The Royal Crush

6

I stumbled inside and the butler took our bags. I was so exhausted, I could sleep for a week. We were home from our little trip and all I wanted to do was crash on my soft, plush, queen sized bed. Aunt Evelyn greeted us enthusiastically. I gave her a quick hug and rushed upstairs. Kicking off my slippers, I sighed in satisfaction as my feet sunk into the lush carpet. I padded barefoot to the washroom and, not having the patience to fill the tub,  took a quick shower and hurried to bed in my bathrobe. I flopped on the bed and let the sweet darkness of sleep envelop me.

A bug? In my room? No way. Without opening my eyes, I brushed my hand over my nose and snuggled deeper into the blankets. Again, the crawling sensation, this time on my leg. I let out a grunt of irritation. Why couldn't the stupid bug let me sleep? The thing was crawling down now and honestly I was so mad I would crush it. I sat up and looked for the bug but found Cedric instead, shaking with silent laughter.

"Bitch!" I squealed and lunged at him. He dodged me and I tackled him to the ground. He pinned my arms with his foot and grinned as I cursed at him, laughing. We heard a sigh and looked up to see Aunt standing at my doorway, looking amused.

"Cedric, you were supposed to wake her up. For school."

He stood up and grinned at her. "Job done," he said with a little salute and walked out. I laughed.

◯◯◯

"Hey."

I turned from my locker. It was Caleb. He was wearing a white V-neck and jeans, his hair messy.

"Oh, hey."

"How was the trip?"

I shrugged. "It was good."

"By the way, I was thinking-"

"Hey." It was Adrian.

"Adrian. Hey," I said.

Caleb frowned. Adrian scowled at him and then smiled at me.

"We should go out sometime. Remember when we went to the Greek restaurant? The food was amazing and we had so much fun. We should do that again."

I froze. Beside me Caleb tensed. Luckily, the bell rang just then and I took off without a word to either of them. Seriously, what was he thinking? Just because I stopped ignoring him, we're suddenly all dandy cotton candy? Hell no.

"You look like you could use a break," Dylan said as I sat beside him in class.

"From life," I said. 

He laughed quietly. "Yea, it be like that sometimes,"

I chuckled. Dylan was honestly such a great guy. He was pretty decent and always cheered us up when we were down. But he never talked about his problems. I looked sideways at him. A head full of curly brown hair, deep brown eyes and beautiful olive skin.

"Stop staring, Chloe, I don't want death threats from Adrian."

I blushed. "I- I didn't mean to stare, I was thinking, I-"

Dylan laughed. "Aw c'mon, Chloe! I was just messing with you."

I glared at him and punched his shoulder.

"Not funny. And anyways, I'm not with Adrian anymore."

"Well he sure does act like you are."

"That jackass," I muttered.