The Pomegranate Society

Eleven: Alina Starkov

Eleven:
Alina Starkov

Alina had not expected to wake up to find paparazzi outside of her house. She hadn't expected to find that there were pictures of her all over the internet leaving Nikolai's apartment as she kissed him good night in his clothes. She hadn't expected articles speculating that she was dating him either. That was what she found when she got up though. Both Genya and David had had to help her get to class through the crowd of paparazzi. Her one consolation was that it was a Tuesday, which meant she didn't have Professor Morozova that day.

Instead, she had her two history classes which meant that she could focus on something besides Aleksander maybe she could get through college. Except, as she went into her history class, she heard someone calling out her name. Alina froze in the entryway of the door. "Miss Starkov!" she heard his voice loud and clear behind her. She flinched at the sound of it.

No, she thought to herself, no you were supposed to go away, and I was only ever supposed to see you during class. Like a normal student.

Forcing a smile on her face, Alina turned around to look at Professor Morozova. "Professor," she said, "what an unexpected surprise to see you here at my other class. Taking History 101?"

"No," he said, "I had an appointment in the next building over. But I saw you on my way back and I thought that I would stop and see if you made it home alright."

Alina froze. Was it her imagination or were there people staring and whispering around them now? With their phones taken out? People knew who she was now, thanks to those ridiculous photos of her and Nikolai being sent out. If there were pictures of her talking with an older professor outside of class people might get the wrong idea. Now that she had the possibility of Nikolai, she didn't want them to get the wrong idea.

Even if she still remembered how Aleksander tasted when he had kissed her the previous night in his car. Even if she had been haunted all last night by dreams of what might have happened if she had chosen myths instead of fairytales. He might have worked the sweat pants she'd borrowed from Nikolai off, and put her hand down her cotton panties to play with her cunt....

She might have taken off his belt, pulled down those ridiculous slacks of his, and taken her cock in his hands just so she could feel him come undone under her touch. But she had been a good girl. She had gotten out of the car and walked home in the rain. She had been the good girl. The smart girl. She was choosing her future instead of some dumb fantasy that wouldn't last beyond college. Nikolai was an investment in her future. Professor Aleksander Morozova was a fling that would end badly for everyone.

"Alina?" he called her name. "Did you make it home alright?"

"It's Miss Starkov," she said, "I'm your student, remember Professor? I don't need you to play parent for me. I made it home perfectly fine last night. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to class. It's the first week and I don't want to make a bad impression by being late."

He looked as if he was going to say something, but she turned on her heal before she could. When she slipped into her classroom, it felt as though someone had been squeezing her chest and just let go.

She was being ridiculous. Alina didn't even know this man and based on a few interactions she had suddenly become obsessed with it. What was it? Because she had had so few people, especially older ones, care about her wellbeing? And it didn't help either that he was gorgeous and charming as well. It just made things worse.

Alina took her seat in the back of the classroom.

"Alina?" she heard someone call her name. She stiffened but realized this time in was a girl. She looked up and saw Nadia Zhabin standing there, one of her friends from her school days.

"Nadia!" she got up and hugged her. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd decided to backpack for a year or something."

Nadia shrugged. "I couldn't get a travel passport because of all of the conflict going on, so I'm here. I put my application in but they said it could be delayed a year because of everything."

Alina shook her head. "I'm sorry. That's awful. But if it means I get to have you here for another year, I'm glad!" she hugged her tightly. "Want to sit next to me?"

"Of course!" Nadia said, beaming at her. "Are you actually living with Genya? I thought I heard wrong when Marie told me. You two nearly killed each other when we were roommates at school."

"Only some of the time," said Alina, "and that's only because she was always trying to set me up on dates."

"Is that why you're getting along now?" said Nadia. "Because she finally managed to set you up with Nikolai?"

Alina frowned. "You knew?????"

She laughed. "Of course I did, it had been part of her master plan since day one. You just spent your time mooning over that guy----what's his name? The one you were in the foster system with who was on the football team?"

"Malyen Oretsev," Alina said.

Her chest hurt just saying his name too. Her and Mal had done everything together growing up, and then when he turned eighteen, he'd joined The First Army. He'd had a knee injury his last year of school and blew his football scholarship to the University.

"Yeah! Him," said Nadia, "Saints, he was dreamy though. Anyway, I'm glad everything worked out for the best. I've always worried about you."

Alina smiled at her. "Thanks, Nadia. Yeah...it seems like everything is going to be alright." If only she didn't mess everything up by giving into her desires and going after her Professor.....