Royals

Chapter 46

For Ashlynn, Sunday consisted of lying on my couch with a pair of old headphones that Anastasia used to use during the Fourth of July fireworks. She rested beside a glass of water, Advil, a towel, and a pail, with a cool washcloth on her forehead at all times.

I took care of her mom by calling her and convincing her that there was a delay on our flight from Minnesota. Ashlynn told me her mom only knew the bare minimum: we went on a business trip and traveled to various states.

It took a little convincing, and a bribery of ice cream, but Ashlynn eventually allowed us to take her away from the mall and back to the hotel, where we swam until dinner.

At dinner, we made the mistake of leaving Ashlynn unattended. And, in those three minutes, she managed to drain the remainder of our cotton candy wine--which, admittedly, wasn't much. However, that inch of wine kept her buzzed for the rest of the night.

To put it simply: Ashlynn was a lightweight.

Along with their parents, Brandon and Marietta drove home after our flight to Michigan landed. Additionally, Audrey took a separate flight home to Los Angeles. I didn't ask what Joey said to her, but she returned to her normal, annoying self when we met at the children's play area in the Mall of America.

Eventually, when Ashlynn felt less queasy, she went home. She told her parents she felt jet lagged with a small case of motion sickness, so they let her remain in her bedroom for the rest of the night without any questions.

Monday passed by customarily: arriving late to school, being questioned by our whereabouts by Annabel and Claire (Ashlynn claimed to have caught the stomach flu, and I told the half-truth: I had to assist my mom on a business trip), and a small dinner celebration for Jake turning seventeen.

The rest of the week went by ordinarily, and there wasn't any excitement until Saturday.

I woke up the best way: without an alarm clock.

I rose from my bed, taking a scolding hot shower to make up for freezing temperature outside. When I finished scrubbing every inch of my body, I pulled back the curtain, feeling my skin transform into millions of goose bumps. As quickly as I could, I stepped into a pair of Joey's sweatpants, fuzzy socks, a random t-shirt, and one of Joey's old sweatshirts.

I shuffled back into my room, grabbing my hairbrush from my dresser. I smoothed through my knotted ends and twisted my hair into two French braids. As soon as I tied the last elastic, Anastasia bounded through my room.

"Mommy and Daddy said they have fantastic news!" she screamed, grabbing my hand and dragging me out the door, barely giving me any time to toss my brush on my dresser.

When we arrived in the living room, I noticed my mother and Dad sitting adjacent to each other on the couch. No matter what they promised Anastasia, I knew it wouldn't be "fantastic news".

In those milliseconds, every bad thing I had ever done resurfaced in my brain. Were they finally fed up with me? Were they sending me to military school? It certainly wouldn't be "fantastic news" for me, but I could see why my mother would think so.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked, forcing myself to sit down on our leather couch.

"Why? Is there something you did wrong?" my mother inquired, fighting back a sadistic smile.

"No," I answered, pulling Anastasia onto my lap.

"Then, no," my mother replied. For a beat, we sat there in complete, awkward silence.

"So...what's your fantastic news?" Anastasia questioned impatiently, squirming with excitement.

"Ah, right," my mother smiled, as if she had forgotten why she called us here together. "We have some news that will affect you both."