Chapter Eleven – Screw the Plan
When Ivy woke up on Saturday morning, she was a little surprised to find her cousin in the kitchen, dressed in sweats and a tank top. Those were her “stay at home clothes” and normally by this time of the morning (it was almost 11:30), Mina was dressed and out somewhere. “Somewhere” usually being the library or a coffee shop or somewhere else she could pore over her hundreds of pages of notes and read books with titles like: If You Don't See Us, We're Not Here: Non-Magic Relations in the 21st Century. But this morning, here she was, standing in the kitchen rinsing off a couple of plates and clearly not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. This was also strange – Mina never did dishes without magic if she could help it.
“Morning,” Ivy greeted her with a yawn, heading straight for the refrigerator in search of yogurt for her breakfast.
“Hey!” Mina looked up from her dishes briefly to greet her cousin brightly.
“You're very chipper this morning.”
Mina shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
“What time did you get in last night? I went to bed around midnight and you still weren't back,” Ivy informed her inquisitively. Usually when Mina was out that late, Ivy knew where she was. She'd been a little worried.
“Oh, I'm not sure. Two or three, I think.”
“Oh. Where were you?” She sat down at the counter with her yogurt and a box of granola.
“You know...just out.” Mina shrugged evasively and turned her attention back to the dishes.
Ivy, curious as always, was about to ask another question, but was shocked into silence when Justin appeared in the kitchen, having apparently just come from Mina's bedroom. Ivy froze, mouth wide open and her spoon in the air as Justin walked past her nonchalantly.
“Hey, Ivy,” he greeted her with a smile as he approached her cousin.
“Hi, Justin,” she replied, trying not to let her shock seep into her voice. She wasn't entirely successful.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better, thanks.”
“Good.” He turned his attention to the woman standing next to him, sliding an arm around her waist and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I've gotta go, I'll call you later, okay?”
“Okay.” She paused to give him a peck on the lips. “See you later.”
“Bye. Bye, Ivy,” he added as he headed towards the front door.
“Bye.” Ivy allowed her jaw to drop open in shock as Justin disappeared from the apartment. Mina was purposely avoiding eye contact with her. “Mina...”
“Don't.” Her cousin to turned to look at her, shaking her head sheepishly.
Ivy gaped at her. “Did you-”
“Yes.”
“Are you supposed to-”
“No.”
“Oh.” There was a long pause on Ivy's end as she tried to decide how to react. She had barely even heard Mina talk about Justin as anything other than a research subject, and now here she was, waking up to find that he had spent the night. She couldn't think of anything to say. “Mina!”
“I know,” Mina groaned, sitting down next to her cousin. She was a little appalled with herself, to say the least. There had been a plan from the beginning – date the guy, tell the guy you're a witch, see what happens. Sleeping with Justin had definitely not been part of the plan.
“Is that even, like...ethical?”
“Not really, no. It wasn't supposed to happen. But we were having fun and we were both kind of drunk...and you know how I can be when I've been drinking.”
“Apparently very slutty.”
“Hey!” Mina elbowed her cousin in protest and Ivy laughed.
“Mina Andromeda McKinnon!” an angry female voice interrupted their conversation unexpectedly.
“Oh God,” Mina groaned. She glanced over in the direction the voice had come from and found her mother's face glaring back at her from the television set. “What's up, Mama?”
“I am very disappointed in you, young lady!” Evelina McKinnon's voice rang out full of irritation as her daughter walked over to the television and settled down on the couch in front of it.
“Why, what did I do?” Mina frowned. She was fairly certain her mother hadn't heard the conversation she'd just been having with Ivy, and to her knowledge she hadn't done anything else disappointing recently, but it would be just like her mother to dig up something she didn't know about and make sure she felt bad about it.
“Can you please explain to me why I had to find out from Hazel Wicklow that my niece had been attacked when my own daughter is living with her and more than capable of keeping me informed about such things?”
Well, there was that.
