Love and Other Sins by Emilia Ares

Author:Emilia Ares [Ares, Emilia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781736814017
Publisher: SERA Press
Published: 2021-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

MINA

Have you ever felt two strong yet opposing emotions take over your conscience at once? That was what I was feeling right then on the back of Oliver’s bike as he pulsed through traffic like the line on a heart monitor screen. I was lightheaded, and a sensation of weightlessness had overcome my body. He had kissed my cheek. Was he attracted to me? Or did he just feel sorry for me after the dead baby sister story?

Anxiety filled me as I imagined Mama’s growing fear for me. Texting her was starting to feel like a huge mistake. She’d probably just pulled up to school. She could’ve been calling me right that moment; but it wasn’t like I could pick up a phone while we flew down the freeway at seventy miles an hour. What would I say? Why hadn’t I been answering? At first, I couldn’t help but think she just wouldn’t get it—she wouldn’t understand why I ditched school with Oliver. But now that I’d had some time to consider what I was going to tell her, I realized he was right. I should’ve just called her, even if only to tell a lie—to say I had forgotten she was picking me up and started walking home from school. But I was afraid—afraid to get caught in a lie, afraid to tell the truth. She’d be pissed for sure, but maybe I could even have been able to finish hanging out with Oliver. Or maybe she might have driven over there and dragged me out of the shisha bar by my ear. That was the problem: She was unpredictable, that woman. As cool as she could be, she could also be extremely harsh. All I knew was that if I got caught in a lie, she’d punish me, and worse, she might never trust me again. I got a tighter grip on Oliver, praying we made it back in one piece. She’d kill me if I die on this thing.

“Thanks for getting us back so fast—thank God there was no traffic. Okay, I’m gonna run. Sorry about all this,” I added quietly as I climbed off the back of his bike and we had pulled up around the side corner of the school, hidden from the main street by a wall. I wondered what was waiting for me around the corner. I dug through my bag for my phone.

“You don’t have to apologize to me. I have some business to take care of in Hollywood anyway, so I should get going. Don’t worry, though, and let me know how it goes.” He smiled reassuringly.

I handed back the helmet. “I’m scared,” I admitted through a suppressed chuckle.

“It’ll be okay. Just picture the worst thing that can happen. Go ahead, really picture it.”

I did. I pictured Mama dragging me into the car by my hair in front of Oliver and driving me far away so that I never got to see him again.

“So whatever it was, it’s going to be better than that,” he said.

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