5th of August
− Hurrah! Finally, we moved from this lousy town to the capital, and here I will definitely clear up! - Masha was absolutely not worried about our situation, she only thought about the buns and the guys.
We are too different, because of this, our relationship did not work out. She is older than me by two years, but she has no brains at all. In her head, only expensive clothes, parties and rich guys. In our hometown, she slept with all the representatives of the so-called "golden youth" - I prefer to spend my time with a book or a good series; she thinks I'm too boring - I think she's too flighty and frivolous.
My father had lost money before, but he had never played for such large amounts before - in order to somehow cover his debt, he had to sell the house and ask for a while to his aunt. Luda is a cool woman, she is my mother's sister, but, unlike the latter, her life turned out much better. At one time, she was able to realize herself as an entrepreneur, and now she owns a small cafe that brings in normal money. She was able to buy several apartments for herself, and now she kindly provided one of them to our family.
A two-room apartment in a residential area of the capital will temporarily become our home. Parents settled in one room, Masha and I lived in the other. My father swore to me to tie up and start a new, right life here, but now I no longer believe him, he promises the same thing after each of his jambs.
There is no love and harmony in our family, we are like strangers to each other, from childhood I used to rely only on myself. Even now, the common problem did not unite us, our parents only said that now we will not see money from them. As if it was different before! I don’t know how I deserved this, but Masha was always their favorite, she got almost everything, but from the age of 14 I worked and provided for myself.
- Olesya, can you hear me at all? I’m crucifying myself before anyone,” my sister sat on the edge of my bed, arms folded across her chest.
− What?
- Do you have money, I say? And then the mother dumped and left nothing. I need a couple of thousand, - she made a displeased grimace.
- No, I'm broke. If you forgot, I'll remind you. We just said goodbye to all the money and moved, and, consequently, I lost my job, from which the only reasonable conclusion follows - there is no money! The whole situation annoyed me.
Because of the move, I had to quit the restaurant, pick up my documents from the university and say goodbye to all my friends - the only people who gave me love and support. We promised each other to correspond and sometimes call each other, but this is not the same, I know perfectly well that over time communication will completely come to naught.
- Hysterical. You now live in the capital, this is a new stage in our life, just imagine what opportunities there are, what we can achieve! And you sit and whine, idiot, - snorting, Masha twisted her finger at her temple and went to the closet.
- Since there is no money, you need to find someone who has them and ask nicely. Yep, found it! - the girl took out a bright red short dress from the closet. - Great, that'll do.
- It's gross. It would be better if I found a normal job, and not wagged my ass in front of the peasants, - I looked at my sister with contempt. Of course, it's none of my business how she makes money, but still I couldn't accept it.
− Shut up!
Yes, it is useless to argue with her, we have already gone through this and it did not lead to anything good. I didn't want to watch her prepare, so I slipped quietly into the kitchen. There is no quarrel now. My parents are not at home - my father must know the delights of local taverns, and my mother is in search of a new lover, or at my aunt's - the second option I clearly liked more.
I decided to wait for Masha to leave in the kitchen, and then go to bed early, because tomorrow I have a pretty hard day. You need to go to the dean's office of the new university and give the documents. Even before moving, I agreed with them about the transfer, now there are only formalities left. Despite the large number of shifts in the restaurant, my studies were at their best, I had a rather high GPA, and now it really saved me - I was able to get into one of the most prestigious universities in the country on a budget. Mom agreed for Masha, she was shoved into the same university. Thanks to my aunt, she allocated money for education. Am I offended? No. I'm used to it and I'm not even surprised by it.
After university, I plan to run for interviews - I found a couple of decent places with a flexible schedule. I will also need to visit my aunt, she asked me to help her sort out old things.
Luda didn’t have her own children, somehow it didn’t work out. At first she was too passionate about her career, and then health problems made themselves felt, and now she cannot have children. She and her husband were worried at first, and later they reconciled themselves and began to help orphanages, however, they have not yet decided to take the baby.
- I'm leaving, I'll be late, - Masha was now difficult to recognize. Bright makeup added to her several years. Drop my documents at the university tomorrow, okay? And don't forget the check, - the girl, without waiting for my answer, turned around and went into the corridor. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of a door slamming shut.
Well, yes, I'll be late - who is she deceiving? It's good to show up for tomorrow's dinner. If she went looking for a walking bag of money, then this is for a long time. I think my sister is a very beautiful girl, we are quite similar, but I am a little thinner, fitter and a little lower. Both are fair-haired, with gray eyes, a thin waist and breasts of the second size. The guys always paid attention to me, in the restaurant they often tried to pinch and hint at a sequel, but this is not for me. My sister stood out due to open and bright clothes, but I preferred jeans and dark shades, and I practically didn’t use makeup - I didn’t see the point.