“Oh.” Mina's frown deepened as she realized her mother was probably right – Evelina had in many ways been even more of a mother figure to Ivy as had her own mother and Mina should have known she would want to be told immediately about her niece's state. “Yeah, it's just been so crazy around here since it happened, I haven't really had a chance to-”
“It takes two seconds to send a note, Mina. Quite literally, two seconds,” her mother interjected. “And come to think of it, I haven't heard from you in months. Is something wrong? Have you been eating? Avery tells me you've got a new boyfriend and he looks untrustworthy.”
“Oh, how would Avery know?” Mina huffed. “He just doesn't like him because he isn't a wizard. Like wizards are so trustworthy. Who attacked Ivy in the club the other night? A fucking wizard.”
“Well, I wouldn't know because my daughter didn't bother to tell me about it.”
“Besides, that he's not even a real boyfriend, he's just...” Mina had continued on her rant as though her mother hadn't attempted to interrupt, but was stopped short when she came to this familiar part of the rant. She'd been about to say “he's just part of my research,” but her mother had an uncanny ability to force her to be honest and as she wasn't entirely sure this was true anymore, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
“He's just what?” Evelina said.
“Hey, Auntie.”
Mina was extremely grateful that her cousin had chosen this moment to enter the room. Ivy had been hanging back into the kitchen, invisible to the limited eye of Evelina, but she now settled down right next to Mina on the couch, a serene smile on her face.
“Oh, hello, dear.” The accusing tones immediately turned softer as the head in the television set turned to look at the new arrival. “How are you?”
“I'm fine. So much better. And you mustn't blame Mina for not letting you know about what happened. It really has been ridiculously crazy around here. She had to stay up all night at the hospital with me and then get me home and then she's been dealing with all the aftermath of taking caring of me and fielding people's questions...we figured Charlie would have told you.”
“Yes, of course, I understand sweetie.”
Evelina beamed at both of the girls, shooting Mina a proud look that her daughter could only assume was in response to the fact that she had spent the past week taking care of Evelina's favorite niece. Her face fell again as something Ivy had just said registered.
“Charlie knew?”
“Yeah.” Mina nodded vigorously. “He arrived the same time I did but had to go back to London soon after. Didn't he tell you?”
“Obviously not! Well, if you'll excuse me girls, I have a son to visit. Take care of yourself, Ivy. You too, Mina.”
And without even waiting for a response from either of the girls, there was a loud popping noise and the television screen suddenly went blank. Mina turned to her cousin, slightly awed.
“Well done. That was like a record time turn around.”
“I do what I can,” Ivy laughed.
“You are very good at what you do.” Mina sank into the couch, realizing that she'd been sitting on the edge of it during the entire conversation with her mother. “Honestly, that woman drives me crazy. Even things that are in no way my fault somehow become my fault. I don't know how she does it.”
“She means well,” said Ivy. “And anyway, she's way better than my mother. At least she's concerned. I'm kind of surprised my mom hasn't sent me a letter saying, 'tell that guy at the club I said “well done.” I think he's got the right idea about you.'”
Mina frowned at the way Ivy laughed as she said this. She shook her head.
“That's not funny, and also not true. Your mom cares about you. I know she gives you a hard time sometimes, but she would never wish any harm upon you.”
Ivy shrugged. It was a well known fact that it had been a great disappointment to her mother that her first daughter had turned out to have no magical abilities, and it was widely believed that the six born after her were the result of a desire to compensate. Ivy had always felt that she was her mother's least favorite and Virginia McKinnon had never done quite enough to squash those feelings.
“Maybe not, but you know if she hadn't had me as a daughter and she heard about a case like mine, she would think nothing of it,” insisted Ivy. “My mother is not exactly the most tolerant person in the world. It's the whole reason your dad didn't want my dad to marry her.”
“Then I guess it's a good thing she got you as a daughter. You've helped her realize how wrong she was about non-magic people.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Her tone told Mina that she was not even close to being convinced, but she didn't want to argue about it anymore. As if to ensure that there was no hope of Mina pressing the issue, Ivy changed the topic as swiftly as possible.
“So what are you going to do about Justin, then?”
