May I, My Love? ✔

17. t he d i s c u s s i o n s

Today was another drab day, as it was Monday again. The same hallways, same people, same studies, same tests, and same chaos. Ever since the prince was revealed to the world, girls and women all over the internet have gone bonkers. The internet is filled with his very limited pictures with thousands of comments from women saying how they want him all to themselves. The sudden interest in Britain and its prince had escalated all over, especially here. Even now, I could faintly hear the girls talking and gushing over his good looks.

Wrapped up securely in my daydreams, I bumped into someone without knowing.

"Ouch!!"

I looked up while nursing my head to see that I had bumped into Ivy Greene, one of the most popular girls in our form. She was just like Lisa – extroverted, vivacious and always looking for trouble. I had a good relationship with her, but the reason we couldn't always be together was the apparent hatred between her and Lisa. Even though they were exactly the same, they never liked each other. There were invariably snide comments and direct insults involved whenever these two crossed paths. It was really a huge relief that both of them didn't share all their classes together – just history.

"Ivy! Where have you been all this while?"

"Har!! It's really been two weeks right? How could I have missed such an important thing of our country? Everywhere I go, all I hear is Prince Josiah is handsome as hell."

"Don't tell me about that, I'm so browned off by all of this. But, where did you go?"

"My family was vacationing in the Caribbean. Everything was already set and my dad said it's not like he is going to disappear after a week, so I couldn't come in halfway."

She explained to me as I nodded in understanding. Her father was a well-to-do businessman and they would often go for such holidays in the middle of school year. He also didn't really care about his daughter's education, giving her full permission to do as she pleases. Anyways, she was to inherit his property and business, he said.

"So, how was the ball? I heard you had attended it? Did you get to dance with the prince? How did he look? Completely dashing, right?"

She threw a volley of questions at me, not giving me a chance to slide a single word in between. Her over-zealous attitude was coming out again as she quickly bounced on her feet in her spot.

Dark thoughts crossed my mind whenever I thought about the ball, since it wasn't the best of memories for me. Still, I tried to wash it all away as others didn't know anything about that, and tried to answer her as cheerfully as I could.

"It was jolly good. I don't think I had ever been to party of such grandeur. I realy enjoyed my time there."

"So, did you dance with the prince? Tell me Har, it is possible since it was all anonymous right? If only my dad could bring me to the ball..."

She whined in despair as she asked me whether I danced with him. I panicked for a few seconds, not knowing how to answer this question. I wasn't hesitant to say the truth because she would be upset with me, but because she is the number one blabbermouth of our school and telling her a secret meant digging your own grave. It would be out to the whole world to know within 24 hours.

"No, unfortunately I didn't get that opportunity."

I lied to her for my own safety as I imagined what would the outcome be if I told her all that I had done with the prince in the last few days. She would definitely pass out from that information, just like Lisa had, and then every other crazy fan of his would hunt me to death. I shuddered as I visualized all of this while she kept blabbing about how unlucky we both were and that we would never get to have a man like him.

"What subject do you have now Ivy?"

I had to cut her off and bring her to the present, lest she actually zoned out completely and forgot all about her being in school premises... again. Now that was a story for another time but I knew she was very much capable of something like that and so I only did her a favor. She was about to answer when a booming voice came from behind me,

"What are you doing here Harpy?"

While my meek interruption hadn't worked on Ivy's distraction, this loud screeching, and seemingly angry voice showed the desired effect. Ivy broke out from her reverie to look up to the source of the noise, widened her eyes then squinted them in a challenging and mocking stare.

The person reached me in minutes and that was when I decided I had made a blunder. This simple act of conversing with Ivy will cost me a lot today. But I had also lived in the royal palace for eighteen years, heard myriad of stories of politics from my father, and I wasn't going to go down so easily.

I pulled myself together and turned around with a sunny smile on my face, hoping I will be forgiven with the tactic I was going to use today.

"Hey buddy! Why are you so late today?"

"And you decided it was the perfect day to talk to this dozy woman!"

Lisa shouted into my ear being oblivious to the world as she normally is. I looked towards Ivy and saw her barely controlling herself.

'Oh Lord, help me! What have I done!!'