Chapter 9 �“ Common Ground
There were many things that could be said about Isabella Timberlake - she was blunt, a little rude, ambitious, and oddly shy around people she didn't know very well. It could not, however, be said that she had trouble saying what was on her mind. Whatever else she was, Izzie was honest and forward. Which is why Justin was not the least bit surprised when he padded into their kitchen on Friday morning and was not greeted with a "hello" or "good morning," but a rather blunt "Where the hell did you get off to last night?"
"You're so charming," Justin responded to this greeting with a yawn. His head disappeared into the refrigerator as he searched for milk for his breakfast.
"Thank you. Answer the question, please." Izzie made a concerted effort to be a bit more polite.
"I called Mina after I got the call about the job and we went to celebrate."
The simple response required a lot less prying than Izzie had expected and she was pleased. Her cousin was usually a lot more difficult, and she could only hope this meant she had finally broken his spirit.
"Celebrate?" Izzie repeated, waggling her eyebrows suggestively as seemed only right in such a situation.
"Yeah." Justin sat down across from his cousin at the kitchen table and began shoveling cereal into his mouth unattractively.
"Finally kissed her?"
"Yeah."
"Seriously?" Izzie's eyebrows rose unnaturally high, nearly disappearing behind her bangs. This was not the answer she had been anticipating. So many jokes were going to waste because of it.
"Yep."
"How was it?"
"Uh, great." He paused to wipe a bit of milk that had spilled down his chin. "Until of course, someone called to tell her something about her cousin being in the hospital or something and she ran off without even really bothering to explain or let me do anything for her. You know, aside from that, it was an awesome night."
"Hmmm." Izzie frowned pensively. "I sense sarcasm."
"Well, you know, I'm getting kind of frustrated! It's like, first things are going at a snail's pace, and now we finally make a break through and she just runs off. I know there was an emergency or whatever, but she wouldn't even let me call her a cab. She's, like, semi-psychotic."
"Nice! Psychotic, such a flattering description!"
"I just…I don't even know what this is. I want to know where we stand. I want to know what this relationship even means to her."
"What are you, a girl?" The pride that Izzie had been temporarily feeling for her cousin finally getting some tiny semblance of action quickly vanished and was replaced by her usual accusatory tone. Justin ignored the question.
"I'm gonna go get dressed and go see her," he decided out loud and he stood up and placed his now empty bowl in the sink.
"'Kay." Izzie was barely paying attention anymore. "Bye, girl."
***
It had been the longest night of Mina's life. She could not remember the last time she had been so stressed out and gotten so little sleep, but it had probably been sometime during her undergraduate education at Wigglesworth. Finals had almost always managed to get the best of her. But that was nothing compared to sitting in a hospital room all night with a member of your family. It was, to say the least, not exactly the most enjoyable experience. It also didn’t help that Charlie had been called away halfway through said night, leaving her without the comfort and support of her big brother. Fortunately, there was Belle, who stuck around too. And, strangely enough, Adam, who had not only stayed the night with them but was now at the McKinnon apartment, having helped Mina magically transport her cousin and now helping them get settled.
As helpful as Adam had been, Mina was still a little surprised to find him in her kitchen making breakfast as she emerged from Ivy’s room, having just gotten her cousin settled.
“What the hell are you doing?” she inquired amicably, hand on hip and a slight smile on her face as she watched the man in question directing a few pancakes to flip themselves over.
“I thought you might be hungry. I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you eat a single thing in the past ten hours,” Adam replied.
“You don’t have to do that.” Mina slid wearily onto one of the barstools that sat next to the counter, her stomach grumbling in contradiction to her words.
“I know.” He smiled at her and sent a plate gliding over to her with a flick of his wand. “How’s Ivy? Hungry?”
“No, she just went to sleep. But I’m sure she’ll want something when she wakes up.”
“Well, we’ll leave some food for her.”
A couple of pancakes joined the gliding plate, settling in front of Mina and followed by a bowl of strawberries. She couldn’t help digging in the minute they stopped moving. She hadn’t realized until this moment quite how starving she was.
“Thanks,” she thanked Adam simply. “You really didn’t have to do this. You barely know us…but thanks.”
“Hey, no problem. I have a bit of a savior complex.” He grinned at her before settling down next to her with his own plate of food. “Plus, you know, I feel like I kind of owe you for not supporting Students for the Equal Treatment of All Magic and Non-Magic Peoples in high school.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if I’d shortened the title…”
“To what? SETAMNMP? Impossible. No one would have been able to pronounce it.”
“You’re so right.” Mina couldn’t help laughing. Adam, the most popular boy in her high school and thus the complete opposite of everything she had been at that age, was probably the last person that she would have expected to be sitting here with her in her apartment after the events of the night before. But for some reason, he felt like the perfect companion.
Adam opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the shrill and unexpected sound of the doorbell ringing. Mina’s brow furrowed as she wondered who it could be and she excused herself to go answer the door.
