His Princess

Maw was here, but I realized when I stepped inside that Paw wasn’t. It made things a little easier that way, to be honest. Maw and Mika were just sitting there watching Mika’s favorite thing—This Is Us.

I actually bit my lip to hide my smile at the whole thing. The sexy Irish boy on that movie was getting ready for a date with me.

Me.

I shook my head as I put my stuff in its place in the closet. “Hey.”

Mika instantly paused it and looked over at me with wide, eager eyes. “What’d he have to talk to you about? Is everything okay? Did he ask you to be his princess?!”

I let out a breathless laugh as I turned to her, eyes wide. “Calm, Mika. He told me that he’s leaving tonight. Don’t tell anyone, but Theo’s in the hospital, and he’s going to see him. Then . . . he asked me to go on a date with him tonight before he leaves.” While Mika began freaking out and dancing around the room, I looked up to a curious Maw with hopeful eyes. “Is that alright? I know it’s a school night and everything, and it may be between eleven and twelve when I get home. I called Jane, and she told me she’d kill me if I tried to come in.”

Maw hesitated a little, but she had no intentions of saying no. “Of course. You’ll have to get up in the morning, but I couldn’t dare tell you no! This doesn’t just happen to anyone, and this is a once in a lifetime thing. Of course you can go out with this boy, but one day, I would like to meet him.”

I sighed. “I don’t know if it will go anywhere past this.”

She frowned. “He just wants to be friends?”

I shook my head. “We live in two different worlds, Maw. Well, I live in two different worlds, and he lives in a totally different world from both of mine. Both of our lives are crazy, but they’re three different kinds of crazy. This could be dangerous for him, and I don’t know how Frank would react. It’s not like I can exactly hide this.”

“Don’t let him ruin your life,” Maw whispered, mostly because she didn’t want the still dancing Mika to hear. “Don’t stop seeing this boy because of him, please. Don’t do it because of Mika either. If it takes you a little longer to get a life for her because of a boyfriend, fine. Please don’t walk away from the first thing that’s made you happy in a long time.”

I took in what she said, but I knew I was still going to do it. Unless something miraculous happened tonight, I knew this would possibly be the last time I ever saw Niall.

That stung, but I had to face it. Deep down, I knew it was best for both of us, but I hated it. I also hated thinking about him moving on to another girl. That sucked, but I had to do this. It was best for both of us.

Mika finally calmed down enough to come over and start leading me upstairs to her room. It surprised me, but she sat me down on her bed and disappeared in her closet before I could even ask.

“Maw, can you get the ring?” she called, and Maw said something, but I didn’t hear what she said.

My eyes widened a little. “Ring? What are you talking about?”

Mika ignored my question and exited her closet with a garment bag and a smile. “I’ve been saving this for your first date. One of Elli’s, of course. Now, put it on and hurry. I have to get you ready.”

Every fiber of my being wanted to protest, but I knew Mika wouldn’t pick something out she didn’t know for a fact that I would absolutely love. Same goes for Elli, our cousin through our mom that was a talented fashion designer trying to get her business going steady. So, I carefully began unzipping the bag.

What I saw was pink. I wasn’t a big fan of pink, but this dress was absolutely beautiful. It had glitter and rhinestones and ruffles . . . all the things that just didn’t usually go on dresses I wore—aside from glitter which sometimes was a necessity—but somehow, I fell in love with this dress the moment I fully saw it.

When I slid it on, I realized that it was strapless, and it came about five or six inches above my knees. I didn’t even ask her and realized I needed to shower, so I did just that. She was waiting on me when I came back in there, my hair already drying naturally and the dress back on. Showering took longer than ever because I made sure I shaved every stray hair on my body and made sure I smelled good and looked perfect. My skin was naturally soft, so I really didn’t have to worry about that.

I felt a little uncomfortable being in a strapless dress because, whether I liked it or not, I had a chest. It wasn’t excessively large, really, but my boobs were big, especially considering the fact that just about everything else on me was tiny.

I even have tiny feet.

