mina bishop soft quotes part 2
“You know how everyone has, like, a dream? For their life, I mean?”
I nod.
“Mina was mine.”
I reach out—I can’t help it—and squeeze his shoulder.
“Mine, too.”
“I can do it myself,” I say, clutching the bottle of vitamin E oil.
“No offense, but your hand still looks like raw hamburger.”
Mina is not patient or soft.”
“This stuff smells like my grandma.”
“That whole week you were in coma-land, she was freaking out. Soap-opera style.”
“What are these going to be, again?”
“Tomatoes.”
“Seems like a lot of trouble for tomatoes,”
“Mina beams. “You could’ve just gotten me flowers.”
I set a seedling carefully into the dirt. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“We can make purple pasta sauce,” she suggests.
“As long as you’re doing the cooking.”
“Oh, come on—remember that vegetable soup you tried to make? There was only a teeny tiny fire that time. You’re getting better.”
“Aren’t you glad I made you get a hobby?” Mina asks, grinning. “When you become a world-famous botanist, I can say I’m responsible whenever I brag about you.”
“I think out of the two of us, you’re going to end up being the world-famous one,” I say, laughing.
“Well, that goes without saying,” Mina answers. “I’ll make sure to thank you when I win my Pulitzer.”
“I’m honored.”
“You have to believe in something,” Mina protests.
I squeeze her hands and she grips mine back, tight, like I’m going to disappear any second.
“I believe in you,” I say.”
“Mina laughs, and I can feel the vibration of it through my skin.”
“Mina had been talking about you for weeks. I remember being glad she’d made a friend, that she was talking and laughing instead of crying.”
“She hid them in a box of Barbies?”
“Actually, she hid them in Barbie’s car, folded in the little trunk. Mina was tricky. I almost didn’t check there.”
“What’s in the bag?” She makes a grab for it, and I step back so she can’t get it. She pouts, her strawberry-red lips sticking out. “Mean.”
“Mina sits straight up and hops out of the truck, clapping her hands like a kid, and I smile as she watches the show, as transfixed as I am by her.”
“Shadows play across her face, the light illuminating her in fits and starts, and I’ve never felt more sure, and she’s never looked more beautiful.”
“I sleep, but all I dream about is chasing after Mina, her laughing”
“You still not gonna tell me what this is all about?” I find the playlist marked Sophie and page through the songs.
“Not yet,” Mina trills.
“You and your weird superstitions,” I say, rolling my eyes and grinning.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she says solemnly. “But you have to promise not to breathe a word.” She looks to her left, then her right, before leaning forward and hissing: “Alien takeover is imminent.”
“Watch out!” Mina stomps into the puddle. Muddy water splashes against my back, drenching me.
“Oh my God!” I shriek, spinning around. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Come on. Play with me.”
“You are such a brat sometimes,”
Mina sighs happily, her arm looped in mine. She leans her head against my shoulder.
“When you were in Oregon, Mina would come by. I used to find her up in the tree house. Or she’d sneak into your bedroom to do homework.”
“I hold my hand out, palm up, to show her. “Then they won’t bite.”
Mina does the same with her hand, and our fingertips bump. She looks up and smiles at me.”