Love Me Not

Chapter 8

“Eve wake up,” Alina aid and Eve rolled over trying avoid the voice of her team mate. “Nathan’s here,”

Why was Nathan here? She wondered her mind still slow from sleep not able to work out what was going on. Rubbing her hands against her eyes to chase the sleep away she blinked her eyes open wincing at the harsh light. “Why’s Nathan here?” she asked the younger girl confused.

“I don’t know—he’s your friend, “Alina responded pointedly but Eve wasn’t able to put together an explanation for this nor did she have the energy to ask. “He said something about getting an early start on the fellowship. I thought you were supposed to train with Yas this morning.”

“I was,” Eve agreed trying to remember. “I said I’d watch the movies with him he said they were of critical importance.”

“Movies?” Alina asked confused. 

Eve sat up in her bed and pushed her covers down and she started to properly wake up, “Yeah about some ring. I’m not really sure? You can come to.”

“How long is the movie going to be cause it’s kinda early to be watching one?” Alina questioned in her soft tone. Like usual she was dressed and ready before Eve and was busying herself by tidying up the room

Eve squinted trying to think about Alina’s question and decide what to wear, “I think nine hours?” she said at last.

“Nine hours?” Alina questioned looking surprised and mildly reproachful.

“Eve hurry up,” Nathan called from behind the door and Eve started only now realising for real that he was already there and waiting for her. “If we don’t start now we’ll be interrupted by the group rehearsal in the afternoon.”

Eve grabbed a t-shirt and leggings and quickly shimmied them on before grabbing a large oversized jumper, which she pulled on top, “You coming Alinka? It’s not like you can tidy this room many more times."

“Sure,” Alina agreed before sliding on a pair of soft shoes that she could walk around the hotel in.

Eve swung the door open to reveal Nathan leaning on the wall opposite looking fed up. “You took your time,” He said as she emerged from her room. 

“I woke up like five minutes ago,” Eve said grumbling. “Is it okay if Alina comes to?”

“Is she also uninitiated?” Nathan questioned as Eve stepped out of the doorway allowing Alina to emerge.

Eve laughed, “You make it sound like some form of cult and no she hasn’t watched it before.” 

“Well in that case I extend my apologies to you Alina that I didn’t initially invite you but I just presumed that you would be more cultured than this heathen,” Nathan said smiling at Alina and Eve felt proud of him for putting the slightly jittery at times teenage girl at ease. 

Alina smiled brightly, “No worries I’m just glad to be able to watch it.”

The walk to the lounge room passed quickly and Eve tuned out of the conversation as Nathan was doing a good job of coaxing the shy girl out of her shell. She wasn’t sure what to do about Yas. He’d be mad if he saw why she hadn’t been at the rehearsal but it’s not as though he’d been coming through the lounge room a lot frequently so he probably wouldn’t see her. Then again for the stupid plan that she was regretting so much at the moment it would probably be good if he did see her. “Eve,” Nathan said jolting her back into reality. “Are you there?"

“Yeah sure. What’s happened?” Eve questioned wondering what she had missed and if she had made her preoccupations to obvious. 

“Nothing but you might want to sit down,” Nathan said.

Eve glanced around her only now realising that they had arrived and shook her head brusquely. She was far too distracted for al this. “Sure,” she agreed settling herself down on the small couch and Nathan quickly sat down beside her.Alina, however, as there wasn’t much room on the sofa pulled over a large armchair that she curled herself up in and Eve couldn’t help but think that Alina resembled her cat somewhat in that position. 

Nathan grabbing the remote linked the TV up to his phone to play the movie, “Do you guys want Russian subtitles.”“Yes please,” Alina said—her English wasn’t as good as Eve’s and whilst it was passable Eve wasn’t surprised that the younger girl wanted to have the additional prompts.

Everything set up Nathan finally leant back on the sofa as he struggled to make himself comfortable and Eve heard the same pretty music as before filling the room as the opening credits played.

...

The time flew past and before she knew it the time was nine in the morning and Nathan was changing the movies over to the second one. “Who is your favourite character so far? He asked the pair of them.

“I like Boromir I think,” Eve said after a few seconds of quiet reflection. His death scene at the end had had her in tears and whilst Nathan had teased her about it she didn’t think he understood. There was something so powerful in a way that he had faced his death even knowing that he had failed and never backed down but instead thought for what he thought was right throughout. “Your exhibition is about Aragon though and his arc from the strider to king.”

“Yeah I was always a sucker for the straggly good doer that he is who is driven by his destiny to become king,” Nathan said smiling. “How about you Alina?”

Alina looked pensive for a second before breaking out into a smile, “I liked Arwen I think. But the hobbits remind me of Sasha, Nastya, Anya and Alena.” Eve laughed imagining the four younger girls at her old rink tramping around Middle Earth in search of a ring.

“Interesting,” Nathan said queuing up the next one. “Tell me when you guys want food cause I have some microwavable popcorn that we can eat.” 

...

Eve was gripped throughout the second movie. If she had thought the first one was good the second one was even better with the rousing music and beautiful scenery that Nathan told her was shot in New Zealand.

However, it was when they were introduced to Eowyn that Eve final felt a connection to one of the characters. Whilst she had thought Boromir and his death were inspiring whilst the hobbits were amusing and Legolas was amazingly light on her feet she couldn’t help but empathise with Eowyn’s plight. 

