Not wanting to third wheel into Lana's and Ira's dates, I begun to branch-out out of my comfort zone and hang out with my other female friends. We all seemed to begin doing this random re-grouping as more of us dipped into the world of dating. Ironically, my new group increasingly consisted of Seta, Vera and I. Contrary to the rumor mill predictions we got along pretty well, water under the bridge so to speak.
Seta was an interesting individual to be around, she seemed to live in her own reality, which constantly evolved. Lean blonde, with average height just adored talking, while her grey droopy eyes looked nowhere in particular, emotionless expression, and monotonous speech, it was one of a kind impression.
"Hey, you want to hang out tonight?" She asked passing by my house while I was sweeping the yard.
"Sure, who else is coming?" I asked.
"I just saw Vera on the way here, she'll come. I'm going to return this book to Zoya and ask if she wants to hang out as well." She answered showing a book she was holding in her purple hands.
"Wow, what happened with your hands?"
"I was dying my friend's hair dark purple…gloves broke…and the dye got on…and now I can't wash it off."
"Messy luck, huh?" I laughed.
"Yeah…" She laughed back with a lazy smile.
"Anyway, I'll see you around six tonight." I told her as she was ready to keep moving.
"Kay, we'll be in town square." She said walking away.
Few hours later I was heading to town square where I found Zoya and Vera chilling on the park benches.
"Hi guys! Seta not here yet?" I asked.
"Probably still trying to wash off all the paint off her hands." Zoya answered.
"What paint?" Vera asked suddenly curious.
"She was dyeing her neighbor's hair; gloves broke and now her fingers are stained purple." I answered.
"Not exactly," Zoya corrected, "it was her cousin, they messed around, spilled the bottle and paint got everywhere." Vera and I looked at her, I was mulling over the slightly new version of the story.
"She told me she was picking chornitsi this morning." Vera said bluntly.
And like on cue, we all laughed! Those wild versions of blue berries were more of on the dark, almost black coloring, incredibly delicious, but stained your teeth black and fingers purple better than any dye could. Vera's version seemed more credible to have been the real event.
We mused on how the story evolved with the distance Seta traveled from her house. As we saw her approaching the topic was changed out of consideration, but we were pretty sure she didn't care. At this point we couldn't even be confident she even remembered what she said to whom, or even what the original story was.
We spent rest of the day lazing and chit-chatting on the benches. Victor and his friends appeared on the periphery of my vision, but thankfully ever since the last time we spoke he stayed out of my business. After some time, Ira and Lana pulled up with their boys in tow and we all went dancing.
In the club we ran in to the Vova and Anton, with both of them being amazing dancers, this whole thing was turning out to be an amazing party. Neither Vera, nor I were pleased at seeing Victor and his crew show up, but we were getting pretty good at ignoring them.
At closing time Anton offered to walk me home, and after a bit of fooling around while leaning on my yard's fence, I ran inside appreciating how good of a kisser he was. I was excited about getting excited! As I was falling asleep, butterflies stirred in my tummy when a thought popped into my mind that I might be interested in Anton.
A few days later Seta showed up all excited. Telling me about this great guy she begun dating. I was honestly happy for her to find someone who understands and accepts her.
However, I wondered if she was dating a real person the more out of this world amazing qualities she was describing.
"You know, he invited me to a cookout this weekend. Can you come with me?" She asked.
"I could, but wouldn't I be intruding?" I asked.
"Not at all, there will be his friends and family there. It's not a romantic date." She clarified.
"Besides I'd like to have friend with me there since I'm nervous."
"Sure thing then. When and where?"
"Saturday, I'll pick you up on the way there. It's on the edge of the town, in the new development area. Sergy almost finished building his new house there."
"Cool, can't wait!" This was going to be interesting.
I told my sister about the upcoming event, and next day we were sitting at the kitchen table looking at a small brown bag.
"This is contraception pills. Take before you think you'll need it." She said with forced confidence.
"Thanks…" My embarrassment was matching hers.
"Let me know if you need more." She said awkwardly.
"Will do." I grabbed the bag and ran out of the room as fast as I could. The sentiment was appreciated, but still a very uncomfortable situation.
When Saturday arrived, I put on pants, nice tee, and a cute shirt. All ready to spend the day outdoors. Almost decided to change when I saw Seta show up in a lacey pink dress and high heels. Since I wasn't planning on flirting tonight, and I looked good to my eye I decided to go as is.
It took us at least half an hour to get there, she wasn't kidding about outskirts description. We could smell smoking and sizzling meats from afar, and before we even crossed the threshold I was salivating.
As we trotted on stone steps to the backyard, I saw that what supposed to be a "family affair" turned out to be about twenty guys with a couple of girlfriends spotted here and there. A guy about my height moved towards us as soon as he noticed us come in. His clean shaven head reflected sunshine, while his dark brown eyes were set on Seta. In fact, most of the guys had shaved heads here, must have just come from the army. It seems it's a trend to shave hair there since it reduces need for maintenance.
"Hi girls!" He said approaching us with a chill smile. "Say hi to Bratva!" He gestured to the crowd behind him.
"Hi." I said, awkwardly waving.
"HI!" I jumped as chorus replied. Seta and Sergy laughed at my reaction.
"I thought it was a family affair." I criticized him.
"Oh, but it is! There's my sister." He pointed at a girl in polka dot shirt.
"And there's my cousin." He pointed behind me. I turned around and there was Victor brining out cases of beer from the house.