A Love that Endures

by Forrest, Bella

  11

  David

  “Do you never get bored of curry?” Zeke asked, glancing at David’s bowl of ghee-laden sauce.

  “Nope,” David replied around a mouthful of soggy naan.

  “It’s the Brit in him.” Max smirked, biting off half a samosa.

  “Yeah, well. We had an Indian takeout just around the corner back home. Guess it’s nostalgic.” David’s mind was half on and half off the conversation. He was relieved he’d managed to convince Zeke to book an appointment with the campus’s mental health services. The next step would be making sure he showed up for it this afternoon.

  Because Zeke had been reticent at first, trying to argue that he didn’t really need “therapy or whatever” and hadn’t actually been planning to jump off that roof. David wasn’t having any of it. Zeke refused to tell his family about the incident, which meant David now had a responsibility, whether he liked it or not. Being the only one who knew about Zeke’s instability, it was on him to watch out for his friend. If something happened to him that David could have in any way prevented, it would weigh on his conscience for the rest of his life. He certainly didn’t need the extra stress right now, but he supposed that was what friends were for.

  That was also the reason why David hadn’t mentioned anything about his after-lunch plans regarding Katy and the drama club. It would coincide with Zeke’s first appointment, and he didn’t want to give the man any distractions or excuses to try to get out of it. He would give him a report afterward.

  “So, you said you’re thinking about joining an organization?” Max asked.

  David shared a look with Zeke and nodded.

  “Maybe we could join a chess club,” Zeke suggested, sucking on a piece of fried okra.

  David rolled his neck casually. “I was actually thinking something maybe a little more invigorating.”

  “Invigorating, eh?” Max asked with a grin. “I’m telling you guys, you just need to get girlfriends. Then you’ll have all the stress relief you need. Why do you think I’m always so chilled out? I swear, Melanie does wonders for me.”

  Zeke pursed his lips, and David busied himself with his glass of lassi. This was not the best subject to bring up in front of his roommate so soon after the roof incident. Plus, the idea of using another person for “stress relief” was a bit uncomfortable. He’d almost finished his meal, thankfully, and so had Zeke, giving them an easy way out.

  He drained his glass and mopped up the last traces of sauce from his plate. Zeke took the cue and cleaned up his dishes too. Then they rose to their feet together.

  “Whoa, you finished already?” Max asked, looking from Zeke to David with a crestfallen expression. “What about dessert? I was looking forward to a double shrikhand, but I’ll feel like a pig digging into it alone.”

  David yawned. “Sorry, Max,” he said, stretching out his arms. “I’m stuffed. But next time.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” Zeke added, sucking in his stomach and loosening his belt a notch. “Though being a pig has never stopped you before.”

  Max chuckled. “Fair play.”

  “See you later,” David said, and made his way to the main counter with Zeke. He was just fishing out his credit card from his pocket when Zeke barged into him, pushing him to one side. “What the—”

  “You steer clear of this bill, mate,” Zeke said in a British accent that belonged in a very bad Bollywood movie. He brandished his own wallet. “I owe you. This is on me.”

  He gave David a meaningful look, and David nodded, suppressing a smile. “All right . . . You have been a stubborn jerk.”

  Zeke pulled out a small wad of cash and settled both of their bills, and they headed to the exit.

  “Thanks, man,” David said, casting him a sideways glance. He meant it. As students, neither of them was rich.

  “Don’t mention it,” Zeke murmured, his gaze fixed ahead.

  Approaching the main door, David shifted his focus to his plans for the rest of the day. They’d finished lunch a little early, and he still had about half an hour before he was due to meet Katy and her friend. Not really enough time to run errands. And there was also nothing more he could do to further his ancestry project right now. He’d submitted his saliva to three different DNA-matching services, and until they sent the results back, it was a waiting game. Hopefully not more than a couple of weeks, though.

  Perhaps he could slip in some studying. The library wasn’t far, and it had become his regular haunt for study, anyway, since his talk with Professor Bell—he’d had the belatedly genius idea to shift his work outside of his room (well, as much as humanly possible) in order to avoid unwanted distractions. So far it had been working pretty well.

  But then again, he wasn’t sure he could actually concentrate on anything with his appointment with Katy just around the corner. He was feeling oddly nervy about seeing her again—or rather, properly, for the first time—even though there was no rational reason to be.

  “You heading off to the appointment now?” David asked as they stepped out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk.

  “Yeah,” Zeke replied. “I ate way too much. It will probably take me like an hour just to get there. We still good for our library period later on?”

  "Erm. Probably. I’ll text to confirm.”

  “Okey dokey, bruv.” Zeke patted David on the back and ambled off in the opposite direction, clearly weighed down by his food.

  David could sympathize, running a hand down his full stomach. He turned, on the verge of setting off on a very slow walk toward the theater, when a flash of bright light caught his attention. He looked to his right and saw a dark-haired girl stepping out of a stationary store on the other side of the road.

  She was holding a glass-backed mobile phone that the sunlight glanced off brilliantly . . . and, David realized, he recognized her. She seemed wrapped up in her phone conversation and wasn’t looking in his direction, but it didn’t take him long to connect the dots.

