by Mia Archer
“My best friend and her boyfriend. I’m something of a third wheel around those two.”
“Oh. Well I suppose that makes sense,” Amelia said. I detected the hint of a blush around her cheeks. Good. Let her be embarrassed just a little bit. As though I’d be interested in any other girl after meeting her. I might be falling a little fast, this was my first girl crush after all, but I was also falling hard. I suppose that was also because Amelia was officially my first girl crush that I wasn’t worshiping on the small or the big screen.
We went right on chatting for the rest of lunch, and it was just like yesterday. She was so easy to talk to. We talked about our favorite Royal Company movies. We discussed what it was like coming out when the people around us didn’t seem to like the idea of us coming out. I told her everything that had happened with Colin starting at prom night and all the misery he’d tried to subject me to ever since, which earned me a sympathetic kiss on the cheek that almost made all that suffering worth it.
I made damn sure to avoid anything that came close to the subject of where she was this morning, though. She’d seemed annoyed when I brought it up earlier, and I didn’t want to get into that now. The important thing was that she was here. That was all that mattered as we continued chatting away like we’d been friends our entire lives. I found myself telling her things that I hadn’t even told Sarah, which made sense considering she’d lived the same experiences as me realizing she was into girls and being afraid to tell the world.
That wasn’t exactly something I could share with Sarah and connect on the same level. She might’ve listened, but I don’t think she would’ve truly understood. Not the way Amelia understood me.
Finally we finished up our lunch. I was surprised to see that Amelia had somehow managed to pack away an entire hamburger and fries. The food was expensive here, but they at least gave you your money’s worth.
“Damn Amelia. Where are you hiding all that food?”
She blushed again. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just wondering where a girl as skinny as you packs that stuff away to! I’m impressed.”
“I was hungry,” she said, a touch defensively. “I didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning.”
She frowned. Obviously she was thinking about whatever had happened this morning. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been pleasant considering how she was avoiding the subject entirely. I figured a nice change of subject was in order.
“So what are we going to do first this afternoon? I’m thinking a roller coaster is probably out of the question considering how much we just ate. The coasters might be pretty lame here, but they’d probably be enough to make you lose your lunch,” I said.
Amelia groaned and reached down to hold her stomach. Apparently her eyes had been bigger than her stomach today. “Ugh. I think you’re right. Maybe we could go check out that arcade or something?”
An idea occurred to me. I remembered the compromise we made yesterday that hadn’t ended up being much of a compromise at all considering we got to go on the ride she wanted to but we never did get to check out the Princess Cruise. That was still at the top of my list of rides I definitely wanted to go on before I finished my time here at Royal Realms.
“You know we could always go on a nice air conditioned ride that lets you sit down and watch a show for a little while,” I said.
“Yeah, that sounds like it could… wait a minute. Are you talking about that creepy robot love ride?”
“So what if I am?” I said.
“I don’t think my stomach could take all that kissy kissy stuff right now any more than it could handle a roller coaster,” Amelia said. “What if we hit that arcade for a little while and then we can decide where to go from there?”
I sighed. It wasn’t the Princess Cruise, but some time spent in the arcade did sound rather nice.
“Fine. I suppose we can do that.”
A few minutes later we were at the arcade and my eyes bugged out as I saw how much they were charging for some of the old games on display in there.
“This is robbery!” I said.
“What are you talking about?” Amelia asked.
“They’re charging two bucks for a game of Pac Man!”
“Is that a lot?”
Amelia stared down at the blinking lights as though she was looking at some strange alien artifact. As though she’d never seen a video game before in her life. Yet another mysterious thing about her that I wasn’t going to ask too much about. Not right now.
“This game has always cost a quarter for as far back as I can remember. Since well before I was born. Two bucks is highway robbery,” I muttered. “They’d never charge this much at the old arcade back home, and I thought that place was overpriced.”
“Well this is Royal Realms,” Amelia said. “Everything here tends to be a little more expensive. I’m sure it makes the prices back at your home arcade seem like a steal.”
“Yeah, someone’s stealing something,” I said. “I’m going to run out of all my trip money if I play these games. Sorry, Amelia.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. My jaw nearly dropped as she reached down and held out her wristband to the machine. I realized the spot where the coins should’ve gone had been replaced by some space age machine that looked like it was set up to take credit cards and, judging by the way it turned a happy green color when Amelia tapped her wristband against it, also had some sort of RFID reader in it.
“See? Not a problem,” she said. “Consider this trip to the arcade on me.”
“Amelia, I can’t…”
“You can’t what? It’s really not a problem. Trust me when I tell you this is not a lot of money for me to spend. Especially if I get to spend that time with you.”
She grinned an leaned in to kiss me on the cheek again. Amazing how quickly I could lose all control when she did something like that. I grinned like a complete dork and then set about showing Amelia the finer points of Pac-Man and other arcade games. The more we played the more it became very obvious she really hadn’t played a video game before. It amazed me.
