The Story Between Us

1 ⌘ Ivanov

We never forget our first love.
Because of the special way it made us feel,
no matter how bad it ended.

⌘

Neither of them said anything as they headed to the garage of the huge mansion. It wasn't that they talked a lot, it was just the habit of doing things in silence. Even more so if it was already a habit to get up, get ready, have breakfast, and brush their teeth to go to school.

Every morning, both siblings repeated the same routine over and over again until exhaustion. They had been living in the United States for almost five years now and there was never anything out of the ordinary in all that time. Kai and Tailime Nazarova were so used to it, that they did it out of inertia rather than awareness.

Kai opened the cellar door to help his sister get her bike out. Both preferred to get some exercise while going to school, although they had at their disposal a whole arsenal of late-model cars that their father and grandfather collected.

They were never pretentious, on the contrary: Kai was a serious, reserved person, he knew when to express his opinion, although somewhat haughty. While Tailime had always been a shy and quiet girl, with great creativity and imagination, so her notebook was full of shapes and sketches that only she understood.

When they managed to get the bike out after having been locked in the cellar for the entire summer, Tailime put her bag in the small basket in front, while Kai reluctantly took out his skateboard and dropped it on the ground to put on his headphones and headed to the gate followed by his sister.

They were both seventeen years old, in their eleventh year at a prestigious high school in Sacramento, and they were just returning from spending the holidays in their hometown: Moscow, Russia. It wasn't the ideal place to spend the summer, but neither of them cared, they weren't fans of the sun anyway.

They took the last turn before starting to see the high school and Tailime accelerated her pace until she passed her brother, making him smile half-sidedly, giving himself more momentum with his foot until he reached her side. He took off one of the headphones to look at his twin.

"I didn't think you were so eager to get there," he told her, making the girl slow down again.

"I'm not anxious," Tailime replied, seeing the large white building in front of her again. "I hate it when people crowd around checking out class lists at the beginning of the year. The earlier we arrive, the fewer people there will be."

Neither of them spoke again until they entered the large school yard, they turned right to reach the parking lot, where Tai got off to chain her bike, while Kai lifted his skateboard with his foot to put it under his arm.

"Nazarova!"

Tailime raised her head, while Kai just turned his head in the direction where the voice came from. The boy smiled arrogantly while Tailime only rolled her eyes to return to attaching the chain and lock to the bike.

Luka Markov was a seventeen-year-old boy, fair-skinned, with ashy hair and black eyes. He was a lively boy, sarcastic to the point of incoherence. He was always in the mood for a joke and was generally a good guy. Next to him was Serge Petrov, a tall, stocky boy with brown hair and blue eyes, the same age as Luka. Although his appearance was quite imposing, he was nothing more than a calm and very quiet boy.

They were both part of her brother's group of friends. There were more, but Tailime didn't want to remember them all, at least not for now, when the semester was just beginning.

Finishing placing the lock, Tailime sat up, checking that everything was in place.

"See you later, devushka (miss)!" She heard Luka say goodbye with a ridiculous Russian accent, as he began to walk with the other two boys towards the interior of the building, to which Tailime smiled and raised her hand to say goodbye.