4: first kisses

— Everleigh

"Sasha!" I exclaimed, running over to my best friend. It had been four months since the beginning of our friendship, and I had never been happier to go to school just to see him.

He whipped his head over to me with a big smile on his face as I caught up to him. Once I was at his side, I breathlessly hunched over. I was not exactly known for being the most in shape. I relied on my brain rather than my athletic abilities forever. As I stood there, trying my best to catch my breath, I'm sure it was obvious.

We had just gotten out of school when I spotted Sasha walking. It didn't take me long to run after him seeing as my father was going to be late for picking me up from school, so it wasn't like I had anything better to do.

"Evie," he greeted. It was a nickname only he had gifted me.

I never had a nickname before him, and I grew to love it so much. I began to the ish everyone would call me Evie instead of my actual name. However, it only felt special coming from Sasha's mouth.

"What are you doing?" I smiled.

He looked off into the distance before grabbing ahold of my hand and dragging me to who knows where. I laughed as I followed him, running away from school and racing into the forest. The thought of walking into the forest right beside our school building always terrified me, but for some reason, I felt safe around Sasha. I knew nothing bad would happen for as long as he held my hand.

We kept running until we were at a lake. The moment we arrived, I sat my backpack down and went over to the water where I could see a reflection of myself. My curls were falling slightly past my shoulders and my brown eyes peered back at me with such curiosity.

Then, I could see Sasha standing right beside me. I smiled at his reflection, and I was so happy when I saw him smiling back.

"You are so pretty," I complimented.

"Pretty?" he questioned.

I turned away from the water to look at him. His brows were pulled together as I sat down and dragged him with me.

"Yes, pretty," I said.

He was still confused so I reached over to touch his face. I let the pad of my finger glide over his nice bone structure all the way down to his lips with a smile on my face.

"Pretty," I repeated. "Like... beautiful or..." I tried to think of a word he might be familiar with. "Handsome."

"Handsome," he nodded in familiarity.

"Yes, it's like handsome but pretty is more for girls," I explained with a shrug.

Suddenly, realization came across his face as he finally understood the word. It was one of my favorite things to see. I loved when I taught him something and he was able to grasp the meaning. I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual when he taught me something in Russian. It was like with every word, we only grew closer.

Sasha was very smart. I wasn't learning Russian nearly as fast as he was learning English. Maybe it was because he was in America and was kind of forced to learn it, or maybe he was just way brighter than me. Either way, I was proud of him.

"I am not girl," he said with furrowed brows.

"I know," I laughed. "I'm sorry. I meant that you are handsome."

A big smile came across his face. His silver eyes held onto mine as he reached up to touch my face. This time, his finger ran down the side of my face to my lips where he tugged my bottom lip down.

"Симпатичная," he said. "Pretty."

"Thank you," I muttered. He never stopped touching me, though. His hand kept moving across my face, feeling every part of me as if he couldn't believe I was real and right in front of him.

I let out a nervous giggle as he grabbed my bottom lip and began to tug it again.

"Your lips... big," he laughed.

I slapped his hand away and pushed him slightly, laughing as I did. It was only when I saw him wince that my laughter quickly died down.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He shook his head, and suddenly the playful look in his eye that always made its appearance when I was around, had disappeared. He turned cold in the blink of an eye and I couldn't understand why.

"Sasha," I whispered. He didn't respond.

"I'm sorry," I tried. "Мне жаль."

"No, not sorry," he said. Then, he did what I didn't expect, he lifted his shirt up revealing the biggest bruise I had ever seen. It was dark against his lighter skin, showcasing the deepest shade of purple I ever witnessed.

"What happened?" I asked. With that question, he hurriedly pulled his shirt back down and stared off at the lake.

"Fighting," he answered. I frowned.

I remembered his brother, Nikolai, had bruises on him not too long ago. Did he get them from fighting, too?

I had so many questions, but one thing I quickly learned about Sasha was that he didn't do well with questions. He would shut down and become cold again. I could only ask them one at a time, and I promised myself I would. No matter what, I was going to get to the bottom of what happened to my friend. However, for now, I was happy with letting the call of birds and the rustling of trees fill the calming silence.

"Evie," Sasha called, grasping my attention.

I raised a brow as I looked at him.

"Come here," he said, standing up and walking over to a tree. I didn't hesitate to join him, watching him as he watched me.

"What?" I wondered with a smile.

He lifted up a rock that I didn't even know he grabbed, and he began to scrape something onto the tree. I had to move a little just so I could get a better look at what he was doing.

When I was finally able to get a good view, my smile grew.

E + S

It was engraved on the tree permanently. I reached up to touch it, feeling the harsh bark against my fingers as I traced it.

"E and S," I stated out loud. "For us."

He nodded his head.

"Everleigh," he said. I always loved when he said my name. It made me feel funny in my stomach and always brought a smile to my face no matter how many times I tried to push it away.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"New word... поцелуй," he said. I titled my head to the side as my brows came together.

"поцелуй?" I tried.

He smiled, nodding his head,

"What is... поцелуй?" I asked him.

He placed his palms on either side of my face and completely ignored how confused I must've looked. It was something I had only seen in movies. It was like he was leaning toward me, and it was almost magnetic the way I began to lean in, too. The moment he shut his eyes, I decided to shut my own until I could feel his soft lips against my own.

Immediately, my eyes shot open and he pulled away from me gently. I bit down on my lip as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Kiss," I said almost breathlessly.

"Kiss. поцелуй," he tried.

"Sasha!" Nikolai interrupted, crunching the dead leaves beneath his feet. I pulled as far away from Sasha as I could in the small amount of time that I had. "Oh, hello, Everleigh," Nikolai flirted once he saw me.

Sasha threw a stick at him just as Nikolai laughed and swatted it away.

"Mom here!" he exclaimed.

"She is not... mom," Sasha grumbled.

He began to walk off to join his little brother before turning around to wave goodbye to me.

"Bye!" he called.

"до свидания!" I returned.

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I hope you enjoyed this short chapter. I know everything is a bit slow, but just wait for the story to pick up :wink:

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