CHAPTER 21 MINA
The movie is winding down, and I shift slightly on the couch, looking up at Alex. He looks down at me and smiles, pressing a kiss to my forehead. Butterflies erupt in my stomach when he does. That feeling never gets old, and I hope it never does. I take in every detail of his face, noticing the dark circles under his eyes.
“Babe, you look exhausted.”
“I am, it’s been a rough few days,” he admits, rubbing his hand across his face. “But it’s ok, you’re worth it.”
“I never meant to stress you out,” I say, reaching my hand up to caress his face.
“Obviously,” he laughs. “It was unavoidable. I’m just glad you’re ok.”
“Me too.”
“You know,” he smirks, “you called me your boyfriend to the emergency responders.”
“Did I?” I panic for a minute. Did I really do that? Oh shit.
“Yeah, and then again in the ER.” He kisses my forehead again and smiles. “It’s fine though. Made me happy to hear, especially if you meant it.”
Damn, he’s smooth . But there’s no denying how right this feels, even if it is kind of fast. Is it fast though, or is it right? “Yeah, I guess I did mean it.”
“Perfect.”
I take a deep breath, steeling myself for the conversation we’re about to have. I don’t want to, but if we’re talking about making this official, then this is something that needs to be said.
“So, about that talk I wanted to have later,” I begin, but he puts his finger to my lips to silence me.
“We don’t have to do that right now.”
I sit up straight, untangling myself from his arms. “Yeah, we do. If we’re going to make this official, there’s something you need to know.”
He exhales deeply and looks into my eyes. “Alright. What is it?”
“I lied to my family about you.”
“Lied? Lied how?”
“Well, they have this ‘thing’ about wanting me to pair up with someone of a certain ‘standard’ if they’re going to approve,” I begin, using air quotes to emphasize my words.
Alex scoffs, and I can already tell what’s coming. “What, so I’m not good enough?”
“No, babe, I—”
“Is it my upbringing? My job? My lack of social connections? What about me could be so bad that you’d have to lie?”
I hang my head. “All of it,” I whisper.
“All of it.” He says it back, not as a question, but a statement of fact. His voice is acrid and cold, unlike I’ve ever heard before.
“I don’t think that, but I panicked! I didn’t want them to immediately shut us down.”
“You give your family that much power? You’d let them tear us apart based on trivial things like that?”
“I’m sorry. I just know how they are, and I didn’t want to deal—”
“Yeah, you didn’t want to deal. You lied to protect your own ass. I’m a big boy and I can defend myself just fine. You were only worried about what they would think about you.”
I feel tears welling in my eyes as his words stab deep. They hurt, but he isn’t wrong. “I’m sorry, babe. I’ll tell them everything, I swear.”
“Don’t bother.” He gets up off the couch and heads to the bedroom. “I need a minute to cool down.”
I watch him go into the bedroom and close the door, feeling absolutely deflated. I never meant to hurt him, but I know if I had kept my lies a secret from him, it would have all unraveled in a much more painful way. Still, I could have gone about it differently. But what’s done is done.
I curl up on the couch and allow the tears that have been building up to slip silently from my eyes. I think I just ruined the best thing that ever happened to me.
I’m running down an empty hallway in the hospital, searching for Alex. The place is deserted, eerie. I see a trail of blood spatter on the ground, and I know where it’s coming from. It’s him.
My heart is in my throat as I run, rounding corner after endless corner as the hospital becomes a labyrinth around me. At long last, after countless stairwells and long hallways, I find him. He’s on the roof, with his back to me.
“Alex, I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you,” I begin, taking tentative steps toward him.
He turns to face me, and my breath leaves my lungs in a rush as my vision blurs. He’s clutching his chest, his fingers grappling with a large knife buried deep in his heart. Blood runs in rivulets down his body and pools at his feet as he takes a staggering step toward me, his eyes glassy.
Blood gurgles from his mouth as he attempts to respond to me. My mother appears from my left, my father on my right. They approach Alex and grip him on the shoulders, walking him to the edge of the rooftop. He doesn’t struggle; he’s too weakened by blood loss.
“Why are you doing this?” I scream out, desperate to save him, but my feet won’t move. I’m rooted in place as the horror unfolds before me.
My mother turns to look at me, a plasticine smile on her face. “It’s for your own good, Mina. You have to think about your future.”
As she says this, she sends Alex tumbling over the edge. My feet suddenly work again, and I bolt to the ledge, knowing what I’ll see below. I cry out at the sight of his bloody, mangled body on the pavement below. I turn to face my parents, still just standing there with stupid grins on their faces. To my horror, they’ve been joined by Jason, who extends his hand to me.
“Think of your future, Mina! We can be together at last. It’s what everyone wants. It’s what’s best for you.”
“Are you all crazy? You think this helps me? You think this is what I want? What is best for me? No. Now you’ve lost me, too.” I take a step back and feel the ledge drop out from under me. I’m falling.
Right as I anticipate hitting the pavement, I wake up. I’m still here in Alex’s apartment, curled up on the couch. I must have cried myself to sleep.
I look up to see him standing in his bedroom doorway, looking at me.
“Good. You’re awake. We need to talk.”