A Tale of Two Princesses

Chapter 1

   Pink pink pink. I hear the pebbles against my window. I am on the fifth story inside the highest tower of my castle. I get out of bed and walk over to the window, my nightgown dropping and scrapping across the floor.
   "Come fair Juliet, away on an adventure with me!" Mac says and takes a bow.
   I love my secret night adventures with Mac. Our stolen kisses of course too. Mac makes me feel more safe and alive then anyone I have ever met, being with Mac makes me feel like my heart is singing and my soul is radiating. We've been the best of friends since we were little, toddlers that I know of. Being with Mac is an entertaining and magical journey. I am pleasantly surprised everytime we sneak away and I know for certain that Mac is the one I want to marry. Sadly I know undoubtedly that our parents would never approve. Mac and I are both betrothed to other royalty. On our night trips though none of that matters. We can ride unicorns and dragons and visit the gardens and see the special night flowers bloom. We can swing on the two seater swing. We can go swimming and ride the Dolfinka. Mac and I can kiss by the water fountain and forget our engagements.
   "C'mon get dressed and let's go! Oh fair Rapunzel get dressed and let down your golden hair!"
   I pull my green velvet dress over my head and strap on my dress shoes. Then I try to silently run down the stairs and out the door. I take the back way behind the kitchen because it's the only one without guards and a lock. Why isn't it? I would ask mother and father but then I wouldn't be able to sneak out anymore.
   "At least Sleeping Beauty has awoken and arrived, and dressed to boot!"
   "So which one am I? Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, or Juliet?" I ask.
   "All of 'em baby! Now take a helmet my lovely darling." Mac extends my helmet to me and I get on the motorcycle. We drive slowly to the gate and then stop so that I can punch the code in the keypad. We open and close the gate and then zoom off.
   I love the brick roads downtown. I wrap my arms around my love and sigh. This is what I want to do with my life. This is who I want to be with. The water fountain bursts to life. It has a dozen spouts and granite carvings of dolfinka in the center. The fountain is covered in white lights. We kiss.
   Mac parks the bike and we run to the dress shop and check out dresses through the window. Then we go by the place that has a giant old-fashioned oven and they bake your pizza right in front of you. There's a row of bar stools. I forget the name of this place. We look at the menu and say how someday we'll get pizza here and which toppings and sauces we'll have. We walk by the sunglass stand and pick sunglasses out for each other but they're in a locked glass case. Our parents are having a lunch outing soon so maybe we can actually get pizza and sunglasses. We can go shopping, our parents know we're friends, they don't have to know we're lovers. We just won't kiss. Or spank each other mwhaha...
   We check the Italian community garden and then walk down to the pier. We walk and talk for awhile but today our plan is to swing in the garden and watch the night flowers bloom. No riding of dolfinka, unicorns, or dragons. We rotate. We just wanted to get out of the castle and window shop for a little while.
   We walk back to the bike and drive back to the castle. Mac opens the giant door. There is a tree swing big enough for two and a rare flower that blooms in the moonlight. Scientists weren't sure whether to classify it as a plant because it uses the moon to photosynthesize instead of the sun but that was the only thing stopping them. The plant is weird in a few other ways though. It's stem can be green or blue, it's bulbs are white and inside are small luminescent bells. The bells jingle and are quite bright. The plant blooms every single night and dies at sunrise.
   There are red plants and purple plants, plants that are yellow and plants that are blue. Mac pushes me on the swing and talks about memories of royal training and exploring the castle. I talk about a new book I'm reading. We go to a special school together so Mac reads the same books but is a year older than me. Mac stops pushing, leans in, and kisses me.
   "Time to drop you off my love."
   "I don't want to", I pout.
   "Well your parents could catch us in the garden."
   We leave the garden and close the door. Mac gets back the bike and I hand over my helmet. I lean forward and kiss Mac's head.
   "Goodnight my darling Mackenzie."
   She puts her helmet on and drives off as I watch her lengthy auburn hair whip in the wind.