Dimitri had no plans for the evening and hence was cuddled up under blankets, with his headphones on, his foot tapping to the beat, but that never meant that he could enjoy his evening in peace.
Little was the poor soul aware of what was to befall him.
It was a text at first, then a call, which went unnoticed, since the cell phone was on silent.
Persistent as the person on the other end was, the next step was simply to accompany Dimitri to the destination.
Tasha had arranged for a party at her residence and had pointedly requested Adrian to bring his cousin along with the promise to introduce him to a friend of hers who she stated would be ' the one' for Adrian. Intrigued as he was, Adrian agreed, he had an inkling of where Tasha wanted to go with it.
Tasha fancied the well built soft spoken Russian man, but as Adrian liked to put it-his cousin could sometimes be dense.
Quite oblivious to the beauty's fascination with him, Dimitri kept Tasha at an arm's length, the very way he treated everyone who wasn't his family, with courtesy and calm.
Adrian didn't hate Tasha, but something about her, did irk him, sometimes he wished that Dimitri would simply turn her down and clear the air, but it seemed to be a far-fetched thought, since his cousin paid little heed to the issue.
"Rise and shine cowboy", he said, grabbing the blanket and throwing it to the corner of the room, to find a squinting, agitated and confused Dimitri.
"Tasha organized a party and we're invited."Adrian stated all too cheerfully.
It was the tone that said, you won't be able to opt out in amy way.
Groaning, Dimitri relented to his cousins demands. He'd been in similar situations previously all teaching him that getting over with it was far better than going against it.
Also, a drunk Adrian was far more pliant than a sober one, just that it took his a little too many shots to be drunk. The Russian genes were to blame.
That was the only plan he had, get Adrian drunk and return as soon as possible.
The ride to the place was comfortable, the sight of it, not so much.
What could have been a beautiful garden, was awfully decorated with cheap flashy lights and the ground was littered with paper cuos, plates and things Dimitri certainly didn't want to know.
The party within the mansion was a different world in itself. Loud music, flashy lights and a little too many people for his liking.
He could guarantee that atleast half the people here, were from the campus itself and that was a breach of rules, for it was beyond the official hours.
Adrian vanished from his sight all too soon for his liking and he stood alone, in the corner of the crowded room, looking for a relatively empty space, with a cup of orange liquid in hand, which had been handed to him by a guy, stating that it was orange juice , but he couldn't bring himself to trust the guy's words and simply held onto the cup for the sake of politeness as he eagerly sought for an opportunity to dump the liquid away.
Had Dimitri not caught the sight of Tasha, scanning the crowd, he would never have decided to move to the crowded space, between drunk strangers , too far gone to care for sobriety. He respected her, but sometimes Tasha's company could be overbearing. The woman, according to him was too full of herself. Not that he considered it bad, but somehow she appeared too shallow to him and he simply wanted to avoid running into her.
He had been in better conditions, simply looking out for his cousin, until familiar brown locks caught his attention. He didn't know her all to well, but Rose never looked like the party kind to him. But who was he to judge for he was in the party too, despite not being a fan of them.
Dimitri considered himselft to be the more of an intimate gathering kind of person over the hub bub of a grand celebration.
Before he knew of his actions, he stood behind her, as she clumsily jumped up and down in a corner, on the outskirts of the crowd.
"Hey." He said awkwardly, trying to gain her attention.
" Hey" she replied all too animatedly, not turning to him.
"You drank a lot, are you okay?"
"Yup.Yup. "
"Do you need any assistance?"
"Those shorts look ridiculous."
Her reply had him looking down at his attire, he was confused.
"Rose, who did you come with?"
"Nope, I won't tell you Mr Stranger." she replied giggling.
"Rose, I'm Dimitri."
"Nope, Dimitri is tall, he is cute and polite and you are a painting Mr stranger."
If one could see it was then, Dimitri's face turned red, his next words were mumbles as he tried to regain his composure, besides realizing that Rose had been taking to the painting on the wall in front of her not him.
" Rose, can you please turn around."
"Oh its you!" she exclaimed grinning widely, what happened next was kinda unexpected, she grabbed his hands, tugging him forward, "you need to meet someone. Meet Mr stranger " , she said pointing to the painting. "Mr Stranger, this is my Dimitri."
The weirdly pleasant feeling in his stomach that followed was something new to him.