They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

I’d gone shopping with Birdie and the other girls for the dance and everything and assured them then that me not being there was fine. They could post all they wanted. No FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” would be made in my neck of the woods.

Me: You know it’s cool. Have fun.

I had every intention of spending homecoming night with Hershey, me, and a box of pizza. We’d probably take a walk too since, at some point, we wouldn’t have too many more of these nice fall days before the winter hit. This wasn’t like California.

I scratched behind her ears while she burrowed in my bedding, about to call for that pizza when Rosanna called me downstairs.

“You got someone here to see you, December,” she said somewhere in the house, and I picked up Hershey, putting her in her own cute dog bed Dad had bought for her. He could say what he wanted, but he was starting to like this dog. He came home with stuff for her every once in a while, this bed being one of the gifts.

I smiled at her, watching as she played on her own before heading downstairs. I passed Rosanna at the foot of the stairs along the way, the woman wiping down a dish with a coy smile.

“Living room,” she said, walking away, and I eyed her as she made her way down the hall and to the kitchen. Yep, I had no idea what that was about, but then, I made my way to the living room and quickly found out.

Royal Prinze stood in a tux, patent leather shoes on his feet and a green orchid on his lapel. The tiny flower was made completely out of paper and just as lovely as he was, the boy clean-shaven and his hair perfect and pushed back.

I stepped into the room, his tux hitting him at all magnificent angles. He made me feel ordinary in our school uniforms, but here and like this now, I was very much a peasant before an actual prince. My lips parted. “What are you doing here?”

The captain of the lacrosse team was in my living room, rocking his homecoming best, and not at homecoming, so yes, this required some explanation. For whatever reason, him being here didn’t surprise him, the boy coming forward. He had his hands behind his back, his shoulders big and strong.

“Wanted to see why you aren’t going to homecoming,” he said simply, frowning. He lifted a shoulder. “And maybe offer you an alternative.”

Too many things were going on in this room, too many words when before he had none either for me or to me. I decided to leave the latter part of what he said, focusing on the first.

“How did you know I wasn’t going?” Only Birdie and my friends knew.

“Besides the fact that you’re not in any of Birdie’s photos she’s posted,” he started, closing more distance. “I hadn’t heard anyone ask you.”

No one had asked me, not him either…

At least until now.

He eased a hand into his pocket, and when it came out, he showed me the most dazzling orchid. It was green like his eyes and matched his vest and tie. It was also paper, and after fluffing the thing up, he held the tiny flower in his large hand.

“I said a lot of things I didn’t mean the night of the fire,” he said, all of that moving so harshly on his face. “Things I regret. I won’t lie to you. Yes, it did start that way. You’re my best friend’s sister, so yeah, that’s how it was.”

It made sense, I guess. I was his best friend’s sibling so he had my back, but I never asked him to do that.

“What changed?” I asked, my breath leaving as he took my wrist and slid that pretty orchid over my wrist. I idly wondered if he made it himself, made it for me, but with his smile, I forgot all that. As stated before, he didn’t do it a lot, but each and every time, it’d been in my presence. It’d been around me.

His long fingers moved under the ribbon tied to the orchid, his eyes on me. “Knowing you,” he said simply. “And really that’s it.”

That was it, wasn’t it? And I’d be lying myself if I also hadn’t gone in with certain thoughts about him. Those changed too. I changed my mind too about him.

He laced our fingers together, stalling my breath again, and when that grin of his widened, he made my tummy jump even more.

“I guess I have to admit something else since I’m putting it all out on the floor now,” he said, bringing me close. “I might have had something to do with why you weren’t asked to homecoming. Actually, I totally am.”

My jaw dropped. “Did you threaten people?”

“Knight may have,” he said, those bright eyes dancing a little. “Then Jax and LJ…”

“What the fuck, Royal—”

He grabbed me, pulling me into a hard chest, and I melted.

Especially when he touched our foreheads together.

His breath was so warm, his fingers brushing my chin. “You’re not going with someone else because I was stupid. Because I couldn’t fucking talk to you and say sorry, which I am.”