UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(60)

“Um, I know you, right?” He stood up and dusted off his pants.

“Yep,” Nan answered crisply.

“Nan Taylor?” He asked.

“Right again...ding, ding, ding. Give him a prize.” Nan snorted out as she continued looking for clues as to why we were here.

“What are we doing here?” Brody asked. He sounded helplessly lost.

“I think we've been punked. And this better not be one of your ideas, Brody. Now if you don't mind I would like to get back to the dance.” She walked over to Mina and looped her hand through her arms. “Let's get out of here Mina. This place gives me the creeps.”

Mina nodded her head and followed in step with Nan, grateful for Nan's support. Mina was doing everything she could to hold back her tears, but she couldn't even see where she was walking. She let Nan lead her out the back and to a waiting SUV Limo, the obvious means by which Brody mysteriously appeared. Without even caring who's car it was, she marched forward opened up the door and climbed inside. Brody walked slowly behind and slid in after closing the limo door.

Mina scooted as far away from Brody as she could, hoping the darkness would hide her tears. She wiped her chin and came away with blood. Sighing she tried wiping it on her dirty and stained dress, it was ruined anyway.

Mina could feel the intense stare of Brody's gaze come to rest on her and then move away as if embarrassed. Mina tried to stare out the window and compose herself. But fresh new tears began to fall as she realized Jared was probably gone forever too.

Brody cleared his throat, “Uh, I'm sorry. Here.” he had slid down the bench and handed her a handkerchief out of his pocket. Who uses handkerchiefs anymore?

Mina shook her head, scared to look at him for fear of crying harder. “Your name is Mina, right?” Mina bobbed her head. “Well Mina, you've got a cut on your chin and I think it needs to be looked at.” He leaned forward and gently pressed the cloth to Mina's wound. “I'm sorry. I don't know what happened tonight but obviously it was some sort of prank that got pulled on us. Please accept my sincerest condolences, and rest assured I will find out how we ended up here.”

He was talking to her as if he barely knew her. Were all of those kisses and feelings they had for each other gone? They couldn't be, could they? Mina was too scared to ask. Too scared to get turned down and made into a fool. But she was used to being the fool right? Just when Mina opened her mouth to tell Brody the truth, Nan shouted from down the seat by the minibar.

“Look, sparkling cider! And it's open.”





Chapter 27


“Ugh, I can't believe it was a prank pulled by the polo team.” Nan fumed on Monday during lunch. It had turned out that the Story seemed to like Nan's idea of it being a prank and used that to cover the reason why they were at the abandoned factory. Supposedly, the polo team on a dare rounded up Brody and two random girls and dumped them there to rile up Savannah, who was furious that her boyfriend was stolen during the dance. It was a big laugh for most of the students, except for Mina. She was mortified.

Nan couldn't stay mad long because her tweets about the encounter made her following double in size. “I do have to say, seeing Savannah's face as we stepped out of the limo with her boyfriend was priceless. That gained me points among the Savannah haters.” Nan smiled and waved cattily at Savannah who was sitting three tables over with Brody. Savannah fumed at Nan, who just laughed.

Mina hung her head low and refused to look. She had been getting odd looks from Brody, but they weren't reassuring her. They were making her more nervous. It was as if he knew he was forgetting something but couldn't put his finger on it, and he knew it had something to do with Mina.

Mina had returned home that night to find that her family was asleep in bed. She changed out of her dress and threw it in the closet, happily noticing that her clothes now encompassed more of the color spectrum besides red. Mina went to her dresser and pulled out her notebook of Unaccomplishments and Epic Disasters and looked for her following entry about Brody. It was still there, so she knew it hadn't been a dream.

Her mother's conversation regarding Brody and his kind and forgetting about her made sense. Her mother knew this would happen and instead of telling her that their relationship would end, she had given Mina a few days of happiness. She wished her mother had told her. It would have saved her from this heartache, but it couldn't have saved her from all.

She snuck out the fire escape and waited on her rooftop retreat all night. Praying, hoping that Jared would magically appear to annoy her. He would be so proud that she had completed three tales. He never showed. Mina even looked over the Grimoire. There were no words, just pictures that depicted the three completed tales. But they were faded, barely discernible, as if Mina had used up the book's power in the battle against Claire and the Fae wolves. All of the power that used to hum in the Grimoire disappeared. Scared, Mina carried the book everywhere with her. She even started sleeping with it under her pillow. Even now it was inside her hoody jacket close to her body.

Mina looked over at Nan who had pulled out a compact and was staring at her forehead, which was completely out of character for her happy-go-lucky, carefree friend. “What's wrong?” Mina asked.

Nan made a face into her mirror and frowned. “Oh nothing, it's just that I can't get over the feeling that I have a few more wrinkles than normal. Look at me, does this look like an age spot to you?” Nan opened her eyes wide and leaned forward comically towards Mina.