Where to? | An Unfortunate Fairytale Fan Fiction

Chapter 8

Mina followed Teague resignedly into the sunroom, where Nan awaited, sprawled out on a whicker framed couch with a glass of lemonade and a brownie.

“There you are! Hah, did you all get lost on the way or something?” Nan giggled, taking a big bite of the brownie and sighing in contentment.

“Something along those lines.” Teague answered cheerfully, pulling Mina onto a cushioned swing built for two. Brody just frowned and moved to sit on the other end of the couch Nan occupied.

“So, Tyler,” Nan began coyly, “What are you majoring in in college?”

Teague smiled, looking completely relaxed as he leaned into the cushioned swing. Mina felt squashed, however, even though the swinging chair was made for two people. Teague was bigger than she realized, and he didn’t seem to have any qualms whatsoever about her being squished against his side.

“Oh, I’m studying in Business Management. I think I’d thrive in a.. supervisory.. position in a large-scale corporation.” He told Nan, taking another corndog from his plate and swallowing it. They were almost all gone now.

Mina eyed him warily. Supervisory position, eh? The irony. “Oh, yes. Tyler is a born leader, that’s for sure.” She added, shooting Teague a look. He only snerked.

“Oh, Business Management?” Nan repeated, blinking incredulously. “Wow, Tyler, you sound so driven for a college guy! I mean, not that guys in college aren’t driven. It just seems that guys only want to mess around at your age. I bet you’d be great in the business world, though.  You’re probably one of those students with a really high GPA. Like, you sound really smart and that you’d probably-“

“Okay, Nan.” Brody interrupted, placing his hand lightly on her shoulder, “How about you get those CD’s you were telling me so much about..? You know, the British bands?”

Nan immediately perked up, completely abandoning whatever long, praising speech she’d started about Teague’s drive for success in his education and “the business world”, and the rest of that drivel. Mina let out a sigh of relief, when Nan leapt up and scurried out of the room and up the carpeted stairway. Whatever her deal was, she certainly was laying on her support of Mina and ‘Tyler’s relationship on thick. It was weird.

When she was long out of earshot, Brody turned his attention to Teague, his sky blue uncharacteristically hard. Then, that whole scene in the hallway was probably a signal that not everything was rainbows and pop-tarts in Brodyland at the moment.

“Business Management, huh?” He questioned sharply, “What kind of business, a crack house?”

Mina snorted loudly, then awkwardly tried to cover her choked back laughing with a cough.

Instead of threatening to saw Brody’s head off with a plastic spoon, like she’d expected him to do, Teague tossed back his head and laughed too, sounding utterly amused.

“A crack house? Ha!” Teague chuckled, wiping the corner of his eye. “That’s good. I might use that in the future.”

Brody’s eyes narrowed on him anyway, like he was trying to determine if Teague was a big sleazeball or a few McNuggets short of a Happy Meal.

“No, my blonde frenemy. Not a crack house. Though, believe me, the idea has merit.” Teague continued lazily, examining his fingernails. “But I was thinking more along the lines of a national or international leadership position- in the supervisory and management genre, of course. The career is a common one in my family, actually.” Mina almost snorted again. Yeah, no kidding.