Nobody Knows// Ross Lynch

ten

Lorena and Mateo sat in the study room, helping her go over her Portuguese notes. It was a bright and early day and they had just wanted to get an early escape from the realities of the outside world. After all, they only did have each other at this point. 

"So, how did you get so good at learning Portuguese? I can't seem to differentiate it from Spanish," Lorena asked, looking down at her paper which had the same introductory sentence repeated onto each line. 

He brought the flashcards down to his lap and seemed to give a slight frown. "My boyfriend is Portuguese. He helped me a lot when it was my time to do the same."

She began to write the sentence over again for what seemed like the 100th time as she responded, "You mean like two semesters ago? How long have you two known each other?" Lorena was definitely curious to learn more about his relationship but she knew it was a soft spot for him. 

He rubbed his small beard before smiling at the thought of first meeting his boyfriend. "Well, I met Raf on my family's tour of Portugal. He was working at his family's ice cream shop. That was about two years ago? It seems like it's been so much longer than that."

"Raf, like short for Rafael?" She asked, putting her pencil down.

Mateo nodded and smiled at the image of his boyfriend in his head. "Rafael," he mesmerizingly repeated. 

"And he worked at his family's ice cream shop? Meaning he isn't like you and I?" The princess added for clarification. 

He let out a big laugh and put the flash cards on the table. "Oh definitely not. Even if he had a family like ours, he would hate every single bit of it." 

Lorena scoffed, shaking her head at her thoughts. "I have a royal family and I hate every single bit of it. I wouldn't even blame him, Mateo." 

Her new friend just chuckled and let out a big breath after figuring out what to ask next. "Aren't you due to be queen soon?" 

She hit him on the side of his shoulder, shushing him with her opposite finger. "Please, don't remind me. My grandma looks like she could possibly be immortal by now, and my father will probably live on her same legacy. Plus, that'll make my mother the Queen Mother, and we just can't have her with all that power now, can we?" She half joked, shaking away the thought. 

He leaned against the wooden chair, putting his arms behind his neck as he thought about what it would be like to be king someday. "I mean, would it really be all that bad? You would make all the changes around here...all of the rules. You could pick a liberal prime minister and really get the country going." 

"Oh, trust me," she began, leaning against the chair as well. "I've thought about it and I just don't think the queen life is for me. Even if it is, I'm certainly not ready for it. I mean, I'm practically chasing a life that seems almost impossible. Wanting to be a singer and having a crush on one of my servants?"

Lorena held back for a second and gasped at herself. Mateo gave her the biggest smirk he could imagine and chuckled at her embarrassment. "Was that the first time you had said that out loud? I knew you had a crush on Ross." 

She began to blush and sighed. "I mean I guess so. He's intrigued me since day one. There's a few things I have yet to learn about him. Nevertheless, I could never be with him."

"You don't know that," Mateo stated, leaning in closer to her. "I mean my family doesn't let me date my boyfriend, but we're trying in the only way we can. Plus, if you become queen, who's going to tell you otherwise?"

Although it did seem like a good idea in theory, Lorena knew it could never work between her and Ross. "Even if I did focus my efforts on becoming queen, I wouldn't make it solely just on becoming his girlfriend. I'd have to want it for other reasons too, I'm just not quite there yet," she confessed, knowing it was what was best going forward.