by Kelly Oram
There was silence for a minute, and then Juliette said, “She’s witty, Ana—funny, smart, nice, and generally pretty cool. You’d probably like her if you’d just give her a chance.”
I was shocked to be so defended. I knew Juliette didn’t have a problem with me anymore, but right then she sounded as if she were truly my friend. Anastasia wasn’t nearly as moved by her speech. “Why should I? She’s never given me a chance.”
“How could she? You’ve been horrible to her since the second she got here. If you ask me, she tolerates you a lot better than you deserve.”
Anastasia’s scoff sounded vicious. I didn’t need to see her face to imagine the daggers she was throwing at Juliette with her eyes. I was also sure her claws were fully extended now. “I can’t believe how far you’ve turned on me. She’s not part of this family, and you’re siding with her over your own twin! I’m your sister! Not her!”
“She is part of this family, Ana. You need to accept it.”
“I’m not accepting anyone who’s trying to take over my life!”
Juliette must have been just as confused as I was because there was no immediate reply. What did Anastasia mean? In what reality was I trying to take over her life? Because it surely wasn’t this one.
“She’s already taken my room, my sister, and the boy I like! She doesn’t even want Rob, and he follows her around like a lovesick puppy! Mom and Dad fawn all over her, and now Brian Freaking Oliver is wishing her happy birthday!”
“None of that is Ella’s fault!” Juliette shouted. “She couldn’t have the upstairs bedroom because she’s freaking handicapped. Would you want to have to gimp around the way she does? Have you ever seen her do her physical therapy? It hurts her so bad she cries. Making her walk up the stairs every day to get to her bedroom would be cruel.”
“Fine, but Rob—”
“She can’t help how Rob feels. She’s been honest with him about her feelings for Cinder. He’s the one who insists on trying to win her over anyway. I think she did the right thing agreeing to go out with him.”
Ana scoffed again.
“She didn’t steal me from you, either,” Juliette continued. “I just can’t stand to be around you anymore because all you do is whine about Ella. And Dad should be sucking up to her. He abandoned her. If anyone stole anything from anyone, we stole Dad from her. It’s a miracle she can forgive any of us!”
Juliette paused, probably to take a breath. It was quiet for a minute. I wondered if Anastasia would respond, but she didn’t. It was Juliette who broke the silence. Her voice was much calmer now, but I could still hear the intensity in it.
“Not everything has to be about you all the time. I’m glad Cinder managed to pull off the Brian Oliver thing because it gave Ella something to think about other than the fact that today is the one-year anniversary of the worst day of her life. Can’t you just be happy with the fact that something good happened to someone who needed it?”
Again, Anastasia didn’t say anything. Not that I expected her to. Juliette must have been finished unloading all of her frustration because I heard the TV downstairs click on and heard a door slam somewhere on the floor above me.
I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Anastasia. She’s a self-centered troll, but she still has feelings. I’d never even tried to see things from her perspective before. Juliette and Jennifer both mentioned that Anastasia felt threatened by me. I hadn’t believed them, but obviously they were right.
I wasn’t going to cow myself and put up with Anastasia’s crap—our situation wasn’t my fault, and I didn’t deserve to be punished for it—but it was nice to understand where her animosity came from. I supposed I could try to be a little more sensitive to her feelings.
I finally shut my door and decided to soak in a hot bath.
Brian
FantasyCon is the world’s biggest fantasy convention—Comic-Con for Lord Of The Rings and Dungeons and Dragons fans. It’s held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center in November and was the first of many publicity appearances I would have to make to promote the release of The Druid Prince.
I loved FantasyCon. I’d come every year since I was sixteen, and this year I got to be involved as more than just a spectator. It was the only stop on The Druid Prince publicity tour I was looking forward to, but it turned out to be one of the worst days of my life.
Today was Ella’s birthday and the one-year anniversary of her accident. All day long I had to smile and greet fans and play up my fake romance with Kaylee when all I could think about was Ella and what she must be going through right now. I couldn’t even be there to comfort her because she still wasn’t speaking to me.
I couldn’t blame her for being mad. I hurt her deeply when I refused to meet her, but I didn’t have any other choice. I figured she’d take a couple of days to cool off and then call and forgive me, but those couple of days turned into almost two weeks.
I checked my instant messenger for the millionth time. Ella still wasn’t signed on so I did the only other thing I could think to do and sent another Ellamara’s Words of Wisdom tweet out to my fans. This time I quoted something she’d said almost three years ago about the brilliance of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance series.
I promised I’d keep Ella distracted today, but since she still wasn’t speaking to me this was the only thing I could think of to do. Hopefully it was working better for her as a distraction, because all it was doing for me was reminding me how much she would love to be here. I hated that she was missing it.
“Would you put that damn thing away?” Kaylee muttered when she noticed the cell in my hands. “It’s rude.”
I pocketed the phone. Kaylee wasn’t pissed that I was texting; she was just mad about what I was texting. Her anger made me smile. It was the little things in life that counted.
