While the first part of the chapter is mainly exposition, I had a lot of fun writing the second part of this chapter, so I hope you all enjoy it too! Thank you all so much for the reviews and feedback, it is much appreciated! Without further ado, here's the next chapter.

The shrill whistle cut through the air, signalling the end of the game and that practice was over, just as the ball bounced on the hoop… and fell off to the wrong side of the net. The opposite team cheered, some slapping each other on the back in congratulation, and others trying to wrestle themselves out of the perpetually moist, yellow vests.

"Congratulation, ladies of team yellow! Next practice you get to choose what drill the losers have to warm up to! Now hit the showers, and when you're all out I have a short announcement to make." Coach Alberta called.

I stood at the three point line, my legs rooted there. Disappointment washed over me that my shot hadn't made it. My teammates didn't take it to heart, most already grabbing their bags and heading to the locker room, giggling as they went. Two players, one in a yellow vest and one without, stayed behind and walked towards me.

"Did you see Meredith today? I know she was on your team, but she was playing even more dirty than usual. That trip could've landed Camille in the ER! And she was totally travelling with the ball. How does Alberta manage to see all fouls, except Meredith's?" Jill rambled, dragging the stinky yellow vest over her head. Her neck glistened with sweat. While my heartbeat was slowing down from the game, I could feel my own cheeks flushed and my shirt damp.

"Nepotism. Meredith's a family friend of Alberta's." Sydney rolled her eyes at our coach, the idea of preferential treatment to family members a foreign concept to her. "And what was going on with you? I set up so many good shots for you, and you only landed like two of them." Sydney now focused her accusations at me, eyes sharp.

Since I was little, I had always been very invested in team sports, hopping from sport to sport. From tennis to softball to rugby… Once, I convinced Lissa to go swimming with me, which lasted about four months before I decided handball was actually the sport for me, and Lissa decided to just eat healthy and avoid unnecessary exercise. Jill, Sydney and I were members of an under twenty-five women's basketball team at a local sport's club, a team that meets twice a week for two hours. I joined here two years ago, first spending half a year playing volleyball, before realising that basketball was my true calling. Basketball had actually fascinated me for a year and a half now, which was quite rare.

When I switched to basketball, Jill, Sydney and I became an unlikely trio. Jill pulls down the average age of the team, by being seventeen and being the only member who is still in high school. Technically she shouldn't even be able to join this team, but since she was bullied out of the team at her high school for no legitimate reason other than teenagers being cruel, we decided to adopted her into our group.

While it was easy to be charmed by Jill's good nature, Sydney took a while to warm up to. She had quite the hostile attitude at the beginning, and still now held Jill and I at an arms length, but we had managed to see past the scowling face. From the very limited amount of information Sydney gave us about her family, I could tell they were controlling and pretty much dictating all her choices. Basketball was one of the few instances she could let loose. She was the mastermind behind the tactics we usually played, making her an assets of our team.

They weren't the type of girls I normally hung out with - Jill was still in high school, Sydney was a Church nut - but here we were.

"I'm just distracted today, I guess." I shrugged, as I finally moved and sluggishly made my way to the locker room for a nice shower.

"Why? You seemed to be thinking hard during the drills." Jill matched my stride to link her arm through mine.

"Believe it or not, I was trying to compose a poem in my head throughout all of practice."

This earned me raised eyebrows from both of them.

"So what, you want to fight Juan Felipe Herrera for his title?" Sydney asked.

"Who?" I questioned.

"America's current Poet Laureate."

"America's what?"

"Nevermind," Sydney huffed. When I looked over at Jill, she seemed just as clueless about what Sydney just said.

"Anyways," I continued, "I have to write a Slam poem, because I'm an absolute junkie for challenges. My friend said I couldn't do a better job than him, I said I could, blah blah. When I accepted the challenge, I seriously thought I'd be able to talk someone into writing it. Turns out, I can't even bribe anyone into doing it for me, so I'm fucked."

"Writing it yourself never crossed your mind?" Syd said. At this stage we were getting undressed for the showers - well, Jill and I were. Sydney never undressed in front of any of us, always changing in the toilets and washing her dressed body with a wet cloth.

"Nope. I've never had an artistic bone in my body."

"What?" Jill seemed offended. "Everyone has art in them. We just all use different forms to express them. Maybe poetry isn't your form of expressing it, but I don't believe there isn't another medium where you can let it out."

