Rossiya Moy Dom (A Short Love Series)

Time Surely Passes (Book Two of Rossiya Moy Dom Series)

+Six Months Later+

"Alice it's good to see that you're well." Mr Romanov smiles while ignoring his class, all eyes now on her as she makes her way to a spare seat.

"Yeah I had to take care of a few things." Alice mumbles then takes her seat at the back of the classroom.

It's been six months since Alice has seen Joseph. Not after he killed her parents for "leading him on". Yet she can't help herself from looking out for him from time to time, her mind conjuring up millions of scenarios of him either killing her or raping her. Because who knows with that piece of s**t.

"As I was saying." the teacher continues on, ignoring Alice now and leaving her to her thoughts.

Halfway through the lesson a knock on the door distracts the whole class, even the teacher when he sets his work down to inspect who it is.

"Come in." Mr Romanov calls from his desk to the door, everyone on baited breath as we wait for who it might be though Alice can't seem to shake the dread of Joseph's return.

The door squeaks open as the school principal steps in, a huge smile plastered on his face and relief seems to shower over Alice for a second at the Principal's presence.

"We have a student returning to us." the man announces in Russian, English now hardly used considering her Russian is becoming better each day.

Dread fills Alice when she thinks about what the Principal had just announced. A new student could also mean Joseph is back and now she is thinking of a million ways to hurt this cunt.

"Oh come in. It's good to see a familiar face. Maybe you'll be able to cheer a certain someone up." Mr Romanov smiles while beckoning the mystery student in, her wondering who the f**k it could be to cheer her up until she spots the face of Lucifer.

To say Alice almost cried would be an understatement. She bursts into tears and sprints out of the classroom with students shooting her weird looks along the way. But she couldn't care less; she's getting away from a f*****g murderer.

Alice ran until she couldn't run no longer, eventually spotting the girl's toilets a few meters away from her and barging through before locking herself in the nearest cubicle.

The faces on some of the students are burning into Alice's brain, searing in so she can never forget though she finds it hard to believe she will forget the event altogether.

She pulls the lid down and drops herself on it; her knees trembling as she throws herself down and lets fresh tears come.

The salty liquid snakes down her cheeks to drip off her chin, the patter sounds being the only thing she can hear besides her own crying.

"How can he be back after so long?" she questions herself while gripping handfuls of her hair, her voice coming out choked yet echoes around the empty cubicles.

"He isn't supposed to be here!" she screams when she isn't satisfied by the silence, punching the toilet cubicle door and almost breaking her hand though the pain is something that calms her down.

She takes a seat as the sobs rip through her, the memory of her kneeling down in her parent's blood coming back in flashes and she's now doubling over to keep the vomit from leaving her body.

"No it's my imagination." she sniffs whilst straightening up and brushing her uniform down. Alice picks up footsteps entering the girl's cubicles, causing the girl to freeze and her eyes to well up with more threatening tears after Joseph's name makes its way into her thoughts.

"Alice?" his voice purrs, once again bringing back all of the hatred, sadness and depression she has towards this man.

"What Joseph?" she cries and bites her lip hard, her chest puffed out as she paces the small space in front of the toilet.

"I'm sorry." he mumbles with his tone surprisingly sad and meaningful.

"What?" she growls considering she doesn't want to believe her ears.

"I'm sorry for what happened." he repeats though Alice is still not accepting what he's saying to her due to words cannot describe how she feels right now.

"You're shitting me?" she snarls before ripping open the toilet door open, all fear for this man put on hold for the moment when anger takes full control.

Standing there surely enough is Joseph, still young and muscly as ever but she doesn't miss the massive sign stating "Murderer" on his forehead.

Alice can feel her heart pick up speed, the memory of how his lips tasted on hers causing her to bite at her lip some more as instant flashbacks of how he would have looked when killing her mum and stepdad, rear their head instead.

"No I'm not. In all honesty, I was leading you on a little at the start. My friends and I had a bet to see who could f**k you first and I was the one to go first. I guess I just didn't like having it done to me." he murmurs then peers down at his black Doc Martens.

"I DIDN'T f*****g LEAD YOU ON! f**k! Joseph what you did to my family's unforgivable! I'm now living with my stepdad's parents because I can't go back to Australia! No one will take me!" she yells after screaming in his face for a few seconds and waving her arms around to get the point across more.

"Listen, I said I was sorry! What more do you want from me?" he shouts just inches from her face, Alice automatically shrinking back into the cubicle as she waits for a beating.

"I" is all Alice gets out before another round of tears fall.

"I didn't mean to lose my temper that night, I wasn't thinking straight! I had a bottle and a half of vodka and seemed to have lost my memory after that! How was I supposed to know I wanted to kill your parents!" he argues while running a hand through his messy chocolate hair.

