Secret Royalty

Chapter Fourteen

“I haven’t skated in years, Jed. What the hell do you think you’re getting into?”

 “A fun experience that will create long-lasting memories to laugh at in the future.” He added a charming smirk just for reassurance.

 “She sucks,” said the pumpkin who hobbled to the rink with her boyfriend.

“Be nice,” said the boyfriend while helping the pumpkin step onto the rink.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” said Jed who kissed my nose.

“She sucks!” called the pumpkin once more.

We followed Pierce and Dean onto the ice where I immediately slipped.

“I told you that this wasn’t a good idea,” I gritted through my teeth. Jed helped me up and I clung to his arm tightly.

He chuckled. “It will be fine, Em.”

We slowly went around the rink a few times before I requested a hot chocolate.  When my ankles finally had the strength to go back out, I didn’t need to grip to Jed so much. It felt nice to have a slight freedom on the ice.

It was sometime around our fifteenth lap when I remembered- my parents were coming home. I’d pushed it out of my mind for days and it finally hit me. My worst nightmare would be happening in just over a month. I was screwed, big time.

I started hallucinating- I mean full on 3D, good quality images. It was better than my television. My father was skating in front of me. I thought that he would control my life and I became so worked up over seeing him that I collapsed. I didn’t see much of reality afterwards.

∆∆∆

It smelled weird. Well, not exactly weird, but quite different to anything I was used to. My eyes gazed at my body crumpled in bed. It took awhile to see that the covers were not mine, for they were maroon. Mine were white.

I wasn’t wearing the top that I once was when skating. Evidently, I was wearing a sweatshirt. While I slid my hand up underneath to see if I was wearing a shirt, which I realized I wasn’t, a sharp shrill of pain etched its way through my palm and stopped it in motion. I scrutinized it and saw a bandage wrapped around multiple times.

What the hell had happened?

It was hard, but I pushed myself away from the bed with my good hand and walked into the hallway extending from the room. On the left was an office with papers thrown everywhere and on the right was a bathroom painted sapphire. It was very hard to move on trembling legs, but I continued walking until I arrived at a set of stairs and graciously took them downwards.

A man was talking. The voice seemed close by, so I quietly tiptoed around to get a good look. Did this man hurt me? I hoped the fuck not.

When I pushed my head past the corner, I saw him. He was facing towards the counter with a phone on his ear. He had dark, wavy hair and was wearing a grey tee. Also, on his wrist was a bracelet similar to the one I had given Jed for Christmas. I collapsed again when I figured out who it was and how foolish my mind had acted.

He must have heard my fall, for he came sprinting over. “Emilia!” he whined, “I was just coming up to see you. I had to call Pierce and Dean first.” Jed circled his arms around me and lifted my body up. He started carrying me back to the bedroom.

I was panting after my long walk on shaky legs. “I thought someone raped me,” I breathed.

His face was shot with concentration as he placed me on the bed. “I can arrange that if you’d like,” he winked and caused me to erupt in laughter. “What the f-“ I started, but my chest began hurting with light pain so I stopped. That reminded me of something.