Twisted Love

Day Thirteen

"Sorry, Lady Alina." Sandor apologized, when clearly it was Sophie who should be talking. Clearly Alina thought so, because she waved her hand at his apology and continued glaring at Sophie.

Sophie looked up to find her eyes locking with ice blue ones.

Keefe's.

Sophie gulped; his eyes were cold. But there was also something else, something that was fierce.

Yep, definitely a mistake.

When she looked up again, she found the eyes of all the girls glowering at her, except the Biana girl she had talked to before. She was laughing softly to herself.

"Thank you, Sandor." Sophie whispered when she got to her seat. "I will never, ever forget your kindness." Somehow, that didn't seem enough. "Your girlfriend must be so lucky to have you."

He flushed. "I don't have a girlfriend, Miss."

Sophie felt her face heat up. "Excuse me! I just assumed, because... I mean, look at you!"

Sandor blushed an ever darker shade of red. "Miss, I must go now..."

Sophie smiled. "Okay. I'll find you again, somehow. Until then... bye-bye."

Sandor stood up, nodded to Keefe, then exited.

"Okay, so now that Miss. Foster finally decided to join us, why don't we get to the eliminations?" Lady Alina said giddily, shooting Sophie a hopeful glance before turning her attention back to Keefe.

He coughed. "Alright..." But before he could say something, a guard rushed in, whispered something to Keefe that made him grin, then jog out. "Actually, before I do that, my friends from neighboring kingdoms had decided to come join us today... They're actually here right now, outside this room... I would like you all to meet them."

He stood up from his seat as maids rushed in and added a new table right next to where Sophie's ended, and placed additional chairs there, probably for Keefe's friends.

Friends.

Of course Keefe had friends. What was Sophie thinking, for her to be his only one?

The door banged open, and in came four magnificently elegant people. They were truly beautiful.

Two had black hair, with silver bangs.

One had brunette hair, with sharp jaws and teal, teal eyes.

One had strawberry blond hair and a boyish grin with dimples.

"These are... Prince Tam and Princess Linh from the Song Kingdom, Prince Fitz from Vacker Empire, and Prince Dex from Dizznee Land." Keefe introduced awkwardly, and Sophie could tell that it took all the restraint in him to not rush over to them and hug them.

And Dex. The boy Keefe had pretended to be all those years ago. Sophie felt a personal connection with him, even though they had never spoken a single word.

"That reminds me, Biana, would you like to go join them?" Keefe called out to one of the girls, and the brunette girl stood up and rushed over to hug Prince Fitz of Vacker Empire. Dating? Sophie thought at first, but judging by their similar facial features, they were probably siblings.

So that meant she was a princess.

Sophie had misbehaved in front of a princess.

Wait, what if everyone here was a princess? What if she was the only daughter of a farmer? What if everyone had money and wealth and power while... What did she have? Nothing lady-like, nothing special...

Being here at the Choice kept smacking her in the face for her stupidity.

"Are you sure you would like to be eliminated?" Keefe asked Biana.