Once Upon A Lie

Nine:

Nine

Aleksander hadn't always been so...Aleksander. They were a year apart, her and him. When Baghra Morozova had become pregnant, her mother had shortly after. It was fitting really. Their fathers---Leo and Eric----always did everything together. Of course, they would raise their family's side by side.

There were pictures of gangly toddler Aleksander holding Alina's chubby baby hand as he helped her learn to walk. Videos of them excitedly exchanging Christmas gifts to each other. Alina sweetly singing Aleksander happy birthday when she was eight and he was nine before promptly shoving his face in his birthday cake. Which had led to him retaliating by also pushing her face in the cake.

Alina remembered long summers at The Vineyard building sand castles on the beach. And late nights camping out under the stars. She wasn't sure when everything had changed. She thought it was the summer of her thirteenth birthday, when Nikolai had been brought along. His parents had been fighting and so they'd shipped him off with the Morozova's for the summer.

That summer, Alina would try going to hang out with him and Aleksander. But more often than not, she would find that they had already left. That was the summer she took up drawing because she was spending so much time alone.

In July, when the sun was hotter than sin out, and even swimming in the ocean wouldn't cool them off she found Nikolai by himself one day. She was thirteen, and he was fourteen. He was taller than her, gangly, and hadn't quite turned into the private school prince charming he'd become after puberty fully hit.

Nikolai had been sitting by the pool, crying hard, and trying to hide it. "Nik?" Alina said. "Everything okay?"

He'd looked up at her and wiped tears away from his face. "Oh, Lina. Sorry. I was just...."

"Crying?"

Nikolai sighed. "Yeah. Crying."

Alina sat down next to him. He'd been sitting on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the water. Alina took her flip flops off and did the same. The water wasn't even cold, it was so hot out but it still felt nice on her legs for some reason.

"About your parents?"

He sighed. "Who told you?"

"I heard our parents talking before we came. Is it really bad?"

"My dad found out something my mom did. He won't tell me what. But I don't think that...I don't think they're going to be together much longer."

Alina wrapped him in a hug. "It will be okay. You'll always have me and Aleksander."

Nikolai had started to cry again, and he wiped his tears away. He smiled up at her. "Thanks, Lina."

"Anytime, Nik."

The two of them sat there by the edge of the pool holding hands. Nikolai looked at Alina, and Alina looked at Nikolai. She had never noticed how pretty his eyes were before. Then, she wasn't sure how it happened. Their mouths were inching closer to her.

"GROSS!" she'd heard Aleksander shout loudly, causing the two of them to jump apart. "Are you guys seriously kissing? Nik, that's Lina. You can't kiss her."

Nikolai frowned. "Why not?"

"Because," Aleksander said, "you just can't. Now come on! Dad said we could go fishing. Unless you want to stay here with Alina and get cooties from whatever you were doing."

Nikolai scowled at him. "You're such a dick."

Aleksander laughed. "Yeah, well you are too. Kissing Lina! Yuck." The two boys had bounded off, leaving Alina alone by the pool. After that, it was like any friendship they had ceased to exist. He treated her with a cold indifference she couldn't explain. Then, strangely, the engagement had happened.