Princess

eight

"Princess, wake up." I opened my eyes. The light was too bright, and my head was pounding. I groaned and shut them again. I heard Emerson laughing next to me. "This is why I told you not to drink that much. Did you listen? Nope."

    I flipped him off from my lying down position on the back seat of the car. "Shut up."

    "Somebody's feisty in the morning." He gently placed a hand on my knee. I didn't bother to shake it off. It was quite comforting actually, knowing that even though he was laughing at my pain, he still cared.

    "Do you have anything for a headache?"

    "Like painkillers?"

    "Yeah." He handed me a couple of pills and some water. "Thanks."

    "Lucky for you, I always keep bottled water in the boot." He gave me that lopsided grin he always did, with his tongue poking out between his teeth and eyes crinkling at the sides. I felt something in my chest, a swelling. I sat up and brought my hand to my chest. What the hell was that? "You alright?"

    "I think so. I just... nevermind. It was probably nothing." He stared at me, concern and something else swimming in his eyes.

    "Are you sure? You can tell me."

    "Honestly, I'm fine."

    "Hey, don't say honestly unless you're gonna tell the truth." I opened my mouth to talk, but he put a hand over my mouth. "Don't even try to tell me you were telling the truth."

    "But I was." My voice was muffled from behind his hand. I stuck my tongue out and licked his palm.

    "Hey!" He yanked his hand away, wiping it on his jeans.

    I shrugged. "You were asking for it."

    "Still... So, you gonna tell what's wrong?" He flipped his hair over his shoulder with the back of his hand. God, he was persistent.

    "I told you, it was nothing. I just felt weird for a second." There, I told him. Was he satisfied?

    "What do you mean you felt weird? Like how?" No, he wasn't.

    "It's none of your business." He just couldn't let it go.

    "But it is-"

    "No, actually, it's not."

    "Jeez, princess. Don't have to get all aggressive."

    "I'm not!" I tugged at my hair. This stupid boy was frustrating me so much. He moved himself so he was sitting next to me on the worn out leather seats. He reached for my hands on my head. I flinched.

    "Princess, I'm not going to hurt you." He grabbed my wrists and untangled my hands from my hair. "You don't have to tell me."

    I risked a peek at his eyes. They were perfectly clear, the brightest blue I'd seen them yet. He blinked, and for a moment winter became spring. His eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbones, before bringing December back.

    "I can't tell you because I don't know what it was." Weird was the only way I could describe it. It was like a pulling in my chest. That was all I knew.

    He wrapped his arms around me in a sort of side hug. This was a lot less awkward when we were drunk, or at least I was. Maybe it was me who was making it awkward. I had the extraordinary capability of making every situation much more uncomfortable than necessary. He must've sensed this, and decided to make some small talk.

    "Do you need to call your mum and explain why you aren't home?"

    Home. As if you could even call it that. "She won't care. She probably went to work and didn't even check to see if I was there." Exactly that happened every Saturday, so why would this one be any different?

    "You sure?"

    "Yes. Can we please discuss something else? Like how about the upcoming summer days? What d'you have planned?" Summer was the first thing that came to my mind, so I went with it.

    "Oh, princess, I don't make plans beyond one day before."

    "Not gonna lie, that's just stupid."

    "Why? I like the thrill of not knowing what's coming next. It's always a challenge trying to control what's happening once it's already happening, but that's the exciting part, innit, I guess." It did sound like him. He was reckless, and I never knew what he was gonna do next. Yeah, definitely him.

    "I prefer knowing what my day looks like." He looked at me like I had a second nose growing out of my forehead.

    "But, but that's so restricting!" I chuckled at his exclamation.

    "Maybe, but it's much less stressful."

He furrowed his brows and tilted his head to the side for a moment, two fingers coming to rest on his closed lips, before nodding. "Yeah, you do seem like the kinda guy who's stressed a lot."

"Gee, thanks, Em."

"I like that one, too, by the way." I rolled my eyes. Did nobody ever give him any nicknames? "No, people call me E or Em."

"Shit, I said that out loud, didn't I?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Weird habit, if you ask me."

"Nobody asked you. And that crossed over the line between honesty and arse."

"Dammit. I really need to learn where the line is." I nodded in agreement. He did have a problem with his honesty. Sometimes, he was too honest. "C'mon you couldn't've just been like, 'No, Emmy, you don't have a problem with that'?"

"Emerson! I don't sound like that!"

"Kinda do, but whatever."

"Plus, I was just being honest." I smirked and gave him innocent eyes.

"Stop using honesty against me."

"Sure." I probably would never stop using it against him, but he didn't need to know that.