His Princess

Chapter Four

Dani:

After Charlotte had gone, I sank into the couch feeling emotionally spent. It had happened so quickly. I couldn't be bothered to even get up to go to my room. I laid face first on the couch.

Heather came out of her bedroom for the first time all day. (I know because I didn't go to classes today and I called in sick at the library.) Her face is all puffy from crying.

"Did you-"
"Yeah, I heard. Too bad. You were cute with her."

I sighed, tearing up. My heart ached in my chest. Crying in front of Heather was embarrassing.

"I'm moving back to London." She said cavalierly.

I looked up at her. "What? Why?"

She nodded. "Dad left about a month ago, and mum needs help with the kids - you know."

I did. Heather and I both came from disapproving families. Mine of my sexuality, they didn't even know about my new identity and still called me Danielle when we spoke. Heather's family disapproved of her going to America to study. Especially when she had obligations at home to tend to. Though this was only the second time I'd ever heard Heather speak of her family, I knew she was the eldest of seven children. They all lived in a rundown apartment in London. "Not unlike The Weasleys." She had said.

Heather could barely keep it together without crying.

"Your dad left?"

"He was having an affair with the art director's assistant. How's that for a cliché? Ainsley was just born four months ago. The bastard abandons his wife and children, his newborn baby. I've got to go be the mum while my mum is the man of the house. It's such rubbish, Dani."

I scoot over so she can sit down by me.

"I feel bad, you'd better hurry to find a new roommate."

"I know."

"Let's watch Grey's Anatomy. Cristina and Meredith will know how to ease our melancholiness."

"I don't think that's a word."

"You're such a nerd, mate."

We spent the night on the couch, a big bowl of popcorn resting between us.

Charlotte:

"It cannot be certain, I've never heard any reliable source clarify it! But it is certain that books are becoming a thing of the past." Chelsea Jackson's voice echoed through the lecture hall.

Professor Campbell scratched his beard. "That is one person's opinion. . ."

It seemed to me as though he encouraged this mindless dribble.
Focusing on it was a torturous task.
I'd much rather be asleep in bed. When my alarm clock went off this morning I had to fight the strong urge I had to throw it against the wall.

I tried to think happy thoughts. Pizza. Kittens. Eve's titties.

"Books are obsolete more and more with each passing day." She continued.

Fed up with this girl's incessant banter, I speak up.

"Books are never going to be obsolete. eBooks are wildly popular but the written word in the pages of a real book is what's classic. It's something that's as old as time! There will always been more books."

People started clapping, I swear.

I move around in my seat uncomfortably as I blush a shade of crimson red.