I grinned at Jill. She was so cute when she was standing up for something, and I knew art was important to her. Actually, she reminded me a little of Lissa. "Is fighting an art form?"

"Yes," Sydney answered, over her shoulder. "But I don't really see you having enough self control to perform Tai Chi."

"I was thinking more along the lines of Jiu-Jitsu for me. But first, I have to wrestle with this stupid poem."

The conversation was put on hold as Jill and I hit the showers. The weak jets of the collectives shower hit my back and washed away the grime as Jill continued to natter at me about this annoying teacher she had. God, every time she talked about high school I became more glad I was no longer in it.

When we got out after a thorough round of shampooing, Sydney was already dressed and had pulled out a book on Chemistry. She looked up as I started complaining about the poem again.

"And I just don't know what to write it about. I've looked online, and most people talk about some life changing experience or their families. There's no way on earth I'm going to discuss my mommy issues with a full room of strangers, and other than that the only other intense life experience I had was the car crash, which I definitely can't talk about."

"You were in a car crash?" Jill looked panicked, and grabbed me by the wrist to give me a once over. Her raised voice called attention to our conversation, and I knew that it had piqued the interest of some of the other girls too, who would now be listening in.

"Yeah- Relax Jill." Her muscles were still tensed from the revelation. "This was five years ago. Have you never wondered where this scar was from?"

I move side ways, the give her a clear view of the massive scar that ran along the side of my right thigh. It was raised and discoloured against my normally tanned skin, a battle scar that occurred when Eric Dragomir got startled by a deer on the road and slammed us all into a tree, taking his life as well as the lives of his wife and son. I can never think about the crash without getting a metallic taste in my mouth. Shaking my head, I focused back on Jill.

"Oh, it looks more like a burn, so I always assumed you spilled something or…" Jill seemed lost for words, and kind of embarrassed at her assumption.

"Fair enough. But yeah, it was the crash. It killed my best friends family." Both Sydney and Jill looked concerned at that confession. "Which is why I can't write a poem about it, because Lissa will be there when I perform it, and if I talk about the Dragomir's… I would rather not upset her like that."

Jill's head snapped up at the name of Dragomir. I swear I saw recognition, as well as panic, reflected in her eyes. Did she know them?

"Makes sense." Sydney says before I could interrogate Jill about her reaction. "You could always just write about basketball, right?"

I hummed in agreement as I considered the idea. I guess I could make that work as a topic. But I was more interested now in Jill. I was interrupted again by coach Alberta's whistle in the hall. Guess she decided we had had enough time to shower and now wanted to make her announcement. We all shuffled out towards her and formed a semi circle around her, all of us itching to get out of here instead of listening to her. Fortunately, stony faced Alberta was always very brief.

"Ladies, as you all may know, this neighbourhood has recorded an all time high in the number of sexual assaults that have occured. Whether this is because more people are reporting it now a days, or simply that the number has actually increased, our sport's club has decided to collaborate with the local gym, Vladimir Fitness, to offer a self defence course to all of its female members, for free. Therefore, next Thursday's lesson will be cancelled and replaced with a class on self-defence. I expect you all to be there. All the information I have just given you is on this pamphlet, so pass them around before you leave. See you all then." With that, Alberta passed a stack of papers to a team member, before she turned on her heels and left. Ah, short and sweet, just the way we know good ol' Alberta.

I grabbed three sheets before breaking out of the semi circle and scanning the paper. The gym name tickled something in my memory, and checking the name of the instructor, I realised exactly why. I suppressed a grin.

"While we were on the topic of fighting, huh?" Sydney nudged me as we made our way to the exit.

"Yeah, I can't wait to knock your ass on the floor." I joked, but I could sense Sydney becoming prickly at my comment so I quickly changed topic. "So, who's up for a round of milkshakes? Gain back the calories we just burned?"

Sometimes, with enough convincing on my part, we would get something to eat at the diner a block away. We hadn't done it in a while, now that I thought of it.

"No thanks, I have a major paper due tomorrow." Sydney sighed, as she opened her car door. I had a feeling that wasn't the reason she was refusing the calorie rich dessert. "I'll see you guys at the gym!"

"Remember to eat dinner!" I shouted, hoping she'd hear. The eye roll I got from her was the only acknowledgment I got. I turned to face Jill, remembering that I still had some information I needed to extract from here. "You up for it? It'll be my treat."

Jill looked hesitant. "My mum will be waiting for me…"

"C'mon, text her that you'll be home later and that I'll walk you home. Think of the delicious caramel vanilla shake!"

