Eline_huntsmith

River and Lily have been, or rather had been, friends for almost all their lives until a one nightstand ruined any semblance of a friendship between them.

Lily would strongly like to blame the fact that she was foolish on that night and River, well, he doesn't look like he has a lot to say or think about the night in question.

Now, four years down the line, after one isolating the other and another still being bitter hurt over the events that succeeded that particular night, Lily is called in for a royal favor.

With River's coronation as king drawing near, she has to keep his rather, messy, to be lightly put, record on a clean squeaky plate. How to do that you ask? Well, obviously by avoiding him and being professional to a fault.

But the ignorant blind fool doesn't get the memo. In fact, to her, it looks like River is doing anything other than being professional and distant.

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"I was going to ruin you!" he shouts in exasperation and I eye him for a moment, watching his chest rise and fall rapidly until he calms down.

"I was already ruined. I fail to see any sort of damage that could have outdone what I've gone through." I shrug and pick up my folder from the bed.

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Lily has no much to think about during the summer but if there's something she's certain of, it's that she is not ready to be the reason River's crown topples off his head no matter how much he wants to be the problem in her course.

Another Royal Frog

Here's a little messed up fun fact about me: I don't know how to react to people crying. It scares me and I feel like I'm making it worse in stead of making it better.

I barely cry myself and when I do I like to be alone with my misery.

My mom says I'm an empath but what good does empathy do when it's felt from afar?

Seeing River cry in the bathroom was the last thing I expected when I woke up especially after everything that happened after I told him about me leaving.

Did something happen to someone close to him? Maybe a friend or relative?

This is the very first time to ever see him cry and look torn, but I still sit on the spot beside him, deciding being there for him is better than freaking out and leaving.

"It's going to be fine." I rub my palm on his back and I feel him tense before sighing and lifting his eyes to look at me.

chapter twenty three