Suddenly in a slightly better mood, I greeted the young teenage girl and her mother that were now standing in front of me. “Kaylee’s right. Forgive me. You have my undivided attention now.”
“Oh, it’s okay!” the girl promised as she handed me a photo to sign. “You were just posting another Ellamara’s Words of Wisdom quote, right?”
I grinned. The last time I checked Ella’s Twitter, there’d been a twenty-thousand strong jump in her followers so far today. She was going to freak when she saw it. “I was. Have you been reading them?”
“Oh, yes!” the girl cried. “Ella is so funny! I can totally see why she’s your favorite blogger. I started following her this morning, too. I think it’s so sweet what you’re doing. I would die if I got a birthday present like that. I’m sure she loves it.”
“I hope so.” I chuckled again. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Nancy.”
“Well, Nancy,” I said as I signed her photo and handed it back, “would you like to help me wish her a happy birthday again?” I shifted my gaze to the girl’s mom. “Would it be all right if I take a picture with Nancy and post it on my Instagram?”
“Oh!” Nancy turned to her mother and tugged on her sleeve. “Please, Mom! Can I? Please, please, please?”
When Nancy’s mother laughed and nodded, I gestured for the girl to come around to my side of the table. My day got a little better again when I asked Nancy’s mom to take the picture so that Kaylee could be in it, too. Kaylee had no choice but to smile pretty.
I sent Kaylee a wink and read the caption out loud as I uploaded it. “Kaylee, Nancy, and me wishing Ellamara the best birthday ever from FantasyCon 2014! Join us in the fun! #HappyBirthdayElla!”
The look on Kaylee’s face as I posted the picture to the Internet almost made my fake engagement worth it.
. . . . .
After the autograph session was over, Kaylee and I were supposed to go straight to our next event. It was a celebrity knight’s tournament. Myself and a bunch of other actors from other fantasy movies and TV shows were all dressing up as our characters and competing in a NERF sword fighting competition to wi
n a kiss from the fair princess Ratana.
The event was the coolest idea ever, and I was going to rock it. I’d always kicked ass in my swordplay lessons before filming The Druid Prince. I just wished Ella could be there to enjoy it, too. She was the biggest Merlin fanatic, and I was competing against Prince Arthur in the first round.
After changing into my Cinder costume, I checked my phone again. I’d just dedicated my first match to Ella and linked her review called Merlin and Arthur: The Best Bromance on TV, when I finally got a text from her.
You kept your promise.
The message lifted a weight off my chest. Ella did know I was behind the Brian Oliver posts. She knew I was thinking of her, and she was finally talking to me again.
Glancing around the luxury hotel suite Kaylee and I had been put up in for the duration of the convention, I plopped down on the bed. I was already running a little late, but my duel wasn’t up first and I couldn’t go anywhere without talking to Ella.
I tried my best, I texted back. Did it work?
Yes.
I’m glad. Ella, I am so sorry. Please forgive me.
You’re forgiven. You know I can never stay mad at you.
Good. So do I have permission to call and wish you a happy birthday?
Only if you sing to me.
I cracked a smile and immediately launched into a semi-decent rendition of “Happy Birthday” when Ella answered her phone. “You should definitely stick with reading,” she teased when I was done, even though I stayed in tune the whole time.
I couldn’t laugh with her. “Ella…” I cleared my throat. My voice was surprisingly strangled. “How are you today?”
Her reply was quiet, but not as weak as I feared it would be. “Surviving better than I expected.” There was a pause and the sound of water, and then Ella let out a soft sigh. “The bath is helping,” she said, effectively scrambling all thoughts in my brain.
“Did you say you’re in the bath?”
“Mmhm. Soaking in lavender. My stepmom swears it’s therapeutic, and I’ll never admit it to her, but she is right. I am so relaxed right now.”
I choked back a startled cough. “Damn it, Ellamara, what are you trying to do to me, woman?”
“What are you talking about—oh.” Ella laughed. “You perve. How can you be turned on? You don’t even know what I look like. I could be four hundred pounds, hairy, and covered with warts, for all you know.”
Yeah, right. “You aren’t. I saw your picture on your blog back when you used to post about those trips with your mom. You’re hot. You have that sexy half-Latina thing going on.”
I hoped she’d respond to my flirting for once, but she just said, “You’re so full of it. Those pictures of me in all my brace-face glory back then were hideous. I’m average at best. At least, I was before. Now there aren’t many guys that would look twice at me—not for the right reasons.”
I sat up. What did she mean by before? Before her accident? Had something happened to her that she’d never told me about? She was in the hospital for a long time, but she’d never explained her injuries to me. She always said she didn’t want to talk about it. “Ella, what do you mean?”
“Nothing. It’s not important.”
The hell it wasn’t. “Ella—”
“What I’m trying to say,” she interrupted, “is stop fantasizing about me and let me enjoy my bath. I need it, after the day I had. Your little stunt made everyone who’s been ignoring me for months suddenly either want to be my best friend or gouge my eyes out in an envious rage. I thought Rob was going to start hurting people on my behalf.”