The character reminded Eve of herself in so many ways with her unwillingness to remain in the boxes that were set out for her and desire to fight and prove herself to everyone who doubted her whilst always remembering her duty and responsibilities as a daughter of the royal line. And it was when she said what she feared most—‘a cage’ Eve finally felt as though someone understood why she had left Eteri even if it was from a movie made over a decade before. Because that’s what it had been becoming a cage in which Eve was trapped unable to move forward or back and simply reduced to waiting to be eclipsed by the young stars that were coming up the ranks. 

Around her she could hear and feel the sofa moving when Nathan got up to make popcorn and she ate a few pieces whilst she was watching engrossed in the action on the screen and as the battle occurred and she watched as the brave and beautiful elves upon the battlements died Eve found herself again fighting back tears.“Are you crying again,” Nathan whispered towards her as they watched the captain of the elves Haldir die.

Eve wiped her slightly misty eyes with the back of her hand brusquely. “Perhaps. It’s just such a waste—there’s not point in their deaths.”

“They’re dying for something they believe in,” Nathan said looking pensive and he wasn’t teasing her anymore.

Eve shrugged shifting in her seat, “I know.” That’s what made it all the sadder though in Eve's opinion.

By the time they reached the last and final movie in the trilogy Eve and Alina were both flagging it was almost midday and whilst they weren’t hungry the movies were surprisingly emotionally draining to watch in one go as whilst there were the few happy light-hearted moments the overall theme of the second movie had been overwhelmingly somber. But as the opening credits started again they rallied up and eating more popcorn to sustain themselves sat back down to watch.

...

It was around half way through that Alina slipped out to go the loo and Eve started as the lights for the room were turned on sending them crashing out of the battle scene that was about to begin and Théoden of the Rohan’s rousing battle speech that consisted of one word. She glanced backwards to see Yas standing at the door looking unimpressed. “Can I talk to Eve?” He asked his voice surprisingly formal and different in comparison to the accents of the actors that Eve had been immersed in for over 6 hours

.Eve looked back at Nathan and the scene on the screen mournfully as she expected this to be one of the battles that might actually be won and her favourite Eowyn was even riding out into battle alongside the men albeit in the disguise. “Sure,” she said standing up and turning to follow Yas out of the room.

“Do you want me to pause it,” Nathan asked. “This is a really good bit.”

Eve smiled softly, “Don’t worry I’ll be back soon.” She followed Yas out of the room into the corridor confused and slightly, ‘What is it?”

“This is why you couldn’t make training this morning. You’re watching a movie,” Yas said almost questioningly.

Part of Eve shrunk inside her but the other part buoyed up by the music that she could hear escaping from the open door and she said as fearlessly as she could, “So what.”

Yas looked incredulous and angry but Eve kept her courage up inspired by the movies she had been watching and stared him straight back in the eye. “Do you not care about our duet,” he accused her.

“Of course I do but Nathan just wanted to do something sweet for me as he knew I’d never watched the movie and he thought I’d enjoy it. And he was right I loved the movies.” Eve bit back at him unwilling to let this go without a fight whilst still attempting to be reasonable.“Besides I was going to train this evening after the rehearsal what’s the problem."

“Why are you hanging out with that guy anyway? I thought we were friends,” Yas said and she could see some hurt in his eyes and she almost felt sorry for him. 

Almost was the key word in that sentence and Eve felt just as enraged at his presumption that she could only be his friend, “I have other friends than you Yas you must understand that.”

“You were the one saying just yesterday how we don’t hang out enough anymore and yet you are the one blowing off on our rehearsal. And I don’t have a problem with you having friends but he’s been a bad influence on you this entire tour.” Yas said and Eve was confused was this what this was all about. She had been meant to make Yas jealous but at the moment he seemed almost as though he would skip the passionate lover step and go straight to murderous. 

“he’s also a good sweet guy who doesn’t ask anything from me and does what I need for me and not what he needs for himself and is there to support me,” Eve said remembering all of Nathan’s actions in the last few weeks. “And why can’t I do both be friends with you and hang out with Nathan?”

Yas stared back at her incredulous and Eve could see the heat in his eyes and hear both of their breaths, which were raggedy over the music. Nathan had clearly turned the volume up inside to not overhear them yelling at each other but as a result Eve could just hear the drums pulsing in her head driving her forwards. “Why do you even care who I’m friends with,” Eve asked finally confused and frustrated trying to get a concrete answer out of the Japanese skater as this indecision and confusion of his was slowly killing her. 

“Because I’m the one who convinced Brian to take you when you wanted to change coach and convinced him you were a hard worker who cared about skating more than anyone else. But now all you do is sit around watching movies and hanging out with your friends. Where’s that drive you used to have to be the best gone. Hell I’m not surprised Zagitova beat you at the Olympics,” His voice rose as the music grew louder in the background building up to the c****x but by his last phrase the music had completely dropped out leaving his voice garishly loud. 

Eve held back tears with all the force she could muster thankful that she had cried so many in the movie. “I’m grateful and thankful for your opinion but I must leave,” she said her words stilted but she couldn’t translate them properly from Russian to English in her head. 

She walked away back straight and she could hear Yasru calling after her motionless in the corridor. As soon as she rounded the corridor and he was no longer watching her she ran as far away as she could as fast as she could.