Pauper Syndrome

7

I wake up to the familiar heat of the sun, or not so familiar I should say. I turn over and kick my blankets off. In that moment, I hazily lean an elbow on a pillow and accidentally push it off the bed.

"Oof!" I hear a sound from come from the ground. My brain knew exactly what would happen next.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I wake the house up screaming again.

"Anastasia!" I hear Liam grunt as he gets up off the floor, his muscular frame gently pulls my frantic arms into a calming and warm embrace as his body rocks me back onto the bed. My screams immediately come to a halt as the quick beating of my heart overcomes all intelligent thought. Liam is in the most logical and proper way if I would try to explain this, on top of me. His back rises up and down as he takes a deep breath. Immediately, he gets off of the bed and walks towards the corner of the room.

"Stop screaming every time you see me, will you?" he says with a tired tone as a hand runs smoothly through his hair.

"Why you are still here?" I say as I feel my cheeks flush.

"Your Highness, you have been here for one day, we haven't had the chance to move all my clothes yet."

I frown as he picks up his change of clothes for the day and swiftly heads to the bathroom without saying another word. I feel my head hit the pillow again as I grab the blankets and shove them in my face to calm myself from the embarrassment. "Ahhhhhhhh!" I scream again, this time much more quietly, into my pillow.

As I change into my daily outfit, a light satin blue dress both plain and simple, I make to effort to convince myself to go apologize to Liam once I get down. After all, I am freeloading off of his family and while I do not see it in they're faces (well, except Liam's), I am probably causing a lot of trouble. While I don't care much for Liam's beauty sleep, it would be so shameful of me to wake up Louisa who has been nothing but kind. I tiptoe down the stairs as quietly as I can, calming my nerves along the way. Apologizing isn't something I've practiced a lot.

Once I get down to the first level of the house, I slowly peek my head around the corner like a kid playing hide and seek. I've always hated that game now that I think about it. People would always be too scared to find me, being the princess of Titania and all. I turn my head to the other side of the house, maybe he's in the garden? I keep looking but as the silence of my surroundings start to creep in, it becomes evident that Liam has already left the house for the day.

What a jerk! Not even bothering to say goodbye to me when I am the princess of this country! The country which, I'll have you know, he is protecting! What is the point of protecting this country if you're not protecting me? Huh? Wouldn't protecting me at least require you to check in before leaving? Argh! I don't know why it annoys me so much but it does. I frown angrily as I seat myself at the table and munch, almost with violence, on the first piece of bread I get ahold of. Never in my life have I ever been treated as poorly as this! Especially by a man who is not Elliot!

Footsteps sound from behind me and as I see Louisa round the corner. It takes all my energy to pull my face together into a well rehearsed 'Good Morning' before frowning again once she leaves. What a great start to my day. Crunch crunch crunch. I eat all the bread that's on the table.

I give the motorcycle a good solid kick before sitting on the ground like a child. I'm not saying I'm proud of this, but whining whilst throwing the dirt beneath your feet is surprisingly calming. Louisa has gone out to have tea with her friends, they are going to this local bakery in the area and meeting for the first time in ten years. When I heard about it I nearly freaked out. I mean, ten years! That's so long! I would never wait that long to see someone I wanted to meet. When I asked her why it took so long for them to meet up, she simply just looked at me and replied with a lighthearted grin. 'Didn't have the time.' But I can't possibly believe her! How could you put off something like meeting your good friends for that long! I turn my head back towards the motorcycle and pull myself off the ground. I dust myself off and adjust my right foot so that it fits back into my shoe which has conveniently twisted itself off my foot during my fall. Humph! I can't help but feel overwhelmed. I mean, I am the princess of this kingdom! How on earth could he just leave me here on my own, without even attempting to explain how to navigate this massive lump of metal. I carefully seat myself on the bike, my heart is pounding fast and my brain is puzzled at the haphazard mess of buttons in front of me. Hm...Would this be a bad time to mention that I don't actually know how to ride a motorcycle?