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Tomorrow wasn't a good day. It was worse than the day before.
"Nothing can top that," Sam tried to reassure me.
"Ah why did I have to have feelings for a darn Prince!" A part of me was regretting about going to the Coffee Bar that day. If I never met Max my life would have been normal, mutantish normal.
"Hales they are going to forget about it, celebrities go through this all the time," I scoff, it was true but people in England were snobby and always gossiping . Now imagine what they would have to say about the prince 'dating' a disabled girl. Im pretty sure the Queen doesn't acknowledge it. I had no idea why these newspapers were starting to be published now when I was at his party a few days ago, they should have been out ages ago not when we returned. This is exactly what Maximus was trying to prevent but apparently the media outsmarted him.
I frown and stare at the headline once more, "Disabled Girl trying to lure Prince Maximus with her Prosthesis," that was honestly rude.
"Listen to this one, 'Disabled girl trying to gain acceptance,'" Sam scoffs and throws the paper into the bin.
"Trying to gain acceptance!? What the fuck is wrong with people! That is rude and ignorant!" Anna was more frustrated then me, if she could get her hands on whoever published the newspapers, he would have been in hell a long time ago.
I groan,"They are all negative," I open my phone just for a youtube video notification to pop up on my screen.
"Look at her obnoxious behavior", was the title of the video. Something told me it was about me but at the same time I prayed it wasn't. I press it with shaking fingers and breath in as I wait for the video to load.
"Fuck the fucking Queen and Prince's of fucking England!" Was the first thing the video yelled, well technically young drunk me with legs. It was the footage that was stolen from my apartment. They got exactly what they needed, proof that I was imperfect and not a good fit for the prince. They wanted to show that I didn't support the Monarchy and they showed that alright.
"Wasn't that just before your surgery?" I nod biting my nails as the footage of me swearing continued playing.
"Is she who we want as our princess?" A feminine voice spoke in the background of a video of me burping obnoxiously in the camera.
"She is rude, obnoxious, disgusting, incomplete and definitely doesn't have the attitude of a princess. We don't want her! Raise awareness for this video of her cursing at our beloved Queen and the monarchy by using the following hashtag, #sheisanogo. Subscrib-" Anna had cut her off by pressing the off button on my phone.
"And she is just jealous just because her 'complete' self wasn't noticed by the prince," I wondered if Maximus knew about this. What would he say to the media? Curiosity was eating me.
"Hales how did they get the video?" Sam raises his eyebrow already knowing what my breakdown was about.
"Guys I want to get out of here," I wanted to run away from Sam because I knew he was going to pester me until I spilled.
"That is against the fucking law Hales!" Anna didn't know what was going on and so kept quiet and let Sam take the lead.
"Its a crime! And you are okay with it? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I sigh and fiddle with my fingers trying to come up with a coherent answer.
"It's just-"
"It's just what?" And I knew I had no reasonable answer. But I didn't want to cause anyone harm, I might ruin a persons reputation and considerably their life by reporting. Just because they've sabotaged my image doesn't mean I have to do the same, right?
"You are afraid of being hated aren't you?" He was right and that was the actual truth as to why I actually didn't want to report but I shake my head no.
"I'm not going to be the next princess of course, they'll hate me but it's going to end soon," I smile trying my level best to make it genuine but Sam was mad and he wasn't buying it.
"Guys, you might want to see this?" I groan already tired of the nonsense that was spreading all over the internet.
"If it's another disabled princess thing, I don't want to hear it thank you," I open my textbook to a picture of a women squeezing a baby out of her womb. It was Anna's textbook and definitely not mine.
"Its about Max," I instantly look up not liking her tone.
"Its a video," I nod slowly, "and..."
"Just play it," Anna pushes her phone on the middle of our table.
"Wait guys! Where is Daniel?" I hadn't seen him all day and I didn't even notice.
"In Finland now shut up and lets see what this fucked up prince has to say for himself," she presses the button and I could hear all of us breath in.
There he was, Prince Maximus descending down the stairs of some place with dark shades and a cap. The paparazzi had obviously recognized him and were bombarding him with questions as he tried to push away from them. There were no bodyguards around him because he snuck out but I knew John was nearby.
"Our future king is so irresponsible! Does he know how easily he can get attacked with no fucking security," I nod agreeing with Sam still not having a clue what the video was about.
"Do you know her?" We all lean in closer to the phone. Max didn't reply.
"Prince Maximus, I repeat, do you know her!?" He glares at the camera and shakes his head. Something in me shatters.
"I don't know her! She's just a girl who I wanted to help out," wanted to help out? Wanted to help out. I push my chair back and stand up, that one sentence swirling inside my head, a hurricane.
"You heard it hear first. The disabled girl is a no one and just Prince Maximus being a good human being," I could feel something prickling my eyes but I push it back in and breath in.
Hales Adams never cries for a man.
