Winter and Karina walks into the arcade that Wendy showed Winter before. The two have some free time so they decided to go there instead of staying home.
"Wendy told me I'm good at this game." Winter walks over to an FPS game. "do you wanna try?"
"okay! teach me." Karina grabs one gun on the rack.
Winter grabs the other gun and starts the game. Seeing Karina getting nervous, Winter holds her gun with one hand, and rubs Karina's head.
"relax, it's just a game." Winter chuckles.
"those zombies looks scary." Karina looks at her.
"let me handle that. you just have to shoot."
That game lead to another. From racing games to claw machines, from sports games to beat games. They've tried almost all of it.
"look! There's a photobooth." Karina grabs Winter's hand and drag her there. "we can use our last credits for it."
"sure." Winter steps into the box with Karina.
Winter let her operates the photo machine in front of her. soon enough, Karina poses a few times, while Winter struggles to keep up with her.
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"Hey, you look nice in all of them." Winter pouts.
"you look cute!" Karina then steals a kiss from her, making Winter blush. "don't worry. I love you no matter what."
"I'm lucky to have you." Winter stares at her.
"don't look at me like that." Karina is getting shy. "I picked six out of them."
"those are nice." Winter smiles a little.
"look at us." Karina stares at the picture.
Winter noticed that Karina seems to love those pictures. She couldn't understand her at one point.
"it's just pictures. We can take those again." Winter shrugs.
"don't you get it? it's our first time in the photobooth." Instead of getting offended, Karina told her what makes her happy. "here's for you, and I'll keep this one."
"okay." Winter keeps the photo on her pocket.
"are you not happy?" Karina noticed.
"I'm happy, of course." Winter smiles at her as they walk out of the arcade. "I didn't think that you'd be satisfied enough with this. I mean, it's not like we spend a lot of money."
"is that what you're thinking?" Karina holds her hand. "I'm happy to be with you. I had a lot of fun. Even though, I'm not as good as you. but, you got me this from the claw machine." Karina held up a little stuffed animal.
"I'm glad that you like it." Winter smiles warmly at her.
"I love that smile." Karina faces her. her other hand grabs her chin, tilting it upwards.
Just when they're about to kiss, Winter feels her phone vibrates. She quickly picks it up, found out that it's Wendy.
"what's up?" Winter sighs.
"sorry to ruin your date, sis. We have a problem here." Wendy sounded panic. Winter can hear her father screaming and shouting as well. "ambulance is on the way. You better come home now."
"wait, what happened?" Winter fastened her pace. Karina follows along.
"they're in an argument. Mom fell down, I don't know what to do. she's holding her chest."
Winter runs towards the closest bus stop after hanging up. Karina struggles to keep up but she runs anyway.
"what happened? Is everything okay?" Karina asked after the two finally get in the bus.
"my parents.... No. my mom." Winter bounces her leg rapidly. "Wendy even called an ambulance."
"oh, no." Karina holds both of her hands tightly. "should I tell the driver to go faster?"
Winter heavily sighs. She grabs her phone and opens Wendy's texts.
Wendy: the ambulance is here don't worry
Wendy: we're on our way to the hospital
Winter: what about dad?
Wendy: fuck him
Winter sighs. Looks like her father is messing up again. It feels like a long ride for Winter, while Karina is constantly trying to control her girlfriend's emotions.
"everything's gonna be okay, Winter. I'm here with you." Karina said, still caressing her hand.
"no, it's not. please, stop saying that when you know it's not okay." Winter is getting stressed out. not only her mother's condition is getting worse, she has to find a way to pay the hospital bill, not to mention her medications.
Karina can't say anything. seems like it'd just make things worse. She thought that the only thing she can do is be there for her.
Soon enough, they're running up the apartment building. Winter walks into her unit and found no one, expecting to find her father. She goes straight to her parents' bedroom and the man is there.
"where are you going?" Winter watches him packing up his clothes and some documents, along with jewelries that seems to be the mother's belongings.
"I'm out of here." He sounded angry. "I'll find a better and richer woman than that old sick woman. I'll sell this shitty apartment, get more money, and leave this fucking poor life!" he turns to Winter. "this is my property. I can do anything I want with it."
"you're a fucking sick bastard." Winter steps closer. "I thank god that you didn't call me your daughter because I'd rather burn in hell than have you as my dad." she glares at him. "you're nothing but a fucking weight on this family."
The father grabs his duffle bag, and quickly swings it towards Winter. he managed to reach Winter's head, hitting her with his power, slamming Winter to the floor.
"listen here you little bitch." He swings the bag again. "I regret giving you and that woman every single penny on my wallet." He then gets on top of Winter. one hand on her neck, and the other gets busy punching her continuously. "I've worked my ass off just to get this from an ungrateful brat like you. I'd rather spend my life in jail after killing you." he put both of his hand on Winter's neck. "why don't you just die? Nobody wants you here. Let me put you to sleep, you piece of shit."
"stop!" Karina pushed him with her whole body, throwing him to the side of the bed.
Winter sits up, coughing and crying. Karina approaches her, ignoring the man behind her.
"have fun with your bitch and broke life." He said before walking out the door.
Winter can't take that word. He can't speak about Karina like that. when she's about to stand up, Karina grabs her hand.
"enough. Let him be." Karina said sternly, looking into her teary eyes. "you will get through this. we'll get through this."
Winter sucks up all her weakness, thinking that there's no time to be emotional. The thoughts of her mother comes up again.
"I gotta ask her where the hospital is." Winter takes her phone.
"are you sure you're okay? if you wanna go tonight, I can order an Uber." Karina waits for her to reply, sitting beside her.
"we have more problem now. at least I know that she's with Wendy. how do I tell her that he'll sell the apartment?" Winter grabs her own head with two hands. "we don't have a place to live anymore."
"we'll figure that out later. How's your mom?" Karina gives the girl a hug.
