The Tuition Fee

Chapter 2: November, Year 0.5

Nathaniel

I paced just inside the doors of the jewelry store, my mom already standing at the counter a few feet behind me. We were supposed to be meeting Alina here at six sharp but it was already fifteen past and she hadn't shown. 

I looked down at my phone again, contemplating calling her when the door in front of me jingled open, letting in a blast of cold air and a swirl of snow. Alina looked up at me, rosy cheeked from the cold as she tugged off her beanie, blonde hair spilling over her shoulders in loose curls. 

"You're late," I snapped. 

"Bus was running behind," she countered, shoving her mittens into her pocket. We'd barely spoken in the two months since our mom forcefully hooked us up like some kind of child-bride situation. Reese hasn't been able to stop joking about it and I'm still fielding questions at school about the mysterious girl I've posted three pictures with now on my social pages. Those other two times, one at a pumpkin patch and another in a coffee shop, she had been late too, claiming the same bus story. 

"Whatever, my mom is over there." I gestured with my chin to my mom who was talking animatedly with the jeweler, a case of rings in front of them.

"Oh, right. Rings." She sighed and cast me a sideways glance with eyes the color of melted chocolate. I blinked rapidly until she turned away, stepping closer to me as someone came into the store behind her. "Are you coming with me or do I have to do this alone?" 

I gave a curt nod and followed her over to the counter. Rings of all shapes and sizes twinkled up in the lights, everything from diamonds to emeralds to sapphires and rubies. I fidgeted as Alina leaned in closer to look. 

"Hello darling! How are you?" My mom asked, giving Alina a tight squeeze. 

"Fine, Mrs. Crane. How are you?" She asked politely, the smile not quite reaching her eyes. I wasn't sure what a full blown Alina-smile looked like, and I was beginning to think I would never see it. 

"Wonderful darling. Now Rio here has these selected out for you, why don't you try them on?" She pointed to a smaller black velvet cushion with seven rings on it. All simple, elegant, rings that wouldn't look completely off on an eighteen-year-old's finger. Alina shot me a look as I stepped up beside her look at the rings. 

Her hand strayed first to a silver band with a diamond on it, and that was it. A classic beauty, but it would make a statement. She wandered next to a gold ring inlaid with tiny rubies, actually slipping that one on her hand. She admired it in the light and didn't acknowledge the jeweler oohing and ahhing over it before moving onto a silver band, twisted in a swirl with a diamond set in the center. She put it on and something clicked in my head as the diamond reflected the light, shooting tiny rainbows onto Alina's cheeks. It looked like her kind of ring. 

She seemed to think so too as she turned her hand, and then lifted the tiny slip of paper and gasped a the price, slipping it off and putting it back. "Mrs. Crane, this is just too much. Couldn't it be something more simple?" Alina whispered. 

My mom shook her head and I shoved my hands further into my pockets. We'd gotten into this argument five times in the last week alone over how much the ring should cost. She wanted higher, I wanted lower. We met somewhere in the middle. 

"If you're looking for simple, I do have this." The jeweler turned around and came back with a single black cushion on which a thin gold ring sat. Two tiny pearls surrounded a slightly larger diamond, the gold etched to look like it was holding a flower. Alina took it from his hand and tugged it on. 

I took back what I said before. This. This was Alina's ring. She turned to me and I thought I saw tears shining in her eyes. "Your opinion?" 

I swallowed a lump in my throat and gave a short nod. "It's nice."