Lesha

Alina sat in the kitchen, her legs tucked up to her chest, watching the kettle boil for the third time that evening, just "for comfort." In the fridge lay half a loaf of bread, eggs, and the cheese they'd been saving for days. Her boyfriend stood by the window, counting the change from his jacket pockets. The coins jingled softly on the windowsill. "So?" Alina asked quietly. He smiled, but somehow tiredly. — If we really want to, we can afford one shawarma... and even then without cheese. Alina laughed. Not because it was funny, but because otherwise she felt like getting upset. They were young. They'd just started living together. They had a small rented apartment with a creaky floor, an old kettle, and a bathroom light that flickered as if it had been dying for a month. Sometimes they only had enough money for the bare necessities. While their friends were out eating out, buying new things, and spontaneously going on vacation, Alina and her boyfriend were learning to calculate everything in advance: how much money they'd have left until the end of the week, whether they could order something tasty today or whether it would be better to wait. But something else was strange. Despite all this, their home was still warm. In the evenings, they'd lie under the same blanket and watch movies on a laptop that was louder than the movie itself. Sometimes they'd cook potatoes in every possible way, as if they were on a restaurant menu. Sometimes they'd just sit on the floor and dream out loud. “You’ll see,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders, “one day we’ll be able to buy groceries and not even look at the prices.” “And we’ll order two shawarmas with cheese,” Alina answered seriously.

• Even three. She laughed quietly and buried her nose in his neck. It was hard for them. Sometimes very hard. They both got tired, irritated by little things, and worried silently so as not to burden each other further. But not once during all this time did Alina feel alone. Because real poverty is not when you have little money. It's when there's no one around with whom even an empty refrigerator doesn't feel so scary.