The Memory Of Us

Chapter 2

"How was school?" The voice of Mina's grandma greeted her as soon as she crossed the threshold of the front door of her home and, as usual, she was perched on the armchair in the living room nearest the door, faux nonchalance etched across her facial features as if she hadn't just raced across the house in anticipation of Mina's arrival.

Her question was routine meant to provide comfort and stability while they lived together, meant to distract her from the looming date of her mom's trial and the shadow that was her dad's death constantly dancing after her, but it did none of the above.

Instead, it only fueled both Mina's anger and resentment.

"Fine." Mina said through tight lips. It was the same unsatisfactory answer she always gave.

"Anything exciting happen?" Her grandmother prodded expectantly, but Mina threw a curt "No," over her shoulder, bypassing the living room completely on her way to the small bedroom at the back of the house that she now called her own.

"Did anyone come speak to you? Your coach maybe?"

At these words Mina turned swiftly on the heels of her shoes. Dropping her backpack to the floor with an audible thudding sound, she braced both hands against the dome shaped frame that marked the beginning of the hall.

"So you're the reason she was following me around all day today." Mina said bitterly, distinctly recounting the obscene number of times she had found herself running into empty classrooms, or striking up uninteresting conversations with random professors in the hall in order to avoid the woman who had once been her cheer coach, the woman whose presence seemed to ominously follow her around the halls no matter where she hid.

"So you didn't talk to her then?"

Mina dropped her hands from the door frame, opting to rest them on her hips now as she wondered, "What would I be talking to her about, grandma?"

Mina's grandmother shrugged, feigning nonchalance, though she wasn't very good at it. "I don't know-" She said "-maybe getting your spot on the cheer team back."

Mina's nails dug into the exposed skin of her hips, just above the hem of her dark green and plaid school uniform as her overwhelming anger returned for what felt like the thousandth time today.

Everyone wanted her to be 'normal' again, everyone wanted her to pretend that she hadn't been betrayed by the boy she had thought she had loved, everyone wanted her to paste on a fake smile and pretend she was the same person she had always been, her grandma's interference was proof of it.

But she wasn't, and she wasn't sure she ever would be again.

"I don't want my spot back!" Mina spat out. "I've told you that!"

"I know, but I think your decision was one made in haste and not in the right state of mind. The last game of the season is tomorrow night Mina Joyce and I found out from your coach that college scouts will be in the stands. Now, I know they'll be focused on the seniors on the team, but this is still an opportunity for you to make an impression." She lectured.

"Not only on the scouts, but on the city as well. This is an opportunity for you to show them that all this-" She paused, searching for an appropriate word to describe the fact that Mendes' life had essentially fallen apart in a matter of a few weeks.

"-this drama-" She emphasized, and Mina couldn't hide a practically audible eyeroll. "-hasn't affected you. This is an opportunity for you to display that the Mendes' are a united front, capable of-"

"We're not united." Mina scoffed, interrupting her grandma's dialogue with a frown.

"Well we need to be if we're going to ensure your mom isn't found guilty at her trial-"

"She is guilty!" Mina interjected once more, though her voice was a thousand times louder this time, shaking even the frames of photos mounted to walls in the hall. "She and dad both!" She added, her voice shaking slightly at the mention of her deceased father and she mentally berated herself for the momentary lapse in weakness.

Of course she missed him, of course she loved him, though every fiber of her being told her she shouldn't, but neither of those things could change the fact that he was just as much a murder as his wife, just as much a murderer as Khalil.

"They killed people!" Mina declared. "They killed people in order to hide their own crimes!"

"Mina Joyce!" Now it was Mina's grandma's turn to interject, her short, stocky figure rising instantly from her tall backed burgundy armchair.

"Everything your parents have ever done has been for you!" She exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger in Mina's direction before adding in emphasis, "Everything!"

"Really?" Mina laughed humorlessly. "Because I fail to see how endangering people's lives benefits me!"

"They wanted you to grow up better off than they did! They wanted you to have everything you ever wanted! They had hopes and dreams for you!"

"And look where that landed us!" Mina retorted, her words slicing through the air like her own personal weapon of mass destruction.

Charged silence reigned throughout the air as Mina and her grandmother both intently stared at one another, each of them silently urging the other to continue on, to feed the growing tension.

Neither of them obliged.

The conversation at a clear end, Mina yanked her backpack from its position on the floor beside her, dragging it noisily against the expensive imported carpet of her grandmother's home as she finally entered her small room, taking care to slam the door the shut so hard that she was able to hear the sound echoing in the next room over.

She took one look at the egg white walls, encrusted with elaborate gold moldings, before collapsing face first onto her four poster bed of the same white shade and allowed herself to finally release the multitude of emotions she had been harboring all day, the emotions she couldn't even find the words to describe.

Her entire body shook silently, her hands curled into the comforter at her side as she let the tears that had been brimming in the rims of her eyes fall.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't tired of being so angry, so resentful all the time. The problem was, she didn't know how to be anything else.