behind your back ~ andrei svechnikov

Chapter One

I looked away from Andrei to hopefully hide my reddening face from him, but if he asked, I could just say it was a little warm in the truck. Which was true, but it didn't bother me, as with most weather. My body quickly adjusts to new, foreign things and substances.

I sighed and inserted my AirPods back into my ears and watched the world pass by at sixty miles an hour down the interstate.

—

Jaccob, Andrei, and I pulled up into the driveway to a fairly decent-sized house in suburban Raleigh. To be completely honest, I never expected my brother to have such a nice house, especially away from Colorado.

"Jesus, and you live here all by yourself?" I jokingly asked Jaccob as he turned the truck off.

He chuckled as he looked back at me. "Technically yes, but I have a teammate staying over for a few nights. You'll get your own space, you don't need to worry about that," he said before he opened his door and got out of the truck.

Andrei got out and opened my door, since it was one of those trucks the passenger or driver had to open their door before the passengers riding in the back could get out.

"Thank you," I said as I grabbed my items and hopped out of the truck.

Andrei softly chuckled with a heart-throbbing smile. Man, I wish he didn't have a girlfriend. I would rub my mouth all over his sweet, compassionate smile until I die—

"You're bleeding," Andrei mentioned as he pointed to my nose.

My heart stopped. I was so focused on Andrei's attractiveness that I didn't notice the bloodstream coming out of my nose and getting all over my white shirt. I had taken off my Hurricanes sweatshirt after we landed in Raleigh because it was warm and I really didn't need it. Besides, I felt a little musty from sitting in that damn airplane seat for a few hours from the flight from Denver this morning.

"Shitshitshit," I panickly stammered as I opened my backpack to hopefully find a tampon or some tissues in an emergency kit I had packed. Unfortunately nothing could be done with the white shirt. That son of a bitch was destroyed by the thick, deep red blood.

Luckily I found a tampon, so I ripped off the packaging and took it out of the plastic cover. I inserted the tampon into my bleeding nostril, and of course, Andrei had watched me stick a tampon up my nose and now I look like an idiot.

"Not what I had in mind, but that works," he mentioned with a soft, cheery giggle. "Here. Your shirt is...uh, wet," he added before taking off his shirt and offered it to me.

I looked at him in dire and straight confusion. My eyes bolted up and down between Andrei's face, then the shirt, then his abdomen, then his face again, and so forth. I could feel my face reddening again, but that could be because the Raleigh temperature felt like I was in hell after my embarrassing nosebleed—perfectly in line for Andrei to see.

I sighed, shaking my head to snap me out of my trance from Andrei's shirtless appearance. "I've got my own shirts, Andrea." I snapped as I zipped my backpack, threw it over my shoulder, grasped the handle on my suitcase, and started walking to Jaccob's front door to his house.

I thought I heard Andrei sigh in defeat, but my mind was already fogged up from having to wake up early to catch a flight, I think I'm falling for my brother's teammate so early on, and the fact I had an embarrassing nosebleed in front of my blossoming crush, or whatever Andrei was in my mind. The day couldn't get any better, and I couldn't wait for the stupid party that my brother unwillingly decided to throw for me moving to Raleigh.