Four: Prince Cadoc
954 Words
Chapter Four
Prince Cadoc
I didn’t live in the dorm like the rest of the students at Hollow Hills. It was a security risk, so I had an off-campus apartment that I lived in with Jasper. The girls from the old sister school, and the boys from Hollow Hills all knew about my welcome back blowouts. They also knew they had to keep their mouth shut about said blowouts. And that if they were going to invite an outsider they could be kicked out. But for appearances sake, the palace did have one arranged for me that I could stay at if needed.
When the last of my idiotic classmates stumbled out, drunk, and shoved out by Jasper, I found myself alone. All I wanted was to be back out on that balcony. Listening to Penelope Peters telling me everything about her. “Let’s go back to campus.”
Jasper, who had pushed the last straggler out the door, looked at me like I was crazy. “What are you talking about? You never want to go to campus.”
“After what happened with Addington, I don’t feel safe leaving Penelope there alone,” I answered. “What if he tries something?”
Jasper looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “This isn’t going to be a whole Olivia situation is it?”
I looked at him in surprise. Olivia was a girl that he’d dated back when we were fourteen. We’d met one summer when I was in France, and she was studying abroad. We’d ended up sleeping together, and she wasn’t dating Jasper. In fact, they’d broken up. And had been for a long time now.
“What does Olivia have to do with anything?” I asked.
“Don’t you know why we broke up?” Jasper said.
I hesitated. We’d never talked about this. It was always a point of conflict between us. As much as Jasper was my friend, my brother even, we always knew that we came from two different worlds. It was a point of conflict many times over the years but, we generally tried to push that aside.
“Jasper….” I stared, but I could tell this wasn’t going to be one that he was going to let go.
“Every time I want something for myself, you find a way to insert yourself in it. Don’t do this again. I met Penelope first. I like this girl. Just let me like her. I know you’ve said that you don’t want to interfere with her. But even you being friends…she’s always going to look at you like you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Because you’ll have brought her into this bright, shiny world that I’m part of, but not in. I want to be the best thing that’s ever happened to her.”
I sighed. “You like this girl, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said, “I do. She’s the first girl I’ve met at this school that hasn’t looked at me like I was The Help.”
“You’re not, mate,” I said, “you’re not.”
He ran a hand through his dark, curly hair, his eyes narrowed at me. As if I had completely missed the point on something. I seemed to do that a lot, so I didn’t bother asking what it was that had him so infuriated with me. It was the same thing that always made people infuriated at me.
I was on a whole different level. A level that none of them could reach in their wildest dreams. Not through hard work, not through money, not through marriage. I was born into a world of prestige and power that most people had to fight to get. Meanwhile, all I did was get lucky enough to be born into the right family.
“Alright,” I said, “look, I’ll back off. But she’s going to think it’s weird if I don’t interact with her some.”
“Look, I’m not saying I want you to hate her. I just don’t want her looking at me and daydreaming about being a Princess the way Olivia did. You’re just…. acquaintances.”
“Acquaintances,” no word has ever left such a bitter taste in my mouth, but I do my best to not let on that its distasteful to me. “Right. I can do that.”
“Good,” he said, “because I really, really don’t want to have to punch you again.”
“You did that one time,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, and I’ll do it again if I have to.”
“Right, right. Look, I’ll be good I swear. I’m team Penries all the way.”
“Good. Good. I’m gonna go…. take out the trash.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You know I’ve got maid service for that right?”
“Well, don’t want it to just sit around do we?”
“Sure. Okay. Whatever.”
He went to go take out the trash, and I was left alone, trying very hard not to daydream about Penelope Peters.
- Writer