"You know what fuck him!" I swore for the first time in eight years, I swore. I didn't know why but nothing had ever made me as mad as Maximus' word and the interviewer. Not the time a guy called David rejected me cause disabled girls weren't his type, not the time all my flash posters were shredded into pieces. It was at this time that Maximus rejected me that made me so angry that I swore. It was at this time that the suspicions I've had all along were proved to be true, I was just his amends project.
I felt like a 16 year old saying that word but something in me felt good because Max deserved it.
"You swore!?" Sam's wide eyes were staring right at me, his mouth agape, but Anna couldn't even speak because she had never heard me swear in her life.
"Im not his amend project! He is a..." I breath in, "...a fucked up prince and nothing isn't going to change that," I remember what I thought the first time I knew him, well not his identity but him,
What did he really want from me if not to show sympathy?
It wasn't sympathy he wanted to show, it was something else, he used me for his own benefits. Tried to 'help' me to seem like a knight in shining armor. He wanted to fix his mistakes through me, and I let him. Now he has finally gained the social acceptance he wanted through me. To think he could stoop so low and that I trusted him and welcomed him into my life all the while pushing away my suspicions made me want to gag. I was stupid to think someone could see beyond my prosthesis. Stupid.
Something within me was contradicting with my thoughts, maybe he didn't mean to say it, maybe he said it to take the medias pressure off of his and my back. Maybe he had no bad intentions in saying that.
But I shut it, I didn't want to believe it. What was believable was that I was used as an amend project. What didn't sound believable was that a Prince liked me. So I decided to stick with the believable situation. But what about that time at the castle? Wasn't he trying to protect me from the media then? Maybe he was now doing the same thing too, or maybe all that was just part of him trying to seem like a hero.
"Hales are you listening?" I snap out of my whirl of thoughts, I didn't know what to think, what was the truth and what was the lie? Maybe I just didn't want to believe that I was used. After all it did feel real.
"No," I sit back down and bury my face in my palms.
"This guy is dangerous, he killed two kids remember?" I nod, it was the talk of the century with no real evidence, just bodies of two kids found and rumours to sabotage his image even more then when he was labelled as crazy for attacking and lashing out at some paparazzi after his brother's funeral. I remembered something he had told me when I inquired about it.
"I didn't, did you also think I did? Like everyone else?"
I didn't know if I wanted to trust him anymore.
Maybe he was one of those fix me guys. The ones who wanted to be fixed by a woman like it was our priority. The ones who used their problem to gain woman's sympathy and make them feel for them through that.
But he tried to fix you also.
"I want to go to my parents," I had enough and people in the library were already catching on. They were already staring and pointing towards me and I didn't like the unnecessary attention.
"Hales it's going to be okay," I shake my head and then nod then shake my head. The wood table seemed quite intriguing at that moment where I was lost in my confusing thoughts.
I liked Maximus and at the same time I hated him and I knew I shouldn't without hearing an explanation but I hated him. I hated him for being the prince, I hated him for sticking around and making me catch feelings, I hated his personality. Everything about him that made me fall deep in a pit of feelings.
.
"Bambi?"
"She even forgets our existence because of that darn apartment," I smile thanking God the news didn't reach to them yet.
"Now that you are here can you fetch me my newspaper from the back door?" I shake my head knowing that I was pretty much the topic in all newspapers.
"Later Papa." I squeeze in his 'One Mans Seat' as he liked to call it and surprisingly fit even though he was squeezing me purposely so that I stood up.
"Papa stop!" He laughs and leans in towards me even more. I push away from him and stand up from his precious, 'One Mans Seat.'
"Is Miss Tatu around? I havent seen her in so long and I frigging miss that Maori Gummy bear.
"Honey..." She never used honey, she only used it when something was wrong, and so I knew something was wrong. From 'honey' and from her sympathetic voice.
"Tell me she is okay Mom please," I gulp hoping she is indeed okay and that my mom was just calling me honey because of the Maximus drama.
"She is not... but," she sits down and takes my hand into hers, gently caressing it, "she was diagnosed with.... with cancer and left England, she wanted to spend her last days with her family," I push her hand away from mine and stand up from the cough abruptly.
"And you didn't find it important enough to tell
me!? What is wrong with you people! Miss Tatu is part of my life! I needed to know, I needed to spend time with her before she left," she opens her mouth to speak but I storm off disgusted by their actions.
"Honey wait," the tears were now streaming down my face, no warning, they just started pouring down my face. I had been crying a lot lately, but unlike my flash posters, Miss Tatu was a human being, one of the few people that held importance in my life.
I look over to my mom and dad who were running towards me and before I shut the door I blurt out, "You know unlike you guys, she needed someone who knew what it feels like, not some hypocritical sympathetic people," and I slam it on their faces regretting each word I said to them but too egoistic to open the door and apologize.
Who knew so much would have happened in the span of one day? Apparently a day is long enough to break you.
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MISS TATUUU😭😭
hoped you enjoyed it! Im gonna start correcting this boom reall soon don't worry. I know the first chapters aren't written so well but Im glad my writing skills are improving❤️
Shey