smiling wickedly.
After so eventful day I wanted one thing the most – to be with my boyfriend, sharing one bed, lying naked and feeling warmth of our bodies xD.
But my elation ended right after I thought about it.
“Oh, I know this grin”, Brendon said taking his hands off of him as if he was a shy innocent boy.
“So why we’re still standing here?” I asked and placed my hands on his butt.
He grimaced as I squeezed it a little and I recalled about bruises he has got today.
“Oh, sorry”, I said with a compassionate look.
“That’s the reason”, he rubbed his ass with still a grimace of a pain. “I’m bruised and broken. It finally hit me. I’m not for sex tonight”, he smiled slightly.
“As usual when I ask”, I looked away.
“No right place for scenes”, he said firmly.
“It’s not a scene”, I replied with the same tone.
“So what’s the name of this?”
“I just stated the fact. I’m always up when you want. When it’s my desire, you tell me “no”, I said.
“It’s something new. We’ve never argued about our sexual life”, he let himself add some irony.
“So we won’t. Hospital for bruised is in another room, not here”, I pointed at the door.
“You’re getting me out?” he looked surprised.
I didn’t care if it was stupid (yes, it was), but…
“Yeah, I’m doing it”, I replied looking as strict as I could.
“Fine!” he walked away pretty fast.
“What it was for?” Dasha asked me.
I shrugged off.
“We can sleep together in a wide and comfy bed”, I replied.
**************************************************************
The next morning boys were sleeping very long. I guess till 11 a.m. To that time Dasha and me decided that there was nothing else to do in Minsk. We wanted all of us to go to my village. I think it’s good to take the guys there, closer to Belarusian heart, nature and other national features and preciouses xD. It would be a great rest and enjoyment for boys. Anyways Dasha and me needed to go there. Our clothes and other stuffs were left there. I need to feed my dog. Neighbors were doing it as I had asked them, but still… So it’s time to return. We didn’t wake anybody and just gathered the most of boys’ stuffs. Then Dasha and me booked a car to the village (with a driver) and reserved a table in a restaurant downstairs. After a while we began waking our boys. Jon got up first and looked fresh and very good after yesterday adventures. What to do with the rest of our company was another question. They’d been falling more times yesterday. As Dasha and me figured out Brendon found his bed between Spence and Ryan xD. The first thing they did after being awoken is groaning. They were like old grumbling men. Boys were rubbing all of their aching spots, moaning, didn’t want and just couldn’t even stand their feet on a floor. And (what a cheek!) they asked to bring them coffee to the bed.
“I can pour it into the bed!”, I said with a smile.
“Oh, my back is hurted”, Spence groaned.
“Boys, wake up. It’s late. Dasha and me made a new entertaining program!” I announced.
“What? We want to rest from a previous one. You’re crazy!” Ryan said with irritation.
“Go to your Vegas for the rest”, Dasha snapped.
“I want to”, Ryan sighed.
“Er, boys, get up!”, Dasha exclaimed.
“Follow Jon’s example. He woke up an hour ago. Brendon, get your ass up!”, I said and sat down next to him.
“I don’t wanna. My body is all hurted. And I wanna drink. And give me something from headache. And ass ache, too. First of all, I mean”, Bren replied.
I laughed.
“I can’t help you with that”, I said. “Will you get up?” I asked him.
“No”, he replied.
“So, I explain only one time”, I said firmly. “You all will get up, dress your asses, grab your stuffs and we’ll pull you into the car which we already booked. So we all will go to my home. Because Dasha and me WANNA GO HOME”.
“Are you kidding?” Brendon knitted his brows.
“Ass..”, Ross sighed.
“Don’t swear, please”, Dasha jollied. “We don’t ask you to work.”
“I agree to work instead of relaxing such a way”, Spence mumbled under of his blanket.
“YOU FUCKED UP! You’re men, aren’t you? Get up and gather yourselves! I count to 3 and then I’ll begin to gather you by force!” I almost yelled at them.
Brendon rapidly sat up on the bed.
“Ross, raise you ass which you was skating at yesterday!” Dasha said to Ryan. “You’ll like to be in village”.
“Where?!” Brendon asked again.
“Where to need! At my home. No more questions”, I replied and looked at him strictly.
“Yeah, really, men, get up”, Walker said looking into the room.
“We reserved a table in a restaurant here, downstairs”, Dasha said.
“And we can’t be late”, I added.
