Bonded

Chapter 7

MINA AND ENRICO were now sitting up, heaps of snacks piled across the floor. She ate more than Enrico, who was gulping down a can of Pepsi, his adam's apple bobbing up and down. Mina chewed on a cola bottle, her legs crossed over each other, watching the curve of his throat.

"What's your favourite colour?" Mina asked him, glancing at Enrico from the corner of her eye.

"Red." He took another snip.

"Red? Why?" She asked curiously. There were times when she wanted to whip out a notebook to scribble down every word he ever said, so that she could remember forever.

"Why not?" He grazed his tongue over his soft lips. Mina knew that they weren't going to continue studying at this point, but she didn't want him to go home; she liked his company.

"What's yours?" He leaned his broad back against her bed frame, his lean legs stretched out across the carpet.

"Yellow," she said, scrunching up her crisp packet and throwing it into the bin at the other side of her room. She pumped her fists into the air as it dunked into the mini basketball hoop which was placed on top of her bin. Enrico raised his arm over his head, and flicked his wrist. His Pepsi can clattered into the bin as he turned to face her, a lazy grin plastered onto his face. Mina raised her eyebrows and laughed, throwing another Cola bottle into her mouth. Enrico commented on the basketball hoop, his eyes flashing with amusement.

"D'you like sports?" He asked her.

Mina nodded her head eagerly, her curls bouncing around her small face.

He exhaled, throwing his head back onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. "So do I."

"You do?" She looked at him attentively. "Why don't you join any teams at school?"

"I wouldn't have the time," he shrugged nonchalantly.

His face was blank and unconcerned, but Mina could feel his sense of isolation. She knew that he always seemed to be busy, disappearing every now and then. He never participated in activities at school, nor did he stay in school longer than required. A large event at school was the perfect time for him to escape, to do things that seemed more important, and Mina couldn't help but feel frustrated by his solitary aura. She had watched him when he was with his friends; the way his lips tugged upwards, the way his laugh rumbled through his chest, the way his eyes glittered, the way he leaned against the walls when he was engaged in casual conversation. Still, he never seemed to involve himself in things that normal seventeen year olds—like Mina—took part in. She felt as though he hadn't fully experienced his teenage years and, by the time he turned eighteen, his lack of enthusiasm would most likely deepen.

Her curiosity constantly poked at her, yet she didn't have the courage to ask him about his personal life. She didn't tell him about the sport teams that she was part of in school, afraid she'd hit a nerve.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I couldn't care less," said Enrico, rolling his eyes, running his slender fingers along the fluffy carpet.

She nodded, though she wasn't sure if she believed him.

• • •

After an hour of munching on food, gulping down drinks and chatting about pointless topics, Enrico left Mina's house, casting a dark cloud over Mina's suddenly boring bedroom.

She trudged to her sister's bedroom and pushed open the door. "What the hell do you want? Why do you keep texting me saying you're dying?" She peered through the gap curiously. Ava was sprawled across her bed, dressed in her pyjamas with her wet hair bundled up.

"MINA!" She tumbled off of her bed, regaining her composure and stumbled towards Mina. "Since when did you have a boyfriend?"

Mina backed away, repulsed. "What—"

"Why didn't you tell me?" She frowned. "I tell you everything—"

"—I don't have a boyfriend, he just came by to study," said Mina, rolling her eyes and flopping down onto her sister's bed.

"Oh," said Ava, her face dropping miserably. "Why are you wearing a jelly ring?"

Mina's gaze dropped down to her hands, and she blushed furiously, pulling it off of her finger. "I didn't do that, it was Enrico—"

"Aha!" Ava sprung up into the air and dived onto the bed, pinning her sister into a headlock. "So you lied to me," she growled, wrestling Mina in a tangle of limbs.

"Will you get off me," Mina groaned, kicking her sister in the shins. She wriggled out of her grasp, shoving her away. She rolled off of the bed, landing onto the floor with a loud thud. Ava quickly crawled towards the edge of the bed, her head dangling down to glare at Mina.

Mina's eyes widened, gazing up at her sister's gruesomely twisted smile. "Get back here, you lying piece of shit," Ava screeched, crawling after Mina.

"You're a PSYCHO," Mina squealed, hurriedly scrambling up and sprinting out of the room.

• • •

The sky was wrapped in black velvet, decorated with silver diamonds. A pool of moonlight entered through Mina's window, illuminating her room. Laying in her bed, she raised a hand to the silver light, her fingers transforming into a pearly white shade.

Her thoughts drifted to Enrico, the boy who made her olive cheeks turn a darker shade of pink and her heart flutter by the simple sound of his breath. His cold demeanour was alluring; she wanted nothing more but to indulge herself in his words, his movements, his eyes. She wanted to glide her fingers across the scars and burns on his arm, to wrap her arms around him, to lay beside him under the stars.

Nobody had ever peaked her curiosity like he did. She knew nothing about him apart from his favourite colour. Red. What could that stand for? Love and romance? Or, blood and death?

Mina noticed that—just like Zeke—Enrico gained the interest of many people at school. Yet, his intimidating stance, his mysterious cuts and bruises, the firm set of his jaw, the harsh glare of his blue eyes: all of these also repelled people away through fear.

Yet, all of this drew Mina closer to him. She wanted to unravel the bandage on his hand, to wrap her fingers around his bloody knuckles, to offer her shoulder for him to lean on. She wanted to look into his cold eyes, to see if they'd soften for her.

Her arm fell limply onto the mattress and she sighed in defeat. She knew all of this was impossible, Enrico was a complete stranger. But, she knew that there was more to him than he revealed. She knew he had a secret, or else he wouldn't have a guard pacing around his gated home. There was a heavy baggage that seemed to weigh him down, and Mina desperately wanted to offer her own bones to aid his worn out ones, to carry the weight with him. She could see the softness inside of him, the kindness that went unnoticed.

Gradually, her eyelids fluttered shut. A smile played on her lips, her last thought in her mind being her and Enrico laying on the carpet side by side, gazing up at the same roof, laying on the same floor, being in the same room, under the same sky.