If We're Not Soulmates, Then I Don't Believe In Love

The Princess and the Poor Girl

Lauren's POV

The farmers market is rather busy today, luckily for me. That meant I could sneak pieces of fruit, some bread, fabric, and other random items without anyone noticing. When my canvas bag is filled, I turn to leave only to run straight into a girl in a dark hooded cloak.

"Oh! Excuse me." She bends down and gathers the things that had fallen from her arms, which included some books and a half-eaten apple. "Guess I might as well throw this away now." She giggles and tosses the rest of the apple into a trash bag next to us.

I watch it go with a shocked expression. "That barely had any dirt on it! You know how many starved kids in this city would have eaten that right up?" As if to prove my point, Chris, my little brother, ran out from the shadows to grab it and retreat.

The girl follows him with her eyes, a saddened look dulling the previous happiness that was in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

I scoff. "Yeah whatever princess. I don't have time for this." I go to move around her, and continue on my way. When I'm halfway down the alley, shouts cause me to turn around.

Chris is running down the road, loaves of warm bread clutched in his hands, the girl from earlier debating with the stall owner about why she gave it to him.

"What the hell is going on here?" I storm right up to the merchant and glare at him.

He glares right back at me. "Well thief, this girl just handed three loaves of bread to your little  thief in training."

"Don't worry Eduardo, I'll handle this." I pull the girl to the side and glance at her. She's wearing an ornate necklace made of silver and emeralds. "Do you trust me, princess?"

Her eyes are wide in fear, but for whatever reason she nods. "Just get me out of this mess, please." Her voice is low and smooth.

I quickly take the necklace off of her before she can change her mind and hand it over to the merchant. "Here you go Eddy, I'll see you later."

He pockets the necklace and grumbles at me, walking to the back of his stall. Little Chris pops up from under the table and gives me the necklace back. "Did I do good Lolo?"

I bend down and allow him to crawl into my back. "You did amazing bud." I hand the girl her necklace back and we continue our walk to our ramshackle home. "Now lets get out of here."

Chris tucks the bread loaves into my bag and wraps his arms around my neck to hold on tighter.

"Hey Jauregui! You thief!" The merchant had noticed that the necklace was no longer in his pocket. "Security!"

The policemen at the end of the alley both stepped in and stared me down. I gulp and glance around quickly. Our usual escape route had been closed off, but there was an open window right next to us.

"Chris?"

"Got it." He jumps from my back straight into the window 

I motion for the girl to go ahead before me. "You said you trust me. Too late to back out now." She nods and swiftly follows Chris.

I lead them through the darkened building and out the other side, where we climb it using the exposed bricks and hand and foot holds. When we reach the roof, Chris immediately jumps from the edge to the building across a thin alley and continues towards home. I jump after him and stop to wait for the girl.

She's frozen at the ledge. "I- I can't!" The guards are closing in, and I can see them approaching behind her.

"You have to! Let's go princess!" I hold my arms out to her, gesturing that I would catch her.

Finally, she nods and jumps, landing on top of me. I don't take too long to push her back up and keep running, across a board onto another building and then down through a window to my dingy apartment.

Chris peeks his little face out from around the curtain that separates the kitchen from the bedroom. "Did we win?"

I help the girl reattach her necklace. "We sure did. Where's Taylor?" One cue, the little girl follows Chris out from the bedroom and toddles over to me.

"Hi Lolo!" She give me a toothy grin and crawls into my lap. I pull out a small orange and peel it so she can eat it. Giggling happily, she takes it and starts chewing on it.

I hand Chris and I shoo them back to the bedroom and turn to face the girl. "Sorry about all that. What's your name?"

She tilts her head up, causing the hood of her cloak to fall around her shoulders. "My name is Karla Camila Cabello Estrabo, princess of Little Havana."

I'm in awe of her absolute beauty. She makes even the dingy apartment look better just by standing in it. "Oh my God. You're- you're ethereal." After a second, her words kick in. "Wait, Princess?" I'm in shock, too stunned to say anything else.

She laughs, and the sound puts life back into my soul. "Yeah. I figured you knew, you kept calling me princess."

"To make fun of you just throwing food away. Not because I actually though-" I pace around the small apartment, hands in my hair. "You gotta get outta here! I don't want any attention brought to me or my siblings."

The princess shrugs and goes to the door, turning back one last time. "I'll see you around Jauregui."

I watch her go, still in shock. The actual princess had been in my dingy apartment. I stole, and then returned, the princesses necklace. I yelled at the princess!

Groaning in shame, I sink to the floor. "How could I be so stupid?"

Authors Note

Hey guys! I know this one is really short, but I'm working on several longer one shots that'll probably turn into multishots that I can't wait for you guys to see.

As y'all can probably tell, I watched the new Aladdin movie recently and this was sort of inspired by it.

If y'all would want a second part to this in the future, comment here!

As always, thank you for reading and supporting me. Love y'all and hope you have a fantastic day!

-Penny