I saw the hesitance in her eyes slowly fade as it was replaced with hunger.

"And," I watched her reaction carefully, "I can tell you more about the car crash, if you want."

That did it for her. Jill's eyes widened, and she quickly agreed to the idea, pulling out her phone to text her mother. What had her so interested in the Dragomir name?

She would not stop hiccuping.

I was having a hard enough time covering up the fact that Lissa was drunk out of her mind from Stan as well as opening the coffee shop simultaneously, and her constant hiccups were not helping my frayed nerves.

The perpetrator of these hiccups was sitting at a table smack in the middle of the coffee shop with a pencil in hand, doing some of the children's mazes we had lying around. Her intoxicated state, coupled with the sunglasses I was making her wear inside to cover her blood shot eyes, resulted in her failing at the mazes disastrously. This was hilarious to Lissa, who was giggling, only to be interrupted with another hiccup. I looked over my shoulder to make sure that Stan's office door was tightly shut. The only reason he had even let her sit in here with me while I was opening was because I convinced him she really needed to study undisturbed, and Stan held her in high regards, unlike me.

In truth, Lissa and I had gone out for a couple of cocktails with her college friends, which then turned into a few more drinks, and then a few more, and then suddenly the night ended about… twenty minutes ago, as I realised I had to get to work. It is so easy for Lissa to convince me to do stuff, but usually the stuff she convinces me to do is study more, not go out with her the night before a morning shift. Now, I had a whole shift to do without sleep and exhausted from the dancing and alcohol that had left my system.

Lissa was luckier. She was still drunk, but I couldn't trust her to get home alone safely, so she would be sitting this shift with me.

"You know what we should do?!" She slurred, louder than necessary, looking down at her nails on the hand that was holding the pencil, "We should totally get our nails done!"

"Sure, Liss. Maybe later." I said, working the coffee machine, making sure it was working properly before filling it up with coffee beans. My nails would just break at work anyway if I got them done.

Lissa was in the middle of saying something before the chimes alerted us to the presence of a customer.

Looking up, I smiled initially as Dimitri came into view, but it soon turned to an expression of horror as I saw he was going to have to walk past Lissa to get to me.

Dimitri registered my change in expression and responded with a quizzical look, before he heard Lissa hiccup and snapped his head over to her.

"Hello," He nodded his head respectfully towards her, assuming she was just a customer who enjoyed wearing sunglasses inside before the sun was even up, before heading towards me. I prayed Lissa wouldn't realise this was the guy she had teased me about a few times.

She just giggled some more, not even responding. He gave her a confused smile, so I tried to distract him from her.

"Two days in a row now," I said, as I begun his order. "I'm a lucky girl."

He gave a non committal hum in response, "I see that someone beat me here today. Did she get the same hostility I used to get in the beginning, or was that specially reserved for me."

"Don't worry, I don't play favourites. I act hostile towards all my customers equally, especially the morning ones." I said, in a brassy manner.

"Good, we wouldn't want to give your boss reason to fire you over favouritism."

"No, I think my utter lack of skill when it comes to coffee, plus the two strikes I already have, should be enough."

Instead of responding, Dimitri decided to inspect me as I finished making the coffee. I knew I looked worn around the edges after the night I just had, and suddenly I felt very self conscious about it under his watchful eyes.

"Are you okay? You look a little…" He began.

"Like shit?" I offered.

"Tired," He said.

As he handed me the money, I glanced over his should to make sure Lissa was behaving herself, since her hiccups seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. She very obvious was not behaving; she was wagging her eyebrows at me so extremely, I was almost afraid she'd pull a muscle in her face. I quickly pulled my eyes back to Dimitri, so as not to draw his attention to the drunken mess that was Lissa. Damn her, she'd figured out who he was.

Obviously, nothing slipped his attention, but he didn't look at her, rather just raise an eyebrow at me. I realised I still hadn't answered him.

"Oh. I didn't really sleep much. Or, at all."

"Why?"

"My friends peer pressure me into making bad decisions." I say, while handing him back his change, which he immediately drops in the tip box. Just a week ago, Mason and I had decided we wanted to play a battle of the sexes at work, and made two separate tip boxes, one for the girls and one for the boys. Although Mason charmed most of the soccer moms who buy their lattes here to fill up the boys tip box, Dimitri had been a faithful donator to the girls tip box right from the beginning.

