the prince and the peasant | skephalo | DISCONTINUED

dinner with the queen

~Zak's POV~

I don't know why I let Darryl have dinner with us. My mom was super smart, she would recognize Darryl from the party. After telling my mother that my friend would be having dinner with us, I turn to look at Darryl and place my hand on my chin, raising one of my eyebrows. I studied Darryl's face.

"What?" He asks nervously.

"Give me back your glasses," I say.

He backs away from me. "What! No, we had a deal,"

I cross my arms and scoff. "You're having dinner with us. My mom probably recognizes you from the party, so we need to change up your looks a bit. When I saw you without your glasses, I could barely tell it was you,"

Darryl groaned before unwillingly handing over his glasses.

I hide them in my pocket and look back at him who was avoiding making eye contact with me. "I'll give back after, ok?"

He nods while still choosing not to face me. Whilst waiting we I played and introduced Rocco to Darryl. Rocco didn't usually like 'outsiders', but he grew quite fond of Darryl.

I showed Darryl all of Rocco's tricks and we took turns feeding Rocco treats. After a couple minutes of waiting, my mother knocks on my door, calling for us.

We pet Rocco goodbye and I take Darryl's hand to take him down to the kitchen. His palm was sweaty and I could tell he was nervous. I felt bad, maybe he didn't want to have dinner with us, especially how my mom acted toward him at the party.

"Sorry I made you do this," I mumble my apology to him as we walk down the long flight of stairs, "I just got really excited and I just wanted to introduce you to my family,"

We stop to talk on the stairs before we enter the kitchen. "It's fine," he says, "I'm just a little nervous about talking to Queen again. She doesn't seem to like me,"

I sigh and turn to look at him with a smile. He focused on the carpet that laid on the stairs. "Don't worry about it. You look a lot different than you did at the party, she won't recognize you. We just need to give you a new name and lie about where you live,"

He sighs while giggling hesitantly. "Why do we need to change everything about me to get the Queen to like me?"

I frown. "She brands people by their social class. I don't know why though. We just need to change your name because she knows everyone in the kingdom. And if we tell her your real address, she'll put face to address and tell that your not actually as fancy as you're dressing,"

He runs his forehead with the wrist of his right hand. "Oh my goodness," he says in a low undertone, causing me to snicker a little.

"Let's go now, it's deemed as rude if the guest keeps their hosts waiting," I lead him down the stairs, knowing he probably needs my help without his glasses.

He scoffs. "You're the one making them wait!"

I giggle. I look to face him. He was also looking at me with a slight smile. He swiftly turns his head down to face the stairs. "Don't you think they'll recognize that I'm wearing your clothes?"

I shrug while continuing to pull him down the stairs. I hear my mom call for us, rushing us to come to come meet them. We start to pick up our waking pace and make our way to the dining table. I could tell Darryl was nervous by the sight of my mom.

He put a hand to his throat and cleared it. He took a seat next to me. There were plates of food in front of us, much like the food at my birthday party.

My parents insisted for Darryl to grab as much food as he wanted, but he seemed uncertain. I wasn't sure what he ate at home, but I knew his parents were farmers so maybe they ate what they grew on the farm.

The sound of forks and spoons clanking filled the room. It was a comfortable silence that grew on me before my mother spoke up. "Zak, it'd be rude if you didn't introduce us to your friend,"

I look at Darryl who was fixated on his plate. He looks up to look back at me and gifts me a skittish smile. "Um, his name is Darren. Darren Halo?"

He raises an eyebrow and gives me a 'what-kind-of-name-was-that-?' look. I give him back a confident look, causing him to twitch a little. I giggle quietly.

Some more silence before my mom decides to ask another question. "So Darren,"

"Hm?" Darryl tries to say in a respectful tone.

"What do your parents do?" my mom asks, putting Darryl on the spot.

He stares at me with a look of unsureness and nervousness. I decide to answer with the first thing that came to mind. "His parents own a French restaurant in the kingdom,"

He shoots me another angry look. My mother nudges my father, who was silent the entire meal. "Wow, maybe we should head over there sometime. Darren, are you French?"

"No, I was adopted by a French family though," he lies.

My father nods. "I see,"

"What is your parents' net worth, Darren?" my mother inquires.

"Mom, I don't think that's our business," I try to tell her.

"Nonsense! I'm just curious," she defends.

Darryl giggles. "Yeah, no, it's fine. I'm not sure though. I've never asked and they've never really told me,"

She nods.

My mom asks the both of us a series of questions, such as; 'how did you two meet', and 'how often are you coming over', and lastly, 'what social class are you in.'

Darryl tried to answer them as politely as possible, but I could tell that it made him uncomfortable answering some of her questions. I would be annoyed if I was being the the same questions he was being asked.

Ultimately, I ended up dragging Darryl out of there when I felt too uncomfortable to listen to. I packed his old clothes in my school book bag and gave back his glasses. I walked him home and we said our goodbyes. I returned his old clothes and let him keep the clothes I let him borrow for the dinner.

Whether my parents knew him as Darryl Noveschosch or Darren Halo, they still were jerks.

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Thank you for reading part 9 :)

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Words: 1108