Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 2)

The path to the house was marked with stone steps and lined with gardenias. A beautiful porch wrapped around the whole house offering rockers, benches, and the occasional swing. She decided to follow the porch around to the back of the house, where she found another outdoor seating area with blankets and an expensive outdoor fireplace. Mina was secretly envious, and she hadn’t even been inside yet. Entering through the back led Mina right to the heart of the house, the kitchen.

The kitchen had the latest state of the art appliances, granite marble countertops, three separate ovens, an indoor grill, and a huge island. Mina found Nan sitting on the island, talking animatedly to two students.

“Mina, good, you’re finally here. Look who came,” Nan motioned towards her company, and Mina stopped when she immediately recognized one of them. It was Brody with a girl. No, wait, that wasn’t a girl with short blonde hair. It was Valdemar, Brody’s cousin.

Both Brody and Valdemar turned to greet her. Brody quickly looked away, barely making eye contact. Valdemar walked over and gave Mina a warm welcome like they were long lost friends.

“Good to see you, Nina.” He opened his arms wide and pulled her into a quick and awkward hug.

“Good to see you again, Valdemar, and it’s Mina,” she corrected.

“That’s what I said, lass. You mustn’t have heard me right. And tonight, just call me Peter.” He backed up a step and leaned against the island pressing a shoulder accidentally against Nan. Her cheeks burned red, and her eyes flickered toward Valdemar/Peter and quickly away.

Brody nodded his head in greeting, meeting her eyes with the barest hint of question burning behind them. She knew without a doubt that he was going to approach her tonight and talk to her. She turned and looked over the table full of snacks and drinks; she had seen another table just like this filled with food outside as well. Nan’s mom and Dr. Martin really knew how to throw a party. Mina wondered briefly where they were until the roar of a boat engine revving to life drew her attention out the window toward the lake.

There Dr. Martin and Veronica could be seen taking a group of kids out onto the lake in his speed boat. She watched in fascination as the four teens, wearing bright orange life jackets, screamed in excitement when he steered to the middle of the lake and hit the throttle. They quickly became little bouncing balls of orange as they skittered across the lake at breakneck speed.

Briefly, Mina wondered why Nan wasn’t out there enjoying the boat ride, until she remembered her famous company. Nan was hiding out in the kitchen trying to keep Peter all to herself. She knew that once everyone else saw him the party would quickly congregate to wherever he was, which also meant that she was probably going to hide him from most of her guests for as long as possible. She had no idea how Nan was going to accomplish keeping his anonymity; she was just glad that she didn’t have to do it.

Brody followed Mina to the snack table and began to fill up a paper plate with small, rectangular sandwich bites. Mina grabbed a two liter bottle of Coke and began to fill her own blue plastic cup with the bubbly goodness when Nan caught her off guard.

“Mina, have you seen Jared lately? I invited him, but I haven’t seen him at school.” Nan spoke innocently enough, but the question spooked Mina and she lost control of the two liter bottle, dropping it into her cup and flipping both onto the floor. The two liter rolled under the table spilling pop in its wake.

“Stink!” Mina dropped to her knees and raced under the table to upright the bottle. With a pile of napkins, she haphazardly began to mop up the spilled mess. It wasn’t even close to enough napkins.

Brody ducked under the table and handed her another stack of napkins. With his own stack, he began to help clean up the quickly spreading puddle. Her hands shook in embarrassment; she could feel her cheeks and neck burning. She stopped mopping to glance at him. He wore a blue shirt, which complemented his eyes, and in this close of quarters she could smell his cologne. He must have sensed her staring at him because he looked right at her and smiled out of the corner of his mouth.

Mortified at being caught staring, Mina jumped up but bashed her head on the underside of the table making it move three inches to the right.

It didn’t matter how much of a gentleman he was, no one could see that and not laugh.

He chuckled at her clumsiness when she plopped right back down into her soppy napkin and pop mess. “Are you all right?” he asked trying to mask his own laughter.

Mina clutched her head and shot dagger filled looks of hate at the table. “No, I doubt I will ever be classified as all right.”

The table moved above her as Nan and Peter shifted the heavy oak table away. Nan had found a mop, and Peter had retrieved a large roll of paper towels. Between the two of them, they cleaned up Mina’s mess in record time.

There were no words to describe her humiliation at having Brody, and his rock star cousin cleaning up her mess. What was worse was that Mina was now soaked in brown pop. It had spilled all over her shirt and shorts. She was on the verge of crying when Nan came to the rescue again.

“Hey,” she whispered, grabbing Mina’s hand and pulling her to the side. “Go upstairs, and the first door on the right is the guest room. It’s where you will be sleeping tonight. You brought extra clothes right? Then just go change and throw your clothes in the upstairs washer.” She patted Mina encouragingly on the shoulder and nudged her toward the stairs.

Slowly she trudged up the stairs. Her feet felt like lead as her own worries and anxiety weighed her down emotionally. She found the bedroom and opened her backpack to grab the first pair of shorts and shirts she found. Not even caring if they matched, she slowly walked into the bathroom to rinse out her clothes and change. Her movements became sluggish as she tried to delay her return to the kitchen.

In a house filled with people, she felt completely alone. When she had cleaned her clothes as much as possible, Mina wiped her hands on a soft hand towel, gathering the courage to look into the bathroom mirror and inspect her eye makeup. Only it wasn’t her soft brown eyes looking back at her in the mirror. They were someone else’s, and they were angry.

Chapter 17

Mina screamed. She leapt away from the bathroom sink and crashed into the wall, her mouth open wide in terror as she tried to process what she was seeing. She could barely see her reflection in the bathroom mirror because it was faded in comparison to the other reflection coming through the mirror. She recognized those grey eyes. They were Jared’s. Once again, she was seeing his reflection.

He was angry and yelling at her. She couldn’t hear him, but she only needed to read his facial expressions and lips. He ran his hands through his dark hair in frustration, turned and pointed at her again, and continued yelling.

Mina shrugged her shoulders in response and pointed to her ears, symbolizing she couldn’t hear him. Jared cursed, or at least she thought he did. Clenching his fist, he slammed it against the mirror over and over in frustration and desperation. She saw the mirror twitch a little each time he hit it, or maybe she just imagined it. But either way, it looked like Jared was trapped in the mirror.

Jared became still and walked toward the glass. He leaned forward bringing his mouth close to the other side of the mirror. Taking a deep breath, he slowly breathed warm air onto the invisible barrier leaving a large circle of condensation. Quickly, he reached out one finger and began to write furiously backwards.

The words appeared on Mina’s side, simple, and short: HELP ME!