Spence already got up, pulled on his pants and run to another room. Dasha followed him and said standing in a doorway “And you may sit here and rub your asses. Then you’ll just lick empty plates”.
“No, I need to get up”, Ross sighed.
And he did it, in couple with getting dressed, and went to the room limping a little. Brendon slowly stood his feet on the floor and stared at me smiling.
“What? Nobody’s gonna wait for you”, I replied to his look.
“So where will we go?” he asked me.
“To my house. To the village”, I got up, found his jeans and threw them to him. “300 km from here. Are you with us?” I watched him dressing up.
He stood up and walked up to me.
“Did we pass last night’s incident?” he asked me with that his wide boyish grin and wrapping his arms around me tightly.
“Nope”, I said. “You must do something instead”.
He nodded saying “okay, I get it” and began kissing me all over. Firstly, I thought to pay him back and refused as he did last night. But when he kisses my neck I’m in such an elation that I forget about everything xD. Being still in his embrace and under his warm mouth, I locked a door of the bedroom behind us.
“Are you sure you can? I mean, you’re kinda bruised”, I said.
He stopped for a moment and looked at me.
“Now you care about it?” he asked.
“Sure, ‘cause it’s my favorite place that’s bruised”, I put my hands into back pockets of his jeans.
“I’m fine”, he replied grinning.
Kissing and undressing on our way we crashed on the bed.
“We’ll miss a breakfast”, I said against his mouth.
“Fuck it”, he replied and we proceeded our lovely occupation xD.
******************************************
Well, soon our car (a van, of course) arrived and we all loaded our bags and ourselves. So we moved, but then decided to call for some supermarket for food. I remembered Dasha and me had left an empty fridge. So we stopped at hypermarket ‘Biggz’ which is behind Minsk city borderline and was on our way. We all got out and went there.
Doing purchases and filling cart with Brendon were felt very normal and natural for me then. Being together thousands and thousands miles away from our common usual places to hang and live also was natural. Boys were just themselves, not fearing to meet any paparazzi. As I said before, the guys don’t have the same scale of popularity as they do in USA or UK. So they all are just glad of such easiness of moving around the city. Though I don’t exclude that we were noticed yesterday. Ok, there’ll be some pics and rumors hanging around. Time in the hypermarket was much of fun. Boys were glad to find anything there which is in sales in America too (as if our country is out of the world’s development) and they were like children coming up to me and Dasha with some product in their hands and asking us what it is. Walking along giant shelves I was deciding what dishes I’d cook for us. Keeping in mind many recipes and trying not to forget what to buy for those dishes are pretty exhausting deal xD. And here’s Brendon who only was hindering my memory xD. He did nice job by adding to our cart some exotic kinds of fruits. Also he picked a package of agarics promising to cook something with them as I don’t really know any dish with it. With two full and one half-full carts we all paid for our purchases and left to load them into our rented car.
We were going to have a good fun in the village.
*************************************************
We were in my village in 3 p.m. The car drove us right to my house. We paid and the driver left us. And boys were already looking around and thinking about to run after the car xD.
“so, take the bags, cases and follow me”, I said opening the gate of my yard.
“Ira, where are we?”, Bren asked me.
“At home. Did I just hear fear in your voice?” I asked smiling encouraging.
I unlocked the door of the house and let guys in.
I got into the house myself and left all our food packages in a kitchen.
“So it’s cold a little in the house. I’ll bring firewood,” I said.
Brendon challenged himself to help me so he followed me to the corridor. I gave him some old coat for that he wouldn’t dirty himself. I changed my overcoat to some old one too. Our little trip to a backyard was very perceiving for Brendon. He observed it pretty good. Well, I set fire in the stove and the house began filling with a heat. Dasha and me began making a dinner while boys were settling in rooms I gave them. Brendon and me will have a bedroom of my parents for our own, Dasha and Ryan will spend nights here in a living room on a wide and comfy pull-out sofa. Jon and Spence will occupy a former room of my bro and me – it has two separate beds.
In the evening we started a bottle of wine, drank for a welcome on Belarusian ground and had a good and hearty dinner.
To 11 p.m. we were ready to sleep. Everybody in their own beds. Brendon and me were talking till a deep night discussing our relationships and how we met Christmas and New Year. We came to a conclusion that we’d been stupid before. Now we’re surely smarter xD. Actually, we need to work on getting along together. ‘Cause our feelings to each other are pretty stable – we’re happy being together, we love each other. But sometimes our interactions don’t reflect them. I don’t wanna contemplate this now and here. He’s next to me. What can be wrong?