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Already on my way back to him, I wrapped my arms around Minty from the other side. “Hang onto her, agapimeno,” I murmured. “Hi, my beautiful friend. We’re going to get you into bed, then we’re going to stay with you awhile.”
Minty balled her hands into fists and tucked them against her chest, curling into herself. “I’m so dirty, I’m so dirty. It’s going to be all over you,” she cried, sickened.
“You’re not dirty,” Gus murmured gruffly. “You’re all that’s good and pure and right.”
My throat, thick with tears, prohibited me to speak. I pressed my forehead against hers. “Minty,” I finally begged. “Minty, please.”
“You don’t know,” she wept. “You don’t know.”
“I do,” I assured her. “I do know. I know about the pictures, the movies, the sexy stuff, the violent stuff, the stuff with the kids. I know. And I know where it comes from.”
I smoothed my hands over her ravaged face, her face that flamed with shame upon hearing my words.
She turned her face into Gus’s chest to hide and her tears fell faster.
Gus bent his neck to press his temple against the top of her head, his chest expanding with his heavy inhale.
“Amber,” he warned.
“Let’s go,” I replied, pulling them gently towards her bedroom, still talking. “I started researching OCD after you told Ruby and me last year. I know all about the different subtypes. It wasn’t hard to figure out which ones you struggle with.”
We reached her bedroom door and I pushed it open, keeping one hand on my dearest, oldest friend.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I didn’t know it was this bad.”
Gus stepped through and stopped in shock.
“What the fuck?”
I took in her bedroom. It looked like a tornado had touched down.
I looked at Minty’s ravaged face. “It’s also clear which subtypes you are not afflicted with.”
My joke earned me a huff and a weak smile but didn’t unfurl her fists.
Gus lay her down on the bed and she seemed to fade into the mattress until we got in beside her.
Her lids shot open in alarm. “What are you doing?”
I nodded at Gus to lie down beside her. “Getting in beside you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, a look of horror on her face, and Gus paused.
“Minty,” I whispered, my palm against her cheek. “Please just let us love you. We won’t come too close if you don’t want us to.”
She closed her eyes, and I noted the pain on her face, the same pain that sometimes flicked across her face when the boys hugged her.
“It’s just a thought, Minty. It means nothing,” I murmured.
She drew in a shuddering breath and pressed her palms to either side of her head. Her chest heaved.
Her breath rasped, her face twisting into a grimace. Fisting her hands in her hair, her face scrunched, and she closed her eyes tight.
“It’s not what you want, Mint. You know that.”
She rapped her knuckles against her skull, and Gus whispered a pained, ‘Fuck’.
“You think we would give you our boys if we thought you were a danger?”