Mina rolled her eyes. It seemed hardly possible that she could have forgotten about Justin, but the unexpected appearance of one's mother in the television set could sometimes be distracting.
“I don't know. I guess I either have to tell him or break up with him. Neither is according to plan, but it's the right thing to do.”
“I think you've made a wise decision.” Ivy patted her cousin consolingly on the leg and stood up. “I've been feeling tons better, so Belle, Ralph and I were going to go out for some coffee or a drink or something later. Something quiet, of course,” she added hastily when she saw the apprehensive look on Mina's face. “And we were thinking of inviting Adam too, if you want to come. I think you should.”
“Sure.” Mina agreed with a smile, only half paying attention to what she was agreeing to as her thoughts drifted to the decision she was now faced with. In the day after consummating her “relationship” with the man who was supposed to be mere research for her thesis, was it better to admit to him that she was a witch and the whole relationship had, from the beginning, been an attempt to secure the highest grade possible in a graduate university course or to simply break it off with him, claiming that she didn't see how the relationship could be going anywhere?
It was the toughest decision she'd had to make in a while.
* * *
“And where the hell have you been?” Izzie greeted her cousin as he appeared on the very patio they had been sitting on the night before.
It was nearly 9:30 in the evening, and Justin had not been seen or heard from since he'd disappeared from the party the previous night. If it weren't in her nature to not really care where he was, Izzie might have been worried. Trace had been a little.
“Yeah, I second that question,” the latter piped up from the other side of the patio, where he was sitting trying to tune the guitar he was learning to play.
“Work,” Justin replied simply. “I know it's not something that either of you are particularly familiar with, so let me explain-”
“Oh, shut your fat face, you didn't come home at all last night and you weren't at work then, were you, smart ass?” Izzie have him an obligatory smack upside his head as he sat down next to her.
“Nope.” Justin shook his head, trying to suppress a grin. “I was definitely not at work.”
“You're grossing me out.”
“Just answer the damn question, Timberlake,” Trace chimed in irritably. He could not get the guitar to sound right no matter what he did.
Justin stood up and walked over to where Trace sat, despite the fact that he himself had just sat down. He seized the guitar from his friend and took over the task of tuning, which he was immediately far more successful at.
“I was at Mina's.”
Izzie choked on the unsightly gulp of water she'd just taken and Trace's jaw dropped in an extremely unattractive manner as Justin played a few, perfectly tuned chords on the guitar.
“Excuse me?” Izzie finally found her voice to say. “You were where?”
“At Mina's,” Justin repeated slowly, handing the guitar back over to Trace who stared at it with a mixture of awe and aggravation.
“What'd you do, drug 'er?” Izzie asked.
“Of course not! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I'm just sayin', it took you how long to get her to even kiss you? And suddenly she's Miss Come Over to My Place? Seems doubtful.”
Justin gaped at Izzie, completely baffled by what he was hearing. His cousin spent so much time bugging him and telling him that he needed to get laid, and now he finally did, she did all in her power to completely ruin it.
“I don't even know what to say to you, woman.”
“Look, I'm not that surprised,” Trace said.
“Thank you!”
“I mean, the girl obviously digs you. Don't ask me why,” he added, giving Izzie a significant look, which she returned with a nod. “But I kind of figured that's where you'd got to. You were both pretty hammered, anyway.”
“So how was it?” Izzie had clearly overcome her shock and now moved onto the next order of business. Justin didn't even bother being appalled or trying to refuse an answer, as a small part of him did want to talk about it. It had been bothering him a bit.
“It was...kind of weird.”
“Weird...good? Or weird...I don't want to know?” Trace asked as Izzie frowned.
“Just weird. Like everything was going fine and everything, but there are just these little things that have been bothering me, you know? Like I distinctly remember falling off the bed, but I don't remember hitting the ground...and I remember the light going out, but I don't know how. Mina just liked waved her hand and it was all dark all of a sudden and-”
“Justin,” Izzie cut him off, raising a hand to stop him talking any more. “You were very drunk. This is all probably due to a very foggy memory. And here I thought he was going to tell us she wanted to tie him up or some shit...”