“Justin,” she greeted the man standing on her porch, a bit surprised to see him. In fact, she had almost forgotten about him in the hours that they had been apart, with so much on her mind. “What are you doing here?”
“I just came to check on you,” he replied, though he wasn’t being entirely truthful. “You left so quickly last night and gave me so little information…I was worried.”
“Oh, you didn’t have to-“
“I know that,” Justin interrupted her, something resembling irritation seeping into his voice. “I know I didn’t have to, I know you don’t want to tell me things, but I wanted to, okay?”
“Okay,” Mina replied softly, a little taken aback by the tone of his voice. She stepped out onto the porch with him, shutting the door behind her without even thinking about it.
“So, are you okay? Is your cousin okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, she’s fine; it was just a little accident. Nothing to be too worried about. And I’m sorry about last night, I just freaked and-“
“It’s okay.” He interrupted her again, and Mina was once again taken aback. There was something different about the way he was talking to her. Something like anger or frustration, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it.
“Justin, is something wrong?” she ventured. “You seem a little upset.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, the universal sign of frustration. “Yeah. No. I mean…I don’t know, Mina. I don’t want to bug you or whatever, I’m sure you’re tired and shit, but…”
“But what?” she urged him to continue.
“I guess I’m just confused about this thing we’re doing. Are we friends? Are we just casually dating? Are we more than that? I don’t have any idea what you’re thinking.”
“Oh.”
“I know this is 100% feminine of me, but it’s just been bugging me. I really like you, okay? You’re fucking weird, and I don’t know why I like you, but I do. And last night, I felt like we were finally getting somewhere and I was finally getting to know you a little bit more, and then…I just feel like you open up a little and then you shut me out. Like you’re hiding something from me, or you don’t really want any sort of relationship or…I don’t know. I just want to know what’s going on, and whether I should even waste my energy on this any more.”
“Oh,” she repeated. She was having trouble coming up with a more substantial response, as her heart had effectively dropped into her stomach when the phrase “like you’re hiding something from me” came out of his mouth. She had not been expecting to have this conversation this soon in the game and she wasn’t really sure what to do with it. Of course she was hiding something from him, but she wasn’t ready to tell him that. He wasn’t even really her boyfriend yet.
To her simultaneous relief and horror, Mina was rescued from really having to respond to the question when the door behind her opened and Adam appeared in the doorway.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he inquired innocently and Mina’s mouth dropped open slightly as she saw what looked like realization appear in Justin’s eyes.
“Oh,” it was his turn to say. “Right. So I guess that answers that.” And he turned to leave.
“No, wait!” Mina’s voice came out of her unexpectedly in an effort to stop Justin from leaving. She grabbed his arm and gently turned him back around to face him. “No, it’s not what you think. This is Adam, he’s just a friend from high school who helped me out with Ivy last night. That’s not why…he’s not…he has nothing to do with the fact that I’m weird, I promise.”
“That’s true, she’s weird on her own,” Adam concurred in response to Mina’s pleading look to him for help.
“Okay, so random guy from high school gets to help you, but I’m not even allowed to come along or know what’s going on?” Justin’s response was not quite as complacent as Mina had hoped.
“I’m gonna go back inside and let you guys work this one out,” Adam offered and disappeared back into the apartment before anyone had a chance to respond.
“No. Justin, come on,” Mina pleaded wearily. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I just freaked and had to leave, okay? It means nothing, I promise.”
“I mean, I know I’m not exactly your boyfriend or anything, but I thought we’re at least friends, it wouldn’t be so horrible for me to be with you when you’re having a hard time…” He didn’t even seem to really be paying attention to anything she was saying.
“You’re right, okay? You’re right. You are my friend. I should have let you in, I just have a hard time with that. I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry.”
There was a brief silence before Justin finally responded with a short, “Okay.”
“Okay,” Mina repeated. She rubbed her hand over her face wearily, a little unsure how this argument had begun with someone she’d only been dating for a few weeks. “Now, do you want to come inside? We have pancakes.”
***
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Justin stated succinctly. “Easily.”
“Really?” Mina was a little surprised. “I never would have guessed that.”
“Yeah, I know, I don’t really seem like the ‘classics they force you to read in school’ kind of guy,” he conceded. “But I read it when I was like fourteen and it just stuck with me, you know? It taught me a lot about the world and prejudice and all the shitty things that people do to each other. It remains my favorite book to this day. The movie was great to. Gregory Peck is amazing.”
“Definitely,” Adam agreed enthusiastically. “I saw that movie a couple of years ago and it really moved me. What a world we live in, huh? And it still kind of rings true today, which is the sad part.”
“So true.” Justin nodded as Mina stood and began to clear the dishes from the table. It was a good two hours after she’d invited Justin in, and she was kind of shocked by how well he and Adam were getting along. She’d expected to spend the whole time trying to keep Adam from saying anything incriminating, but he had seemed to understand the situation immediately and stayed away from any topic that might have given away her little secret. And yet, they all still seemed to have so much to talk about. They’d covered sports �“ apparently Adam was the only man in the magic world who actually followed basketball �“ music, and were now onto books. She of all people shouldn’t have been surprised at how easily their worlds mixed, but she was.
