I just wanted some sleep behind a locked door for once.
Twelve
December
A few days later, I scrolled through social media at a local park for what felt like the first time in forever, and it sorta had been, I guess. I’d had computer access, but when I did, I wasn’t looking into my past and what the world was doing without me.
It seemed they were doing just fine.
My applications showed me people were doing pretty hella frickin’ awesome: Birdie, Kiki, and the others at games and taking selfies at the mall. I saw people smiling and getting on just cool without me, the new girl with a dead sister. Even my aunt had posted a few things during her rounds at the hospital, people clearly forcing her into hugs, but she’d participated.
Christ.
My heart stopped, literally stopped, at seeing Royal Prinze. It’d been awhile. It hadn’t been long enough, and that breath had nowhere to go when I saw him with friends, one in particular.
He had his arm around… Mira, the bitch Mira, at some kind of party. She had a drink in her hand, they both did, and though it could have meant nothing, it had before. It probably did. She’d come to my sister’s reception. They both had pretty much been together then, and only after he left her had he found me.
Is that why he didn’t come with me?
I wouldn’t let my thoughts go there. I truly couldn’t let my thoughts go down that road because if I did, there’d be no coming back. No, my sister’s best friend hadn’t ditched her memorial service to cater to Mira, and no, he hadn’t abandoned me to be with her too. I refused
to believe it.
I studied the photo again, the boy too beautiful for his own goddamn good. He was still completely gorgeous, willowy blond locks he had styled and feathered and a body so thick and hard I could still feel it pressed against my skin. I could still feel him, deep and full within me. He didn’t look like he was sad or even grieving. He looked like he was moving on, and he’d done so clearly without me.
I removed myself from his friend list and follower accounts, blocking him wherever I could, and got so into it I scared myself. I came at this task with a vengeance, my insides burning and raw.
“December?”
Jumping, I gazed up, my eyes widening at the sight of Ramses… with friends. Well, not that he had friends per se, but because of what they all wore.
Uniforms. Like legit academy uniforms donned him and the two friends he’d brought at his sides. They looked like Royal… Royal and Court. Especially Ramses as he had a tie loosened over a pearl white dress shirt, his eyes equally wide on me.
My lips parted. “Um, hi.”
“Hey.” Ramses pushed two long fingers behind his neck, scratching aimlessly. Clearly caught, he stood there with the rest of his uniformed brethren. The boy had told me he was in college, but those outfits were anything but, the colors of green and flame yellow making its way through the whole thing from the ties to the crests on their jackets. They also had cups of ice cream in their hands, the spoon in the mouth of the guy on the right and the one on the left exchanging a glance between Ramses and me. Ramses stopped eating his period, blinking out of whatever daze he’d been in to face his friends. “Guys, this is December,” he said, clearly forgetting himself. “We work together at the library.”
We exchanged our customary “hey there” and “hello,” but after I’d fallen out of the stupor I’d been in, I put my phone away and stood from the bench. I eyed Ramses. “You told me you were in college.”
He started to speak, but stopped. He cleared this throat. “Eh, uh. You told me the same.”
Shit.
I had said that, and when we both realized the bullshit we gave each other, trying to play the other, we both had a laugh at our own expenses. Ramses shrugged broad shoulders. “We skip all the time. I’d rather be making money than going to sleep in class. We go to an academy over in Crestfire Hills.”
Aware of the city a town over, I nodded, and Ramses’ more burly friend, the one the size of a mini monster truck, threw a fist into Ramses’ shoulder.
“He skips to work. We skip for froyo!” Backing up, the mini-monster-truck friend bumped chests with the literal monster-truck-sized friend to Ramses’ right, the two completely bros and the opposite of Ramses. Dare I say, I thought he was a little bit of a nerd, but seeing him with his friends, I might have been wrong with the assumption.
Ramses knocked the two on their heads for being idiots, making me genuinely laugh in what felt like had been a while. A good belly laugh I think I needed, but all that stopped at least for Ramses when his friend directed a froyo cup my way and asked a question.
“You should hang out with us,” the mini-monster-truck friend said, puffing up. “We’re going to a college party—”
“I’m sure she’s busy.” Ramses cut that off quick, so quick my head nearly spun. He faced me. “You’re busy, right? Tell them you’re busy.”
I wasn’t, and I really didn’t like he thought he could speak for me. Actually, him not wanting me to go out with him and his friends made me want to hang out with them more. Call that me being cheeky.
I smiled. “I’m totally free actually,” I said, genuinely happy for the invite. It’d be nice to do something besides basically stalk my ex all day. I started to go with the guys, but Ramses held me back a little.