31. Mina
Chapter thirty-one
T he loud noises bombard me as a look around at all the flashing lights of the arcade machines.
“I’ll get us tokens, why don’t you two go and scout out the games?” Jasper suggests. Max grabs my hand and leads me to the left as I try to take everything in.
“So, we have shooter games like these,” he says pointing at games with guns attached to the front. “You got zombies, aliens, buck hunter and dinosaurs. Then over there you have skee-ball and hoops.”
He leads me around to another section. “These are games of chance, no skill involved, I don’t think you’ll like these so much. Oh! Here’s the racing games.” I peer down the next aisle and see a series of car and motorcycle racing games.
“They look fun. What’s your favorite game?”
He wraps his arm over my shoulder as we stop walking and look around us at all the games. “Me? I like most of them. Skee-ball, hoops, shooting zombies and any of the racing ones and probably my favorites. What do you want to try first?”
“You choose, there’s too many,” I say, noticing other people giving us glances. Or more likely, girls who are checking Max out.
Jasper finds us and holds up a card as he smiles. “Alright I got us a bunch of tokens, what are we doing first?”
We’ve only been here thirty minutes and I've learned two things. I love skee-ball and the twins are so much fun to be with. They somehow manage to egg each other, and me, on, while at the same time, clearly not caring who actually wins or loses a game. They constantly check in with me to make sure I’m enjoying myself, and seem to genuinely care if I’m having fun. They keep touching me softly, on my arms or lower back, or with an arm slung around my shoulders, and my insides warm from their affection and attention.
The banter between them has a constant smile on my face, which is what led me to suggest they race against each other.
I watch from beside Jasper as the two of them twist and turn down the track on the screen, cheering for them both, until someone taps on my shoulder.
I turn to see a girl I vaguely recognize staring at me with disgust.
“Aren’t you that dumb mute girl from school? Didn’t you leave or die or something?” I stare at her with wide eyes, unable to believe someone would actually say such a thing.
“What are you doing here with them, anyway?” she asks, her head motioning to the twins racing behind me as a girl and guy come up to stand behind her, both staring at me with smiles of amusement. “ You give really good head or something? Why else would they be with someone like you?”
I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out and all three of them start laughing. My face grows red, but worse, I start to panic. The humiliation at being talked to like that, and not being able to respond causes my chest to tighten and breath to come in hard as I try to hold off a panic attack.
“What the fuck are you three laughing at?” Max asks as he comes up to stand beside me. At the same time, Jasper stands up at my right side, and turns me to face him.
He grips my face in his palms as he whispers, “take a deep breath for me, Mina. Try to match your breathing to mine.”
“Oh my god, is she having a panic attack? What a fucking joke. She’s just doing that to get your attention, you know that right, Maxy?”
“Tiffany, you and your friends can fuck right off.” Tiffany, right, that girl that flirted with Max all those weeks ago at school. Was she still doing that when he was at school?
“Angel, focus on me, deep breaths now,” Jasper instructs again, and I watch his chest rise and fall, trying to match it. It starts to work as my breathing slowly starts to calm down. “That’s my good girl,” he whispers, giving my forehead a kiss, holding his lips there for a few extra seconds. I take the opportunity to wrap my arms around his waist and hug him. Just because I can. Because despite everything that’s happened between us, I love him, and he’s, once again, shown me how much he cares.
“You have GOT to be kidding me?!” Tiffany shrieks. “Does she have a golden pussy or something?”
“What the fuck did you just say to my girl?” Max asks, anger lacing his tone in a way I've never heard before .
“You heard me. What are you gonna do about it? You can’t hit me, I’m a girl,” she says with a laugh.
I watch as Max takes a step towards her, a coy smile on his lips, making her laughter die out instantly.
“No, of course I wouldn’t hit you, Tiffany,” he says softly, almost like he’s trying to flirt with her. His hand slowly reaches towards her, making me frown. But instead of touching her he gently takes her soft drink cup from her hands. “I’m just giving you what you deserve,” he says quietly. I watch as she swallows, clearly turned on by his presence as she leans towards him.
Before she can figure out what’s happening, he pulls the lid off her cup and dumps her drink over her head. My eyes go wide in surprise as the orange liquid pours down her body. Jasper lets out a laugh and I cover my own mouth to hide my giggle.
Tiffany and her friends' mouths drop open as she looks at Max with shock and anger. “What the fuck, Max?!”
He tosses the empty cup at her chest before pulling me so I’m sandwiched between him and Jasper and they each have an arm around me.
“You ever say a word about our girl again, and what I just did will seem like nothing in comparison.”
“If you really want to know what Mina has, and you don’t, it’s everything. Literally everything about her is the opposite of you. She’s kind, sweet, funny, compassionate, brilliant, beautiful, sexy and the most amazing woman we’ve ever met. Maybe instead of bringing other people down, you should take a good hard look in the mirror to figure out why you hate yourself so much first,” Jasper says, keeping me firmly planted to his side .
Tiffany literally growls, stomps her foot then turns and storms off, her friends rushing to keep up with her.
The second they are out of view, Max drops to his knees in front of me, grabbing my hands. “Sweetheart, are you okay?” His eyes dance all around my face like he’s checking for injuries.
Before I can answer, Jasper takes a knee as well, and cups my cheek with his hand. “I’m so proud of you for handling that panic attack so well. You’ve come so far in such a short time.”
I stare at him like he’s insane. He was proud of me? “I—You—I couldn’t speak, I tried, but nothing came out. I felt so worthless. You shouldn’t be proud of me for that,” I tell him, my emotions starting to climb again.
“No, Angel. You are not worthless. Don’t say that about yourself. Don’t forget what you’ve been through. You were alone in the basement for over a decade. And look at you now!” He swings his arm out to indicate the arcade around us.
“Sweetheart, you’ve been amazing being in such a loud place with us tonight. Little things like this are gonna happen, and they might feel like setbacks, but they’re not,” Max tells me, his thumb rubbing the back of my hand soothingly.
“No, this is a good thing. You stumbled for a moment, but you brought yourself back. I think this is a huge win,” Jasper says with a lopsided smile.
“Really?” I ask, my eyes dancing between them.
“Of course, Angel.”
“Thank you. For saying that and for helping me through it,” I say before stepping forward and wrapping my arms around Jasper's neck and hugging him tight. “I love you,” I whisper, unable to hold it back. It’d been too long since I’d said it, and I need him to know how much I appreciate him.
“I love you too Angel,” he whispers before kissing the side of my head. After a few more moments I pull back and turn to Max.
“Thank you, too. For what you just said but also for standing up for me with Tiffany.” I lean towards him and he wraps his arms around me.
“It was my pleasure, Sweetheart. Besides, I always wanted to throw a drink on her, it was pretty satisfying.”
I giggle into his neck before I whisper, “I love you, Max. Thanks for always making me smile.”
“Love you too, Sweetheart.”
I hug him for a few more moments, basking in the feeling of being in his arms again. It’s been too long since I’ve been this close with these two, even if it’s only been a few days.
The way they both helped me through the situation with Tiffany shows me everything I need to know about them. That they will always take care of me and have my back.
I believe they were telling me the truth when they said they would have wanted me even if I wasn’t potentially involved in the case. Despite the fact that our relationship started in unusual circumstances, it didn’t mean our love for each other wasn’t real.
And if the constant abuse and isolation of my past has taught me anything, it’s that I need to grab hold of anything that makes me happy and hold it tight. Because that’s what life should be about, isn’t it? Finding happiness and sharing it with those you love.