Chapter 8

I wake up at 9 am and take a bath and then walk into my closet thinking about what should I wear. Whenever I am going out of Castle as Loretta, I can wear the clothes I wish. I guess, I should dress elegantly today since I am gonna tell him about me being a princess, he probably will have a hard time believing it if I go in a funky dress. Also, I am meeting Lisa and I don’t wanna give her more reasons to tease me she already has enough of that.

I finally go with a brown skirt with a peach top. I go downstairs and to my utmost surprise Mom, Dad, and Steve were there waiting for me to start breakfast with the whole table covered with delicious breakfast. I go and sit next to Steve and eye all of them suspiciously, “What’s the occasion guys?” My dad smiled and gestured toward my mom. My mom coughs then speaks, “Um I thought that maybe we should also do breakfast like other families together. And also I should take responsibility as a mom to prepare breakfast so here we are.” My mouth fell open and I made an ‘aww’ face. I went to Mom and hugged her from the back, “Oh come on Mom. I only have one heart, how many times will you win it?” Steve comes to me holds me up in his arms and puts me back on my seat and then turns to face me, “Use that cheesy line on your boyfriend, ok. My mom has already fallen by that line for Dad. She won’t fall again for anyone now.”

Mom blushes and smacks Steve on his head. Dad also blushed while reading his newspaper. Mom takes a drink from her coffee, “C’mon, stop staring at me. Eat your breakfast and go away.” I and Steve teased at the same time, “Ooohh. Love is in the air.”

After 5 mins I finally saw Lisa entering through the front door. I wave at her. Woahh, she is wearing a white dress and heavy jewelry. “Are you coming from your marriage?” She sits on the chair in front of me, “Actually, yes.” I stand up and shout, “What?” She pushes me onto the chair and speaks, “It’s not that serious. This is the 3rd wedding that I am running from. I am so used to this.” I look freaked out right now but I don’t care about that. “Are you serious? Don’t tell me it’s your parents.” She nods her head and calls the waitress. She places her order then the waitress turns towards me, “That will be it.”

I turn my attention towards her, “So tell me the full story now.” She shakes her head as a ‘no’ and speaks, “Why talk about sad things when we can talk about happy things? So I think what great thing must have happened that our Almighty princess Jenny called me.” I scoff at that, “I’ve told you not to call me Jenny a thousand times. And yeah this changing topic won’t work on me so get started with your story.”

She dramatically wipes sweat off her forehead and gets started, “You know how my parents are so much into marrying me to a wealthy family so yeah the first groom was 10 years older than me that’s why I ran away then I apologized to them so they set my second weddings. The second groom was good-looking but too much arrogant. He even insulted my BTS. You know I would have let it go if it was anything else but not BTS.” I was trying to control my laughs. “Yeah yeah, you are right. No one is allowed to insult BTS.” She takes a sip from her cappuccino and takes a look around. “I think we are the spotlight today. Let’s enjoy it, dude.” She takes my hand and stands up in her seat. I protest, “What? No. We are already looking so bad. Just imagine a bride sitting with a girl with a mask.” “Just shut up.” She makes me stand on my chair and then she turns on ‘cheap thrill’ on her phone.

Oh man, I can’t resist this song. Fuck the stares. She started to dance on it wildly and so I joined her as well. All the people sitting were cheering for us and clapping to the beat. The cafe manager even puts on the song by the speaker. A lot more people start to dance with us. Finally, when the song ends, everyone started clapping. I and Lisa then bow our heads and she speaks, “Please don’t mind our steps. It’s just this song turns us on. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a good day.” I go and apologize to the manager as well but he surprisingly gives me his card, “You guys don’t need to apologize we are thankful for that amazing performance. This is my card, if you guys want to perform any day at any time please call me. We will prepare a stage for you. We can even pay you.” Lisa excitedly shakes hands with the manager and speaks, “We will consider your offer. Thanks.”

