Gone in a Cloud of Smoke

Chapter 7

(Song is by Christina Grimmie, who is playing Nae. Both she and the actor playing Andrei are very talented musicians. The picture is also of her.)

My mother was sleeping by the time I got home that night, and my father did not say anything about where I was. He only said something about helping him make vodka for the next night’s customers. I stayed up most of the night and simply stared out the window right next to my bed. I wondered how far Nae’s home was from where I laid, and I thought about if she was asleep. I pictured her sleeping, body still and hands tucked under a still head as her expression would have been soft. Finally, I had just put a pillow over my face and tried to count my way to sleep. I made it to fifty numbers before reciting both the Russian alphabet and the Latin one in my head. The Latin one put me to sleep halfway through.

Nae had my phone number, but she did not call me during the weekend, and I checked every few minutes to make sure. I spent the weekend at home and let Vincent go out on his own to meet girls. The only things I was able to focus on were Nae’s kiss, her touch, and the feeling of her body in my arms. Most of the vodka I made for customers, which was not much, went down my throat instead, so my father just sold more medicine instead. I had female companionship from Ilia when I took her to Central Park so she would play with her friends from the school.

I spent my Sunday writing the essay that was given to go along with Frankenstein, the last project for Advanced Placement English, something I was lucky to be taking. Two hours were spent just writing the first page of the essay since I could not get any inspiration from a green monster going after a city. Somehow I managed to write the last page completely in Russian with the alternative keyboard that was set on my computer. I did not notice until my mother handed it back to me after reading over it and teased me in our native tongue. Even after putting the language back to what the teachers spoke generally, the grammar had to be changed so it would make sense and not fail me.

I walked in to school on Monday, the first day of June, and took my seat in the middle of the History classroom. I could see Nae enter from the corner of my eye when I reached into my bag for my laptop. She took her seat next to me when my screen lit up.

“Hey,” she said softly. She wore a dress that flowed nicely, with big and thin sleeves and a belt that was the color of gold around her waist. The skirt reached just above her knees and her sandals seemed to match her belt. Her hair was worn straight.

“Hey, Nae,” I returned her greeting with a bit of a crooked smile.

Nae turned in her seat so she could face me, her legs in the aisle. The chocolate color in her eyes melted in to mine as she leaned even more forward, and I felt myself freeze when she closed her eyes. My eyes stayed open when Nae’s lips touched mine with a warm touch that tasted something like orange juice. I did not care about the eyes of other students in the classroom as I put a hand on the back on her neck and kissed her back.

“Ooh, whoa, baby!” a boy a year below us finally bellowed, his voice ringing through the whole classroom. Nae’s lips broke apart from mine and her eyes opened, sparkling enough to ease my tension. We both smiled at the same time as the classroom broke into an applause.

“Nice going!” one of the kids who insulted me about my origin shouted from the back of the room.

“They’re so cute!” a girl’s voice squealed from the front of the classroom.

Nae groaned at the excitement that filled the room and turned around in her seat. “Great,” she mumbled to herself.

The door to the classroom shut with a bang and the rest of the students slumped into their seats when the teacher entered the room angrily. She gave me a hard glower when she saw my burning cheeks and cocky kind of smile.