Utopia

Chapter 5: Feelings Surface

I wake up to someone knocking repeatedly on Jaron's door. I try to get up to see who it is but Jaron's arm is holding me down. I'm so glad he's asleep because I'm probably as red as a tomato right about now.

"Jaron Ereysies open this door this instant!" I hear his mother yell from the other side of the door.

"Shit, Jaron wake up," I whisper yell so that his mother won't hear me. "Hey jackass, your mother's outside." I say a little bit louder and try to get his arm off of me. He stirs a bit until his eyes finally flutter open.

"What's happening?" he says, groggily, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Jaron, open this door!" his mother yells, which does a pretty good job of explaining our situation at the moment.

"Oh. Um, okay, um... hide in the closet, and don't say a word." He gets up and I make my way towards the closet.

"Jaron," I call out one last time.

"What?" he yells out annoyed.

"The translator." I tell him before closing the door to the closet. I leave the door open just a crack so I can see out, but people won't suspect I'm in here. He opens the door and his mother comes storming in with two guards following close behind her. I get a closer look at her now and notice that she and Jaron are nothing alike.

Queen Stephanie has long, flowing blonde hair that goes past the small of her back. She is of average height and has a small frame. Her skin, instead of being orange like that of her children's, is pale. It makes her look as if she is human. She turns, looking around the room, and I see that Jaron has gotten her eyes. After not finding what she's looking for, she finally turns to Jaron so she can address him.

"One of the guards told me that he spotted that human girl with the curly dark hair last night," she informs Jaron.

Fuck, she knows I'm here, I'm going to die, I think, panicking. Good bye Ursa, treat my family and friends well. It takes all my self-control to keep my breathing from getting too loud.

"Why did you come to me then? Eledina was the one to invite them over, I haven't seen them since they left yesterday after breakfast," he says, sounding like he doesn't care about this situation in the slightest.

"That same guard that informed me of her presence informed me of a little moment the two of you had in the training room," she says. She starts circling around him, and I can tell it is making him nervous.

"Eledina just sent her to check on me. I seriously have no clue why, she was acting like a pest. Did you know she broke my punching bag?" Jaron looks over at the closet doors as he says that and I mutter a curse word under my breath.

Turn away, turn away, turn away, I think desperately.

"We'll get you a new one, those things are replaceable," says the queen, and she follows Jaron's gaze to the closet. "Just... tell me if you see her roaming around the castle halls," she says before turning away and walking out, leaving Jaron without another word in the matter. Once I hear the door close, I get out of the closet and I let myself fall onto the bed, facing the ceiling.

"That was a close one," I hear Jaron say. He lays down next to me and we stay that way for a while, neither of us daring to speak a word.

"Did you really think I was being a pest yesterday?" I ask him curiously, breaking the awkward silence. He laughs and I turn to look at him. When he sees the look on my face he sees that I'm being serious, his wide grin turns into a simple smile.

"Not really, just had to sell the story to my mom," he finally answers after a few seconds pass. "Plus, like you said last night, I don't know anything about you. I really shouldn't judge."