𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐄 | 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬²

REGRET

{03} 𖣔᯾ 𝙹𝚊𝚣𝚣𝚢 ᯾𖣔

I smiled as I watched him dip his halloumi into the hummus and eat it so ungracefully, not at all like his usual royal demeanour.

And at that very moment, I was so glad I had my necklace, because he generally seemed to be enjoying himself and without it, I would've never been able to give him this.

I was so exhausted and the necklace as a shortcut just seemed the easiest route.

"This is- amazing, Jaz. I can't believe you did this for me..." Ali seemed to mimick the smile on my face as he stared down at all the foods laid across the magic carpet, "These are all Arabic traditional dishes..."

I answered him with a simple nod and he chuckled, "I know how hard everything has been on you, but you've put me to shame. How did you manage this alongside everything?"

I widened my eyes and giggled, though I know I had to partially force the reaction, "You know... I don't even know. But it's good right?"

"Amazing- seriously, they should make you head chef." I couldn't help but laugh at his words. They should make my necklace head chef.

His arm reached over the table and gripped my hand, which caused me to tense slightly, but I relaxed as soon as I saw the glimmer in his eyes that was usually never there.

The brown, not the black.

His stern, dutiful face was the one he seemed to wear a lot recently. Especially around officials and royals of the court.

But not at that moment, at that moment his genuine smile made my heart flutter, and it always would.

Or atleast, I hoped so.

"I can feel something on my face but I can't see it." Ali chuckled as he rubbed his hands over his face, searching for the smear of sauce that I could clearly see was on his chin and he wasn't going to get it.

I laughed and picked up the napkin beside me, leaning forward to dab it off him. As I did, my necklace slipped out from my under my shirt and we both froze.

"I thought you said you were gonna give it to FG?" Ali asked quickly, the look of hurt and confusion on his face evident.

"Yeah, I uh, haven't been using it." I said quickly, tucking it back into my shirt. My lying had caused my heartbeat to go up, which was making the necklace glow right through the red fabric.

"I- I'm sorry, Jaz I just don't believe that for a second... if you're not lying to me, make it show me the last spell you used. You've done it before, do it now."

I swallowed, "Ali, I-"

"Oh my god, Jaz..." Ali breathed out as he stood up abruptly and jumped off the carpet, onto the grass.

"No- Ali, wait, hear me out!" I pleaded, which got him to turn around but he was angry. Black eyes were back and he didn't just look angry, he looked hurt and upset, and betrayed.

"Hear out what, Jaz? None of this is real, is it? You dyed your hair with the necklace didn't you? The caramel highlights aren't real, are they? And all of this," He gestured at the food, "You just did a little magic spell to make it all appear because you can't be bothered to do anything the way Auradon kids do it."

I felt my heart crack slightly at his words, and my anger seemed to take over me as I jumped down, too.

"I couldn't be bothered? For WEEKS, Ali, I've been beating myself up about not being good enough. For WEEKS, I've been pretending I'm like Gigi and Lonnie and Jane, but newsflash! I'm not, I'm not a princess, Ali! I don't know how to sip a tea cup with my pinkie out- I can just about walk in heels and I have to spell-curl my hair in the morning, the magical fucking fairies don't do it for me."

"So why are you hiding this from me? Why are you lying? In case you haven't noticed, this isn't the Isle." Ali retorted, folding his arms. But as soon as the words left his lips, and his eyes registered the hurt that had splashed across my face, he seemed to pause.

"Yeah..." I managed to choke out, "I know it's not the Isle. Because on the Isle we don't grow up with tea cups and fancy dresses, on the Isle girls like me joined Gothels club and sold ourselves to earn a dollar a month. On the Isle we had to steal for our parents, and that was if our parents were even alive. So believe me, Ali- I know this isn't the Isle."

Tears were falling down my cheeks as Ali attempted to take a step forward and apologise, but I brushed him off and pushed past him as I ran back to the school.

𖣔᯾ 𝙰𝚕𝚒 ᯾𖣔

I sat at Ben's desk while he organised things for Cotillion.

"Both of us messed up. I'm just giving Mal time to cool off, and then I'll go basically beg on my knees for her to let me back in. I messed up so bad." Ben sighed as he looked up at me.

I nodded and ran a hand through my hair, "Both of us made the mistake of bringing up the Isle- I didn't know what she'd been through. She got angry and told me all these things about the Isle and Ben, honestly, I am so glad she's here and not there."

Ben raised an eyebrow at my words, "What did she say?"

"Something about Gothels Girls, I don't know?" I answered.

"Who told you about Gothels Girls." A voice spoke softly from the door. It was Evie, but tears pooled in her eyes and she looked exhausted.

"Jazzy- we had a fight and I got angry and told her Auradon wasn't the Isle and she mentioned Gothels." I answered, furrowing my brows at how shocked Evie had sounded when she had asked.

Evie frowned, but nodded and then turned to Ben, holding out a piece of paper, "Mal's gone back to the Isle."

Ben stood up quickly and ripped the paper from Evie's hands as he read it, and then she held out his- his ring.

"This is all my fault..." He mumbled, and I almost nodded but stopped myself, because being a hypocrite would just add to the lists of traits I hated about myself right now.

"This is my fault." He repeated, more clearly as he looked up at Evie, "She's been having such a hard time lately and instead of being understanding I just went all beast on her."

"I have to go... I have to go find and her and bring her back." Ben said quickly, folding up the letter.

Evie spoke before I could, but matched what I was going to say perfectly, "The Isle's huge, you'll never find her!"

"You'd need a guide or something Ben, you don't know the Isle." I added, agreeing with the blue-haired girl.

"You have to take me with you." Evie blurted out suddenly.

"Yes, obviously, I mean- are- are you sure?" Ben stuttered out, frowning at the girl. She'd been trapped there once, why go back?

"Yes. And we'll bring Jay and Carlos too because there is safety in numbers and none of us are too popular over there right now."

I nodded, but just as Evie was about to continue, the door swung open, revealing an extremely out of breath Gigi with a note in one hand and her clipboard in the other.

I recognised the note instantly as one of the pages from Jazzy's notebook and my heart sunk.

"Jazzy left."