  Underwear Girl.

  Katy.

  He became certain of his guess when the girl’s lips spread into a broad smile. It was even more beautiful in the daylight.

  He found himself standing there staring for a moment, as if his brain had forgotten what he’d been about to do. Then she strode away from the store, in the direction David had been about to take.

  Had she seen him? Perhaps not. Or maybe she hadn’t recognized him. It had been dark that evening, after all.

  Either way, they were both headed toward the theater, so it looked like he had no choice but to follow her.

  Even so, he felt like a bit of a stalker as he took off across the road. Half of him wanted to call out and break the ice, but the other half saw she was still holding the phone to her ear, so he held back and settled for awkwardly following her.

  He kept a fair distance between them as they made their way back to campus, and she continued picking the same path as his phone’s GPS.

  Then she stopped abruptly in front of a red brick building, leaving David with two choices. Stop too, and stand there like an idiot in the middle of the pavement, or keep walking like a normal person. He opted for the latter, figuring she would be through the door by the time he reached the spot anyway.

  But instead she halted to readjust her shoelace, and he found himself walking head-on toward her. She rose to her feet as David was passing by, and their gazes met.

  “Oh. Hello!” She beamed, her forest-green eyes lighting up. “You look familiar.”

  “You too,” David replied, slowly returning her radiant smile as he took in all her features.

  She was incredibly cute up close, too, with a small, perky nose and pouty bow-shaped lips, complemented by a gently rounded face. He also got the feeling that she was vaguely familiar, someone he might have seen even before the night of the party. Perhaps he had spotted her previously around the campus, though he couldn’t think where now for the life of him.

  “I actually saw you outside the station
ary store back there,” he added, casually slipping his hands into his pockets. “Guess you didn’t notice me.”

  The corners of her lips quirked. “I had a feeling someone was stalking me.”

  David blushed a little. “I know—I should have caught up.”

  Her smile broadened. “No worries. I was just picking up a couple spare notebooks. I’m glad you got here okay. And thank you so much again for the other night.”

  “Oh, no problem. I’m pretty sure you already thanked me . . . ”

  She turned promptly to open the door of the building and held it open for him. “Gents first.”

  He nodded his thanks with a grin and walked through to a theater room, which was already filled with a dozen or so students, along with an older woman he guessed was the club organizer.

  Katy strode in after him and stopped by the audience seats. She coughed politely. “Cassie hasn’t arrived yet, but she’ll trickle in soon. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable while I let our supervisor know why you’re here?” She gave him a friendly wink, then sauntered off, leaving David to find a chair.

  As he sank into one in the front row, he found his eyes tracing the girl’s path as she walked up to the supervisor on the stage. David wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he could have sworn she moved with more grace than most of the girls in the room. Or on the campus, for that matter . . . That combined with her simple, yet chic, choice of clothing, gave him the impression that she might be from an upper-class background.

  Reaching the older woman, Katy exchanged a few words with her, and the former glanced over at him. David waggled his fingers in a rather pathetic wave. The supervisor nodded slowly, and a few moments later, clapped her hands. Katy and the rest of the students left the stage, leaving the supervisor standing alone on the platform.

  “All right, boys and girls,” she announced. “Since we’ve got a good number of people here already, I suggest we go ahead and get started. We’ll begin with a bit of freeform improv to loosen up. We’ve also got a new face joining us this afternoon, so everyone say hi to David!”

  She pointed in David’s direction, and all the students turned toward him at once with a chorus of heys and welcomes.

  “Hi,” David replied, feeling a bit embarrassed at all the attention.

  “Let’s have Katy up first,” the supervisor finished, and descended to the audience seats.

  Katy smiled over at David as she climbed to the stage, and he enjoyed watching her move to the center. Then his mouth dropped when she seemed to beckon to him with one hand.

  “Um, what?” he asked, his voice barely audible.

  “Would you like to be my partner, David?” she called out. “Don’t worry, I’ll ease you into it!”

  As everyone’s gaze fell on him, David stared back at her.

  There had clearly been some form of miscommunication. This was not what he thought he’d signed up for. By “try it out,” he hadn’t realized Katy had meant literally, right away. He didn’t consider himself a natural at acting. Far from it. He’d only done it in secondary school, because it was a subject everyone took. To be thrown into this completely unprepared was daunting, to say the least.

  Still, David had never been one to back down from a challenge—especially when it was coming from such a lovely host. Even if it did involve making an embarrassment of himself. And diving into the full experience probably was the best way to try the club out.

  You only live once, right?

  He rose to his feet and scaled the steps to the stage. The glaring lights immediately blinded him, and he had to pause for a moment to regain his bearings. Then he moved toward Katy and stopped a couple feet away from her. He gazed at her tentatively.

  “I’ll start us off,” she whispered with a reassuring smile. “All you need to do is play along.”

  David nodded and held his breath, waiting for her to go on. She lowered her head, her eyes on the floor for several heartbeats, as if clearing her mind and preparing.

  Then her head tilted back up and her lips formed a mildly irritated moue. “Did you receive my letter?” she asked in a fake posh accent. She glanced up at him through thick lashes, her head tilted endearingly to one side.

