Young Royals: What...now?

Aristocracy.

Simon

As Simon was coming home from school, he called Rosh. He would have called Ayub, but he knew who had the highest chance of having their phone's ringer turned on, and Ayub was not winning that bet.

Rosh answered in one ring. "Hey, Simme! What's up?"

"Where are you guys?" He could hear some music in the background and some people yelling and laughing.

"Oh, we're at the pizzeria by ZooPlus. Wanna stop by? It's just us," she offered. 

He grinned when she said which restaurant they chose, and he knew that that was definitely Ayub's doing. Sure, it was by the ZooPlus, but on the other side was a GameStop. Thankfully, it was only two stops away from where he was, so he said, "Be right there! Save me a slice!"

"You're good," she replied. "We literally got here  minutes ago. We just just ordered." In the background he heard Ayub yell, "I got the pineapple-ham pizza. Like it or starve, asshole!"

Simon rolled his eyes and audibly laughed. Ayub. He was a weird guy, but they'd been friends since they were 6 years old, so they'd kind of grown weird together, he supposed. They met Rosh when they were 9 when she beat up Ayub after he stole her KitKat during recess. They'd all been friends ever since.

When he got there 10 minutes later,  over a pepperoni pizza --the liar-- Ayub and Rosh filled Simon in on all the Mariegard gossip, while Simon listened and laughed at the stupid antics of his former classmates, the kids he'd gone to school with since he was in Year 0.

It was nice to hear about normal people doing messed-up, normal things. 

"Oh, and you're not going to believe this. You know Felix? Supposedly, he's dating a girl from your school," gossiped Rosh, looking coyly between Ayub and Simon.

"What?! Your ex-boyfriend? How is that even possible? Where would they meet?"

Rosh shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno, dude. Just sayin'. He's been spreading it around, telling everybody who'll listen that he's with a trust fund chick."

"Does this girl have a name?" asked Simon, his curiosity getting the best of him. It wasn't that big of a school. The chances of him knowing her were easily 90%. 

"Nada. We'll try to see if we can wheedle it out of him tomorrow," replied Rosh, fist-bumping Ayub. 

Simon smiled as he rolled his eyes. He missed them. It was funny. He switched schools to help Sara adjust, but in the end, she was doing better at Hillerska than he was. She had friends, got invited on shopping dates on the weekends. He was the one who fucked the Prince and was struggling in school for the first time in his life.

He saw Rosh give him a quizzical look and realized he must have been staring into space. He replied quickly, "Well, anyway, good luck to him on that front. There's no way that's ending well."

Ayub laughed. "Seriously. Felix is an idiot to get mixed up with any of the aristocracy over there. What's he gonna do, go on her yacht or something? Dine with her father over foie gras? He doesn't have a chance. She's totally just using him to take her on a little ghetto fantasy escapade."

Simon's smile receded and his brows furrowed. He studied the bubbles on the crust of his pizza as he took a bite.

Rosh jabbed Ayub in the ribs and muttered, "Sensitivity, dude. Sensitivity."

"What?!" Ayub retorted, rubbing his skin where Rosh had hit him. "Oh, he knows what I mean. Hell, he knows better than we do the consequences of that kind of deal."

Rosh gave Ayub a fierce glare. Ayub bowed under the intensity of her gaze and threw his hands up. "Sorry, sorry."

Simon put his hand between them, "Chill, Rosh. He's not wrong, he's not wrong. It's...they're different worlds, man, ours and theirs.

He continued, "And it's not just clothes and what they do on the weekends. It's how they treat people, how they relate to friends, how they talk to adults. It's absolutely a different world. I mean, even with me being in it all day, it's like they're speaking a different language when they're talking to each other. The places they go to, the people they've met, hell, who they follow on Instagram. It's insane."

Rosh paused. She looked at Simon in earnest. "But, with Wilhelm it wasn't insane. I dunno, he just seemed like a normal guy when I met him."

Simon put his fingers through his hair and groaned. "I mean, yeah? No? When we were together, sure. Normal guy. Goofy. Super with-it, you know?

"Then, it was like, his attitude could flip on a dime. He'd go from being this chill, funny guy, to berating you for nothing. And he was just so self-absorbed. All the time. It's like he never had had to think of anyone but himself in his life."

They all got quiet. Rosh touched Simon's arm. "He probably hadn't."

Simon replied, "I dunno." 

Looking at Ayub, he continued more heatedly, "I mean, you have a point. What do you call them, the aristocracy? To hell with them. They can marry and have their blue-blood incestuous relationships and leave the rest of the us the fuck alone." 

Simon took a bite of his pizza. Ayub and Rosh looked at each other, both trying to judge what was going through Simon's mind.

Ayub furrowed his eyebrows with concern. "So, it's really over? 

Rosh shot Ayub daggers with her eyes. "You don't have to answer that, Simon."

Simon buried his eyes in his hands and sighed, "I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, there was so much good. I really liked him. It was like the world stopped when I was with him."

"But..." prompted Rosh.

Simon looked up, "But, I have self-respect, you know? If you don't want to be seen with me, what does that say about you? And, what does that say about me that I would be okay with that?"

Both Rosh and Ayub looked at Simon glumly. Rosh spoke first. "I know what you're saying. If he's not going to treat you well now, what is it going to look like six months, or a year, from now, right?"

They sat there, quiet in their own thoughts.

Ayub broke the ice, "But, Simon. We were that close, that close to having a connection to the monarchy! And you blew it for what, self-respect? Dick!"

With that, Simon threw a pepperoni at Ayub's eye and Rosh pushed his hat over his eyes, as they all shrieked with laughter.

"Fuck you, fuck you," Simon hooted.