The Memory Of Us

Chapter 15

Mina still couldn't stop thinking about her conversations with Khalil and Noah last night, even as she walked to her first day of work at the recreation center and, multiple times, Willow had to pause her demonstrations of how to operate the register in order to pull Mina from her thoughts.

"Are you ok?" Willow asked, brows furrowed in worry after Mina's thoughts wandered for what was probably the fourth time but what felt like the thousandth for herself.

"Yes." Mina nodded in an effort to avoid the question she was so tired of hearing lately.

"Are you sure?" Willow continued to pry. "Does it have something to do with your mysterious, pretty ex-boyfriend who may have done something bad?" She asked, and a small smile broke the surface of her lips at Mina's silence.

"It does, doesn't it?" She hummed, utterly intrigued, but Khalil was currently the last person Mina wanted to talk about at the moment. She had hoped work would be a distraction from her thoughts that seemed to revolve solely around Khalil as of late but, clearly, she had been wrong because no matter where she went she couldn't seem to escape him.

"It's complicated." Mina recycled the answer she had given Willow from before, though the words seemed to have grown even more true since the last time they had talked because now Mina was questioning her own morals and ethics and wondering if she was slowly transforming into Khalil herself.

That would explain why she couldn't seem to let him go even after everything he had put her through and all the treacherous things he had done.

"That's what you said last time." Willow sung, clearly annoyed at being fed the same vague answer over again.

Mina frowned, her tone slightly snarky as she responded, "That should tell you just how complicated it really is!"

"Well, it didn't really look that complicated when you guys were here skating the other day."

"Do you spy on all of your customers like this or just me?" Mina hadn't meant to shout, but it was as if her voice had a mind of its own, completely independent from the rest of her and, ignoring the confused looks she was receiving from the few patrons within earshot, she quickly began to apologize.

"I'm sorry." She said, lowering her eyes shamefully before repeating, "I'm sorry. It's just-" She gnawed at the inside of her cheek as she attempted to formulate the best way to describe her relationship with Khalil.

Willow held up a hand to stop what was quickly about to transform into a monologue. "We don't have to talk about him anymore." She said with a shake of her head.

Mina nodded silently in appreciation, pursing her lips tightly together as she focused on the register in front of her once more. She forced herself to watch, unblinkingly, as Willow's fingertips quickly danced over the screen of the register computer, pushing Khalil to the furthest depths of her brain.

Unfortunately, work ended far too early in her opinion and, as Willow was hastily ushering her out in the evening despite her protestations about how much more useful she could be, Khalil was solely crawling his way back to the forefront of her mind.

She needed another distraction so she wouldn't think about the fact that there was a slight chance that they might be the same, or the fact that she might still have unresolved feelings for him, or the fact that her ability to reason logically threw itself out the window whenever he was around. And, though it was truly the last person Mina wanted to call, she knew there were only two people that she could consistently count on to avoid bringing up Khalil's existence.

Pulling her phone from the back pocket of her work jeans, she navigated to her contacts, momentarily debating whether this was truly a sound decision before she decided that she didn't care anymore.