After going out of the café we both laugh our asses off. “Oh, God. I had fun after so long.” I do a move and say, “You did this move. I was like wait that’s our crush.” I and Lisa had the same crush when we were in high school. First, she dated him, and then I did. After my breakup, we both started talking about him together and that’s how we ended up as friends. There’s more to it since she knows about my princess’s secret as well. “I was really surprised you remembered that move as well. But trust me no one can do that better than him.” “Definitely.”

I completely forgot about my appointment with Ashton and for which I called her. We both sit on a bench outside the French fries shop and she ordered pizza fries. I make a serious face and speak, “Um Lisa, I need your advice on something.” She nods her head for me to continue. I tell her the whole thing and the first thing she says is, “What does your heart say?” I was quite surprised at that but then I thought for a moment. He seems to be a nice guy. And right now I don’t why but the only thing that seems right to me is to tell him the truth. To be honest I am tired of living a pretentious life. “My heart wants to let it all out.” The waitress places the pizza fries plate on the table. She thanked her and then turn towards me, “Then go for it. You know my agenda, right? Just follow your heart. It’s your youth so you are bound to make mistakes and learn from them.” I smile at her and say, “You are right. Oh yeah by the way you forgot to tell me about why you ran from 3rd wedding.”

She suddenly started laughing like crazy. The people on the street were eyeing us like they are just a minute away from calling the mental hospital. Finally, she stops laughing and speaks, “Trust me this was worth it. I didn’t run from this wedding alone. This boy loved another girl but his parents didn’t want him to marry that girl. We both made a plan to run together from our wedding this time. So last night we both stayed at a hotel then he went off to his girlfriend and I came here.” “So you haven’t changed your clothes since night?” She makes a sad face and speaks, “No, I forgot my wallet at home so I have got no money. I can’t even go to my home this time. I am sure they will kill me. They just don’t understand that I am not up for marrying a random guy. I am gonna marry someone I love. When I am ready for marriage I will go home but not now.”

I think about it and take out a key from my side purse and hand it to her, “This is the key to my studio apartment. I bought it to practice music there. You can take this apartment and I will ask Addy to buy me a new one.” She puts the key in her purse and speaks, “Um well you know I mean that uh.” I cut her off and speak, “Yeah I know you mean thank you.” I and Lisa have a friendship in which it gets too awkward to say thank you and sorry. We don’t even hug each other. We prefer it this way and it’s pretty good. Now I wonder what will happen with Ashton.

When I enter the café, I saw Ashton sitting on a window side table. He was wearing a blue suit and was on a phone call. I went and sat on the opposite chair. After he was finished with his call he turned to me, “I don’t even know why I agree to this but anyway I did so let’s get started.” I am already nervous and if he talks like this I will be more nervous. So I speak straightforwardly, “I am a princess.” He fake laughs, “Ha ha now let’s get started.” Oh, I knew he won’t take me seriously. I calm myself and speak, “Look I am not kidding. I am the granddaughter of King Jones and Queen Ellen, I am the daughter of Olivia Lewis and Lewis Jones and I am the twin sister of Stevenson Jones.” His mouth fell open. He was staring at me like I was a ghost. He kept looking at my face for 5 minutes. I was feeling uncomfortable so I spoke, “I know it’s hard to believe but can you please stop staring.”

“So you were hiding like this all this time. You even know how much my family has suffered because of you. You first killed my brother and now when we were finding you all this time so you were living under a different identity. Do you think that changing your identity can change your past, huh? Trust me if my elder brother would be here you would be dead right now. But I won’t kill you. You first have to answer my questions and then I will torture you. My elder brother has nightmares daily because of you. My dad takes sleeping pills to sleep because of you. My mom has depression because of you. My family is a mess because of you. We all seriously thought you were dead but here you are shamelessly living a perfectly comfortable life. You will pay for what you did.” I angrily stand up and shout, “What are you talking about?”