"I don't believe that for a second. I think you can make those decisions all on your own." He smiles, sipping the coffee.

"Thank you, for all the faith and trust you put in me." I hold my hand over my heart in a mock gesture of humbleness.

Over his shoulders, Lissa's gestures were getting more obscene. Did she really have to be so drunk right now?! When it got to the point that Lissa started french kissing the air, I had to say something.

"Cut that crap out!" I say, startling Dimitri. He furrows his eyebrows, before he realises I wasn't looking or addressing him, so I added "Sorry, not you," as validation.

Lissa stopped, but a grin was still plasted over half her face, the other half covered by her sunglasses. Dimitri looked over at her, before back at me. As soon as he looked away, she started with the eyebrow wagging again.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Nothing," I say quickly, not really sure how to cover this up. Lissa would say the dumbest shit to him if I introduced her right now.

He gave me a don't try and bullshit me look, but instead of responding, I gave her the middle finger over his shoulder as she started blinking her eyes madly and puckering up her lips.

Dimitri, I could tell, was at his wits end as he looked back at Lissa, who again acted like she wasn't miming behind his back. "She obviously can't see that?!"

His comment took me a moment to decipher. She couldn't see? Then, I looked over at her with the eyes of a stranger and realized that while I thought the sunglasses would cover up her bloodshot and drunken eyes, to a stranger she looked like a blind woman. Once it clicked in my head, I nearly doubled over laughing. I guess the alcohol hadn't completely left my system either.

"Lissa, he thinks you blind!" I said to her, as she joined me in my uncontrollable giggles. It took me a while to calm down, my face probably red. Dimitri looked unimpressed, with an eyebrow raised and arms crossed.

"Sorry, sorry. I really need to explain this," I gushed, as I rushed around the counter and went over to her. Dimitri followed me. "She's not blind, she's just very drunk, and I can't have Stan find out, or else he'll realise I was out with her last night. And that could easily becoming my third strike, coming to work hungover."

Things seemed to click in his head, and to confirm my point, I went to stand behind Lissa and lifted the sunglasses off her face. Once I did this, she decided it was a good point to introduce herself.

"Hi, my name is Lissa, and I'm Rose's best friend." She stretched out her hand, with her million dollar smile radiating at him. "You must be the guy I hear so much about."

Her exaggeration caused me to blush. Dimitri looked over at me, mildly surprised.

"I'm Dimitri. Nice to meet you, and to put a face to a name." Hesitantly, he stepped forward, shaking her hand, still appearing slightly put off by being left out of the loop. He seemed more offended at that than the fact we had been laughing at him.

"Oh?" Lissa tilted her head back to look at me with raised eyebrows, before focusing back on him. "I've been mentioned? What has she told you?"

"Well, I was there-" This time, I was miming behind Lissa's back, as I started slicing at my neck with my hand franticly, trying to tell him to stop. He was going to mention the Aaron meltdown, and I had decided I wouldn't bother Lissa with it. If she found out now, we would have another meltdown on our hands.

Dimitri got the message, and he cut himself off, but only took a second to rethink. I was quite impressed by the speed of his response. "Rose mentioned you were studying Law. I'm working at a law firm right now, so-"

Lissa cut him off. "Oh my God! Really? You're working as a lawyer? But you look so young! Where do you work? What department are you in? Where-"

Questions kept spilling out of her mouth, so rapidly they were slurring together. She seemed to have forgotten her mission of embarrassing me. She kind of reminded me of Jill when she was rambling like this. While this was going on, Dimitri took the opportunity to look at me with a slightly questioning look of his own as he raised his coffee to his lips. I knew what he was asking: Why hadn't I told Lissa about Aaron?

I diverted my attention else where. "Breathe, Liss. How is he supposed to answer all this? Do you even remember your first question?"

She shut up, and looked contemplative.

"That's what I thought," I said, as I brushed some knots out of her sticky hair. Beer, by the smell of it.

Dimitri pulled out the chair at Lissa's table and sat down, taking both of us by surprise, but instead of reacting to our shock, he gave us an easy smile. A swoon-worthy smile.

"I'll try answer as much as possible," He said, kindly, and then jumped right in.

While he was talking, and Lissa stared at him, enwrapped, I went back to work. I was already behind on setting up the counter full of cakes and snacks, so I started doing that while I listened to Dimitri's soothing baritone voice in the background. Listening to them converse about the job wasn't exciting to me, persay, but hearing more about his day job, without him talking in Layman's terms about it, did things to me that were too embarrassing to admit.