I had such a good time that I completely lost track as that time passed. We went from machine to machine playing and having a grand time. It didn’t matter that we weren’t really all that good at any of these ancient arcade games. The point was we were laughing and getting very close to each other at the arcade cabinets and having a great time. Winning or beating one another was just icing on the cake.
That euphoria lasted right up until I heard a familiar voice behind me that I could’ve done without.
“What are you doing here, and who is this?”
I stopped and shivered. The pauses was enough to give Amelia time to swoop in on the fighting game we were playing and do away with my character for good, though I was too preoccupied with that voice to notice. I turned around and frowned at Colin who stood with one of his asshole friends right behind us.
“What the hell do you want, Colin?” I asked.
“Damn, look at that girl,” one of the guys behind Colin said. They were all staring at Amelia, and all of them looked like they were going to need to roll their tongues back into their mouths off the floor like we were in some cartoon or something. I felt a small surge of confidence. I didn’t need their approval, but it was nice to know they saw that I could get a girl that was hotter than anything they could ever hope for.
“She looks familiar,” another one whispered.
“Shut up, all of you,” Colin snapped. “So this is why you left me?”
I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was that Amelia was right there. Maybe it was that I was finally tired of dealing with his bullshit. Whatever the reason, something snapped inside me as he snapped at me. I’d tried to be the bigger person for the past couple of months because I felt guilty over what I’d done to him, but I was at the breaking point. I’d put up with his bullshit for too long.
“Actually yeah, this is why I left you Colin,” I said. I
leaned in closer and pulled Amelia against me. She seemed to get what was going on and she snuggled right up against me. She even leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek, which was more than fine with me whether or not I was in the middle of a plot to make my ex-boyfriend eat his heart out.
“Do you have a problem with that, Colin? What, are you against the whole gay thing? Is that what this is about?”
His eyes went wide. “That’s not what this is about and you know it!”
“Really? That’s a damn shame.”
“What are you talking about?” he said.
“Well if it isn’t that you’re just a homophobe then that means you’re attacking me constantly because you’re an asshole. Go fuck yourself and leave me alone.”
He blinked. Then to my surprise instead of getting even more angry he hung his head in what looked very much like shame. Damn. If I’d known calling him out on his bullshit would be all it took to make him stop acting like such a prick then I would’ve done it a long time ago!
“Come on guys, let’s leave her alone,” Colin said. He gave me one last sad look and I felt some of that guilt return. It was obvious he still had feelings for me even if circumstances and sexual orientation meant that was never going to happen. I almost could’ve felt bad for him, except there was obviously the little problem where he’d spent the past couple of months doing his best to make me feel miserable.
I sighed. “The poor bastard.”
“You’re feeling sorry for him after everything you told me he did to you?” Amelia said.
“I know, crazy, isn’t it?”
“Well how about we do something to take your mind off of him?” Amelia asked.
I glanced at her and felt my stomach clench. I could think of a few things I’d like to do with Amelia to take my mind off of finally confronting my asshole of an ex-boyfriend, though that couldn’t be what she was talking about. I licked my lips.
“What did you have in mind?”
She sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but how about we go on that Princess Cruise ride you’re always going on about?”
I grinned. “Seriously? You mean it!”
And before she could change her mind I grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the arcade. I blinked when we stepped outside. It was starting to get a little dark. I guess I hadn’t realized just how much time we’d spent lost playing video games and talking in the arcade. Damn. I shuddered to think of how much that must’ve cost Amelia, but at the same time I figured if it was getting to be too much she would’ve said something.
I pulled Amelia along. I wanted to make sure we got to the Princess Cruise before she had a chance to change her mind. This was going to be awesome!
16: Amelia
“Trust me. You’re going to love this next ride. I wasn’t kidding when I said it’s the sort of thing they specialize in at this place. You’re going to love it!”
“I don’t know about that. I mean isn’t it just a retelling of some of their movies? I’ve seen those all hundreds of times. It’s not like I need to see it reenacted right in front of me by robots.”
“Just give it a chance. It’s the story of two people falling in love! What could be more awesome than that?”
I looked down at the spot where our fingers were intertwined. I felt a warmth settle in the pit of my stomach and goose bumps rose all over my body. Oh yeah. The story of two people falling in love. I suppose that was something that I could identify with, even if I thought it was a little creepy to go on a ride where it was robots acting out the story of two people falling in love.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by Dani giving my arm a sudden tug. Before I could react I was pulled off onto a side street. Now it was my turn to look at her as though she was the crazy one.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
Dani squeezed her eyes shut and she was breathing heavily. She looked terrified. I reached out and ran a hand along her cheek. Her skin was so smooth. So soft. Nothing like some of the boys I’d danced with at various balls. So different, and yet it felt right as I moved my hand down to her neck and gripped her shoulder. I was on the verge of giving her a good shake when her eyes flew open.
