Little Transitions

Snowy Tresses

Oh Matt. You know I appreciate everything you've done for me, and I will forgive you for doing anything stupid. Whether it's not cleaning up after yourself, coming home late, or even bringing home another dead bird.

But.

What I CAN'T forgive you for doing is going 70 on a 55mph road, slamming head-on into an innocent wolf, and carelessly wipe the blood off your car with newspaper.

Newspaper.

Fucking Newspaper.

"Oh s**t oh s**t oh shit."Matt mumbles under his breath while trying, but failing to wipe the blood off of his car.

"I swear Saskia, I didn't see it. I-It jumped in front of the f*****g car!"

"Shut the hell up Matt." I croak. I'm knelt down beside the beautiful dead creature, stroking its soft grey fur. "J-Just be quiet."

I hear him sigh, then the sound of soggy, used paper being rung out on the concrete fills my ears. Are you kidding me? He better be lucky that no one uses this back road, or else this scene would've looked crazy.

"We have to bury him." I say numbly.

"We don't have time for this, Saskia! We are already running late to school. We can't drop everything and go throw this thing into some dit-" He stops his ranting.

I wipe my nose with my hoodie. "What Matt? What is it now!?" I'm so angry...so very angry. Just imagining this being one of my dogs would've killed me, would've brought me over the edge, would've made me choke out my only friend.

I look up to see him standing with this scared yet, blank expression on his face. His fists are clenching and unclenching, and his eyes are looking through the dense forest that surrounds us. He sniffs the air, then after some time, he comes over to me.

"Hey!" I yell as he shoves me aside from the wolf.

He takes one of its large paws and looks it all over. After some time, he stops his ministrations, stands up, and hauls me to my feet. He then grabs my hand and starts dragging me to the car.

"We need to leave." He says, his tone dead and an octave lower then what it should have been.

"Matt! If you don't let go of me right now, I swear I will break your f*****g neck!" I screech. He let's go after shoving me in the passenger seat and clipping on my seatbelt. "I could've done that." I mumble with my arms folded.

He ignores me by shutting the door. He then runs over to his side of the car and after getting in, he stuffs the key into the ignition and speeds away, creating skid marks.

"Slow the f**k down! This is exactly how we got into this situation in the first pla-"

"SASKIA! QUIT IT PLEASE!" Surprised by his outburst, I cower far back into my seat. Matt is very scary when he's angry.

I look at him out of the corner of my eye. He is clutching the steering wheel tightly, making his hands turn very white. He also keeps looking out the side view mirrors, as if anticipating something like another impact. I sigh. Maybe what happened back there scared him as much as it scared me...poor thing.

We still could've buried it.

The thought of that wolf being Matt in this moment made me smile slightly.

"What are you smiling at?" Matt asks while placing one hand out of the car window. I imagined that being taken away by a bus.

"Nothing." I say monotonously. I hate how he can just bounce back from situations like this. Anything traumatic, he’s sad for a second, then completely fine the next. I hate that about him. Shows his lack of empathy.

I shake my head at this thought. The feeling of his eyes working their way up and down my stature makes me uncomfortable, so I shift away from his gaze towards the window. He sighs, shaking his head while pressing on the gas.

.

.

.

"Welcome to the finest physics school in Moscow." A middle aged man says sternly in Russian. He is about 6'3, and is pretty well built.

He has hazel eyes, and his face is set in an angry scowl. He is wearing black thick framed glasses, and is dawning a well-kept grey beard.

"Just call me Mr. Bartoszewicz. Or Mr. Bart, for our English students over here." A few students giggle at the nickname.

Mr. Bart saunters over to us. "Saskia, Matt, your uh, translator will be in very shortly." He states in very poor English.

"Spasibo." Matt and I say in unison. My lips curl at this, and I give him a slight glare. I’m still mad at him from earlier.

Mr. Bart, surprised by our reply in Russian, acknowledges it and makes his way back to the board. He then speaks to the whole class.

"This is your math class for those of you who don't already know. Now, before we start class, I am obligated to go over some campus rules..."

Ugh. I'm already bored out of my mind! I slump back in my chair, trying to even out the drawstrings of my hoodie.

"No smoking on campus, no PDA, no alcohol in classrooms, no-"

Mr. Bart is interrupted by the slam of his classroom door.

"So sorry I'm late. Traffic was crazy as usual." A young man says in Russian.

Oh my…

My mouth is hanging open right now from his presence. I straighten up tall in my seat.

This rather dashing man is wearing a black and white plaid shirt that hugs is slender but firm frame.

He is also wearing black jeans accompanied by worn out black Doc Martins, and a silver chain necklace that adorned his neck. What really stood out though, was his white hair, and his beautiful vibrant blue eyes.

He was absolutely stunning.

Who is he?

Mr. Bart sighs, then walks over to introduce this man to Matt and I.

"Saskia, Matt. This is your translator, Alexander. He is 21 years old and is our youngest graduate. He exceeded at the top of all his classes, and right now is gaining community hours for his new job. I know that you will learn plenty from him. Now please, have a seat Alex, and no more distractions unless it's English."

Alexander gives an apologetic smile to the teacher, grabs a nearby chair, and scooches it so that he is about a foot away from me and Matt.

"Hello guys." He whispers, holding out his hand to give us a handshake.

"You must be Matthew." Alexander says as he shakes Matt’s hand with a smile.

"It's Matt." He states as he limply gives into the handshake. "And this is Saskia."

"I can introduce myself!" I whisper, slightly embarrassed.

"What a lovely name." I shakily give him my hand, and he takes it into his big, warm ones and kisses it gently. Matt’s glare is evident.

"Why thank you Alexander." I say softly, already feeling my whole body heat up. I can’t meet his gaze, he is honestly just too beautiful.

I swear will never wash this hand.

"Please, call me Alex."

"Okay, Alex." We exchange smiles.

"Alright, can we actually start class?" Matt whispers aggressively.

"Right. So sorry." Alex says, then clears his throat, and begins translating the teacher.

All the while never breaking eye contact with me.

I squirm in my seat the entire lesson. This will be a fun school year.