Her Royal Charming

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Do you know those moments in the mornings when an extra minute of sleep somehow turns into half an hour? That was me at the moment, scrambling to run a brush through my hair and put my shoes on at the same time.

I was pretty sure I had mismatching socks and my sweater was inside out, but that was the least of my worries.

I had less than five minutes to brush my teeth, grab something to eat and hope my car starts.

After my car stalling only three times, I managed to back out of the driveway only to hit traffic. Just my luck.

Nevertheless I persisted and got to school just a mere twenty minutes late, cursing myself for being too exhausted to hear my alarm the third time. I have exhausted myself for the past few weeks, and now it's all catching up to me.

Good thing I missed seeing Edmon in the morning, he would have given me the same lecture again. I have it memorized by now, and it's not that I don't agree with him but it becomes annoying having someone smothering me.

I'm used to doing things on my own

Like not sleeping well and overworking myself for two weeks straight and owning up to my actions. To Edmon it seems stupid but for me it was a triumph, and it's hard for him to understand that.

When I got to school the parking lot, there were literally no spots available, it was completely packed. I had no idea how this happened, and had no other choice but to park on the side street a block away officially making me miss first period.

Are you ok?

I got about 10 of these texts from Edmon, a mix of asking me whether I was ok and where I was. I gave him the short version that I slept past my alarm and would see him at lunch.

I tried to clear my head and wake up, but one thing was clear, it was going to be a long day.

----------

"Did they do something again?" Edmon said asking me not even two seconds after I saw him.

"Whatever happened to hello Ed?" I sigh.

"What did they do this time?" He asked me again seriously.

"Nothing Ed, I just overslept." I closed my locker shut with more force than necessary, and rubbed my eyes in a futile attempt to get rid of the lingering sleepiness. If caffeine hasn't work, nothing else will.

"Adira." I knew that tone, and I knew what was going to come next.

"Save it Edmon, I can't handle another lecture. I know what I did and where I went wrong, can we leave it at that?" I say exasperated. My mind could not handle this, or anything at the moment.

"Ok." He admitted, and put an arm around my shoulder. "Let's get some extra strong coffee." And for once I was too exhausted to argue with him about leaving school. I went along with it blindly.

"Text your boss and tell her you can't come in this week. I'm sure she'll understand."

"Can you do it for me?" I ask using my puppy-dog eyes or at least attempting to. The bags under my eyes made me look like a racoon, so it must have looked frightening.

"Sure thing." He smiled and led me to his car. "I'll take you home after this, you need some sleep and maybe a hot chocolate."

"You know me so well." I closed the door to the car and felt myself drift off almost immediately. Maybe I was worse off than I thought.

------------

I woke up in my bed, with an extra blanket placed on me. The basement was always cold and heat was sporadic at most. I smiled at the thoughtfulness of Edmon.