“I saw him. Mr. Fredericks,” she said.
I shook my head. “Am I supposed to know who that is? Is it one of the princes or something?”
I’d heard they had live action characters who came out and interacted with the crowds, but I never would’ve expected Dani to react like this. Usually people seemed to enjoy meeting their favorite characters. I also couldn’t recall a single Royal Company movie that featured a prince named Mr. Fredericks, come to think of it, and I hadn’t been lying when I told Dani that I’d seen all the movies hundreds of times. That seemed like a very odd name for a prince.
“My band director,” she said. “He’s a real stickler for following the rules, and a conversation with him is the last thing I want right now. He’d probably yank me away from you because he’d worry I was getting distracted from his precious parade tomorrow by hanging around with a pretty girl.”
I grinned. “A pretty girl?”
Dani looked at me and blushed. “You know what I mean. The point is, I do not want to have a conversation with that man right now!”
Oh. Well then. Now I was more curious than anything else. I leaned around the edge of the gift shop that stood at the junction between the two streets and peered into the crowd. I don’t know why I did. I didn’t know this Mr. Fredericks fellow and I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a crowd.
Dani pulled me back.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “He might see you!”
I gave her another one of those looks that I hoped was a mirror image of the odd looks she’d been giving me every time I said something that revealed just how much of a fish out of water I was walking out here with the commoners. I even cocked an eyebrow to add to the image.
“But he’s never seen me before,” I said. “How would he know who I was even if he got a good look at me?”
Dani blinked, then blushed. “Right,” she muttered. “Can we please just go? I’d rather not run into him right now.”
“Really? Are you sure you don’t want to show off your new hot date? It seemed to work pretty well with your ex-boyfriend earlier, after all,” I said with a smile. I’d meant it as a joke, but from the way Dani blushed she took it as far more than that.
“Is that what this is?”
I looked down at our hands intertwined, but I didn’t give her the look this time. That had been fun the first couple of times she said something silly, but now didn’t seem like a time for silliness. No, the mood had shifted quite abruptly.
“That’s what I hope this is,” I said.
Dani smiled. “Let’s get to the Princess Cruise.”
I resisted the urge to heave a huge sigh. She wasn’t going to give up on this whole Princess Cruise thing. So I followed her as she led me through the park. Sure this was her first time here too, but she seemed to be better at reading a map. I was completely lost in the crowds. Probably because I’d always had people to take care of that sort of thing for me. I just got in the car and stepped out when we arrived. I never had to think about where I was going.
When we finally reached the Princess Cruise ride I did have to admit it looked impressive. It was set inside a giant mountain with a castle from one of the movies on top, though I couldn’t tell which one from this distance. It was definitely smaller than the Royal Palace that sat at the center of the park.
The line was also blessedly short. I guess this ride wasn’t as popular as Dani seemed to think it should be. I also noted something odd about the crowd.
“Does it seem like the people in line for this thing are mostly couples?” I asked.
Dani looked over to me and grinned, but she didn’t say anything. I started to wonder if maybe something was up here. It seemed odd in an amusement park that was known for catering to kids that there wasn’t a singl
e child in sight. Very odd indeed.
Finally we reached the ride itself. It wasn’t a cruise so much as it was small boats that ran on a track through a canal. Though looking closely as we stepped on it didn’t seem that the water was even strictly necessary if everything was running on a track. Very odd, but I suppose they wanted to keep up with the whole cruise motif. Though the tiny “boat” was a far cry from cruising through the Mediterranean on father’s yacht.
I smiled as the irony struck me. An actual princess on their Princess Cruise. I wondered if that had ever happened before. Surely I wasn’t the first royalty to visit the park. I frowned for a moment as I thought of the park itinerary I was supposed to follow when I got here. They’d given me a couple of days to cool down after the flight, but tomorrow was supposed to be packed with actual princess stuff, which meant it would be that much harder to sneak away to be with Dani.
Best not to think about that right now, though. I wanted to live in the moment and enjoy what time I had with her. That was making the very big assumption that I’d even get to do anything on the itinerary tomorrow anyway considering this was day two of sneaking out. Felix was likely furious. Especially since Renata didn’t seem inclined to tell him anything about what she was doing with the weird turf war going on between the two of them.
“So what do you think?” Dani asked. “I’ve wanted to go on this ride for years, but I never thought…”
She paused. I turned to her as our small boat moved forward into a dark tunnel. I had to take my sunglasses and hat off, otherwise I wasn’t going to be able to see a thing. We were surrounded on all sides by singing animatronic characters reenacting a scene from Beyond the Wall, a story about a girl raised in a palace who wasn’t allowed to see the outside world. It was one of the first big hits from Morty Royal, the man who founded the Royal Company and turned it into the pop culture juggernaut it was today.
It was a story I could identify with. Probably more than anyone else who’d ever seen it.