THE WAITING GAME

Mina drew out a long deep breath as she unlocked their front door. She wasn't expecting that she would arrive home at that hour. It was seven in the evening, and it was already dark outside.

Her father expected to arrive home at six in the evening, and she was supposed to go back home at five in the afternoon before the sun would set to the west. That was supposed to be just the right time for her to prepare dinner, and she would never get noticed by her father when she left home.

However, she couldn't leave Royce with an unsettled argument. She loved him so much that she just couldn't let that meaningful argument end up their relationship, even though Mina knew that she would pay for it.

There was only one alibi she could think of was that she was in the church. However, it seemed to be so unbelievable. However, she had already lost the luxury of time to think and find another alibi, so maybe she just had to say whatever her mouth and brain would offer her.

As she arrived on the little patio of their house, Mina could already feel the tension surrounding it. The silence felt so skin-pulling that all she could hear was her heartbeat pumping wildly under her ribcage.

With her both hands on her chest, she uttered a silent prayer that may her father wasn't somewhere in the living room or the dining room, or simply anywhere that could make him see her. She hoped that she could merely pass through those rooms and go directly straight to her bedroom.

At the same time, she was also hoping that her father had already gotten her dinner since hunger could make him more aggressive and annoyed. Nonetheless, Mina knew that it was impossible. She was the only one that could cook decently inside that house. She had tried to teach her sister as she was willing to learn, but her father didn't like the output and asked her not to cook again, for she was only wasting food.

Sad to say, God had partly answered and unanswered Mina's prayer. His father was sitting at the dining table with her sister, trying to munch on the food that her sister tried to prepare. She couldn't help but notice that his father's plate was still almost full. It seemed that he had only eaten a bit, or maybe not at all.

Mina thought that she would go straight to her room and lock it. That way, she might be safe from her father's wrath at that moment, but she knew that she also had to face it somehow, and it could even get worst.

So, leaving all her fate in God's hands, she walks towards her father with eyes on the floor. She stopped to greet her father. However, his meeting brows and burning eyes avoided looking over Mina as he asked.

"Where the hell had you been?" His voice was low and barely heard as he tried to restrain his emotions and anger.

"I'm sorry, I- I just went to the mall and tried to buy something. I overlooked the time and…." Before Mina could even finish her words, her lips were stuck, shivering and parted, as she saw her father walking his way towards her. Her knees shivered as well with the anticipation of the pain she was about to take.

She wasn't wrong as she saw her father take off the thick leather belt of his pants and roll it on his hands, just like how he always did every time he was about to hit her in her childhood days. The traumatizing pain all flashed back to her memories. One little wrong move was all she got.

She was supposed to get used to it, but she never was. She even would shiver with her thoughts every time she saw those belts. Even her father harmlessly tucked them in his pants.

"You are lying, Mina. Where have you been, and who are you with?" His father's face turned red in anger as he waved his hands in the air with his belt.

All Mina could do was close her eyes, but even if she would do that and endure the pain of his belt, she knew that he would never stop until her reasons and her excuse could content him.

"I went to the city with Farah. I went to her school to see it. To know how it feels being there because I want to study, and you never let me!" She exclaimed as she clasped both her hands hard while kneeling submissively on the floor.

She was hoping that her father hadn't seen Farah at her home because she thought she didn't know if Farah was actually in the city at that moment or was in her home. Since it was Saturday and they didn't have a class.

Mina's eyes slowly opened as she hadn't felt the painful whip of his father's belt as how she was expecting. He didn't hit her. Instead, he withdrew and sat down on the nearest sofa and suddenly thought. His eyes were staring a the blank space of their wall as the tears ran down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you do that."

Mina finally felt relieved and sorry for her father's reaction. She was rueful for making him guilty with her lies. Although Mina was sad that she hadn't gone to college, it was all in the past for her. She had already accepted and forgotten that ambition.

All she wanted at the moment was to get herself out of that house and be with Royce. He was her only happiness at that moment. He was her everything. She remembered how close she was to almost giving up her virginity to him.

However, she still remembered what her mother said, 'To prove how much your man loves you, is to make him wait for the right time. Because love is patient and never rush.'

Royce had proven himself that very day as nothing had happened to them. He understood her view and respected it. He was willing to wait, and it made Mina love him more.

It made her realize that he was the one for her.