“Seriously,” Trace muttered.
“Maybe.” Justin seemed unconvinced. “And then this morning, when I was waking up I heard her kind of freaking out. She kept saying, 'oh shit, oh shit, oh shit' and 'I'm horrible' and things like that. Like she'd made some huge mistake or something.”
“Well, she kind of did...by waiting so long to do it with you,” Izzie added at the last minute upon a stern look from Trace, who did not think this was the time to be teasing Justin.
“I dunno. Maybe I'm making too much out of it, because she made me breakfast and everything and she seemed perfectly fine and happy then...”
“I'm sure you're just overreacting,” Trace assured him.
“I'm inclined to agree,” Izzie stated grudgingly.
* * *
To Ivy's great annoyance, though everyone else proved quite oblivious, Mina was not great company that afternoon. The two girls, accompanied by Belle, Ralph and Adam had found a wizard pub is West Hollywood that was rarely visited due to the fact that it was owned by an old dwarf who was quite disenchanted with wizards and was known to hurl insults at any who entered his bar. As a result, it was mostly other magical persons and creatures who frequented the bar, and Ivy could easily sit in it without being questioned about being attacked. They had all ordered their drinks of choice and, eager to get away from the barman who had promptly told Ralph and Adam that he reserved the right to refuse service to them if they made any cracks about his height, quickly retreated to a table in the corner across from a couple of friendly looking wizards who, Adam commented, looked like they were probably werewolves. Mina had barely said a word since.
“You know, Ivy,” Adam was saying between sips of a beer with a strangely minty smell. “If you ever wanted to stop working at that coffee shop, my office is looking for a new non-magic liaison, and I think you'd be perfect for the job. I find that non-magics who grew up in magic families are the best at the work, because they have an understanding of both sides, you know? I think you should consider it.”
“Don't you need a degree in non-magic studies or something?” Ivy asked. She looked extremely skeptical at the prospect of working in any environment much more magical than the coffee shop. And Ralph and Belle were looking a bit insulted at the suggestion that their place of employment was not good enough for Ivy.
“Well, usually,” Adam said. “But your life experiences more than qualify you and I can certainly put in a good word for you if you're interested.”
“I don't know...that sounds more like something that Mina would be good at.”
Mina,who had been stirring her drink absentmindedly looked up at the mention of her name. “What's that?”
Ivy glared at her. “Adam thinks I should try and get a job where he works. Non-magic relations or something like that. I just said it sounds much more like your cup of tea than mine.”
“Oh no, sounds great for you. I'm not so good at that stuff,” Mina said glumly.
“Oh, will you stop sulking and just go see your boyfriend?” Ivy's irritation finally betrayed itself in her voice.
“Sorry?”
“If you're just going to sit there ignoring us and pouting because you screwed up your research, then go see Justin and get whatever it is you have to do over with. Then come back and tell us how it went.”
“Oooh, what happened?” Belle piped up eagerly. She was always more than ready to live vicariously through Mina. “Are we ever going to get to meet this boyfriend, incidentally? I'm really curious about him. Oooh, maybe we could go bowling!”
“She slept with him.”
“Ivy!”
“What? You did. The people want to know.”
Mina gazed at her cousin, in shock that Ivy would put her personal business out like that, while everyone else at the table was looking at her with an equal amount of shock. They certainly hadn't expected Ivy to say what she had even more than Mina had.
“She slept with Justin last night and now she has to either tell him she's a witch or break up with him, in both cases prematurely ending her little experiment, because she crossed the line,” Ivy explained to the others in a professional manner.
“I should say so,” Belle agreed.
“Jesus,” muttered Ralph.
“Oh, and don't you have anything to say about my personal life which is none of your business?” Mina snapped at Adam when he remained silent, simply gaping at her as though he'd never seen her before.
“No,” Adam said. “I mean, normally I would be furious and say that I think you've greatly abused your position as a researcher, but this seems so unlike you that all I can think is...you must have had your reasons.”
