Nan was still talking, “If something that cool had happened, don't you think I would be the first to know about it? I would have like a million followers on Twitter!” She had moved over to the red notebook and nudged it with her foot, before picking it up.
“Don't touch that!” Mina cried. Rushing over she snatched it from her best friend’s hands. Nan backed away, hurt by Mina's harsh tone. “Sorry. But don't you think we should get out of here before we get in trouble?”
“And we had better get Brody. I don't want to be the one to explain to Savannah White that we took off with her date.” Nan was right. Brody began to stir.
Mina took two steps back from Brody as he leaned forward and looked around at his surroundings. He looked dazed, especially when he saw the two girls he was with. Mina held her breath as his gaze finally came to rest on her. She was waiting for a spark, a glimmer of recognition, and for his eyes to crinkle up in happiness when he saw her. There was nothing. He looked at her like a stranger before resting his cool blue eyes on Nan.
“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 the boy a prize,” Nan snorted out as she continued looking for clues as to why they were here.
“What are we doing here?” Brody asked. He sounded helplessly lost.
“I think we've been punked. And this had 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 Mina’s arms. “Let's get out of here, prom date. This place gives me the creeps.”
Mina nodded her head and followed in step with Nan, grateful for her best friend’s support. She 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 toward a waiting limo, the means by which Brody had mysteriously appeared. Without caring whose car it was, she marched forward, opened up the door and climbed inside. Brody walked behind them slowly and slid in after closing the limo door. He knocked on the window for the driver to pull away.
Mina scooted as far away from him 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, which was ruined anyway. She didn’t remember that from the fairy tale.
Mina looked up when she felt someone staring, and caught Brody's gaze before he quickly looked 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 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. She almost laughed at the gesture. Who uses handkerchiefs anymore?
Mina shook her head, scared to look at him for fear of crying harder. “Your name’s 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. Rest assured I will find out how we ended up here. And I’m sorry you got hurt.”
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 24
“Ugh, the water polo team!” Nan fumed on Monday during lunch. “I hate those guys.” It had turned out that the Story seemed to like Nan's suggestion that they’d been pranked, and had used it to explain their appearance at the factory. Supposedly, the polo team, on a dare, had kidnapped Brody and two random girls to rile up Savannah, who was furious when her boyfriend was stolen during the dance. It was meant to look like a seamy affair, and got a big laugh for most of the students, except for Mina. She was mortified.
Nan couldn't stay mad long, as her tweets about the encounter nearly doubled her followers on Twitter. “I must admit, seeing Savannah's face as we stepped out of the limo was priceless. I gained major points among the Savannah haters.” Nan smiled and waved cattily at Savannah, who was nuzzling with Brody three tables away. Savannah fumed at Nan, who just laughed.
Mina hung her head and refused to look. She had been getting odd looks from Brody, but they weren't reassuring. If anything they made her more nervous. He looked uncomfortable, like he was forgetting something but couldn't put his finger on it. And probably never would.
Mina had returned home that night to find her family asleep in bed. She changed out of her dress and threw it in the closet, at least glad that her clothes now encompassed more of the color spectrum besides red. She went to her dresser and pulled out her notebook of Unaccomplishments and Epic Disasters, searching her previous entry about Brody. It was still there, so she knew it hadn't been a dream. The Story had at least left her that.
Now her mother's conversation regarding Brody forgetting all about her made sense. Her mother had known this would happen, but instead of telling her that their relationship would end, she had given Mina a few days of happiness. She wished now that her mother had told her. It would have saved her some of the heartache, though not all of it.
She’d snuck out the fire escape and waited on her rooftop retreat all night, praying 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 had disappeared. Scared, Mina carried the book everywhere with her. She even started sleeping with it under her pillow. Even now it was inside her hoodie, close to her body.
Mina looked over at Nan who had pulled out a compact and was staring at her forehead with a frown. She hadn’t spoke in at least five minutes, acting completely out of character for Mina’s happy-go-lucky, carefree friend. “What's wrong?” Mina asked.
Nan made a face into her mirror. “Oh, nothing. It's just that I can't get over the feeling that I have 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 toward Mina.
“No.” Mina laughed.
“How about wrinkles?” Nan scrunched up her face and created too many wrinkles to count.
“Well, now that you mention it, I think you should enroll for the senior citizen discount. I'm sure you could pass,” Mina replied.
“I knew it!” Nan gasped, pushing her favorite cupcake away and pulling out some age-defying lotion from her purse. She began to lather her skin with urgency.
Mina started laughing, but gasped out loud when an intense heat flared up in her midsection, from the Grimoire. She put her fingers to her belly, and felt the Grimoire begin to pulse with life. The hair on the back of Mina's neck began to move and her body began to tingle. She frantically looked around the room in preparation for an attack. She even stood up and put her back to the wall, ready to defend Nan.
