Bitter-Ellie

Chapter 3

Max’s POV

“Excuse me.” I mumble to everyone I happen to bump into.

I stealthily wiggly my way past people as I duck my head, so no one can see my face. The last thing I want to do is attract attention. I spot a red-head talking to a brunette and blonde this is what I hear:

“Who are you?”

“Amber.”

“What kind of name is that? Who is your mother? You look like you could be related to the Duchess of Lanham.”

“A Duchess? No, my mother wasn’t a Duchess.”

“Do not be silly, Genevieve, she must be of the lower-class, maybe even demented, if I do say so. Why is your hair so-“

“Red? Cuz I dyed it like that.”

“Oh. Well, if you are a commoner, why are you here? This is for-“

“Yeah I know. Sophisticated, stuffy people like you go to these things. I just thought I’d say ‘Happy Birthday’ to my best friend.”

“Oh, I apologize if you thought this was for your commoner friend, (whispers) wow she is demented, this is for Prince Max.”

“Yes. I know. He’s my best friend. Oh hey, here he is now.”

Really Amber?

At the mention of my name, I duck down very low and grab Amber’s wrist as I crawl away towards the balcony, pulling her down with me.

“Where did he go?”

“I-oohh…” Amber mumbles as I drag her away into oblivion.

Surprisingly, no one notices us crawling on the floor; they are all too busy talking about the weather. We make our way sneakily towards the entrance of the balcony, where we bump into two guards.

“(clears throat) Hello.” I stand up and brush myself off and bow to the two men.

“May I ask why his Majesty was crawling on the floor?” One of the guards asks me suspiciously with a stern face; but in my opinion, all guards are serious.

“No.” I reply curtly as I lend a hand for Amber to take as she abruptly stands up.

“Have a good evening then, Prince Max.” The other guard graciously bows and walks off to patrol the other part of the castle.

I lead Amber into the famous balcony which is currently littered with many types of flora. The fireflies dance across the night sky creating a lovely light show as if they knew it planned it especially for me. It is too dim outside to tell what color the flowers are, but the shape of them can be identified by their shadows. Amber gasps at the wondrous sight as she leans down towards the edge, trying to get a glimpse at the village below us.

“I never get tired of coming here.” Amber comments dreamily as she rests her elbow on the ledge and turns her gaze towards me.

“Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can, I am sure my mother will find us eventually and then this place will be nowhere near quiet once she starts yelling.” I chuckle and frown at the same time-I really hope my mother does not find me out here, with Amber. I lean my back against the ledge and sigh deeply as the fresh air fills my lungs.

“Hey, where is Dustin? I thought he’d be here, being your birthday and all.” Amber frowns slightly as she recalls my father’s words to me earlier in the evening.

“(sighs) I lied to father. Dustin told me not to tell him that he was out with the guards. You know he hates this sort of stuff that is why we never had a coronation for him.”  I run a hand through my hair and place the crown I had been holding on top of the ledge where it could easily fall and land in the mud, but that would still leave me with 18 more, so why should I care about this one crown?

“Oh, Griffin will be so disappointed.” Amber solely comments as she shakes her head with pity for her brother. Once Amber is bored with looking over the ledge and more or so spying on people from above, Amber leans her back against the wall and stares at the night sky littered with stars.

“How so?” I ask her curiously, rather interested in whatever Griffin wants to see my brother for, because from past experiences I would know that the two of them can only lead to chaos and an empty pantry.

“Apparently, Griffin made another bet with Dustin about something.” Amber shrugs indifferently, revealing all she knows about the situation, but frankly this is not good enough for me.

“A bet?” I look at her carefully as I ask her to certify the words she just uttered.

“Yea-oh.” Amber and I are on the same page now and since we are, it is time to worry.

“You do not propose their bet had anything to do with Dustin going off in the middle of the night…” My words start to drift off as a horrible thought occurs to me.

“Wait. H-he’s in the forest, at night, on your birthday with…” Amber stutters the exact thought I had a moment earlier and now I am thinking of only one thing.

“I hope he is safe.” I pray that my stupidity will not cause him any danger, even though there is a part of me that already knows of the future.

“Don’t worry, he’s a smart boy. He’ll be fine. Come on, it’s your birthday! You should get some cake before Griffin eats it all.” Amber smiles at me to cheer me up as she walks back into the castle, but for some reason that does not make me feel any better.

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