It was a seemingly normal Wednesday after school, and Jake and Mina were hanging out at his house (as usual) taking care of homework and watching movies.
They had both finished their homework and had decided to watch a random Disney movie in the living room until Mina had to leave.
However, due to the time of evening, the exhaustion felt by the two, and the fact that they were alone in the house, they had fallen asleep halfway through the movie, leaning on each other.
Eventually, Mina groggily awoke to the end credits of the movie. She started rubbing her eyes to wake up more.
She sat up to see Jake still asleep close to her. After admiring his sleeping face for a good minute, she let out a sad sigh and then went to turn off the movie and start tidying the slight mess they had made.
As she was cleaning up she heard the front door open and turned to see Jake's mother walk in.
A smile quickly made its way to her face upon seeing Jake's mother.
"Good evening Mina, how was school today?" Jake's mother asked, smiling.
"Good evening Mrs. Sim, school was good. I and Jake were watching a movie but we fell asleep. I just woke up but he's still sleeping." the girl explained, turning to Jake who was still fast asleep on the couch.
"I swear, he would sleep all day if he could." his mom joked, rolling her eyes at her son.
"Yeah...," Mina agreed with a soft chuckle and an endearing tone in her voice.
"I'll be starting dinner soon, will you be joining us tonight?"
"If it's alright with you, then I would love to. I just need to finish tidying up in here."
"Oh honey you don't have to do that, I can just make Jake do it later."
"No, it's the least I could do since you're making dinner for me and your family."
"Alright then, but wake Jake up and have him help you." she insisted and Mina nodded her head in response.
Soon after becoming friends with Jake, Mina became very well acquainted with his family. Mina was especially close with Mrs. Sim.
To Mrs. Sim, Mina was like a daughter she never had, and with all the times they've seen each other and talked, she was pretty good at reading her.
She knew about Mina's crush on Jake, maybe even before she knew herself. She was good at seeing the true happiness that Mina felt when she was with him, but also the sadness and fear.
Mina made her way over to Jake on the couch and crouched down to wake him up.
"Hey Jake, wake up." she softly said, nudging him awake. He quietly groaned and opened his eyes.
"Hey..., what time is it?" He asked her, half asleep.
"It's 5:27, your mom just home and she's making dinner," she replied, quietly laughing at his voice.
"So are you leaving now?" the boy asked, sitting up.
"No, she invited me to stay over for dinner, I'll go home after that," she stated.
"Good," he smiled and pulled her arm gently leading her back to the couch next to him, "I don't want to leave just yet."
+++++++
An hour or two later, they had finished dinner and it was time for Mina to leave, but since her parents were busy she had to ride the bus.
Since Jake's mom didn't want her walking around by herself so late at night, she had Jake go with her.
As soon as they left his house, Jake grabbed onto Mina's hand, gently swinging their hands back and forth between them.
"It's too bad you have to leave so early, I wanna hang out more," Jake whined, his accent sounding strong.
"Early? It's almost 8:00, and you'll see me again tomorrow at school." The girl chuckled at his accent.
"So you're saying you're not going to miss me?" he gasped dramatically, placing his free hand over his heart.
Mina laughed at his reaction and replied "Of course I'll miss you, but it's only gonna be a few hours, and I'd rather stay at your house anyway."
"Are your parents still fighting?" He asked, concerned.
"Yeah, and it's only getting worse." She sighed, abruptly stopping to look down at her feet. Noticing her stop, Jake turned to face her, then took her other hand in his.
"Hey, it's gonna be alright, even if it's not, I'll be there for you." He promised her before pulling her into a tight hug.
'I feel better already.' The girl thought, smiling.
"Now, onward to the bus stop!" Jake exclaimed, pulling away from the hug and pointing towards the direction of the bus stop.
"Onward!" She giggled, matching his energy.
+++++++
A short bus ride later and Mina had made it to her house. However, she just stood at the front door, too scared to walk in, as Jake mentioned her parents fought, almost every night. She could hear the argument from outside and going in would just place all that heat on her.
She sighed and forced herself to turn the handle of her front and walk in. Immediately after walking in, her parents turned their attention to her.
"Where have you been? Do you know how late it is?" Her mom yelled.
"I was... at Jake's house and lost track of time." She muttered.
"It's always that boy." her mom sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Why are you so mad about her hanging out with him? He's a nice boy!" Her father yelled back.
"Sure he's nice, but does he have anything to offer her? Or her future?" Her mom asked.
"Again with a person's value! Over and over again!" Her dad yelled.
While they were distracted, Mina took the opportunity to sneak away to her room, where she quickly got ready for bed.
She jumped into bed, happy to finally be away from it all. She held her knees close to her chest, thinking of Jake's words and convincing herself that things would get better. Continuously until she fell asleep.
************
Hi
Happy April Fools
This chapter feels boring but, eh.
