The Memory Of Us

Chapter 26

As if by magic, Mina's phone screen lit up with an incoming call from the local jailing facility as soon as she had stepped over the threshold of the front door of her grandmother's house. Noah didn't even wait for her to make it halfway up the driveway before she was speeding off back the way she had come.

Ignoring the call completely, she tramped past the living room where her grandmother sat in her favorite chair, right next to the T.V snoring soundly, down the hallway, and into her room. She took care to slam the door shut forcibly, the sound echoing throughout the entirety of the house and she could hear the creaking of her grandmother's chair that indicated she was awake once more.

Shedding her boots and matching winter coat, she fell face first onto the comforter of her bed and inhaled deeply. It still smelled exactly like Khalil.

Rolling over onto her back now, she lifted her phone above her head, her fingers rhythmically moving across the screen before she placed the warm surface to her ear.

The line rung only twice."

"Hello?" Mina called out hesitantly, wincing slightly in embarrassment at the lack of restraint she seemed to have when it came to the boy on the other end of the line.

"Hey." Khalil's voice echoed through the phone. "What's going on?" He asked, worry evident in his tone. "Is everything ok?" He wondered.

Mina nodded, then, remembering he couldn't see her said, "Yeah. No, everything's fine. I was just calling to let you know that Noah and I found out that the woman's name is Nina Jackson."

"And did that name sound familiar to you?" Khalil asked, mimicking Chris's earlier words. She smiled to herself softly at the thought.

"Uh, no." She said. "But Chris agreed to keep an eye on her for a few days so we can figure out where it is we're going to confront her."

"Confront her?" Mina pulled the phone away from her ear at Khalil's exclamation. "No." He said definitively, as if he had a say in the matter. "Mina, no!" He warned as if scolding a child. "No, you're not-"

"I am." Mina said firmly. "And there's nothing you can do or say that's going to change my mind." His breathy sigh echoed through the line and Mina placed her phone carefully back against her ear.

"I need to end this." She said. "I'm tired of being the one who has to pay for my parent's mistakes.

"A mistake is picking up the wrong kind of milk from the grocery store, your parents committed tax fraud, arson, and murder." Khalil listed off.

"Fine." Now it was Mina's turn to sigh breathily. "Then, my parent's bad decisions."

"Well I'm coming with you when you go to meet her, and there's nothing you can do or say to change my mind." He said, employing her own words against her and Mina smiled into the receiver.

"Ok." She said.

"Ok." He repeated. "So, did you just call me to tell me about what you and Noah found?" The suggestiveness in his tone was immediately noticeable. Mina rolled over onto her side now, facing the door as she bit back another, much wider, smile.

"No." She sang. "I also wanted to make sure you and Sahil didn't tear each other apart after we left. Did you?"

"No." He said, sounding disappointed. "But I definitely thought about it." His tone was joking, but Mina had a feeling his words were not and her smile fell just as fast as it had appeared as she fingered the corner of her mouth.

"You know he and Noah still want you arrested." She told him and, for the first time, there was silence on the other end of the line.

"Do you?" Khalil finally asked. Mina dropped her hand from her mouth, her teeth gnawing into her cheeks instead as she pondered the answer to Khalil's question, but the truth was, "I don't know." She said.

"But Noah got me thinking and, when this is all over, I think you should leave." She told him. "Like-" She chewed her cheek harder. "Like, leave the state."

"What?" Khalil questioned through the phone, clearly taken aback by her suggestion.

"Unless you want to spend the rest of your life in jail." Mina continued. "Because Noah told me today that she and Sahil were going to make sure you ended up there whether I liked it or not."

"Mina, I can't leave-"

"Why not?" Mina asked, pushing herself upright now, her back resting firmly against her headboard, her knees pulled up to her chest. She wrapped one arm around herself. "You have nothing to keep you here." She said.

She could practically hear Khalil's frown through the phone, the crease of his eyebrows, his downturned lips. "I have you." He said.

"Well you can't exactly have me in jail, can you?" Mina quipped, before quickly correcting her tone which had become increasingly aggressive. It was because of the fear. "Look, I just think it's better if you leave." She told him.

"You can create a new identity. Start over. You could be happy, Khalil. I want that for you, I want you to be happy."

"Not without you." He said, holding firm to his decision and, while admirable, Mina was slowly beginning to hate him for it.

"Well I can't be happy unless you leave." She said, realizing that she had lied earlier. She did know the answer to Khalil's question, and it was 'no.' No, she didn't want him arrested, no she didn't want him to spend the rest of his life in jail despite what he had done and the pain he had caused her. No, she didn't want him to suffer, because she loved him and that was something she wasn't sure anyone else would understand.