Royalty

Thirty Three

Xander and I were sitting at the counter top in the kitchen on Thursday afternoon. We had been talking about all the people that had been coming to him for drugs. There were a quite a few people that he had recognized on broadway posters or tabloid magazines. Some of them were insanely skinny and some of them just looked so worn out.

We also chatted about how much money he's made since he's been here. I never really realized just how crazy all that drug dealing shit was and how much people paid for a tiny bag. I mean, I knew it was a lot, I just didn't know it was that much.

I felt like lately everything had been about me and all my shit, so I wanted to see how he had been doing. He had a lot more going on than he acted, and I felt bad for being such a drama queen about things. I needed to make sure I was still keeping up with what was going on in his life. Shit, we're roommates, so I think it's the least I could do.

The swelling on my face had gone down completely, but the brusing and red marks were still there. The cut on my lip had scabbed over, and it still hurt to touch it. My eye was a gross purple-ish black color, as well as parts of my nose. I had thought my nose was broken, but it turned out that it was just really bruised.

Isabella was trying to use makeup yesterday on me to cover up all of it, claiming she wanted to help with my appearance. It was pretty useless because I kept flinching every time she had accidentally pressed too hard on my skin. I didn't care to wear makeup to cover up the bruising anyways. It seemed pointless to me.

"So what're you up to for the rest of the day?" I asked Xander as I scrolled through my phone, not having touched the food in front of me.

"Nothing really, I guess. I was going to go out to a bar later with a couple of guys from high school. You should come. We can go to a place that we can get you into."

I shook my head as I scrunched my nose at him, wincing at the pain, "No thanks. Not in the mood for that."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Not quite in the mood to go anywhere until all this shit on my face lightens up."

"You are the biggest drama queen I've ever known. So you've got a few bruises, who cares? Makes you look more of a badass. No one will mess with you," he laughed, nudging me with his elbow.

I let out a light chuckle as I shook my head, "It's alright. I'd rather stay in for the night. I might just go to sleep early so I can get back to the kitchen in the morning."

"Whatever, bro. You going to hang out with Summer today?" Xander asked after taking a bite of his cereal. 

I shrugged my shoulders as I looked down at my phone, "Probably not."

"Why's that?"

"Haven't talked to her-" 

"If you're about to say that you haven't talked to her since the party, then I suggest you get up right now because I'm about to smack you."

"What? Why would y- ow! What the fuck!" 

I almost fell off the chair as I had jumped in pain. His hand had smacked me really hard on my shoulder, so I was using my hand to rub the spot he had hit. I was scowling at him as best I could without causing pain from my bruises.

"I can't believe you haven't called her!" Xander backhanded me on the side of my head, causing me to groan in pain once more.

"I was going to, I swear!" I sheepishly looked to the counter top, glancing at my phone for a second. "I don't know, I got scared."

"Fucking scared of what?"

"That she was mad at me or something."

"Do not give me this shit again."