Royals

Chapter 2

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I stayed quiet at my table for the majority of the night, subtly chewing away at my dinner so that I could raid the dessert table as soon as the opportunity arose. In all honesty, the dessert table was definitely my favorite thing about cotillions.

"Are you okay? You're scaring me with your silence," Jake whispered with a light laugh.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied with a forced smile. "Want to dance?"

"I'd love to," he agreed, leading me towards the vastly unattended dance floor.

"Oh Emily, hey!"

"Penelope, how are you?" I asked politely through gritted teeth.

"I'm doing quite spectacular, but I came to give this back to you," she said, handing me a bunched up piece of fabric. I unrolled it and immediately recognized one of my white blouses that I must have left over at her house during a party.

"Funny, I don't remember this stain on it?" I remarked with an annoyed tone, gesturing to the very noticeable, magenta blob running down the arm.

"Oh my goodness, how in the world did that get there?" She snickered. "Maybe you should keep a better eye on your things. Overall, actually, you could really work on becoming a more responsible person."

"Excuse me, but of the two of us, I'm way more responsible and you know it," I snapped.

"Are you seriously trying to force all the blame upon me?" She laughed wickedly, sending shivers down my body.

"Pretty much," I scoffed. "I mean, I may have taken part in your schemes, but you were always the brain of the operations, coming up with the senseless ideas."

"Really? Because I can name many specific examples where that's not true," she shot back.

"Oh please, do enlighten me."

"Alright, for starters, you-" she began, but was cut off by Jake clearing his throat.

I was so caught up with Penelope that I had completely forgotten that he was trailing behind me. I felt heat rise to my cheeks, realizing how stupid that was of me. I fell right into her trap.

But she wasn't right; it wasn't possible. She was just trying to get to me. They were always her ideas. Yes, I participated, but I wasn't the one coming up with the plots. It was all her.

It had to be.

I could feel my old memories attempt to resurface in my mind, but I pushed them back down, wishing to drown them out for good.

I suddenly felt the childish need to glare at Penelope, grasping that she had succeeded in angering me. But after glancing at her, I realized that she felt the same misery I did.

I actually thought that I had noticed a flash of guilt in her eyes. However, she had so quickly concealed it, I began to wonder if it was ever there at all. Just as rapidly, the hurt was replaced with anger.

"Whatever," she mumbled as she walked away.

"What was that about? What happened?" Jake asked, mildly concerned. When I tried to look away, he lightly gripped my chin and drew my eyes to him. "Emily?"

"It's nothing." I forced a smile, attempting to obliterate the worry from his captivating, chocolate-brown eyes. "So, about that dance?"

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