  David gazed back at her, trying to get his brain to move. “Um, no,” he replied. “I don’t think it arrived yet.”

  “Are you sure, Prince David?” Katy asked.

  David widened his eyes. Prince?

  She chuckled. “Don’t give me that foolish look. I know you received my letter months ago; it was signed for. Yet I have still received no reply. I am just wondering why.”

  David had to hand it to her—she could be quite intense. He felt his forehead beginning to sweat already beneath her gaze (though that might have also had something to do with the lights).

  “I’m sorry,” he replied, clearing his throat and trying to deepen his voice some . . . because that’s how princes sounded, right? All baritone and macho? Or maybe that was just Disney princes. Either way, he was rolling with it. “I’ve had a lot of things on my mind lately, and it must have slipped through the cracks.” He straightened his back, trying to adopt a more princely posture too.

  “I understand,” Katy replied. Her tone turned wistful as she glanced away. “Matters of the kingdom must always trump matters of friendship . . . ” She walked over to a chair and sat down on it, twisting a strand of long black hair between two elegant fingers. She threw him a doleful look.

  It became apparent to David that the ball was in his court now. Though he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it.

  “What did you say in your letter . . . Princess?” he asked. If she was calling him a prince, he figured that made sense. “I might have been careless and overlooked it, but perhaps I can answer it satisfactorily now.”

  Her lips curved upward. “Hmmm. Perhaps you can.” She rose to her feet again and began to circle him slowly. “Really, I wanted to get to know you better. The man behind the legend, so to speak. I have heard so much about your heroic exploits, and I am looking for meaningful company on these foreign shores.” She gave him a flirty smile that made David’s cheeks heat again. “Also, since you have bought a holiday palace very close to ours, it looks like we’ll be seeing rather a lot of each other in the summers. Now that you have arrived, we might as well break the ice.”

  “Of course,” he replied. “It would be my pleasure.”

  “First of all, I wondered what brings you here, of all places,” she said. “Why choose America, and not some other sunny destination in Europe? It’s very far away from your home kingdom, after all.”

  David took a moment to think how to reply. “Just a . . . personal familial matter that is rather long overdue. Nothing terribly enthralling.”

  She looked at him curiously but didn’t press, seeming to sense that was all he was comfortable saying on the matter. “I see. And are you here alone? Or do you have an entourage? I believe you have at least one courtier, correct?”

  David frowned at that. She was referring to his roommate Zeke, presumably.

  “I do have one ‘courtier.’ He is a good friend, in fact, and also from a foreign shore,” David replied. “He is more or less my entourage, at the moment.” David hadn’t been kidding when he said he needed to be better at socializing. Since joining the Wolf Club, he had hung out with other guys in the house, but, other than Zeke, he hadn’t really formed close connections with any yet. He’d been so focused on keeping up with his studies.

  “Ah, I see.” Katy’s tone faltered a touch. “I just figured a man of your stature would be accompanied by an entire royal guard! Nevertheless, I appreciate a royal who travels lightly.”

  There was an awkward pause as they both stared at each other, and it seemed like Katy was struggling to come up with her next line.

  “And where are you from?” David asked, swooping in to salvage the situation with a question he was genuinely curious about. “You inferred that you are also from a foreign shor
e?”

  Katy pinched her lips together, apparently not having thought her role through in that much detail. “Guernsey,” she announced after a moment.

  David was pretty sure Guernsey didn’t have its own royal family, but hey, factual accuracy wasn’t exactly the point of this exercise. “A pleasure to meet you, Princess Katy of Guernsey.”

  She gave a little curtsey.

  Before David could form another suitable question, the supervisor clapped her hands twice.

  “Okay, guys,” she called out. “I think this little skit has gone far enough. Next up, please!”

  He felt a little miffed. He’d been looking forward to pursuing some inquiries of his own. But he supposed he’d get a chance for that later.

  In a way that wouldn’t bore the entire audience.

  They descended from the stage, Katy opting to follow him down the same set of stairs on the right. When they met on the audience-level floor, they paused to look at each other, identical smirks slowly forming on both their faces.

  “Sorry for springing that on you, but I hope you found it fun,” Katy said after a beat.

  “Oh, I did. I’m glad you pulled me into it,” David replied, slipping his hands casually into his pockets. And he meant it, too. While he’d been up there beneath the lights, he had completely forgotten about all his other stresses. He hadn’t had much time to get into the flow of things, but with practice and more time, he could certainly see himself enjoying this. Especially with Katy for a partner . . .

  Katy suddenly turned to glance over her shoulder, toward the entrance. “Oh, Cassie’s arrived! I-I guess I’ll, um, take you to meet her now?”

  David frowned at the ever so slight strain in her voice but replied, “Sure!”

  “Follow me, then!” And with that she whirled on her heel and headed toward the opposite end of the room.

  12

  Katy

  Katy strode toward her cousin, feeling a bit less excited than she’d thought she would at the idea of Cassie and David finally meeting. Based on their stage conversation, it hadn’t seemed like there were an abundance of Davids floating around. At least, not that she could meet through him.