Chapter 34

       "Hey, Dad," I said as I was walking down the stairs to where Dad was in the living room. "Guess where I'm heading off to?"

       Dad sighed and looked at me. "Where? The animal shelter? The theatre?"

       "Nope," I said. "I am going to the beach to spend time with my beautiful girlfriend. You may know her. Her name is Or--"

       "I know who she is, Atticus," Dad said. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

       "Because you usually make a big deal about where I'm going," I said. "So I thought I'd save the time and tell you upfront where I'm going. Don't expect me to be home before dinner. I might even stay out all night. Make love. Get her pregnant. Have a baby together so you have to suffer with having a half-Prince grandchild. And then we'll go to Vegas and elope."

       "You know, part of me thinks you're saying all of this just to get a reaction out of me," Dad said.

       "Now why would I ever do that?" I asked. "I'm just simply telling my father that I am going to spend time with my girlfriend because for all you know, she could be your future daughter-in-law one day."

       Dad raised an eyebrow. "Is this your way of telling me you're proposing?"

       "What?" I asked. "No, definitely not. I'm not ready for marriage."

       "And why's that? Don't you love her?"

       "Are you trying to use reverse psychology on me?"

       "I wouldn't say reverse psychology. More of wondering why you're not married. Doesn't marriage bring two people closer?"

       "I'm confused. You don't want me dating Grayson's daughter but to me, it sounds like you want me to marry her."

       "You're not getting it at all. You love her, yet you don't want to marry her?"

       "I'm eighteen, Dad."

       "Isn't Orchid's brother engaged? He's eighteen, isn't he?"

       "Seventeen."

       "Okay so for you..."

       I sighed. "What are you playing at, Dad? Because it sounds you either want me to break up with her or propose."

       "I'm just saying that when you know someone's the one, you know."

       I scoffed and walked over to the front door to put on my shoes. "Except for one factor. I'm probably not going to know for a while because I have fucking alexithymia, remember?"

       "Atticus..." Dad began, but I ignored him and walked outside, slamming the door shut behind me before getting into my car. I closed the door shut and took a deep breath, leaning my head back on the seat.

       I didn't get my dad at all. Why couldn't he just try to be happy for me? I was emotionallly detached most of the time and to find someone I was really happy with... It shouldn't matter that she was the daughter of his 'mortal enemy'.

       Because I actually loved Orchid, even if I had no idea how to tell her.

       I started up the car and pulled out of the driveway, driving to the Princes' house. Orchid was already waiting outside for me so once I pulled up, she got into the passenger seat. She smiled at me and leaned over, giving me a quick kiss. "Hey," she said.

       "Hi," I said, trying to smile back but I was in a bad mood now because of my dad.

       "Are you okay?" Orchid asked.

       I sighed. "Yeah. Just the same old; my dad being very annoying about me dating you."

       "Still?" Orchid asked as I started driving to the beach.

       "You mean your dad isn't being annoying about it anymore?" I asked.

       "Not for a while," Orchid said. "He moved his concentration onto something else, mainly one of his sons being engaged so I am very thankful Jerome manned up and asked Nolan to marry him."

       "Manned up?" I asked. "Nolan was still in high school when they got engaged."

       "So? They love each other a lot. Age doesn't matter. And it's clear that they're meant to be so why wait?"

       That was able to get me to smile a bit. "Well, I know you're right there. I've been going to school with Nolan ever since, well, kindergarten and I've noticed he has always been this quiet and reserved kid but ever since meeting Jerome, he opened up and stopped being afraid to be himself. I did too."

       "You started opening up and being yourself after meeting Jerome? What, are you attracted to him or something?"

       "What? No. That's not what I meant."

       "That's what it sounded like. Don't worry, I won't blame you if it's true. Everyone's attracted to Jerome; gay, straight, man, woman."

       "Seriously? I mean that I started opening up after meeting someone, aka you."

       "We've known each other almost our whole lives."

       "Geez, it's so hard to have a normal conversation with you Princes. All you do is sass your way through things."

       "It's because we love teasing people," Orchid said. "But really, you are an amazing person. Whether or not you opened up fully or not, you're still the same amazing person."

       "Thank you," I said. "And you... Are an okay human being."

       "Oh, ouch. Now I know how you peasants feel when us Princes tease everyone."

       "Peasants?"

       "Yes, peasants."

       I just chuckled. As annoying as they could be, the Princes were just so amusing. I could never stay made at any of them.

       Except for Grayson, but that's only because he was overreacting like my dad. Well, thankfully, not as much as my dad anymore.

       When Orchid and I got to the beach, we just started walking around since that was the main reason we were here. We just needed sometime away from everything without our annoying families getting in the way.

       We hadn't really spent much time together since the summer started anyway. I had been helping out Wilder a whole lot with taking him to the horse ranch and comforting him when he wasn't feeling mentally stable.

       I was just happy Wilder was doing a lot better now, especially after coming third place in the horse show. That sense of accomplishment really helped him out.

       "So... You never told me what your major is going to be in university," Orchid said.

       "Because I still don't know what it's going to be," I said. "I'm just going into general studies for now until I find something I truly like. I mean, I know what I like but I doubt I can study it in university. I'll just have those electives. What about you?"

       I'm going into psychology," Orchid said. "Hoping I can be a psychologist or therapist or anything that helps people mentally. Too many people I love suffer from mental illnesses and I want to help out anyone like them."

       "Well, you will be amazing at that," I said, giving her a smile and she smiled back.

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what's this???? an early update???? i started writing this so early during the day. :O

i am finished this semester of university so i am going to try updating more than one book a day like i used to. that will definitely help with my problem of having probably 20 books in process ahahaha.

but this one will be ending soon, probably at chapter 40. i forgot what book is coming after though oops.

what would you want to see me? Gemme and Marcus, or Wilder?