UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(22)

“I didn’t know they still had these.” Mina was in awe.

“They are great; my parents took me here all of the time when I was a kid. I was obsessed with pushing the button and ordering milk shakes and my parents let me. One time I had ordered eight milkshakes, so we drove them back and gave them to our staff.” Brody smirked, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

Mina was stunned by his good looks and completely lost her train of thought. When the food came they ate, and talked. Brody kept watching her out of the corner of his eye and kept smiling.

“What’s wrong? Do I have food on my face?” Mina asked horrified.

Brody threw his head back and laughed. “No, but why do you ask?”

“Because you keep looking over at me with a funny smirk? What’s wrong? You can tell me.”

“I’m smiling because I can’t figure you out. You’re different. You don’t act like other girls.” Brody meant it as a compliment but to Mina it sounded like she was odd.

“Oh…I see.” She remarked unhappily and put her French fry back into its container. She had lost her appetite.

“No, you don’t see.” He turned in the seat so he could face her. “Look at me” Mina kept her head down. “Mina, please look at me.” He very gently reached over and with one finger lifted her chin up so that her brown eyes bore into his dark blue. “You are unlike any girl I’ve met. You don’t talk incessantly about hair and makeup. You tell me what you’re feeling, instead of telling me what you think I want to hear. You are content to sit with me without filling the void with needless chatter. You eat food, real food and not rabbit food.” He plucked up the fry Mina put back in her container and ate it in one big bite. “And you are not constantly texting or talking on a cell phone.”

“I don’t own one.” Mina admitted.

“Exactly and I like that about you.”

“You like that I don’t own a cell phone? Brody, you are crazy.”

“Maybe I am, Maybe I am…” He let the words linger without saying what he wanted to add on. “About you.” He didn’t want to scare her, but he was feeling it. He was falling for her. Everything about her seemed right.

“Just being with you has a calming effect on me, do you know that?” Brody admitted. “My life is so hectic, with people surrounding me, trying to be my friend, trying to tell me who I should be and what I should become, that I tend to tune out the real world. I spent so long going through the motions just to make the background noise fade. But when I’m near you, it’s gone. The pressure to be something or someone I’m not, is gone.”

“Uh, you’re welcome,” Mina answered. Unsure of what her response should be. They ate the rest of the meal in comfortable silence while she pondered his words. He had only spent a few hours with her and he seemed to be unlike the imaginary Brody she had built in her head. She was actually enjoying herself with the new version, this down to earth, sensitive Brody

Mina asked to be dropped off a few blocks from home. “If my mom see’s you she will flip. She’s not too happy that you destroyed my bike.”

Brody became still. “I understand,” he said quietly, too quietly. He pulled over and watched Mina get out of his car.

“Thanks,” she called to him through the open window and waved. He watched to see if she turned back to look at him; she didn’t. Once she was out of his sight he closed his eyes and pressed his head to the steering wheel, wishing that he could somehow take down the wall she kept putting up between them. He wanted her to get to know the real Brody.

~~~

The next morning followed a similar routine. Brody waited for her and picked her up as she was walking to school. Much to Mina’s chagrin, he sat with her at lunch as well.

She was actually starting to like having Brody as a friend; he was wearing her down with pure stubbornness. Of course Nan was thrilled to have him sitting at their table and talked nonstop the whole lunch hour. Brody would shoot Mina smirks when Nan was busy talking about the latest episode of her favorite reality show. Neither one of them could get a word in edgewise, but kept smiling and eating their lunch in silence.

She actually looked for him by her locker after school and felt a pang of sadness, when he wasn’t there. Maybe he had gotten tired of her? After all she wasn’t that exciting. Mina opened her locker to grab her bag and when she shut it, he was right behind the door.

“Oh! You scared me.” Mina put her hand to her heart.

“I would never do that on purpose.” Brody smiled at her.

“If I didn’t know better,” Mina frowned at Brody. “I’d say you are definitely stalking me.”

“Of course. I’m trying to prove to you that I don’t care about social status and you promised to give me a chance.” Brody grabbed her backpack and once again carried it out to his car.

“I promised no such thing,” she teased.

Brody reached for her hand and they walked to his car hand in hand. Mina felt as if she was on cloud nine and a shiver of doubt cast a shadow upon her single moment of happiness. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be right. Mina's happy mood darkened by the time they got to the parking lot. She stopped ten feet from the car refusing to take a step farther.

“Brody, really, this is unnecessary. It’s a little overboard, with the rides to school and back, sitting with me at the lunch table. I think you’ve proved your point. You were right; I was the one that was uncomfortable with you, not the other way around and I think you have paid back your debt.” Mina looked down at the cement, not wanting to look him in the eyes.