When I was nearly done filling up, I accidentally dropped one of the seasonal pecan pie cupcakes onto the floor. Instead of throwing it out, I went back over to my friends and placed the cupcake in front of Lissa.

"Eat," I order, before heading back to the counter, "The carbs will soak up the alcohol."

Lissa digs in without a protest, but Dimitri's eyes stay on me. "I'm pretty sure that's a myth. Eat a pickle and some raw eggs instead."

I rolled my eyes. "That has got to be the most Russian thing you've ever said to me."

"If Russians know about one thing, its how to cure a hangover."

"Okay, then I'd like to see you convince Lissa to drink raw eggs. She won't even eat a burger that isn't well done."

"Double negative." Lissa said, while still devouring the cupcake, moaning at the taste. She made no other comment to our conversation.

"Are you serious? Even drunk you correct my grammar?" I stare at her incredulously. Dimitri smiles endearingly at me, and was about to say something, but Lissa cut in as her eyes widen in realisation.

"Oh my God! Rose! Pecan pie! Thanksgiving! We haven't planned anything!"

Thanksgiving was about two weeks away, and I was so looking forward to it because I wouldn't have school or work that day. Lissa and I normally planned well in advanced for the holiday, considering we didn't really have family to celebrate it with, but this year it had kind of slipped through the cracks. But I didn't exactly worry, since I knew Liss would get it all planned just in time.

"I know, I completely forgot about it. Or well, forgot we don't have plans."

Lissa pulled out her phone and started typing, probably texting people. She seemed to not realize it was still before six in the morning, and if anything she would get pissy replies from waking people up. She has got the learn hard way about drunk texting.

"So, Dimitri," I drawled, leaning over the counter, where I rested my head on my palm. "What's your Thanksgiving looking like? Do you even celebrate it?"

Dimitri tipped his head back and finished the last of his coffee, before answering me. "No, not really. I used to spend Thanksgiving's with either my friends or colleagues, but after-"

He cut himself off with a swallow, and looked to the floor, contemplating his words.

"After falling out with a friend, I decide it was best to leave your American traditions alone. Now, I just spend the day alone, catching up on chores, which is also nice."

I wanted to ask about the friend, desperately, and this falling out he spoke of. I knew so little about Dimitri, because he was so good at keeping his personal life stowed away and technically I was only his barista, but I craved knowing more about him. However, I also understood that I wouldn't get any information out of him with Lissa sitting right next to him. While he might open up more around me, he definitely wouldn't around someone he just met. Damn it.

So instead, I decided to focus on something else.

"Our traditions? Americans have very few traditions. Other than barbecuing and racism, of course."

"Don't forget the Superbowl." Lissa piped up, still engrossed in her phone.

"Ah, how could I forget the Superbowl, and the obligatory hotwings."

"I guess you don't watch the Superbowl either." She says, glancing at Dimitri. His lips twitch with a smile.

"No, I would never. I hate American football."

"Hey!" I shot up from my leaning position, offended. "Don't say shit like that around me! It's the best sport out there."

"The rules make no sense and it's so boring." He counters back.

"Honestly, I can't believe I even considered you a friend before you betrayed me in such cold blood."

"There's commercials constantly." He adds, amused at my outrage.

"The violence of it is so beautiful, though. All that headbashing…" I sigh, dreamily.

"Scientists have literally proven its unbelievably bad for you and the NFL denied the science for years."

"That's all just conspiracy theories."

With an eye roll, Dimitri stood up. "As entertaining as this one sided debate has been, I have to get going. It was nice meeting you, and I'll see you around, Rose." With a wave in my direction and a goodbye to Lissa, he made his way to the door.

"Yeah, Thursday." I say, cryptically.

"What's Thursday?" He asked, his hand resting on the doorknob.

I shrug noncommittally, not wanting to tell him about the self defence class I knew he was instructing. I just liked messing with him. With an eye roll, Dimitri left, seeming to realise he wasn't getting any more information out of me.

As soon as he was out the door, I turned towards Liss, who finally put her phone down to look at me with a full blown smirk and a I totally see what's going on look on her face.

"What?"

"Don't act all blasé around me, missy."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Just say what you have to say, already."

"I will tell you exactly what I think of your painfully obvious flirting but first I must say…" She looks towards the door, out of which he just walked, dreamily. "He is so. Fucking. Hot."