"Listen Joseph, I don't want anything to do with you anymore! Do you know what I had to go through these past six months?" she snaps after building up the courage to glare at him and deep into his dark mocha eyes.

"Alice-"

"No shut up! I cried every night because I miss my mum and you even though I hate your guts! Now all of this bullshit you left behind is back and I don't know how much more I can take of this!" she cries whilst taking a seat on the toilet.

"I really am sorry I didn't mean for this to happen. I missed you like crazy legit I hate myself for what I did to your parents and you. It doesn't sound like me!" he shouts in the end then slams his fist into the wall.

Alice wishes all of this never happened. All she wants is to kiss him one last time, to make sure it's the last kiss she'll ever feel from him and possibly give her some type of closure on this whole situation.

"NO! I'm not falling for it Joseph! Whatever we had is over, gone forever. So pack your s**t and f**k off! I don't have time for this!" Alice barks with her tone low and venomous.

"Alice, please-"

"NOW JOSEPH!" she screams as she points to the entrance of the toilets.

Joseph doesn't respond let alone look at her one last time, only storming out of the cubicles with his fists balled at his sides and a fluent symphony of curses in his mother tongue.

Alice takes a shuddering breath and grabs handfuls of her hair as she tries to calm herself down though to no avail when another wave of anger rips through her.

*

Finally building up the courage to face her class Alice slowly exits the girl's toilets, her body still shaking from the encounter with Joseph yet the tears have finally stopped.

"Why, why, why?" she hisses loudly before gritting her teeth when she observes Joseph sitting in the seat next to hers.

"Here we go." she sighs to herself then blows out her cheeks while she shuffles her feet into the room.

"Alice you okay?" Mr Romanov frowns with the entire class ignoring her entrance.

"Yes sir I just felt a little overwhelmed that's all." she chokes out then bites her lip to keep the tears back.

"Very well take a seat and I'll talk to you after class." he sighs as his frown deepens and a few papers on his desk is shuffled around.

Alice shoots him a nod then makes her way to where Joseph's sitting, her mind informing her to play the silent treatment on this prick knowing it'll piss him off.

She spots Joseph's gaze from the corner of her eye, snatching a sneak peak to where he's looking and grin when Joseph realises the things he wrote on her pencil case have now been scribbled out.

Alice can't help but smirk when she can feel him squirm a little in his seat, her hoping it's enough to get him the f**k away from her but doubt it will.

*

Alice walks into the library and grabs a random book with a cover that catches her interest, then heads seconds later to her usual spot alone and unnoticed at the back of the library.

Halfway through the book, a person clearing their throat gains her attention and she is force to pull her mind back to reality.

She peers up to see Joseph standing there, a half-smile on his lips when he glances at the chair next to her in a way as if inviting himself to sit down.

"Can I help you?" she cracks and snapping her book shut with unnecessary force in unison.

"I was wondering if I could sit down with you?" he mumbles while glancing down at his shoes, the way his hair is falling down into his eyes making Alice weak at the knees and that longing for wishing this never happened, coming back tenfold. Yet she won't allow herself to fall for his looks ever again.

So with somewhat needed force from her brain, she mentally shakes her head and purses her lips before folding her arms tightly against her chest.

"Well no, you can't. Don't you get it Joseph, we're over! Done! Finished! There's nothing here anymore!" she retorts then glares fiercely at him.

She notices his eyes softening, causing her heart to pang at the way his begging her to understand, though she can't because she isn't in the mind of a psycho.

"I'm-"

"Save it Joseph! Now take your Russian killing ass out of my sight or I'll throw this book at your f*****g face!" she spits until standing up with the said item clutched tightly in her trembling hand when he doesn't budge.

He says nothing, only biting his lip hard as his brows furrow together and he stands his ground against a woman who's ready to beat the head off of his shoulders any second.

"Why can't you just hear me out?" he yells in her face while causing a little scene in her only sanctuary.

This place has been Alice's hideout since her parents died. She didn't have to do any classes, but she had to attend school.

So she read up on the classes she studied, trying to distract her mind from Joseph's disappearance yet to no avail. He always seemed to make his way back in her thoughts.

"Because I don't want to listen to a murderer!" she shouts back and causing a few heads to whip around in their direction with gaping mouths and bulging eyes.

"Whatever." he snaps knowing that too much has been said already and it's time for him to leave now, his glare matching hers though they never break eye contact when she senses the presence of someone else joining their argument.

"Ah excuse me, could you please leave?" the librarian scolds until her matching expression lands on both of them.

"Don't worry Mrs Tremensky, he was just leaving." Alice grumbles then shoots Joseph one last glower.

"Very well, Mr Kruschevski could you please?" she orders while pointing to the door, Alice wondering if the teacher is going to end up dead on the news tomorrow for kicking Joseph out of the library.

"This isn't over." he hisses at her with a pointed finger in her direction, his eyes boring into hers and her mind committing the slightly scary look to memory.

