Mina's Love

Her Soulmate

Chapter Nine

I was confused and didn’t know what had happened. Earl held my hand and took me to the beach near his house. On the sand there were these 2 huge rocks. Earl led me over there. He lifted me up and we sat side by side. We remained silent until Earl took a deep breath of the ocean air.

“I love this place, don’t you?” he said to me smiling.

I returned his smile and held onto his hand tighter. “Earl, what’s wrong?”

Earl avoided my eyes.“Nothing.”

I turned his chin to face me. “Come on, you know you can tell me.” He nodded.

“It’s my dad and this stupid feud he has with my uncle. They’re fighting over who will get the larger part in my grandpa’s will.”

“Oh…” I said softly.

“Isn’t it stupid?” he asked laughing bitterly. “My grandpa’s not even dead yet!”

I understood what was bothering him. So I didn’t say anything because I know he doesn’t want me to worry about it. He threw a rock into the ocean and it skipped three times.

“Perfect,” he said.

“Why is it perfect?” I asked confused.

“Ages are nothing but a number right?” he asked me, changing the subject. I thought about it for a while and nodded.

“Since I’m older than you by two years, that makes me your big brother,” Earl said to me.

“Yup,” I answered, smiling.

Earl smiled back. “I love you….” he said looking at me straight.

I felt my heart filled with a bubble of love but then Earl continued talking..  “as a sister.”  Then suddenly my bubble bursted. This was not what I had expected him to say. I was so disappointed.

I stared at Earl with wide eyes. I knew it was pretty forward of me but I had to ask. “Y…your….sister?” I managed to stutter out. Earl looked back at me with his puppyish eyes and smiled. He nodded his head gently. Have I been reading all his signs wrong?

“So what do you say? Want to be my sister?” he asked. Then he looked at a far away and continued. “Since you are the sister I never had and……and I’m a brother you never had that makes us both beneficial, right?” Even though it was breaking my heart, I had no choice but to agree. Since I thought it was my fault for I’ve been calling him a brother. So in the end I nodded to him.

“Yes, I want to be your sister, brother.” I was surprised of myself that I managed to say it without buffering.

“Good,” he said.

Earl nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small silver knife. I stared at him with wide eyes.

“Earl, what are you going to do with that knife?”

He asked, “Do you trust me Mina?”

I nodded my head without hesitation. I trusted Earl with my whole heart because I love him. He smiled at me. “Good. Lower the back of your shirt.” Earl pulled the back of my shirt down. Then he used that knife to cut me.

“Ow!” I screamed in pain. Tears are falling from my eyes but he continued anyways. He carved a small ‘E’ onto my shoulder blade. My back was bleeding and he bandaged it for me.

Then he handed the knife to me. “Here. Engrave your initial ‘M’ too cuz I don’t want to use the same last name as your mom, no offend.” My hand trembled as I held the knife. I didn’t want to hurt Earl.

“Go ahead. Don’t worry, I can stand the pain.” he said confidently.

I engraved an ‘M’ onto Earl’s back. I was surprised because he didn’t let a tear drop or cry out in pain. I bandaged him and he acted as if nothing had happen. When it was over, he held me close.

I held onto Earl tightly as if he was going to leave me. I know he only thinks of me as his little sister but it feels nice holding him like this.

As Earl held onto Mina, his smiling face instantly turned sad. He wanted to say ‘Mina, I love you as a girlfriend’ so she would be his forever but he couldn’t. He wasn’t the type to admit his feelings. So he figured the used of engraving was not an engravement of his brotherly love to Mina, but his promised symbol as a soulmate to her forever…

Years had pass and I’m still with Earl. I didn’t think it was possible but I grew more and more in love with Earl each day passed. We would do a lot of stuff together and we never had any fights. We argue, but it never came to the point where we would get really mad at each other and he usually let me have it my way. 

Kenneth was Earl’s other friend and he hangs out with us a lot too. Kent is a little older than me and is really nice. He has this really cute smile that when he smiles, you can’t help but smile back. I called him ‘Smiley Boy’ He told me that his family life also isn’t good. His dad is a drunk and his mom had passed away when he was young. So usually it was the three of us together. My home life is a lot better thanks to Earl. My stepmom didn’t dare to touch me anymore and it’s still the same between me and my dad. We don’t talk much. Earl’s parents like me a lot too. It’s because when they tell Earl to do something and he wouldn’t do it. They would come to me. I’m kind of like their pawn though.

Life was heaven for me until it completely shattered one day. It started out with good news but who would have known it would end up in tragedy? No one…not Earl…and not even me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  (^,^)