The (Not So) Perfect Princess

Backstory time

I waited a good half an hour before I spoke to Q, and made sure both Scout and Eily were asleep.

“So, Q, what’s your story?” I asked. It might’ve been a dumb question, but I was curious. He, Eily, and Scout seemed to have just popped out of nowhere.

“My what?”

“Your story. Everybody has one.”

“My story…” Q leaned his head back against the tree and exhaled. “Well, I was born and raised in a tiny house on a farm. I lived with my sister and my dad until he died when I was nine.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay. I don’t remember him anyway.”

“So what did you guys do?”

“What, me and my sister?” Q snorted. “Penny was already eleven when I was born, and out of the house by eighteen. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough. As far as I know, she could be married to some Grand Duke in Russia and have five kids.”

Nice family. Reminds me of mine. “Well, what did you do? You were only nine, right?”

He shrugged again. “I left. I mean, what could I do? I had no one else. Well, except for Eily.”

I squinted. “What do you mean? You knew Eily when you were nine?”

“Yeah. We were neighbors, if you can call a fifteen-minute walk away neighbors. She was my only friend growing up, you know, with Penny leaving when I was seven. We did everything together. Most of the time she even slept over. We’d just lay a blanket on the ground of my bedroom as a makeshift bed. The weird thing was, even though we were ‘best friends’ or something, I’d never been to her house before.”

“Why not?”

Q’s pained expression made me think he was recalling bad memories. “Sometimes Eily would go to her house for whatever reason in the night, and come back the next morning with two or three bruises. She would pass it off as tripping down the stairs, or slamming her arm in a door, or something like that. But I didn’t believe her. I remember asking Eily if someone was hitting her, but she wouldn’t answer me.”

“Oh.” I knew my parents hated me, but at least they didn’t abuse me. Eily had had a worse childhood than me.

Q nodded knowingly. “Eily had mentioned that she lived with her father once, so I assumed it had to be him. You have no idea how ready I was to go over there and give him a piece of my mind, even if I was a nine year old. But Eily made me promise that I’d never step foot in her house. I knew I had to keep her safe though, so I asked her to come with me when I left.”

I sat back against the oak. Now, Eily’s fierce attitude and guarded demeanor made sense, and not just because of the jealousy thing. She was forced to grow up much too quickly, in order for her own safety. She probably had to teach herself most things too. It was a wonder Eily had even made it at all. If Q hadn’t been her neighbor, she probably wouldn’t have.