Neighbors. A Sabriel Fic.

Chapter 5

“Why are you trying to make me learn Russian again?” Sam asked sitting at the kitchen table in Jessica’s house.

“Because my boss said if I wanted that promotion then I need to learn Russian! It couldn’t be too much different from French right?” Jess explained. “We would get so many more business opportunities and if I get them then I could become a full time partner.”

“But why do I have to learn too? It’s not my job!” Sam whined.                                 

Jess rolled her eyes. “It’s good to be bilingual.”

“I already know Latin and it was a pain in the ass to learn. I don’t want to even imagine Russian.”

“I don’t want to learn it by myself! And you are my boyfriend, so you are obligated to learn with me!” She replied pursing her lips.

Sam raised his eyebrows. “I was not aware that I was going to have to learn another language to be date you.”

“Don’t be a jerk!” Jess said bumping his shoulder with her own.

Sam sighed, “Fine, fine alright, I’ll learn.”  Jessica grinned and opened her laptop.

They spent the next three hours with headphones in their ears, learning the alphabet and the number system while conjugating regular verbs.

“The only thing I remember how to say is семь, but I don’t know what it means.” Sam said.

Jess grimaced, “Yeah, me neither. This is gonna take longer than I thought.”

“How important is this promotion?”

“Life or death.” She stated.

“You should probably conjugate more then.” He replied. “And while you do that, I’m going to go get us some lunch.” She waved him off and put the headphones back on repeating the words я иду.

Sam grabbed his keys off the coffee table and went outside to head off somewhere that didn’t involve anything Russian.

***

“C’mon! I want to go see the kittens!” Gabriel exclaimed.

“Will you calm down and let me finish?” Kali asked taking a sip of her drink.

“But you eat so slowly!” Gabriel whined. “It’s just a sandwich.”

“I know it’s a sandwich Captain Obvious. I’m almost done.” She replied. After five agonizing minutes Kali still wasn’t done.

“I’m gonna go to the restroom.” He excused himself from the table. He didn’t understand how she could eat so slowly. They’d been in the Subway for almost an hour, and he finished his in ten minutes, the bad thing being her sandwich was half of what his was.

Gabriel didn’t actually do anything in the restroom, he just needed to do something besides watch Kali eat. He left the bathroom and ran into Sam standing near the end of the line.

“Hey!” Gabriel said.

Sam looked up from his phone. “Oh hi.”

“We run into each other a lot.” Gabriel observed. “It’s kinda creepy.”

“Fine, I’ll never leave my house again.” Sam said.

“But I see you there too.”

“Then my bedroom, I’ll never leave my bedroom.” Sam replied. “Why are you dressed so nicely?”

“Kali’s got a party, gala thing one of her friends from work is throwing. The only reason I’m going is because they are raising money for an animal shelter and there are going to be kittens there.” Kali, who had finished, got up and joined Gabriel next to Sam.