4 Years Ago

  Junk food, trash magazines, and countless hours spent online were Mila’s ideal Friday night. Be it with her friends or on her own, she enjoyed the downtime after the hustle of the school week. Tonight as she found herself in the Kuznetsov’s kitchen, eating the strawberry portion of the tub of Neapolitan ice cream and watching makeup tutorials on her phone, she heard a car pull up outside. She choked on her ice cream when she saw Kuznetsov himself slam the door of his cadillac and storm inside.

  “Shit!” she cursed. Abandoning her snack, she bolted upstairs to Nikolai’s room.

  Kuznetsov had gone to Sochi on business with her family and wasn’t supposed too be back for days, she and Nikolai had planned their weekend around that. She realized how shortsighted it was of them to not come up with any contingency plan for something like that, but she would save that thought for next time.

  “Kolya!” she called, keeping her voice low as she frantically knocked on his door. “Kolya! Open up!”

  “Piss off!” he shouted from inside.

  Mila wanted to scream! They didn’t have time for this! Without warning, she opened the door anyway and was greeted by the sight of Nikolai, in his bed and on top of their classmate, Sergei. An open box of condoms sat on the floor and a blunt was still burning in the glass ash tray.

  “Jesus Christ! Do I need to put a sock on the door?”

  “Keep your voice down! Your dad’s back.”

  Nikolai leapt up and haphazardly pulled his shirt and pants on. Mila quietly pulled the door shut behind her while Sergei scrambled off of the bed and tired to find where his clothes had fallen. Short on time, Mila tossed him the throw blanket from the end of the bed and led him over to the ensuite bathroom.

  In less than a minute, they had the bed made and had hidden all of the evidence Nikolai’s date, there wasn’t much they could do about the stench of pot in the air, besides turn on the fan and open a window. The two sat down on the end of the bed and turned on the tv, trying to look as casual as possible.

  “Oh, hold it,” Mila said, pointing to her friends misbuttoned shirt.

  As he redid the buttons, Mila smoothed his hair out and adjusted his collar to cover up the hickey’s spread around his neck, though they went a little too high.

  “You couldn’t have worn a turtleneck today? I warned you not to let it go above the collar bone.”

  “Bite me.”

  They finished just as the door opened, and Kuznetsov let himself in without knocking. He looked horrible, disheveled and worn out, but he smiled nonetheless as he greeted them.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Hey,” he said, “how’re you two doing?”

  “Fine,” Nikolai said, checking what they had turned the tv on to and saw the national hockey tournament, “just watching the game. What’re you doing back so soon?”

  “Change of plans. Something came up.”

  That was all he had to say on the matter as he took a better look at them. The red bruises still visible from underneath his son’s shirt, the lingering smell of cheap weed, and they both looked like had run a marathon. While that wasn’t exactly their plan, it must have been convincing enough since the old man was biting back a laugh.

  “Are my folks back yet?” Mila asked, trying to keep his attention on them and speed up the conversation. They couldn’t keep poor Sergei in the bathroom all night.

  “Not yet. They needed to tie up some loose ends, but they should be back tomorrow.”

  “Mind if I crash here then? I didn’t realize how late it was.”

  “Of course, you’re always welcome here Lyudya... in your own room, please.”

  Nikolai groaned and covered his face with his hands. Mila brushed off the insinuation with an awkward laugh as she thanked her godfather, taking note of the freshly opened bottle of vodka he was trying to hide behind his back.

  “I need to make some calls, he said, “Don’t have too much fun and leave the door open, you hear?”

  “Yessir,” they nodded.

  Mila snuck over and peeked out into the hall to make sure the coast was clear. After Kuznetsov rounded the corner towards his study, and when she heard the heavy lock bolt, she shut the door and Nikolai let Sergei out of the bathroom.

  “We need to come up with a better system,” Mila muttered to herself.

  She couldn’t be too angry though, as she watched her best friend hug his date and apologize over and over again.

  “That was way too close,” he said as he held Sergei.

  “I should go,” their classmate said as he got dressed. “We can try again some other time.”

  “I’m really sorry. You sure you can’t stay?”

  “What’re we going to do if your dad comes back? I don’t want to do this with Mila standing on the other side of the door all night just to keep watch, kind of a mood killer. Sorry you had to cover for us, by the way.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mila shrugged.

  The situation wasn’t ideal for her either. She’d helped Nikolai organize plenty of dates before, but short of her standing guard at the door like Sergei suggested, no system was perfect. Trying to get some quality time alone was the real challenge. Mila’s heart broke for her friend now that their romantic little rendezvous was cut short. Nikolai really liked Sergei and this was supposed to be a special night for them.

  “Wait,” she said, a lightbulb flicking on in her head. “Why don’t you guys go use my place?”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you heard Uncle Matvey, my mom and dad aren’t gonna be back until tomorrow. It’s nothing fancy, but you’ll have the whole place to yourselves. There’s a spare key underneath the mat.”

  “You sure?” Nikolai asked, hesitant to abandon her like this.

  “Sure, it’s fine. Your dad’s gonna be out cold under his desk in a couple hours, and if he comes back I’ll come up with something. Sound good?”

  Nikolai nodded and went to the open window, they would have to climb down the trellis and go around the back to the garage. Even with Kuznetsov indisposed, the maids and guards wouldn’t keep their mouths shut if they saw anything. Sneaking Sergei in had already been a pain in the ass, risking the fall from the second story was a much safer bet.

  Sergei packed their things and went down first, thanking Mila profusely as he left. Once he was down safely, Nikolai pulled his friend into a quick hug before climbing out himself.

  “Thanks for doing this,” he said quietly. “You’re my guardian angel.”

  “Feed my Fifi and we’ll call it even,” Mila winked. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She waited until they were out of sight to close the window and make her way back to the kitchen. Hopefully her ice cream hadn’t melted.