That Summer In The Country

Fifty-five:

Fifty-five:

They spent the time waiting for word on Genya. Both Aleksander and Alina were too anxious, and too worried to even try to be romantic with each other. Instead, they sat on the couch together all day, talking about Mal as they waited for news. "Do you remember on your tenth birthday Mal decided to shove your face into the cake?" Aleksander asked. "And you were so furious at him that you pushed him into the pool, and then you wouldn't talk to him for a month?"

Alina laughed. "I do remember. I got frosting up my nose. I was so furious at him and then he spent three weeks trying to get me to talk to him."

"You eventually did. How did he manage that?" Aleksander asked.

She smiled. "Um, he kissed me."

"He kissed you?" Aleksander said.

Alina nodded. "We spent a full day arguing with each other, and then he kissed me because he said that he liked the two of us, and he wanted me to be his again."

Aleksander rolled his eyes. "And you fell for that from him?"

"I was ten!" Alina reminded him. "But you know he wasn't my first kiss."

"He wasn't?"

"Oh, come on. You can't tell me that you don't remember."

"Remember what? I spent half of my teenage years drunk or high. There's quite possibly a lot that I don't remember."

"You kissed me that summer too," Alina told him, "there was a reason that I kissed you goodbye that year instead of Mal."

Aleksander groaned. "What did I do? I don't remember most of that year. That was the year I started experimenting with pot."

Alina laughed. "I know. I suspected that was why you didn't remember that it happened at all, because if you had remembered, you probably never would have talked to me again."

"What happened?" Aleksander asked with a raised eyebrow. "Was I jerk?"

Alina shook her head. "No. You were actually quite the gentleman. Well, your mom was helping me with the dress I was supposed to be wearing for the party back when she actually cared to be part of things. It was this ridiculous, frilly---"

"Pink thing," Aleksander finished, a look of realization in his eyes, "I remember the dress. Mother liked dressing you up because she had two boys and she saw it as an excuse to play daughter with you. You looked like you got swallowed by a cupcake."

Alina laughed. "Yeah, you said as much when you saw me. You were listening to really loud music, I'd just finished my dress fitting, and your door was open. You were laying in there with a cigarette in your hand, smoking. At least, at ten I thought it was a cigarette but now that I think about it, it did have kind of a funny smell---"

"If you saw me smoking something then, it was most definitely pot," Aleksander said, "you shouldn't have stayed around. You should have left."

"Oh, believe me. I tried to."

Aleksander winced. "What did I do?"

"When I walked by you sat up on the edge of your bed. Your hair was a mess and you smiled at me. 'Little Lina', you called, and I went into the room to see you. And you muttered something about me looking like frosting, and then you kissed me."

"Where?"

"Oh, you were a complete gentleman. It was on the cheek. More like a boop on the cheek then anything because you sort of missed because you were so high. But then you grabbed me, and put me on the bed next to you, and you just laid there smoking. It was for about five minutes, and then you started snoring and I slipped out of the room. You didn't talk about it at all the next day, and I figured that you didn't remember anything, so I let you forget about it."

He groaned. "I'm sorry, Alina. I was a prick. I shouldn't have done that. I probably royally fucked you up."

"It's okay," she said, "I don't think you were intentionally trying to be a jerk."

"It doesn't make things right. You should have smacked me or something."

"I was a kid. What was I going to do? Smack the employers son?"

"Yes," he said, "always, if they're doing something inappropriate."

"It's fine," she said, "I think you and I were always supposed to happen. Even though Mal was my best friend, you were always sort of territorial about me too. Do you remember my fifteenth birthday?"

"God, what did I do then?"

"So, Mal's friend Alexei was there. He got it into his head that he liked me, and Mal must have had a girlfriend at the time. Maybe Genya? I don't remember. But I was upset, and I left my party to go be by myself and Alexei followed me, and he tried kissing me. I wasn't into it at all because he smelled like cigarette smoke. I pushed him away, and when I did you were standing there with this murderous look in your eyes. You told Alexei to get out, or else you would beat his ass. You and Mal, you're my everything. You have always been my everything from the very beginning, I think."

"I always just thought I was a dick to you. You were always with Mal, and I always thought of you as his. And when I realized who you were, and that I'd had you first, I couldn't let you get away. I needed you to be mine. You were the most innocent thing in my life. If I let you go, I didn't know what I would do once you were gone."

"Well you don't have to worry about that," said Alina, "because we're going to be together forever, I promise."

"I like the sound of that," he said.