Ruin Me

44. Scare me

Mina walked into art on Monday with a face like thunder, her brow was furrowed so deeply I was worried her eyebrows might merge with her eyes. It felt wrong to see her angry, usually no one was more placid or optimistic than her. She shouldn't have a scowl on her quirky face, it just wasn't right.

"What's the matter?" I asked automatically as she sat down.

"Nothing," Mina snapped harshly as she slammed down into her seat her face a storm cloud about to burst into thunder and lightning. I flinched back ever so slightly from the vicious edge to her voice and Mina must have noticed because her face suddenly shifted from furious to ashamed so quickly I got whiplash, "oh my god, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to snap at you," she gushed clamping a hand over her mouth.

"It's fine," I waved away, "what's going on?"

"It's not fine," Mina shook her head at herself in annoyance, "I was just so angry and I took it out on you. I swear I never usually do that."

"Honestly Mina," I placed a hand on her arm, "it's already forgotten, I'm just worried about what could make you so angry."

"It's Connor," she admitted sadly.

I'd heard a lot about Connor over the past two months of knowing Mina. I learnt they'd been together eight months and had been friends for much longer. That he was one quarter Korean and one quarter Swedish. But most of all that Mina really, really liked him and as far as I could tell he was mad about her. He was always staring at her at lunch and occasionally seemingly without realising he would reach across the table and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and then it would dawn on him what he'd done and his face would immediately become swathed in pink. If anyone was crazy about each other it was them.

"What's happened?" I demanded and instantly felt scared as if it was my own relationship on the line not someone else's, I was that invested.

"It's stupid," Mina tucked her curly brown hair behind her ears then leaned forward to rest her chin in her hands thoughtfully, "it's just like this niggling feeling that I know doesn't really matter but I can't shrug it off."

"Talk to me," I encouraged, "talking to someone can help you figure it out."

"You're gonna think I'm over reacting," Mina eyed me carefully.

"I promise I won't," I swore, Mina wasn't usually the type to over react to things anyway.

"Connors older cousin just came to the college nearby and they're quite close so they like spending time together. Which obviously I'm fine with, his cousins a really nice guy but he keeps taking Connor out to all these college parties. I don't mind that either you know, he can't spend every second of the day with me, he can always do his own thing. My parents won't let me go to the parties so I'm willing to let him go and have fun, I want that for him. It's just I see photos on Facebook and he's got his arm around a girl or they're he's in the background of a photo talking to girl with their heads really close. And it's been more than once. I feel like I'm turning into a complete psycho girlfriend because whenever I see it I turn into a literal stalker and start going through the profiles of everyone at the party seeing if I can spot him in any photos. Please tell me I'm just being paranoid."

I pause for a moment letting her get her breath back after her great explosion of emotion. It takes me a second to process everything she said.