Our relationship with Masha was not always so terrible, everything changed dramatically after I found her with my boyfriend. I do not know which of them climbed first, but the fact remains. I met with Misha for almost a year, was inspired by love, considered him the best man, was ready to fulfill any request for him, tried to please in everything. He swore love to me, carried me in his arms, said that I was the one and only, promised to marry immediately after graduating from the university. And I believed, believed every word!
That day I felt unwell and took time off from my shift earlier than usual. Even in the corridor, I felt something was wrong when I saw his jacket and sneakers. She reached the room on cottony legs, her temples throbbed - everything was as if in a fog. Before opening the door to my sister's room, I listened to the moans for several minutes. The picture was not pleasant - my sister sucked my boyfriend, and he happily held her hair. I almost threw up from what I saw. Masha then told me that it was my own fault, I didn’t give the peasant what he wanted so badly. Misha asked for forgiveness, said that he was just confused, was wrong, swore that in the future everything would be fine with us, and he would not make such a mistake again. But it is impossible for me to forgive betrayal, I would not be able to continue to live peacefully with him.
***
I woke up an hour before the alarm, the night was restless, I was afraid to oversleep and I was tormented by nightmares. There was silence in the apartment, it seems that relatives did not appear that night, but this is for the best, I can calmly get together. After taking a shower and drinking a cup of black coffee, I gathered all the documents in a backpack, put on my favorite polo shirt, jeans, white sneakers, and headed to the bus stop. The apartment was located quite well, only 35 minutes by bus and I was there. Now there are practically no people on the territory of the university, this makes me happy, I don’t really like large clusters.
The university was located in an old building, it is clear that the management tried to maintain the surroundings, investing in this clearly a considerable amount of money. In the dean's office I was met by a nice middle-aged woman. She briefly explained the local procedures to me, took the documents and handed me access to the electronic resource. I study at the Faculty of Economics, I have always been attracted by numbers, so the choice was obvious. This university provided more extensive programs, so before the end of the week I was asked to decide on some directions. Masha entered marketing, although no, her mother pushed her there, her sister did not see the point in higher education at all, she planned to just get married successfully. Having given her documents, I went for interviews.
To my great regret, I was not taken to any restaurant - they did not want to deal with students. Although the vacancy indicated a floating schedule, in fact it turned out that the waiter was needed on a full-time basis. But this did not upset me much, there was still time, and these are not the only institutions in the city.
- Olesya, my dear girl, come in, I was waiting for you later. How are you? My aunt greeted me with a smile, which made me happy.
- I finished earlier and decided not to put things off, I immediately arrived. Everything is fine. Little by little we are settling down, and your mother? We are seated in the spacious kitchen.
- No, she has not come even once since you moved. Gone on the run again? Luda was preparing tea for us.
I didn’t want to upset my aunt once again, so I had to lie that it was not the first time for me:
- No, what are you, she just left early today, she thought she might come to you. Where are the boxes? I tried to smile.
- So, first tea and my signature pie, and then business. Olya said that you entered the same university as Masha, is that true?
I nodded. My mouth was filled with delicious meat pie, I didn’t have breakfast in the morning, so now I was pounding it with wild pleasure.
“But, unlike your sister, you entered the budget,” the aunt obviously did not ask, it was a statement. - And who did you go to? I'm proud of you, - she covered mine with her hand, it was extremely unexpected.
- Thank you, this is important to me, really!
By the way, did you find a job?
- No, not yet, but today is my first day of searching, still ahead. I think I will find it soon.
- Come to me? I don’t promise big earnings, but stability and schedule can be adjusted to study. What do you think about that? - Aunt poured herself more boiling water.
− Really? That would be wonderful - somehow I didn’t think about Luda, I completely forgot about her cafe.
- So we agreed, then come tomorrow, I will show and tell everything, and if everything suits you, then you can start right away. And Masha offer. I understand that you are not on the best of terms, but she also needs a job.
Oh no, she definitely doesn’t need it, she perfectly spreads her legs in front of wealthy men.
- Okay, I'll definitely pass it on. The cake is amazing, thank you. Shall we start?
We sorted through some rubbish for several hours. Old discs, shabby things that no one will wear anymore, a bag of some cables and other garbage - I didn’t expect my aunt to keep it so carefully. She told a story about almost every item, we threw away almost everything, and packed the rest in boxes, signed it and put it on the closet to wait in the wings.
I returned home almost at midnight - my aunt lived quite far from her second apartment, and I spent almost two hours on the road.
At night, the area did not look so harmless: strange companies noisily celebrating something on the playground, passers-by, as if devouring with their eyes. A couple of times someone called me rather rudely, I clutched my backpack and tried to speed up my pace. It's all due to my wild imagination. I tried to calm down, to assure myself that I had invented everything myself. Suddenly, someone roughly grabbed my hand and pulled me into the gateway.
"Help," I heard a soft male voice.
