Page 29 of Deadly Knight
My parents have done so much for me this week. I think a part of them is satisfied I’ve made the decision to chase old dreams in North America, but they’ve been good at sympathizing with the decisions I had to make before doing so too, going as far as to decide to move with me, knowing I’d want the support.
Last night, they decided to sell rather than keep the house, because they’ll need the money to buy another in Canada. This morning, they met with a realtor who understood our rush. She took a few photos with plans to return later for professional ones and stuck her sign in our front lawn.
This is the only home I’ve known. The only homethey’veknown, and besides the heartbreak from the conversation I just had, guilt gnaws at my inside. They reassure me it’ll be a fresh start for us all, but I’m stealing them away from their own happiness.
Mama continues rocking and speaking, but I can’t hear her. At some point, Papa appears, only to slip out the door beside us.
Time passes, fleetingly, until I manage to lift my head from her chest.
“It hurts.”
“I know,dorogoy, I know.”
“I wish I never met him.”
“No, you don’t.” She tightens her hold while shifting to stand, bringing me up with her. “It feels like that now because you’re grieving, but you’ll soon understand how good that boy was for you.”
If only she knew who he truly is, then she wouldn’t think that.
Mama urges me away from the door and into the living room. “Sit. I’ll get you tea.”
I drop onto our couch, aware of the large window behind me. The blinds are drawn, which I’m thankful for, but the prickle of awareness tingling up my spine reminds me who’s on the other side. It’d be easy to part the blinds and watch him get into his car, but then I’d have to witness him leaving.
You left him first.
Mama’s wrong for claiming I’ll never regret meeting Dimitri. I already do, but not for the reasons I should. Not because of the danger surrounding his family, but because of this moment. This agony. If I never met him, I wouldn’t have experienced losing my heart, the emptiness is a hollow sensation that feels like I’m burning from the inside out.
Dimitri and I began on different paths. Ours might have intersected for a while, but in the end, we were always headed in opposite directions.
Starting from the day I first saw him.
“Oh,der’mo, it’s true.”
“What is?” I follow Andrei’s gaze towards the opposite side of the courtyard, where he’s staring at a bunch of guys. I don’t recognize any of them from my boyfriend’s usual friend group. “Them?”
Andrei, my boyfriend for the past month, jerks his chin. “See the one in the centre, leaning on the wall?”
See him? How could Inot? He may be surrounded by others, but he’s a beacon for attention—and not only mine. Most of the people lingering until the final seconds before the bell chimes are watching him.
He’s leaning against the school’s exterior wall, one foot propped on the brick and one hand shoved into the front pocket of his jeans. The other scrolls mindlessly on his phone, seemingly not paying attention to the noise around him. Hair as dark as the night hangs in front of his eyes, which I growinstantly annoyed by because I want to see him better. To see if his eyes are as piercing as the rest of him.
From here, he exudes an energy no one else does. One that calls those around him to him while warning others away.
Danger.
I shiver, my cheeks flushing hotter as I recall my boyfriend beside me and the fact I’ve been checking out another guy.“Da,”I finally answer his question. “Is he new?” He has to be. No way in hell I wouldn’t recognize him.
Andrei nods. “Heard a rumour he’d be starting soon. Guess it’s true.”
“Who is he?”
“Dimitri Volkov. Hails from some rich family. Guess he got tired of his private school.”
With Andrei’s statement, the opulence exuding from him becomes obvious. It’s in his dark-wash jeans and rolled-up cuffs of his black button-down. Everything’s black. His hair, his clothes. I imagine his eyes are dark too.
The warning bell chimes, signalling it’s time to head inside. The crowd begins dissipating, even the people surrounding the new guy. He’s the only one who remains.
Andrei grabs my hand and tugs me towards the doors. Right before we join the crowd and I lose sight of Dimitri, dark eyes flit from his phone and land straight on me.