“What about you, Mina?” Mina was knocked out of her thoughts by Justin’s inquiry.
“What about me?”
“What’s your favorite book?” he clarified.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She shrugged, tipping the dishes into the sink, intending to wash them later when he was gone and she could use her wand.
“Come on, you’ve got to have at least one,” Adam prompted her. “I know you were little miss bookworm in high school.”
“Yeah, such knowledge you have of my life.” Mina rolled her eyes playfully. “You didn’t talk to me even once in high school.”
“No, but I knew who you were,” he reminded her.
“You knew of me, you didn’t know me,” she retorted, rejoining the men at the table. “So how could you possibly know how much I read?”
“Touché.”
“Wait, I thought you said you guys were friends in high school,” Justin interrupted.
“Ah, well, not exactly,” Mina replied truthfully. “I said he was a friend from high school. He is a friend, and he is from my high school, but we weren’t friends then. Adam was Mr. Popular Jock Guy in high school, and I was weird nerdy activist girl. We didn’t exactly hang around the same people.”
“Ah. So how are you friends now?”
“I became weird nerdy activist guy after high school,” Adam explained with a chuckle. “So now it’s a little more socially acceptable for me to be seen with her, I guess.”
“Ha, yeah right.” The set of chocolate brown eyes rolled again out of habit more than anything. “If there were anything socially acceptable about me and the people I hang around with, you wouldn’t even be here right now.”
“You are correct again,” Adam conceded once more. “And I better get going. I’ll check on Ivy on my way out.”
“Okay.” Mina nodded. “Thanks again for everything.”
“No problem.” He flashed a million watt smile and disappeared down the hall to check on Ivy. The next thing they knew he was gone from the premises completely and it was just Mina and Justin alone in the kitchen.
“He seems like a cool guy,” Justin finally broke the silence.
“Yeah, he is.”
“So are you ever going to tell me what happened last night, or is just going to remain a mystery to me forever?” he asked carefully.
“Um, well…” Mina sighed, trying to figure out how she could put this into terms he’d understand without her really explaining it to him. She stood up and returned to the sink, deciding to begin washing the dishes by hand. “It was a bar fight, basically. There was this guy who called Ivy a name and her friend Ralph got really mad and attacked him, and it just turned into this huge thing where a whole bunch of people got hurt. Totally stupid and out of hand.”
“Ah.” Justin nodded, seeming to understand. Then, of course, he had to ask a question that Mina wasn’t entirely sure she should answer. “What’d he call her?”
“What?”
“The guy at the bar. What did he call Ivy? Slut? Whore? Butthead?”
“Uh…” She paused, trying to decide how to proceed. “It’s an insult you wouldn’t understand. It’s sort of specific to the group of people that we grew up with.”
“Try me.”
Mina set the dishes down and turned to face the man who was still sitting at her kitchen table. He was looking at her inquisitively, and she wasn’t sure why he was so interested in this, but she didn’t really feel like she could lie to him about it. So she didn’t. “Immunda.”
“Gesundheit.”
“I told you you wouldn’t understand,” Mina laughed.
“So explain it to me.”
“So persistent today!”
“I’m intrigued! I love adding new insults to my vocabulary. I’d love to have one that I could use on Izzie without her understanding.”
“Okay, well, if I tell you, you have to promise to never use it. It’s really, really bad. It’s essentially the equivalent to a racial slur.” Mina had suddenly become very serious and when Justin nodded in agreement it was equally serious, so she felt she had to keep her word and answer his question. “Immunda is Latin. It means foul or impure. In the community that Ivy and I were raised in it’s used to describe people who are…sort of a lower class, you know? Like, not being in the same social class means that you’re essentially trash. No one who has any sort of respect for other human beings would ever use it, but unfortunately…sometimes it still gets used.”
“Okay, I get it.” Justin nodded as Mina turned back to her dishes. He wanted to ask what kind of community she was raised in where people used Latin insults, but as he saw a tear fall down her cheek he realized this probably wasn’t the best time. So he just stood up and went to join her by the sink.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized when she realized her one tear was beginning to turn into real crying.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I understand.” He instinctively wrapped his arms around her and her head fell onto his chest comfortably. “People are assholes. When I was a kid we pretty much had no money and I used to get made fun of all the time for coming to school with holes in my shoes and stuff. Being different can be hard. I get it.” He placed a soft kiss on her forehead and squeezed her a little tighter.
“Thanks.”
“Of course.”
They were both silent for what seemed like an eternity, just standing by the sink with their bodies pressed together in an intimate, but strangely comforting way.
“Hey,” Mina’s soft voice finally broke the silence.
“What?”
“C’mere.” Shifting slightly in his arms, she tilted her head up towards his and silently but firmly pressed her lips against his.
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