This Is England » Freddie Highmore

53.

   I WAITED for an hour and when Amelia didn't show up I began to worry. I take out my phone and begin to text her.

Where are you?

I didn't get an immediate response back, and when she did reply it was blunt and curt. I looked at the text quizzically, feeling hurt by the reasoning behind it.

I don't want to see you right now. I have more important things to do than to sit around and argue.

It was a bloody shame that all she saw in us were arguments; that she didn't see how I loved her. She didn't see any of it. As I looked up at the night sky, feeling angry and hurt, I had two questions on my mind: Am I a fool for thinking she really wants me? Is this relationship going to work?

   Shaking my head, I sighed and turned on my heel; coming to the upright conclusion that my idea of Amelia Parker and I ever being together was coming to an end.

…

          I COULD have gone to a bar and drank my heartache away --- that was my option --- but I decided to actually do something about this situation and make things right again. I headed over to the hotel we'd been staying at and went up to the floor using the elevator. The awkwardness of the entire ordeal was quite strong; considering there was a seven-year-old looking at me.

   "Where are you going?" she had asked me. I couldn't help but smile at her voice. It was so tiny and innocent. Her mother looked at me and gave me a nervous grin.

  "I'm going to my room, to see my girlfriend." I replied, crouching to her level as the elevator kept going up. The highest number was the one that went first, and right now these two ladies were on the sixth floor.

   "Your voice sounds funny!" the little girl said, giggling. She then looked at me with her bright green eyes and asked me another question. "Is your girlfriend a princess?"

   The thought of Amelia's bright eyes and smile made my heart skip a beat. Did I think of her as royalty? In all honesty I do. But to me, she isn't a princess.

   She's my queen. The love of my life. The solution to my problems. She is everything I could need in a person.

   I looked down at the little girl and smiled. "She isn't a princess," I said, "she's a queen."

   The little girl gasped, tugging on her mother's shirt excitedly. "Mommy! Can I go meet the queen?"

   The mother looked at me, smiling apologetically. "I'm sorry," she replied, "she can get carried away sometimes."

   I shook my head. "It really is no trouble at all, love." suddenly the door for their floor for the elevator rang, indicating that they'd be leaving in two seconds.

  I looked at the little girl and said: "Maybe one day, you'll be the queen of someone's life. You just have to wait for a really long time for that to happen."

  She giggled once again  and clutched onto her mother's hand; skipping away to the hallway, saying to her mother as the door began to close: "I can't wait to be queen!"

    I shook my head, chuckling to myself. Kids. . . What an adventure they are.

The door finally came to an opening, and with that, I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and walked towards the room Amelia and I stayed in.

   I take a breath and knock three times, praying that she'd be on the other side.

…

       THE DOOR opened. Amelia stood before me in her Let It Be Beatles shirt and had short purple bottoms underneath. She looked at me, and as soon as her mind took it all in that I was physically there, she crossed her arms defensively.

   "I told you I didn't want to see you." she said, pouting her lower lip.

    "I know," I replied, letting her scent get the best of me as I stepped closer. "I know you didn't want to see me. You texted me about it, you Instagrammed it to me; you made it very clear that you didn't want to see me."

   I was now an inch closer, and with that I cupped the side of her face with my hand, looking into her eyes, then fixating my gaze on her beautiful, plump lips.

   "But is it wrong of me to want to see you and do, this?"

    I closed my eyes and pressed my lips against hers. Pulling away, I looked at her face; waiting for her to respond.

   "Yes it is," she replied. Her eyes were beaming with a glow I couldn't exactly explain. "but I know you're not the type to follow the rules." she then pulled me closer; her arms wrapped around my neck.

   "And I love that about you."

…