𝖔𝖍 𝖇𝖆𝖇𝖞! → 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘷𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘰𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘺

one.

TODAY WAS LIKE any normal day, well sort of, it's not all the time that you discover your mother's boyfriend has a son whom he abandoned in new york. i liked theo, he was nice and quiet, and sometimes funny but xandra didn't like him very much. well, she didnt like me very much and i was her daughter. she didn't even want me calling her 'mom'.

theo and i were seated next to each other on the bench waiting for the bus so we could go home. we were seated really close to each other, our legs touching. "you know," he starts. "i don't really like xandra. i know she's your mom so no offense." he finishes and i stare at him. "pretty sure she doesn't like you very much too." i reply.

he doesn't look at me but i can tell he was a little hurt by my blunt statement. "it's okay, she doesn't like me very much either." i add. theo turns to face me and shoots me a sympathetic smile. 

"ha, harry potter." 

we turned our heads to see a boy with black curls sitting next to us on the bench, i notice he has an accent but i can't pinpoint where it's from. it takes me a moment to notice that he's talking about my sort-of-half brother.

"fuck you." theo grumbled listlessly. his khaki pants, white shirt, and glasses didn't exactly fit in with the kids in vegas that wore shorts and tank tops. i try to ignore the strange boy but there's something about him that makes it hard to look away.

"where's your broomstick?" he continued. "left it at hogwarts." theo deadpans, clearly annoyed.

"where's your board?" i interject glancing at his black t-shirt with a snowboarding logo that read 'never summer' in white letters. "eh?" he looks at me confused.

"your shirt," i point out. "not much boarding in the desert." 

the boy shrugs his shoulders. "nyah, i don't know how to snowboard, i just hate the sun."

i figured his accent was australian but there was something else mixed in with it. there was something about the way his voice slurred when he said certain words and the way he rolled his r's. it reminded me of my father's russian accent. he looked taller than theo and i, a pale face, thick brows, and brown eyes.

"where are you from?" i can't help but ask and theo looks at me with and irritated expression which i ignored.

the boy clicked his tongue. "places," he replied vaguely. "well, australia, poland, new guinea, canada, saudi arabia, russia and ukraine. but i've spent most of my life in australia, russia, and ukraine." he finishes and my eyes widen. this boy was something else. 

"jesus christ." theo said in disbelief.

i bite my lower lip to contain my amused smile. "do you speak russian?" i ask him. 

he shrugged. "eh more or less but i also speak ukranian, polish, and spanish. though yesterday i tried to recall dragonfly in polish but i forgot." he admits and for the first time, i see him smile. well shit, he had a pretty smile. and he has a fucking dimple. god, he was so cute i felt like i was going to combust. 

"say something." i smile, tucking a few strands of hair behind my ear. 

"krasyva divchyna." 

i furrow my eyebrows. "was that russian?" though my father was russian, he never really stuck around long enough to be able to teach me. i was only 9 when he left me with xandra.

"nah, is ukranian." he corrects, shaking his head.

"what does it mean?"

he smiles again for the second time and i feel butterflies creep into my stomach. "it means 'pretty girl'." he replies and i feel the butterflies explode and my cheeks getting warmer. from the corner of my eye, i see theo rolling his eyes but i could care less about that right now. right now, it felt like the only people in the world were me and the strange but attractive boy. 

"so, what do you think about vegas?" theo interrupts and the boy stops to think.

"is okay, i guess." he spoke but he didn't say anything else. 

the bus finally arrives and after quite some time, theo and i discover that the boy's name is boris pavlikovsky. we all ended up together on the bus and learned things about him like how his father worked at the mines and how his mother died after drunkenly falling out a window. tragic, really but the way he talked about it was so light as if it wasn't a big deal to him at all.

"this is our stop," theo says and i grab my skateboard and my backpack but just as we're about to leave, boris tugs at my wrist.

"want to come to my house and watch television?" he asked, theo and i share a look. "i don't think dad's home." he shrugs "and as for xandra, i doubt she'd even care." i turn to face boris again, i shrug my shoulders and shoot him a smile. "okay." 

"great! i've got romeo and juliet on dvd." boris grins at me.

—

it turns out that the bus didn't drive out all the way to the edge of canyon shadows which was where boris lived. it was a 20 minute walk from last stop to his house and if i didn't have my skateboard, i would have passed out from exhaustion. 

"are you sure you're not luring us out here to kill us?" i question and boris laughs. the area looked like some deadly virus had wiped it out, there were unfinished houses, boarded up windows, chipped paint, and some other windows with broken glass. 

"no, i'm not going to kill you both, kvitka." he chuckles and i furrow my brows at the new nickname.

"what does that mean?" 

"it means 'flower'." he says.

"in ukranian?" 

"correct." he replies and i feel the blush creeping onto my cheeks for what seemed like the millionth time today.

an — well that kinda sucked but oh well. fyi boris and theo's relationship in the novel moves pretty fast but i'm trying to make kat and boris' relationship a bit slower :) what do y'all think?