The Princess Pages: A Girl Like Cinderella

Song Fifty Seven

BREAKDOWNS. LIFE CAN EVEN BRING DOWN THE STRONG.

Cara excused herself to go to the ladies' room on the fifth floor.

Watching her retreating figure, Trent Morgan tamed his unsteady breathing, then he loitered in the hallway when he suddenly saw Honey sprinting towards him with a diet soda in hand.

"TRENT! HELP! Some photographers were harassing me and I think they followed-OH MY GOSH, I am so, so sorry," she rambled when her soda spilled all over Trent's green shirt.

"It's alright," he said, feeling the cold drink scatter on the fabric and stick to his skin. He smiled apologetically at Honey and said, "Call it even for ditching you?"

The Italian supermodel smiled back. "On one condition," she proposed. "I passed by an infirmary earlier. I'll rinse your polo shirt while you clean up. There's a sink and a restroom in there."

Wanting to make amends for being a terrible host, the tall blond teen obliged her, and when they reached the school clinic, he took off his shirt and gave it to Honey, who entered the connected bathroom while he dabbed and splashed faucet water over his lean stomach.

Not two minutes had passed when he felt a pair of hands slide up his bare back, the assailant hugging his cinched waist from behind, burying her nose in the crook of his neck.

"Mm," she moaned in delight. "Your scent is even sexier than I fantasized it would be."

"H--"

She tightened her tanned arms around him. Her voice was deadly calm when she said:

"Don't bother struggling, Trent. I locked the only way out, so it's just you and me."

In another part of the building, on the fifth floor:

Cara washed her face with tap water, then pulled away from the bathroom sink.

She met her tormented reflection and jabbed an accusatory finger at herself. "You're always my problem. You always screw things up. You're always afraid. Not wanting to get hurt. Never wanting to be left behind by someone important to you. You're nothing but a coward and a weakling, Lucy Heartwood."

It was the first time she acknowledged her true name while disguised as Cara Wall. And it felt good.

She stepped out of the comfort room and headed to where she last saw Trent, but he wasn't there anymore.

Cara inspected the other rooms and possible places he could have disappeared to, like bathrooms and opened classrooms, but no dice.

As she scoured the second floor, walking towards one of the campus's clinics located in the very corner, the green-eyed blonde in a white blouse and dark jeans heard muffled voices from behind the white door. It had no window so she couldn't see what was happening inside.

Her fingers curled around the knob, which Cara gently twisted but to no avail. It was locked.

Cara felt a spasm of alarm when she retrieved a copy of the key from the proper office, and she thrust the key into the hole, noticing her fingers were shaking.

She gritted her teeth and twisted the key, shoving open the white panel door..

Only to wish she hadn't done anything in the first place.

Standing in the middle of the infirmary was a shirtless Trent Morgan, his hands wrapped around Honey's wrists while she hugged him from behind, nuzzling his nape and bare back.

"Gosh, you're so fit," she murmured against his skin, flashing Cara a smug, triumphant smile.

"Honey."