“Okay fine, but I wasn’t the one making out with it.” She splashed into the middle of the creek and picked up the golden ball. It slowly transformed from a ball into the regular notebook-shaped Grimoire Mina preferred.
“I wasn’t making out with it. I was trying to save the boys. If you’d come storming in here the other day and caught her, they would still be frogs under her spell.” He pointed toward the place where the boys had run down the creek. They were playing in the water, kicking and splashing each other happily. Oblivious to what had happened to them.
Jared knew that their minds would come up with some reasonable explanation for why they’d been missing for so long. The Fates would make sure it was all cleaned up. They didn’t like the Story to leave any loose ends.
“How do you know that they wouldn’t have turned back to normal? The Story has always reset it before. Like it did with Claire and Nan and…Brody.” Mina spoke her old boyfriend’s name softly, but not soft enough.
Jared heard the longing in her voice, and he scowled. He just could not make himself like the human boy. Brody wasn’t good enough for his Grimm.
Listen to me. I’m laying claim to Mina in my own mind.
“I just know!” he accidentally shouted at her. He hadn’t meant to say it like that.
Mina blinked, taken aback. “Well, you seem to know everything then! Maybe you could have helped me, told me what you knew about this quest instead of disappearing for days, slacking off. After all, I have quests to finish in order to break the curse on my family. You, on the other hand, seem not to care about the quests or me! You’re a selfish jerk.” She spun and started walking down the driveway.
He smiled a little when she turned to the left and started heading in the wrong direction. Her home was the other way. He sighed. He would have to go and pick her up and take her home, but not until he was sure everything was cleaned up here.
He only had to wait for a minute, before Ever showed up out of the darkness. She was back to wearing her Goth-punk look, and Jared admitted to himself that he liked that better on her.
“I see that you had no problem getting Mina back here tonight.” He turned and started walking along the creek bed listening carefully.
“Yeah, it was easy to sneak into her apartment and set all the timers to go off at eight o’clock,” Ever said as she flew next to him, her feet never touching the ground. “I mean, we are talking microwave, alarm clocks, wristwatch, the works. I also hid all of her pajamas and normal clothes in the attic so all she was left with were the black clothes you described to me that she wore the other night. She was all ready to come barreling over here, so it didn’t take much prodding.”
“And she didn’t see you?”
Ever scoffed and rolled her shoulders. “Duh, I told you. The gimp didn’t see me.”
Jared heard the sound he was searching for. It was ten yards down the creek and away from Kathleen’s house. He slowed his step and leaned down carefully. There in the weeds, he heard it again. A pitiful and lonely croaking. All the other bullfrogs were gone, and his call was the only one left in the night.
Quickly, he snatched the bullfrog up out of the reeds and held him in his cupped hands. Ever flew over to look at the frog and her face scrunched up. “What do you have?”
“Uh, I think your new roommate,” Jared chuckled sadly.
“Nope, not gonna happen. I don’t keep pets.” Ever backed away and crossed her arms over her chest, raising her chin in defiance.
“Ev—er!” Jared pleaded.
The pixie threw her hands up in the air. “Fine. Give him to me.” She pulled the frog out of Jared’s hands and spoke to him directly. “I hope you like Cheetos and hotdogs because I’m not about to start catching flies and digging up earthworms.”
The bullfrog just croaked happily at Ever. It seemed to perk up in her pretty little hands.
“And another thing, you are sleeping on the couch. Got that! Not my bed, not my drawers, not the couch.” She started to stroke the frog on the top of its head and the frog closed its eyes happily. It didn’t take long for her to change her mind about the bullfrog.
Jared grabbed Ever’s arm as she was about to leave. “One last thing.”
She turned and tapped her foot impatiently. “What, I need to get Froggy here home. I can already feel him drying out.”
He felt a small smile creep up at her intense need to protect the frog. “Uh, Ever, his name is Tom…and thank you.”
“Don’t mention it Jared, and I mean it. Don’t mention it…to anyone ever.”