Once Upon A Lie

Forty-three:

Forty-three:

Alina's life went as follows: she had been forced into an arranged marriage with one of her oldest friends because her parents had no faith in her ability to manage money or anything else. They thought she needed a protector. Aleksander, that same friend, had ruined everything with his assholery by getting her into an accident that had hurt her badly and scared her parents. Her father had then made a bad investment with Petyr Lantsov, Nikolai's father, and traded her to the highest bidder putting her in yet another arranged marriage with Nikolai.

She had decided that she didn't want her parent's money if it came with strings attached. She had run away, and Aleksander had had to come to save her from the clutches of a church that was trying to keep her hostage to "protect her honor" or whatever. And they were forced to get married secretly in order for the church to release her.

Alina was seventeen, with a husband. She had also moved into her best friend's home and had a slight crush on her best friend's brother. Who had seen her naked. And kissed her. And talked about all of the things that he wanted to do to her. They were also lab partners in their science class.

This meant, that after a week of living with him, Alina was sitting next to Mal in class. She was hyper-aware of every move that he made. It was making butterflies fill her stomach. They were looking at cells of animals, and Mal's shoulder brushed against hers as he tried to get closer to see better.

Alina coughed. "Mal, um, could you----"

"Could I what?" he asked, looking up at her innocently.

"You're just in my space."

"Am I?" he said.

What a little shit. He was doing this on purpose, and she knew it.

"Yes," she said.

"Is this bothering you now?" Mal said.

"Yes."

"Funny, because you not talking to me for a whole week has been bothering me. What did I do? Offend you somehow? Grow a second head? What's going on?"

Alina thought of her and Aleksander in The Starless Saint cathedral together. And then she thought of them in the opera house. She shouldn't have been looking at anyone else. Yet, there was something about Malyen Oretsev that she couldn't shake. Everyone else in her life looked at her and saw a trust fund. Mal had never brought up money once. Always paid for everything if they did anything together. And asked her about her.

With both Aleksander and Nikolai, there was always the money issue. Their parents want them together for financial reasons. Never a second thought about love or connection or happiness. When Mal looked at her, he didn't see a Starkov. He saw Alina.

"I think we need to talk," she said finally.

Mal raised an eyebrow. "We're we dating and this is the part where you break up with me? Because if I'd known we were dating, I would have tried a lot harder to seduce you."

She laughed. "No. No, we're not dating. We're just friends, or whatever. Who kiss sometimes....but um, I'm living with you, and you've seen me naked, and I can't...."

"Can't what?" he asked.

"Can't stop thinking about you," she confessed, "so there's something I need to tell you before I do what I really want to, which is ask you out properly."

"Hey, that's supposed to be my line," said Mal.

"Well, call me a modern girl." She grinned. "Can we get lunch or something after school?"

"Why should we wait?" Mal said. "I was planning on ditching the rest of the day anyway. Let's go somewhere and get food or something. You can tell me then."

Alina's eyes widened. "Ditching? I can't."

"Why not?"

"Well, because----" She was about to come up with some bullshit excuse about Aleksander, but she remembered that they had changed the rules. They were doing things her way now. If she wanted to ditch, she could ditch. And it wasn't like she was speaking to her parents so she couldn't get grounded.

"Because what?" Mal said.

Alina took a deep breath. She was on track to graduate early, and aside from her injury, she had never missed a day of class. It would be fine. If she really wanted to, she could blame it on her leg. "Okay. Um, you go first, and I'll----"

"Or we just make a break for it."

"Mal, we can't----"

"Yeah, we can. Come on." He grabbed their stuff, and her hand, and the two of them snuck out of the classroom while the teacher was distracted with helping a student. Once they were out, they ran down the hall and didn't stop until they were in the parking lot by Mal's motorcycle.

Alina laughed, and Mal did too.

"Oh," she said, "you don't know how much I needed that."

"Right, well. If you thought that was exciting let me show you how much fun playing hooky can really be."

He got onto the motorcycle, and Alina got on too. She gripped him tightly and the two of them sped out of the school driveway far from their problems.