The Minnesota Miracle [kirill kaprizov]

Chapter Fourteen

Everyone at Gate 14 got lined up with their boarding passes to be scanned to go to New York.

"You ready?" Kirill asked as the line moved forward.

I took a deep breath and nodded my head. "It's going to be different, but different is sometimes good," I responded as I sipped my strawberry refresher.

I was genuinely excited to go to Russia. Ever since I've had some of the cuisine and learned some of the language from my native Russian counterpart, I've been excited to visit. I knew that I had to go if I wanted to be with Kirill throughout the summer.

Kirill and I pulled out our passports and boarding passes to be scanned for entry on the plane. We were still behind a couple of people in line, but it doesn't hurt to get them out in advance to keep the line moving.

"Oh, going to Moscow?" The security guard said as he scanned both of our passports and boarding passes. "Russia is beautiful. Safe travels!" He exclaimed as he let us through.

My heart started to beat. Though we were heading to New York first before a short layover to Moscow, I felt like I wasn't ready to leave everyone. I halted and moved over to the side by the large windows while the line continued moving. Kirill walked a few steps forward before he stopped to look back at me.

He walked over towards me and gave me a hug.

"I know it's hard leaving for a while," he pauses as he rubs my back. "but it's going to be an amazing experience that we will spend together,"

We held each other in one's arms and leaned our heads closer in the hug.

I glanced back over at the seating of the two gates overlapping each other, watching strangers type things into their laptop, sleeping, watching TV, and eating some Chick-fil-A from the concourse.

I smiled and let go of Kirill. He returned the smile back to me.

"Yedem v Rossiyu." I said before he giggled and boarded the passenger plane.

—

We landed at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York at eleven-seventeen. I basically slept through the entire three hour flight, and Kirill had to wake me up again when we were going to land.

"Have a good sleep?" He asked me as we unbuckled our seat belts.

I yawned as I nodded my head. "Are we in New York?" I asked him, still half-asleep.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Just a short two hours before we board onto a bigger plane," he responded as he stood up and opened the cabin door to grab our carry-on luggage.

We got off the plane and headed towards airport security. The lines were fairly long for the time being noon on a Wednesday, but then again, it was the busiest airport in New York and people had flights everywhere.

"Very busy," Kirill mentioned as the line inched forward.

I chuckled. "We are in New York," I responded with a smile on my face.

He laughed. "The airport in Moscow isn't any better," he said. "Too many people,"

"And yet you want to go there?" I joked.

He glared at me with a smirk. "You're so funny," he said.

I giggled. "I know," I responded as we inched closer in the line.

We stood in line for about an hour, inching closer and closer to security with our carry-on luggage. Sooner than later, we were cleared to go and headed to the correct terminal and gate.

I went and bought some snacks for the long flight over.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" I asked Kirill as I handed my debit card to the cashier.