I bit my lip. A shard of glass had pierced my finger, and I felt impending tears prick my eyes. I tried to tell myself that it was because of my throbbing finger, but the Prince's words had cut deeper than glass. I snuck away to the small bar where Luke was preparing another smoothie.
"Ah Cassie!" Luke's smiled fell when he saw my face. "Cassie, what's wrong?" His voice had broken down into one of such concern that it touched my heart. He took a step closer to examine me.
"Oh, I just cut my finger, that's all." I was struggling to keep my voice from shaking.
"Cleaning the glass?" He asked. "Oh Cassie, I'm so sorry. I should have cleaned it myself!" He raked a hand through his hair. "There should be a first aid kit here." He opened up a cupboard, pulled out the kit, and ordered that I sit down.
"I'm fine if I stand up, you know," I laughed a little shakily.
"Sit." Luke pointed to one of the bar stools. I obeyed his orders and he came around to me. Gently, he took my hand and began tending to the small wound until he finally, carefully, wrapped a Band-Aid snugly around my finger.
"I'm sorry you got hurt." His gaze was cast down.
"Luke, it's not your fault!" I assured him. "I was being careless."
"LITTLE MAID!" The deep voice roared from the hot tub.
"I'd better go see what the Prince wants." I hopped off my chair and gave Luke one last smile. "Thank you, for being my doctor." I then hurried over to where Prince Coleman sat in the hot tub. "Yes, Prince Coleman?"
"What are you doing?" he snapped.
"What do you mean?"
"I saw you lounging around over there. You do realize you're not here to participate in the pool party, don't you?" He narrowed his eyes.
"I cut my finger, and Luke—Lucas was helping me put a Band-Aid on," I explained.
"And you couldn't put a Band-Aid on yourself?"
"I—"
"Gosh, I've never met someone so helpless," Prince Coleman sneered.
I took a step back. "All this because someone helped put a Band-Aid on me?" I hated the satisfied smirks of all the women by him.
"Oh it's not just that, little maid." His stare was cold. "What exactly were you doing when I first saw you here in Aregano? Sitting on a bench. I've never seen someone so pathetic. And you jumped on this job as a maid because you were desperate, didn't you? You claimed to have graduated college and yet, you seem to have no marketable skills whatsoever. You have to take jobs like this—"
"Enough." My blood boiled. His comments were nastier than before, spoken more maliciously. "I may not have a lot, but I have my dignity. And I won't sit here and listen to you insult me just so you can please your group of harpies here!" The girls gasped sharply, but I wasn't done. "Now, if you actually need something besides a verbal punching bag, then I'll help out, but since that doesn't seem to be the case, I'm going to step back!" I started marching off before whirling around. "And by the way, you think you're such hot stuff and that there's no possible way that I wouldn't be in love with you, but—" I clenched my fist. "Well, if you weren't a Prince and if I wasn't worried about getting arrested, why...why I'd slap you!" I thundered away from that nasty group, past the gawking pool boy and the somewhat surprised Luke. I stood at the counter of the small bar, grabbed a cleaning rag, and started scrubbing away angrily. And I didn't even like cleaning.
Hateful man!
"Hi!" I looked up to see the pool boy. He had fire red hair, pale blue eyes, and a rather handsome face.
"Hi," I mumbled.
"I'm Sam," he introduced himself. His voice was Areganan, alright.
"I'm Cassie."
"So...it seems you don't like the Prince too much..."
I laughed mirthlessly. "Like him? Like Prince Coleman? He's despicable. I hate him!"
"Really?" His eyes widened. "Could I quote you on that?"
"What? Who are you, a reporter or something?" I narrowed my eyes.
"No, no, I'm not!" He held his hands up lightly. "It's just, well; lots of the guys here have been talking about you..."
"Oh. So I've heard."
"Really?" He chuckled a little. "And here we thought we were being discreet." He scratched the back of his head. "See, there's a lot of debate."
"About what?"
"Well, whether or not the rumors are true...that you don't like Prince Coleman. Some think you are just pretending not to like him."
"Ha! As if." I clenched my teeth. I was especially angry toward Prince Coleman at the moment.
"Well, I don't know you too well, but I don't think you're that good of an actress." Sam smiled funnily.
"Yeah, probably not." He cracked a smile from me. "So, people think my distaste for your dear Prince is all some ruse?"
"Yes, though everyone is especially paranoid since the Marstella Incident, you know."
"Actually, I don't know. What's this Marstella business everyone keeps talking about?" I wanted answers.
Sam was looking past me, however. "It's—it's nothing."
Luke came up to my side, and gave me a concerned look. "How are you, Cassie?"
Sam slipped away, and I turned to Luke. "You know, your Prince is a real jerk."
Luke chuckled.
"I'm serious. He's really mean." I bit my lip once again.
Luke gently toughed my arm. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Luke glanced at his own hand on my arm and awkwardly retrieved it.
"Yoo hoo! Little maid!" The obnoxious voice of Tasha floated to my ears. I turned to see that almost everyone had migrated back to the main pool, with only Madeline outside, still determined to keep her flawless hair and makeup in place. Tasha was waving widely. "Bring me champagne!"
I sighed and filled a glass, placed it on a platter, and headed over to her. Tasha was a few feet away from the pool edge in the water, and Madeline lingered nearby outside of the water. I strained to bend over and reach the platter out to Tasha. As I was doing so, I felt a firm pair of hands on my back push me forward, and I fell toward the water.
I screamed, and crashed into the pool.
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