“Well, I didn't. I had no reasons. I just did it, because I'm a horrible person. Is that okay with you all?”
She downed the rest of her drink in one gulp and stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
“Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go fix it.”
* * *
Justin had come across a cheeseburger, which was possibly the tatiest cheeseburger in the universe...and he was going to get to eat it. He really couldn't recall the last time he'd been so excited about something, so he took it into his hands and brought it towards his mouth eagerly. Just before he could take a bite, it started muttering at him, “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit...I'm a horrible person!” He was a little freaked out, so he dropped it and next thing he knew, there was a pounding coming from somewhere and Izzie's voice was yelling, “Justin, will you get the door? Who the hell is knocking at this time of night?”
He opened his eyes and realized that he was lying on the couch in his apartment, having fallen waiting for some film to develop in the makeshift dark room he'd made in the walk in closet down the hall. Then he realized that someone was, in fact, pounding on the door, and he rolled off the couch in an effort to get to it. It proved a very efficient method and seconds later, Mina McKinnon was standing, looking frazzled and tired and as though she'd been walking for hours.
“Hey,” he greeted her, rubbing his eyes. “What are you-?”
“Can I come in?” she asked before he could finish his question.
“Sure.” He glanced at his watch as she hurried into the house and he shut the door behind her. “Mina, it's 1 am.”
“I'm aware.” She was looking around the room as though trying to make sure that there was no one there to hear what she was saying, and when she finally made eye contact with Justin, she didn't seem quite convinced. “I need to talk to you.”
“Apparently.”
“No one can hear what I'm about to say to you.”
“It's just Izzie here and she's upstairs, so...I think we're okay.” He frowned slightly, a little confused by Mina's manic behavior. He hadn't been wrong when he'd claimed she was a bit psychotic, that much was certain.
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“No, not pretty sure, I need you to be sure.”
“Look, we'll go in here,” Justin gestured to the door that lead to the dark room. “She definitely won't be able to hear us in there.”
“Good.”
Mina followed him silently into the room and shut the door behind them. The pictures had finished developing, and were hanging from where they'd been drying all around the room. Mina glanced around at them, but didn't really seem to see them, merely using them as a means to not look at Justin as she spoke.
“Listen, I'm about to tell you something and you have to promise me that you won't freak out or yell or call me names or anything like that okay?”
“Okay.” The slow way he said it was a stark contrast to the lighting fast speed with which Mina was speaking. She was scaring him a little and he was sure that he was about to tell him that she was secretly married or a murderer or something equally awful.
“Do you remember last night, when I turned the light off and you asked me how it happened because I hadn't touched the switch or anything?”
“Yes.”
“Well...here's the thing.” She turned to face him, but stopped talking as her eyes fell on a picture hanging behind him. He'd taken it the night they'd gone to celebrate his new job. It was the first time they'd kissed and the night Ivy had ended up in the hospital. She was huddled next to him and his arms were stretched out, taking the picture of both of them grinning widely. Her voice caught in her throat and she didn't continue.
“What?” Justin prompted her after several minutes of silence. She'd seemed so anxious to talk before and now there wasn't a single sound coming from her mouth.
“I...” her voice trailed off and then she changed her tactic. “Look, that really has nothing to do with why I came here. I just came to say that...I don't like people, Justin. Not really. I just study them. I look at people like they're books for me to read and glean information from. It's not the same thing as liking them, you know? But...I kind of like you, and I don't know why, because you're not...I mean, you're not the kind of person I thought I'd like. But I like you a lot and last night...I was really happy. I don't remember the last time I was that happy with another person when I wasn't taking notes about them.”
“Oh.” He couldn't think of anything else to say. After the opening about lights switching off unexpectedly, this was not what he had expected.
“Does that freak you out?”
“No,” he replied, surprised that he meant it. “No, not at all.”
He reached his arms out to her and pulled her into a hug, placing a quick kiss on the top of her head and he could have sworn he heard her mutter, “It will.”
Incomplete
Fionnuala is the author of 6 other stories.
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