Runaway Royal

04

"What happened last night?" Victoire asks over the phone.

"She just scolded me and gave me more ball planning tasks," I reply while scrolling through flower arrangements. "It's not all that bad," I admit, "I could've been much worse."

Vic laughs. "At least it's just ball planning," she says, and I can hear crinkling movement from her end. "You've done that thousands of times."

I nod absentmindedly even though she can't see me. "It doesn't make it any less boring, though," I complain. It used to be really fun, and I enjoyed planning out meticulous details when I was younger. But then my mother started making me plan under her demands, which took the enjoyment out of everything.

"I can't believe you'll be eighteen soon," she says.

"You're already eighteen," I grumble. Victorie is only two months older than me, so we just celebrated her birthday last month. She had a big party at her house, and it was really amazing. "I still feel like I'm fifteen, honestly," I admit.

Victoire laughs loudly. "I'd be scared for the fate of the country if you're still fifteen. You were a crazy fifteen year old." 

I roll my eyes. "You were more crazy than I was." 

"Guilty as charged," she replies, giggling. "Remember when we almost burnt down the kitchen?"

"Oh my god. We do not bring that incident up. Besides, it was all your fault," I accuse. 

Vic huffs quietly on the other side, laughing. "You can't blame everything on me. I remember distinctly that you microwaved it, not me. The future of the country is clearly in good hands," she teases.

"Clearly."

"Your future husband is going to have a fright once you burn down Miradore Palace," Vic replies, laughing. "Or maybe you'll burn down his castle."

"All I have to do is cook and all my potential suitors will run away," I joke, internally wishing that was the case. I wasn't necessarily bad at cooking, I just wasn't the best in the kitchen. Accidents popped up whenever I attempted anything, so I stopped.

"Maybe you will," Vic says, "But you don't need to cook. I'm sure you can hire a cook."

I nod, wincing at the smallest tinge of bitterness in her voice. Despite being rich and well off, Victoire will never have the same prospects I do. While I won't be expected to cook and take care of the house for my husband, Vic will have to.

And no matter how hard she tries to hide it, I can tell she's bitter and jealous. It's not entirely of me, because she's angry at the system and the way society is set up.

"I'm sorry for complaining, Vic," I say softly.

She sighs loudly, and there's a heavy silence that rests between us for awhile. "I know it's not your fault."

"It's not fair for you."

Victoire laughs crazily, muttering, "When is anything fair for us? Your life isn't fair for you, and my life isn't fair for me. And what can we do about it?"

My wedding planning is long forgotten as a bitter weight rests on my chest. Victoire's right, because the entire system isn't fair to any of us. I was being pushed into a marriage, while it didn't matter for her.

"How are your parents?" I question tentatively.

"They're the same," she replies, "You know how they are. My brother was always more important."

I can imagine her shrugging the hurt off carelessly, even though I know deep down it cuts. "I'm sorry your parents are like that. What are you going to do after school?"

I never experienced school, no matter how much I begged to join Victoire at her high school. My parents only hired the best tutors, and I studied within in the palace. I've never even stepped in a normal school, never had any other friends.

"I want to go to college, but I don't know how my parents feel."

"Why won't they let you go?"

"I don't know. They want me to settle down, find a decent boyfriend, and get married. What they mean is that they want to get rid of me," Vic confesses angrily. "They don't care that I want to become a lawyer and go to law school."

I frown, feeling extremely bad for my best friend. Even though the forced marriage is one thing, my parents have usually allowed me to follow my dreams and hobbies as long as it was within the castle. And I knew all the restrictions was because they cared for me, not because they were trying to get rid of me.

"You need to disobey them this once," I urge.

"You've never disobeyed them, and you're telling me to?" Vic asks, laughing ruefully. "I wish I could run away but they'll withdraw all my money from my accounts."

"They couldn't possibly do that!" I reply, outraged. 

She laughs at my reaction. "Yes, they can. I don't have any money of my own. You know that. I don't have a job."

"Can I do anything to help?" 

"No, definitely not. My parents will only get angrier. I'll persuade them somehow myself."

"Alright, if you say so..." I say, trailing off quietly. I know that I have the ability to help her, but if there's anything that our ten years of friendship has taught me, it's that Vic likes to do things herself, with her own way. She's stubborn and headstrong like that.

"It's fine," Vic says firmly. "Now, can we plan your ball?"

I groan, my gaze sliding over to my abandoned laptop. "I really don't want to talk about that. I don't want to plan this stupid ball."

Victoire just giggles. "Send me the website for the flowers you were talking about. I'll pick them out for you."

"You're a lifesaver, Vic," I tell her gratefully, sending her a text with the link immediately. Scanning the list my mother handed me, I checked off the flowers and moved to the next demand. "I need to order table cloths now."

She snorts. "Why, you can't use one of the hundreds of table cloths you already have?"

"Because my mother wants new table cloths to commemorate this special occasion, apparently," I laugh at my mother's absurdness, "And she wants new curtains too. Soon, she's going to make me renovate the entire palace for this."

Vic only laughs harder, and I'm glad that we finally strayed away from difficult and heavy topics. We quietly scroll through our websites, breaking the silence once in awhile to discuss colors and fabrics and quantity.

"What did your mother say about the prince list?"

I almost spit out the water I'm drinking, and I shakily place it down onto my table securely. "She says that it's good that I'm trying to select a husband, but most of them will be at the ball no matter what. It's been set in stone a year ago."

"Well, at least you know who you're expecting. I'm especially excited to see Tobias and Luke again."

I smile wanly at the mention of Tobias, already making the mental note to avoid him as much as possible. Although, it may be nice to have a familiar face around. Maybe I could hang around him for the night, hopefully blocking other advances from princes.

"Imagine being married to a prince," Victoire says wistfully.

"A prince?" I giggle, imagining Vic with a prince on the prince list. "And here I thought you wanted to go to law school. Don't worry, I'll introduce you to them at the ball. Maybe you can snatch one up," I tease, winking at her.

Victoire practically howls with laughter as she falls onto her bed. "I don't want a stuffy prince, now that I think about it. I don't need more royal people in my life. You're terrible enough."

My mouth drops open in fake shock, and I place a hand over my chest in mock horror. "And I thought we were friends, Victoire. You wound me." My head lolls back, I close my eyes and I stick out my tongue to play dead.

"Ugh, I hate you," she replies jokingly. 

I laugh louder and lean back into my chair, relaxing. Hopefully the ball wouldn't be as bad with Victoire by my side.