People disappeared often, and instead of realizing the obvious—that Selmo was the most boring city in the entire world and of course they would leave if they could—people liked to blame the imaginary fae.
It’d become a sort of weird small-town habit to blame them for any bad thing that happened, even something as ridiculous as this.
“You actually believe the fae are real?” Rissa mocked Ethan, standing up for me. “I guess you’re as dumb as you look.”
“Oh, they’re definitely real,” Ethan swore with mock innocence. “Although...” He looked me up and down. “You’re right, they’re supposed to be good-looking. I should’ve known better.”
My face flamed.
I lifted a hand up to my plain brown hair and brown eyes, self-consciously brushing a finger through my bangs to straighten them out. Clumps of snow fell out as I did, leftover spray from the snowball. The throbbing pain in my cheek told me I probably had a huge red spot on my usually pale skin and that Ethan hadn’t bothered to check if his snowball had ice.
I cleared my throat, trying to ignore him and his friends and the way half my face was on fire, and swiveled around to look at the ground. “Where’s my phone?” The colorful phone case should’ve stood out against the snow. It was custom—an early Christmas present from Mom—with pretty bookshelves full of vintage books and flowers.
“Um... It’s not good,” Olive said in response, which didn’t make sense at first. That wasn’t what I’d asked at all.
I turned to find her holding it out to me.
My brand-new iPhone, the one I’d worked hundreds of shifts at the library and saved up for months to get, had a massive spiderweb of cracks filling the entire top half of the screen.
“No...” I whispered. Swallowing hard, I blinked quickly, trying not to cry and give Ethan something else to make fun of.
“You’re really not supposed to throw those,” Ethan called, shrugging as if it weren’t a big deal. Maybe to him it wasn’t. Not everyone in Selmo struggled to make ends meet. But for me, I’d have to work a million more part-time shifts at the library to afford to fix it.
“Yep,” was all I said in response.
I wish I could say this was because I was taking the high road, but it was more that I could never think of a good comeback on the spot. Whenever I tried, I always gave him or his friends more ammunition.
“That’s all you’re going to say?” Rissa hissed at me, running to catch up as I tucked my injured phone into my coat pocket and continued down the path without a word.
Olive caught up too, holding up her own sparkly pink phone to show a video. “You guys should see this.”
I held my breath and stopped walking. My impressive fall from a minute ago happened in slow motion on the screen. A second later, snickers behind us had me moving again, shoulders hunched.
“Seriously, he’s a jerk. You have to stand up to him, Brynn,” Rissa snapped, speed walking next to me, glaring back over her shoulder. Her dark eyeliner and dyed-black hair contributed to her overall fierce confidence, which I wished I could emulate.
“What do you want me to say?”
Olive frowned, blue eyes glued to her phone, thumb swiping over and over. “Maybe it’s better she didn’t say anything.” At first, I was glad she took my side, until she added, “They would’ve just recorded that too.”
Even she thought I was a loser who could never say the right thing.
“Let’s just go enjoy the movie.” Rissa looped her arm through mine as the path ahead split, tugging me to the left, toward the theater.
But as we reached the intersection, I slowed. “I don’t really want to go anymore.”
“Seriously, Brynn?” Olive brushed her dark blond hair out of her face as she looked up from her phone. “Don’t let them get to you.”
“Yeah,” Rissa agreed. “It’s not that big of a deal. They’ll forget about it by the time the movie is over.”
But I wouldn’t.
“I know it’s not a big deal,” I lied. “But now I need to save all my money to fix the screen.”
Olive’s nose scrunched up. “I can buy the snacks. It’s my turn next week anyway.”
“But there’s also the ticket,” I said lamely.
Rissa turned her glare on me, not believing a word. “You can’t just wallow in your room all day. Come on, Brynn.”
