In the aftermath of the Autumn Festival, Cassie must face the wrath of her peers, but perhaps even more frightening, she must face Prince Coleman again. Fortunately, Cassie has a cute butler on her side...and a few new friends.
"This is not my natural habitat!" I protested. "That being said, it's good to see you."
"We still have to fix your Instagram," Mercucio said. "Don't worry—I didn't forget about it."
"I appreciate that," I said.
"I must say, it is good that Queen Klara is finally smartening up her employees. While the staff as a whole may be almost as beautiful as the gorgeous royal family, the service here could certainly be better. Besides, I sometimes feel very insecure with how good-looking the servants are compared to myself," Mercucio went on. "I mean, have you seen the manservant Coleman keeps around?"
"Lucas Prescott?" I clarified.
"Yeah, him. He's a good-looking guy—I'd never have someone like that hovering around me," Mercucio tsked.
I grinned. "Yeah, he's cute."
"What would your boyfriend think if he heard you say that?" Mercucio teased.
I smiled. "I think he'd survive."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Luke was very busy all day, thanks to Mercucio and Mr. Johnson. I wouldn't get to eat with Luke at lunch, sadly, as he was wrapped up following around Mr. Johnson. Mercucio, on the other hand, invited me to bring my laptop and come eat with him and Prince Coleman while he showed me how to improve my Instagram, much to Coleman's chagrin.
The two were eating in the Prince's room, so I just had to bring up a couple of extra lunches for Mercucio and I.
"Hello, your highness," I said, nodding at Prince Coleman. "Merc."
Mercucio laughed, and Coleman scowled. "Your highness," Mercucio said to Prince Coleman dramatically.
"Shut up," Coleman snapped. I placed down our lunch plates and sat at one side of the small table, with Prince Coleman around one corner and Mercucio around the other.
"Did you redownload Instagram yet?" Merc asked me.
"I did."
"Good. Let's open up your account and clean it up."
I opened my profile, and Mercucio kept instructing me to delete pictures while Coleman silently ate his lunch. "Trash." "Delete." "Get rid of it." "No." "Ugly." "No." "Bye."
We got to a picture of Lydia and I standing together holding dripping ice-cream cones with summer tans and sun-kissed freckles laughing and beaming. Lydia was an inch or two shorter than myself with light auburn (borderline strawberry blonde) hair with a cute smile and small frame.
"Delete," Merc said.
"No!" I protested.
"No?" He asked. "Why?"
"Because she's my best friend!"
"So?" he asked.
"So it feels pretty crappy to delete a picture of her now when I get some followers."
"It's not about her," Mercucio said. "She's cute, but the photo doesn't go with your aesthetic."
"What aesthetic?" I yelped. "Nothingness?! Emptiness? Blank space?"
"We haven't gotten there yet," Mercucio said.
"I don't want to delete this picture with her. Besides, we look cute in the photo!"
I could see Coleman craning his neck out of the corner of my eye, but I withheld my phone from him.
"Well then let's just call her now and I'll explain to her why her photo has to go."
"Lydia's busy during the day," I said.
"Doing what?"
"She's at Cornell studying Agricultural Engineering."
"Agricultural engineering?" Coleman butted in, sounding impressed. "And what did you graduate in again? Writing?"
I shot Coleman a glare.
"Well try to give her a call anyways," Mercucio said.
I sighed. "Fine." I pulled out my phone and dialed Lydia, and to my surprise I caught her after a few rings.
"Hey Cass!" Her cheerful voice said. "You caught me at a good time! How's it going? How's the boyfriend?!"
"It's great, it's great. I actually have someone here who wants to talk to you. I'm putting you on speaker phone."
"Wait, someone wants to talk to me?" Lydia asked as I put her on speakerphone.
