Unfinished Muse Read Online Free Page A

it?”
    “Yes, please.” That should’ve been safe,
right? Hard to make mac and cheese gross.
    She plopped a generous helping on the plate
and handed it to me over the sneeze-guard. The motion pulled at her
sleeve and revealed her scaly wrist. I swallowed hard and took the
plate. As I moved down the line, I glanced back and saw a snaky
tail undulating behind the woman. Not behind. Attached.
    I shivered and grabbed a bottle of water and
a dinner roll.
    “That’s a lot of carbs,” the redhead said as
we waited behind the cash register.
    I made a face. “Nothing else looked
edible.”
    She lowered her voice so only I could hear.
“I don’t even know what I chose. I was so freaked out by the woman
behind the counter, I just pointed blindly.”
    We moved forward, and it was her turn at the
register. When she was done, she waited for me to pay for my
own.
    Without a word, we found an empty table and
sat together.
    “I’m Jillian Bean.” She took a tentative
bite of the brown muck on her plate.
    “Your name is Jillian Bean.” I kept my face
blank. I knew I was being juvenile, but I couldn’t stop it.
    See, Wynter? This is why you don’t have any
friends.
    She smiled. “Yes it is. Go ahead. I’ve been
called Jilly Bean most of my life. It stopped bothering me when I
was nine.”
    I smiled back at her. “I’m Wynter.” I paused
and lowered my voice. “Wynter Greene.”
    She gasped. “No! Oh, we’re going to be good
friends. You must’ve gotten even more crap than I did.”
    I nodded and bit into my roll. It was hard,
dry, and nearly broke my tooth. “At least yours is less
straightforward and kind of cute. Mine’s just stupid.”
    She shook her head in a dramatic way.
“Parents can be so cruel.”
    A middle-aged bald guy and a short Asian kid
slid their trays on our table and sat.
    “I’m Hal. We talking about our parents?” The
bald guy cracked open his water bottle and took a swig. “Because
Elmore and I have been trying to figure out the mysterious
genealogy that landed us here.” He stabbed at a piece of meat on
his plate and held it aloft with his fork. “What the hell is
this?”
    I looked at the three of them, as diverse as
three people could get. “I’m still kind of vague on what the hell
we’re all doing here. Or even where here is.”
    Hal wiped his mouth with a paper napkin.
“It’s pretty simple. Apparently, we’re all descendants of Greek
gods or heroes, and we all suck at life. That’s kind of a good
news, bad news thing.”
    I eyed Elmore, who was shoveling brown muck
into his mouth. “None of us look especially Greek. Anybody know who
the god in their family is?”
    Jilly shook her red curls. “My parents are
both completely normal humans disappointed in their daughter’s lack
of direction.”
    Hal shrugged. “My parents are long gone.
They died in a car accident when I was sixteen.”
    Elmore came up for air and sipped his Coke.
“Adopted.” He went back to eating.
    Jilly made a face, then slid her plate of
goop over to him. “What about you, Wynter? Parents?”
    “One. My mother is eccentric, but hardly
godlike. I don’t know anything about my father. I never knew him.”
I tasted my macaroni and cheese. It was gritty and had some sort of
meat-like substance in it. I slid the plate to Elmore.
    I’d have to pay Mom a visit. She’d never
given me a straight answer before when I asked about my father. But
that would have to change.
    For the rest of lunch, we all avoided
talking about the second thing that had apparently put us there—our
supreme, rock-bottom sucktitude. I didn’t blame any of them for not
bringing it up. I didn’t much feel like talking about my ongoing
battle with quitting everything I touched.
    Including my disgusting lunch. I ate the
peaches out of my fruit cup, but nothing else looked like anything
I recognized. Even the peaches were questionable.
    They tasted a lot like regret for having
missed the fabled donuts earlier.
    On our way back to