aGAYnst it all [RusAme]

Chapter Three - He Cares...?

I woke up still feeling more than fatigue. I do not know why I felt like I was missing something when I woke up. Wait, I actually woke up in peace this time since usually my very noisy roommate would scream or shout,
and this time he-
"AGHHHHH!!!! IVAN!!!" Nevermind. I rushed down, almost tumbling down the stairs, I stepped outside with the sun hitting my eyes. I couldn't see what was going on but I shouted in return, "What is it?!"
I finally opened my eyes to see Alfred trying to carry the table from yesterday's lemonade stand, forgot to tidy up!

"Help. Now. Please." Poor guy. His scrawny figure wouldn't of course be able to carry such a heavy table so I shook my head and sighed. I carried the table myself, almost dragging Al with it, it was heavy but I was at least strong enough to bring it to the living room where it belonged.

When I was done I saw Alfred, looking at me in awe. "What?" I asked
"Oh, u-um," he cleared his throat "Wow you're strong..." He rubbed the back of his neck and turned a bit... red. I wonder why though.
"Umm, spasibo? I mean er, thank you I guess?" I said, weirded out.

The situation was awkward for a moment and if his sudden compliment wasn't weird enough, he offered to cook breakfast!
Him! Cook! Usually I'd cook my own meals while he just orders pizza, burgers and other junk and occasionally use my money to pay. I offered to help but he refused and said he wanted to do it himself. That's totally fine with me!

While he was at it, I looked for a job to be hired in, that lemonade money won't last for long and we surely won't make much of a living from just selling lemonade, I suppose. I mean we could but I'd rather not.
As I scrolled through all the job offers, I had thoughts about when I was a kid and how I so badly wanted to be an astronaut. That's something I'd want to have a job as to this day, that's why I major at Sciences– astronomy.

I got my head out of the clouds, or space, and looked for the jobs and their descriptions.
There was a job offer to be a bartender for ages 21+, I mean I could serve everyone vodka and possibly make them some of that vodkanade but, clubs aren't much of my thing. I'm not exactly a party person, introverted actually. Plus I can't even tolerate Al's loudness, all the noise and the music in the club will be to hard for me to bear. I'm not even 21 yet anyway, my birthday's on December, it's still July right now.

There was another job offer to work in a Pizzeria, as a chef. Just from yesterday you could already tell I have no idea how to cook, might eventually spill vodka in the pizza and feed that to the kids.

And another one, at the library. It's not that bad actually. I enjoy a good book from time to time, especially some silence! I won't get paid much I guess, but it is ok with me. As long as I earn and have a living, it's good enough for me.

The thought of being a librarian meant that I'd have to shush noisy people (like Al), read books, help people find books and rearrange them by alphabetical order. That sparked a memory.

I remember this one time when I was younger, back in Russia. My house was very big with about 4 floors in it, a chandelier on the very last floor, a red carpet decorated in gold followed the staircases, pearl flooring that were always polished and cleaned by our maids, one of them was from Estonia and another from Lithuania.
Almost everything was done by them, actually.
Sometimes they'd even bring their sons to help them out, I felt pity for them and one of the maids was pregnant – she was from Latvia, so I decided to help them out.
Their kids were rearranging the books, instead of using a ladder to get up in the higher areas, they stood on each other's shoulders.
I approached them and told them if I could help since there was an even higher place where they couldn't reach, I figured my height, as a taller person would help them, but when they noticed I was there they lost balance and fell. I helped one of them up but he ended up crying and running away with the other.

I was feared... and I thought I couldn't do anything about it.

It wasn't only that incident that made me think to this day that I'm one scary bastard. The kids at school wouldn't even play with me or lay a finger, until a few years on pre-school where I was being bullied. I remember choking, beating and kicking the bullies back, they were sent to the hospital after that, and I was sent to the principal.

In the end, both of us got in trouble and I should've told somebody instead letting that happen. But I didn't even have anyone to tell that to, I was too shy to approach teachers, my parents wouldn't listen, I didn't have friends and even if I told my sisters they can't do much.
After that, everyone just got scared of me more, I wanted to move away so bad. I wanted to have a fresh new start and so I immediately moved to the U.S. as soon as I could.

I didn't even know I was already sobbing a bit, tears started to stream down my face..
"Ivan! Look! I made eggs and bacon- DUDE!" Oh shit, he saw me crying. "ARE YOU OK?!" He threw the plate, panicking as he ran to me in worry
"AL, THE MEAL!!" I SCREAMED, STANDING UP FROM MY CHAIR
"Huh?" He froze when the plate landed on the floor. "Fffffuck... ugh, screw the plate, I'll clean it up later. Anyway, BRO! ARE YOU OKAY?!"

He grabbed my shoulders. I would've thrown a fit and punched him but I was amazed on how he was so quick to react when I was in tears. Especially that kind of reaction... I can't believe he actually cares.
"I-I'm ok." I wiped my nose.
"Are you sure?! Please, if you wanna talk about it, let's do it right now." He sat on my bed, holding both of my hands.

"N-n-nyet. It is okay, I can handle this on my own." I pulled my hands away from him "I've always had."
"Well, if you wanna talk about anything at all, talk about it to me." He stood up, cleaning the broken plate and food up. "Aw man, they were in the shape of a happy face, 'specially for you. But it's okay! I'll make another one." He ran downstairs.

He ran just to know how I was doing.
He managed to have empathy and told me to talk about my problems.
He made a meal for me and doesn't mind making another one.

Why? Why does he even have concern? Why does he do all these things for me? I didn't even do much but hurt him.
Why doesn't he run away like the others? Why did he run towards me? Why?

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Ok so, I'm terribly sorry if this chapter seems a bit crappy, cliché or Ivan seems a little Gary Stu/Special Snowflakey. I was russian
Get it?
Okay.
But yeah, I finally updated it!!! I didn't get to as my wifi is just CRAP
So yeah I'm gonna try to write more this month, catch ya guys later :))