Queen tapped her nails against the bath tub as she awaited the return of Taz and Justin. No one has heard from them all day and she was sure that something had happened to them because it doesn't take that long to get from the eastern side to the palace.
"Lonely?" Victoria asked as she came from around the corner slowly. Queen ignored her and continued to tap on the tub. Bad enough she was a nervous wreck while Taz was away, but seeing Victoria just stressed her out even more.
"Okay, I deserve the silence treatment. I just came to see if you were alright....that's all."
She turned on her heels and walked back to her room without a word. Queen didn't care though because talking to Victoria now seemed like a waste of breath. Everyone seemed to be against her these days so she kept her words to herself.
"I'm fine." She whispered to herself and leaned back in the water.
Keena knocked on the door and made her way inside of the bathroom next. She sat down on the opposite side of the queen and waited for her to say something rude to her. Be mean to her. Tell her to go away. To Keena's surprise, none of that happened.
"Yes?" Queen simply asked as she opened her eyes and looked over at Keena. "Is there something you need? My dress looks good on you. It was my favorite before I started gaining weight."
Keena wore a long, silk, purple dress with little sparkled at the bottom of it. She nodded towards the queen and mouthed a simple thank you.
"You have fine taste in clothing, your highness." She laid out in front of the tub with her head facing the ceiling. "You're nervous too?"
Queen sighed. "Of course I'm nervous, the war can start at any time and Taz is out there unarmed with no guards to protect him. That's my life." She started to slowly cry, which turned into a full blown sob session.
Keena immediately got up and walked over to the queen with a towel in her hand. "It's okay, ssh." She handed her the towel and the queen wiped her tears.
"I'm sorry, I'm just a mess right now."
They both laughed and Keena lifted the queen's hair up and placed a nice bun on top of her head. "There, that should get the hair out of your eyes while you cry."
"You sound like my mother in law..."
Keena smiled and helped her out of the tub. "Wow, you're starting to show already." She handed the queen her robe, which Queen gladly took and put on. "What happened to your real mother?"
"Yeah, that's what I meant by me gaining weight. I've already gained five pounds and I swear that's from stress. As for my mother...I was a foster child."
Keena frowned. "What happened to her? If you don't mind me asking."
Queen motioned for Keena to follow her and they both left the bathroom. "My mother was so strung out on drugs that she couldn't take care of me. One day, our neighbor at the apartments we used to stay at called social services and they found all of her drugs hidden in the same bedroom that I slept in. She was put in rehab and I was taken to foster care where I stayed at until I was 18. The word on the street was that my mother was let out of rehab and married this rich older man across town and they lived in this big mansion in Maine. I had to see it for myself so I used the last bit of money that I had saved up for college to buy a one way plane ticket to see my mother. When I got there, she couldn't believe that I had found her and invited me to stay with her as long as I needed to but her husband had other plans. That same night of my first day there, he came into the guest bedroom where I was sleeping and got on top of me. If I hadn't woken up and slammed the lamp over his head, God knows what that man would've done to me. I tried telling my mother but she didn't believe me and said something about me trying to break up her marriage and her finally being happy so I left with no money or anything."
Keena placed her hand on the queen's shoulder. "Is that when you met your king?"
Queen giggled and shook her head no. "Not that same night. It was days later when I met him. You see, Taz and his family were on some business trip and his father was still the king at the time so he was just showing Taz the ropes I suppose. Him and Justin were at the same park that I went to every day since I left my mother's house. Apparently, the had brought it out for the day but I didn't get the memo because I was sleeping there at the time so I was already there when they came in. I saw them talking and playing around like kids and it confused me because what teenagers jump around on jungle gyms and swing on swing sets two sizes too small for them?"
Keena busted out laughing and they walked into the Queen's chamber.
"Anyways, they didn't catch me looking at them but I was. Hard too. I was so confused because they looked nothing like the people in Maine and they didn't look American by far so I was a little taken back. Then, they went over to this huge tree in the middle of the park and Justin started climbing the tree first. I could tell that Tazamunda was hesitant about it because Justin was way at the top of the tree when he decided to start climbing. I watched as he carefully stepped over every branch until one of them snapped and there went Taz. He fell hard. No pun intended."
Keena giggled again and the queen continued. "I ran over as fast as I could to see if he was okay because I was sure that he had broken something. Justin was way at the top so he wasn't really paying attention to Taz at the time. His eyes were closed and I lifted up the arm that he fell on. He flinched and peeked out of one eye. Then, he asked if he was dead. Girl, I died laughing and he opened both of his eyes and looked in mine and from that moment on, no other man mattered but him."
"Wait, was it broken though?" Keena asked in between laughs and the queen nodded her head. "About as shattered as a broken mirror."
They both died laughing. "Oh god, he must have been so scared!" Keena said and leaned back on the bed.
The queen did the same and nodded her head. "He honestly thought he was dying because he broke his arm. It was so cute because I didn't know he was a king at the time so I just thought he'd never been to a playground."
Keena rubbed the tears from her eyes and looked over at the queen. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you and Justin start hooking up?"
Queen looked at the ceiling. "Taz was on another business trip where he was giving resources to different countries that needed it and Justin was just....there. It's like a switch clicked on and we started getting together every time Taz would turn his back. I thought I was in love with him but I was in love with the sex that he gave me and the attention I was getting from him. I mean of course I'll always love him because he's Taz's best friend and cousin but other than that, our little affair is over."
"Good.." Keena covered her mouth after she said that and turned the other way. "I'm so sorry."
"No, it's quite alright. You have feelings for Justin?" The queen asked her. She kept her face covered but nodded slightly.
"Just...slightly. I cleaned his room for him earlier because I thought he would be back by now but-"
She stopped talking when they both heard a loud crash and then glass shattering.
