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I guess he has a point.
“So you don’t want to be with girls?”
“Are you a boy?” His face lights up with a smile, like that should say enough.
So he needs girls at other times? But no, I can’t say that. He’ll think I’m crazy. We’re just friends,crazy.
“Ugh, shut up.” I laugh. “Can you even get on the playground?”
“Probably not.” He smiles and points under the slide. “But we can sit under there.”
“There’s probably spiders.”
“I’ll save you from them.” Nikolai stumbles toward the slide and I follow. “I could be like Spider-Man.”
“You’re not that funny, you know.” He is, sometimes, although I don’t want his ego to be bigger than it is.
“Are you scared, little chicken?”
“And if I am?”
“I said I’d protect you.” His voice darkens. “I always will.”
Always? That seems a little extreme.
“Fine.” I roll my eyes, “I’ll sit with you.”
“Good.” He nods once as he plops down on the mulch, obscured by the slide. “Now, tell me about your day.”
We do this every time we see each other. Talk about our day, except it feels like he’s always keeping something from me, never divulging all his secrets. His days are pretty tame for being in the Bratva, even for a sixteen-year-old. I know they must have jobs for him already; I’m not stupid. Alessandro has a job at nineteen, and Leo has a few jobs at fifteen as well. Not big ones, but responsibilities, nevertheless.
“It was fine.” I lie.
He looks at me with a raised eyebrow, knowing I’m not okay even while drunk. “Try again, princess.”
Again, with the princess.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
He looks at me with tender eyes as if knowing it’s about Leo. He can read me like an open book, and it makes me nervous sometimes. “I have all night. So what do you want to talk about?”
Nik uncaps the Vodka and takes another swig, half the bottle gone.
“Question one hundred and twenty,” I announce. “When did you start drinking?”
He laughs, choking on the drink. After it subsides a little, he taps his chest and coughs again. “When I was your age.”
“I’ve never had a drink.”
“Bullshit.”
I cringe. It must be surprising to meet someone inexperienced like me, and it reminds me of Leo all over again. He must notice because his face softens and he touches my hand briefly, then withdraws it like it burned him. I kind of want him to do it again, but I stay very, very still. “I’ve never had a drink. I’m a woman.”
“So?” He scoffs, offering me the bottle. “Here, have some of mine.”
“But your mouth was on it.”
“So pretend it’s a kiss.” He winks, and my insides melt. “Just take a sip, it won’t hurt.”
