The Startled Princess

♕ Chapter 24

"Are you sure that I won't get any food poisoning?" Rose hesitated as Seth raised the spoon to her mouth - ready to feed her his cooking. Seth nodded. "You're the one who asked me to cook for you," he said. "Yes, but I just want to make sure," she said and stared on his cooking. It looked fine but was still unconvincing. 

"I've been cooking for you all morning," Seth told her and sounded a little dissapointed. Rose was still hesitating before she turned her eyes to him. He was doing that cute puppy eyes that was impossible to be resist. "Fine," she gave in and opened her mouth. Seth grinned and he feed her. Rose chewed his cooking slowly and didn't say anything.

"How is it?" Seth asked hopefully and beamed on her. Unfortunately for him, his soup was the worst soup that Rose ever tried. It was salty, atrocious and the taste was impossible to be described. But Seth was beaming on her with a hopeful expression until she didn't have the heart to say the truth. "It's good!" Rose lied and forced herself to swallow everything.

"Seriously?" Seth widened his eyes. Rose nodded and tried her best not to throw up. He smiled and stared on the soup. "You're the first person who ever said that. My sister tried my cooking once and she threw up right after she ate it," he said, looking into the bowl. "Wonder how it taste," he wondered and wanted to try his cooking.

"Don't!" Rose stopped him, raising both her hands. She seized the bowl from him. "You cooked this for me so you can't eat it," she said. Seth wrinkled his nose. "I just want to try a little bit. If you want more, I can make for you," he said and tried to reach for the bowl. "I'm hungry and I don't want to wait for another five hours," Rose lied again as she was afraid that Seth would know that his cooking tasted like a soap.

"You're such a buffalo," Seth sulked. "I just want to try my own cooking," he crossed his arms to his chest. Rose smiled innocently at him. Seth stared on her and said, "You said you're hungry so eat it," 

She stared on the bowl and recalled how it tasted. There's no way she would be stuffing more of it into her mouth. The taste was just unbearable. "I'm not hungry anymore but I don't want you to eat it. It's mine," she said. Seth was taken aback. "You're so weird," he stared on her like she's an alien.

Rose gave another innocent smile at him. "Oh and Lily's coming. She's worried about me so she's visiting me. Is that okay with you?" she asked. Seth nodded. "It's fine," he agreed. "Alan's coming too. We're going to watch some old classic movie for our class project,"

"Can we join in?" she asked, blinking her eyes. "Please.. My bedroom is so boring. At least, you have a TV,"

"You'll be sleeping halfway through the movie, Rose" he laughed. "You only like Freddy Krueger, don't you?"

"Still, it's more fun rather than sitting here, doing nothing," Rose curled her lips. "Please, please, please. I promise you that I won't be bothering you," she beseeched, shaking his arm. Seth sighed.

"Fine," he said boredly.

~~

"Rose!" Lily walked into her bedroom with a worried expression. Rose smiled at her and she was sitting on the bed. "I'm so worried about you. Are you okay?" Lily said and hugged her. Rose let her go and gave her an assuring smile. "I'm fine. I don't know why is everyone panicking like I'm going to die," she joked.

"It's not funny," Lily stressed her words. "I was so worried when you called. I thought you were going to kill yourself," . Rose laughed. "I might do that if he stayed in Paris for another few days," she said, half joking, half serious. "Seth's still angry at you? I can't believe Alex would do that to you," Lily asked and frowned as she mentioned Alex's name. 

Rose smiled. "No. He may look like a jerk and act like an angry monkey most of the time but he's a kid inside," she said in awe, recalling every single beautiful memories with a soul named Seth Larston.