Mika didn’t even ask. She sat me down and began curling my hair in long, cute curls, but what surprised me was when she began braiding my hair. It wasn’t like any braid she had ever done on me before. It started at the left side of my forehead on the top of my head and curved around diagonally to my right ear.

She did a waterfall braid in such a beautiful way. My hair was curled some more, but I couldn’t believe how amazing it looked.

Mika looked proud herself as she disappeared out of her room and off to get whatever. I was just staring at myself, wondering how on earth she did that and made it look so beautiful.

She got back quickly with lots of things. There was makeup and jewelry most obviously, and beyond that, she had shoes. My silver glittery converse were her shoes of choice—mine too.

I laughed and slipped on a pair of no-show black socks as she began laying everything out. “It’s like you’ve been planning this for a long time.”

She smiled sheepishly. “We have. I just find it all so fitting.”

“What do you mean?”

She sat me back down without answering and began putting silver glittery eye shadow on me very lightly. She only did it on my eye lid and on my temples, but the closer to my eye lashes you were, the more glitter she put. Other than that, she put on mascara and covered up the bruises on my face. That was it.

I loved it. For my nails, she did silver French tips perfectly, and it became clear to me that Mika could be a stylist herself if she wanted to when she got older.

As she was putting on the opal necklace my dad got me, a small oval with white sapphire accents, my phone began ringing. When I looked, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was Niall.

Niall: I’m all ready to go. (:

I didn’t even reply because I realized I was close, so I looked to the table. That’s was the first time I saw the last two objects Mika wanted me to wear. One was a pair of opal earrings with the full opal resting inside two white gold crowns. If you didn’t look at it closely, it just looked like two opal earrings. Then, there was a ring. It was a crown as well, but it was a little more obvious. It was a small princess crown filled with tiny opals and diamonds with a white gold band wrapping around my finger.

I was surprised, but it fit right on my left ring finger, so I wore it instead of my purity ring and hugged my sister tightly. “Thank you so much, Mika.”

“Any time,” she said. “Seeing you this happy . . . I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in all the world. Please don’t let it go away.”

Maw came into the room then, right as I was about to say something back to Mika. When she saw me, tears began to fill her eyes. “I’ve been waiting years for something wonderful like this to happen to you. You look absolutely beautiful.”

I rushed over to hug her, too, and after a few moments, Mika cleared her throat and handed me my shoes, eyebrows raised. Of course I had to put those on, but that’s not what she was saying.

“You have a very gorgeous boy waiting on you to come and pick him up,” she reminded me. “Don’t let us keep you from him.”

When I looked at my phone, I realized it was only 4:42. So, with a squeal, I kissed Mika’s head, hugged Maw again, slipped on my shoes, grabbed my phone and car keys, and ran out the door, off to pick up that sexy boy waiting on me.

As I got to the hotel, I began getting nervous again. Even though my car didn’t smell weird or anything, I sprayed it down with my favorite perfume, as well as myself. I always kept this perfume in the car so I could spray it before school, and it worked out nicely in this instance as well.

I began getting nervous when I walked through the parking deck and into the hotel. Did I look absolutely ridiculous? Was I overdressed?

A part of me hoped he was waiting on the elevator, but the other part hoped he wasn’t. When the doors slid open, I realized that no, he wasn’t, so I was able to get on the elevator and let my thoughts clear and my nerves settle.

I say that, but as the elevator got closer and closer to Niall’s floor, my lungs forgot how to function properly, and my heart began tightening. My head was pounding, mostly because it wasn’t getting much oxygen, so by the time the doors slid open, I was surprised I hadn’t passed out already.

And as soon as I stepped off the elevator, Niall came out of his room.

Notes

The lyrics are from Time to Go by the Maine. :)

Let me know what you guys think! I hope you enjoy it. I know it's just a filler before the chapter you're all really waiting for.

You're in luck. The next chapter's a long one. :D

You can check out Emmit's outfit here. :) Thanks to my awesome friend Phenax for making these outfits for me. She's the best!