Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 5)

Brody chuckled and rubbed the back of his head as he scanned the crowd of girls next in line. He froze when his gaze met Mina’s.

Since the squad had come to watch Savannah, that made Mina the next person in line. The five dollar bill in her hand trembled with her nerves, and she looked up at Brody. His face was flushed, and he hurriedly wiped at his mouth.

Mina took a deep breath and tried to calm her temper. It should have bothered her a lot more to see them kiss, but, frankly, it didn’t. What hurt her was that he didn’t pull away.

There was no way she would kiss him after Savannah. She didn’t want sloppy seconds. A small part of her wanted to go away and ignore all this, but he’d just—thirty minutes ago—offered her his ring again. Who did that and then kissed their ex like that? She stepped forward, shoved her five dollars into the acrylic donation box and looked along the group of guys. There were quite a few she knew by name, but there were also some she didn’t know. One was standing off to the side watching her intently. He had sandy brown hair, green eyes, and a hard mouth—and looked slightly out of place among the other guys. Something about the way he looked at her made up her mind.

Her hand pointed at him, and his eyes went wide. He stepped forward, and she could see confusion among the water polo team members as they all watched Brody.

“What’s your name?” she whispered as the green-eyed guy came over.

He wore a gray jersey shirt and generic blue denim jeans. He smiled at her. “Whatever you want it to be,” he said in a low voice.

“That’s not funny,” Mina chastised. Her hands went sweaty.

“It’s not meant to be.” He leaned on his elbows across the booth and waited expectantly.

Mina leaned forward and was about to kiss him, when her eyes glanced over at Brody. He had stood up and was being held back by T.J. He looked angry, his fist clenched. But he also seemed hurt and confused by this stranger in the booth.

As much as she wanted to try and get even, she realized that wasn’t the kind of girl she wanted to be. Mina shook her head and leaned back. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. I made a mistake.” A look of anger flashed in the stranger’s green eyes at her change of heart.

“No, you didn’t,” he growled. Fast, he leaned across the table and pressed his lips to hers.

It shocked her. Literally, there was a shock as his warm mouth pressed to hers, and she froze, unable to move. There was something about that tone—that voice—she knew very well. Her heart sped up, and her hands shook. His strong hands gripped her shoulders as he kissed her. Angrily.

First she was filled with fear, then curiosity. She could feel his anger drain away during the kiss. Then it stopped being angry and turned gentle. He pulled away and tenderly nuzzled her lips with his own. If he wasn’t holding her by the shoulders, she probably would have slid to the ground.

Mina couldn’t open her eyes, but the strange boy didn’t let go of her. Finally, when she opened them, she saw, not the green eyes of the stranger she’d picked out of a crowd, but the dark blue eyes that haunted her dreams. How in the world, out of the fifteen guys to choose from, had she picked her enemy in disguise?

He stared into her eyes, daring her to say something. He wasn’t hiding who he was from her anymore, and she wondered if everyone could see what she saw. He smiled in triumph.

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“Never,” Teague warned under his breath just as T.J’s hand gripped his shoulder. He turned in surprise, and his grip loosened just enough for her to slip out of it.

Mina realized that Brody was nowhere in sight, and she used the moment to dart into the crowd and disappear into the fair.

Chapter 6

What had she done?

Mina ran through the crowds of people and ducked behind the chipped yellow and blue house of mirrors. Her trembling hand touched her lips as she tried to process what had just happened. She’d been about to kiss a stranger to get back at Brody but decided she couldn’t do that to him. And the strange boy she picked out of the group happened to be Teague, wearing a glamour. What were the chances, and what did it mean?

Why was he even at the fair, and why the kissing booth? She wracked her brain and remembered that he had been standing there for a while. He’d probably somehow instigated the whole Savannah and Brody kiss, knowing Mina was in the line and would see—his own way of tormenting her. Except that it hadn’t really worked. She didn’t feel jealous at the sight of Brody kissing the other girls.

Could it be that her heart was finally catching up with her mind? That she was outgrowing her high school crush? She needed to search for the others, but she found herself back at the Date a Cheerleader booth. The whole squad had returned from their break to resume their dating fundraisers.

The line of guys had formed again, and Mina was close enough to overhear Savannah and Pri talking.

“So do you think he’ll leave her for you?” Pri asked.

Savannah had pulled out her compact and was fixing her lipstick, wiping where kissing Brody had smeared it. “He’d be dumb if he didn’t. I don’t get what he sees in that Grimey golddigger. But for a moment there, he really was kissing me back, just like old times.”

A Grimey golddigger? Mina stormed past the dunk tank and flicked her hand at the target. Mina was so angry she didn’t even realize she’d released a burst of power toward the tank. The dunk lever depressed and sent Savannah screaming into the tank. She spewed out water and started screaming at Pri to find her a towel.

Then, while Savannah was still inside the tank, a crack stretched along the clear acrylic and fanned out. Seconds later, the tank burst and water spilled out and knocked the entire squad of cheerleaders from their feet. They gasped and screamed and tried to stand, but all they could do was slip and slide in the mud.