Secretly Royalty

Nine- My Ring

The next morning, Josh came to my flat bright and early and offered to walk with me to school.

"It's a nice day out, and it'd be wrong to take the bus when nature is calling to you," he smiled at me.

"Fine, if you insist." I laughed as I invited him. "I still need to finish getting ready, but you're more than welcome to make yourself at home." I told him before walking off to my room.

Pulling on a pair of skinny jeans, I decided today was going to be a new day. I'll just pretend yesterday didn't happen. My outfit was very casual and it made my ring stand out. The ring my dad gave me.

Is it too flashy? Do I take it off?

I fiddled with it before deciding to leave it on. No one will think anything of it. Or so I thought.

As soon as I walked out of my room with all my stuff Josh almost immediately took notice to my ring and asked about it.

"That's a nice ring you have. Where's it from?"

"My dad gave it to me..." I turned away from him so he couldn't see the hurt in my eyes.

"Is he... around?" He asked hesitantly.

"He's back home. In England. There's a war that broke out and has made its way to English soil, so he convinced my mum to bring me here. Until the war is over." I told him. It felt good to be able to tell the semi-truth.

"Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't know." He walked up to me.

"Yeah. England is kind of trivial to a lot of Americans it seems." I whispered as he got closer. Then his face was inches from mine, our lips ghosting each other.

"Victoria, have you-" my mum came out of her room. Josh and I instantly turned away from each other. "Oh, I didn't know you had guests." She looked at me and then at Josh and then back to me.

"We were just leaving," I told her, praying she'd just drop it.

"I'm Victoria's mum, and you are?" She reached her hand out delicately.

"Josh. Nice to meet you," he smiled and shook her hand gently.

"Likewise," She looked him over before bidding us farewell.

"I'm sorry about her," I told him as soon as we were in the lift to get to the ground floor.

"Nothing to be sorry about. I think that's just how moms are. I wouldn't really know though." He said more to himself than me.

"Hey, are you okay?" I reached for his hand and intertwined our fingers. He turned to me before a smile took over his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." His smile was fake and didn't reach his eyes. But it's not my place to dig yet. He squeezed my hand gently before letting it go and walking out of the lift.

Everything about him confuses me.