"Oh trust me, it is." she shoots back and eventually ignoring his burning gaze.

*

"Honey, how was school today?" Edith asks before shooting Alice a kind smile.

"Not too bad, Joseph came back today." she grunts when slumping down at the dining table.

"Oh, you never told me why you hate him so much." she frowns whilst taking the seat opposite to Alice.

"Because he was an absolute asshole to me on my first day of school." she lies bluntly though not bringing herself to tell the truth even if it does make her sick as to why she did it.

***Flashback***

"Oh God, oh God!" she screams until picking her mum's lifeless head up.

"Mum!" she chokes whilst rocking back and forth with her mum's head in her lap, her trembling fingers moving the strands of hair stuck to her bloody face yet it's unrecognisable due to how much of it there is.

"No, no, no, NO!" she cries into the silent house, her eyes squeezing shut as she wishes this is all a nightmare.

She grabs the letter and scrunches it up, grabbing a lighter from Viktor's pocket and pausing a moment to collect herself and wonder if what she is about to do will be something to regret for the rest of her life.

Staring blankly at it the tears continue to pour down her face as she lights it and observes the flames eat away the bloody finger print covered paper, the only thing to tie Joseph to her parent's murders.

She sweeps the ashes up and chucks it outside, watching the wind pick it up and carry it away along with some of her soul with it, wondering if she has somehow sold her soul to the Devil and is now paying the price for it.

Going back inside, she grabs the phone and dials the numbers for the Russian police, her voice cracking as she gives them the address and kicks herself for covering Joseph.

A guy she hates with everything she has yet loves with what's left, that part being her heart and taking over every emotion and urge of dobbing him in.

***Present***

"Oh well that's no good." Edith frowns before standing up from the table.

"I'm going to take a bath, I'll be out later." Alice sighs then rises from her seat to make her way to the staircase.

"Okay honey, see you later then." Edith calls from behind her though Alice is too numb and exhausted to even reply until she's safe alone in the bathroom.

*

After listening to Instababe by Russian Village Boys and DJ Blyatman for half an hour straight in hopes to try and lighten her mood a little, she decides to get out the bath when her mood hasn't changed and she wants to kill herself more than ever.

"God I'm so tired." she yawns while closing her bedroom door, yet her mind's too busy thinking about how much her parents will hate her knowing she did what she did with Joseph's letter.

"I told you this wasn't over." a voice mumbles from behind her, Alice whipping around with a choked scream to witness Joseph sprawled out casually in her desk chair.

"J-Joseph what're you doing here?" she stutters which causes his mouth to quirk into a grin.

"I'm here to sort things out. As I said, it isn't over until I say it is." he shrugs nonchalantly before heading towards her.

She freezes instantly, her entire being not able to move whatsoever as she pictures him blowing her brains out all over her room.

"Jo-"

"Please just let me do something." he whispers near her ear, goosebumps emerging on the surface of her skin at the closeness of Joseph and the softness of his voice.

She rolls her eyes and lets him walk behind her though doesn't fight the tingling feeling of being possibly kissed by him, his fingertips trailing up and down her neck and releasing a shiver eventually after much restraint.

His warm touch sends her mind spiralling back to the first night he was here and how all of this started. It's not like they knew each other for long so why does it feel this is a long term problem she will see up until the end of her life?

Alice opens her mouth to protest but snaps it shut when she feels his lips on her neck, a burning touch she has refused countless times in her mind but discovers it to be a bit harder when he's right there in front of her. Well technically speaking behind her right now.

A small whimper sounds in the back of her throat, earning a slight smirk from Joseph before he's back to kissing the sweet spot on her neck.

"Turn around." he suddenly whispers in her ear.

Without hesitation Alice does as she's told, biting her lip hard when she's faced with his deep cognac orbs burning hard into hers, lust making itself clearly known on his face the more time she has to figure out what expression he's wearing.

He places his hand on the side of her neck, leaning in to brush his lips against hers though it's a kiss she has never experienced before, especially from him.

She tries to pull away, but the way his lips move against hers won't allow it and she can feel herself slowly slipping under his spell.

As if the spell's broken Alice is quick to snap out of it and pushes him away, hugging her towel tightly around her body as if to protect her skin from being eaten alive by Joseph's heated gaze.

"Get out! I never want to see you again." she growls as tears threaten her vision and casts her head to the floor to avoid Joseph seeing her cry.

"But-"

"No, just please." she chokes yet doesn't meet his pleading stare.

There are footsteps in her room until going eerie silent, her mind informing her that it's safe for her to look now but she still isn't sure.

Waiting a couple more seconds Alice slowly raises her head, the motion hesitant up until she's observing her empty room.

She lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding after going over to the window and locking it, her intent stare scanning around the front yard for any signs of Joseph before she's ripping the curtains closed.