I forgot all about Ella’s injuries. “Rob? Is that the guy your friend mentioned? Are you guys dating now?”
“Kind of, I guess. I mean we’re not exclusive or official or anything, but he finally asked me out. He’s coming to my birthday dinner tonight.”
I squeezed my phone so hard I nearly cracked the screen. Some high school punk was taking her to dinner for her birthday and she didn’t think that was serious? Bullshit. Birthdays were a big deal. Guys feared women’s birthdays. Always. Whether Ella thought so or not, this Rob guy definitely had major intentions if he was willing to spend her birthday with her. But at least Ella hadn’t sounded all that enthusiastic. “I can tell you’re jumping for joy. Do you actually want to go out with this guy?”
Ella sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t dated anyone since before my accident. I’m not sure I’m ready, but I’ve got to start living again sometime, right? At the very least, Rob deserves a chance.”
It took all the acting skills I possessed to sound like a politely concerned friend instead of the jealous asshole I was. “Don’t you dare settle for second best, Ella.”
“It’s not that. He’s good-looking and really sweet. He’s one of the most popular guys at school because he’s some kind of super soccer player, but it doesn’t bother him at all that I’m a social leper. I promise he’s a good guy.”
An athlete? My little fantasy-loving book nerd was going out with a jock? That was so wrong. “Good isn’t great,” I said, a bit of a growl escaping me. “You’re not a B-list kind of girl.”
Suddenly there was a pounding on the hotel room door and Kaylee shouted my name. When she started fiddling with the lock, I cursed her for having a key and bolted for the bathroom. I wasn’t done with this conversation yet, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to end it for Kaylee.
I hated that we had to share a room this week, but our management team was paranoid about the secret that our relationship was a sham would get out, so they’d insisted. I got the bathroom door shut and locked just as Kaylee walked into the suite. “I know you’re in there!” she shouted, banging on the bathroom door. “What the hell are you doing?”
It was bad enough that I had to hear all about Mr. Fantastic Soccer Dude. Dealing with Kaylee on top of that news was asking too much of my temper. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m hiding from you!”
“Hilarious!” Kaylee jiggled the handle and pounded on the door again when it wouldn’t open. “Get your ass out here now! We’re late!”
“You’re late! I don’t have to be there for fifteen minutes.”
“I am not showing up to this stupid thing alone! Get off the damn phone and get out here now!”
She’d never leave me alone. Muttering a string of curses, I sighed into the phone. “The cavalry finally found me. I’ve got to run. I’m at this crazy work thing this weekend. I’m actually locked in a bathroom at the moment because I’m supposed to be somewhere, but when I saw your text, I couldn’t wait to talk to you.”
“That’s okay. You can call me later.”
I was relieved to hear a smile in Ella’s voice, and even more grateful that she was asking me to call her later. It meant she wasn’t mad anymore. I really was forgiven. These last two weeks without her had been some of the longest of my life.
“Maybe we can read tonight for my birthday?” she suggested.
I groaned. I would have liked nothing more than to curl up in bed tonight and read with Ella for her birthday, but there were so many people in town for the convention that there was this huge party going down tonight and there was no chance in hell Kaylee would let me miss it. “That sounds like heaven, but I’m at this conference through Sunday, and the nights have been running really late. I don’t think I’ll be able to get away. Can we talk Monday?”
“Sure.”
I heard Ella’s disappointment and tried to swallow my own. “Good. I can’t wait. I’ve really missed you, woman. You have no idea how much. After just one day I had to delete your number out of my phone so that I wouldn’t lose all dignity by calling you a billion times to beg for forgiveness.”
Ella laughed at the same time Kaylee pounded on the door again.
I yanked my hair in frustration. “I really have to go. Love you, Ella. No more silent treatment, okay? These last two weeks were hell. Happy birthday. I’ll call you Monday.”
“Thanks. Love
you too, Cinder. I’ll wait by the phone Monday, holding my breath for your call.”
Her parting words warmed my heart. They would be enough to help me survive the rest of the weekend. With my smile back, I went to face the shrew and hopefully kick Prince Arthur of Camelot’s ass in a NERF sword fight.
After talking to Cinder, I felt rejuvenated enough to go out for my birthday dinner. My father had reservations at the Chart House, a steak house on the waterfront in Malibu. Steak isn’t my favorite, but my dietician would be pleased because I’d lost a little weight recently from stress, and he’d demanded I start a higher calorie diet with more protein. In fact, he was probably responsible for my father’s restaurant choice. Anyway, at least it wasn’t sushi. Ick. On the plus side, the restaurant was beautiful. Seeing the sun set over the ocean was worth the drive in itself.
Dinner was pleasant, seeing as how my dad adored Vivian, was still thrilled by the new camaraderie between Juliette and me, and didn’t ask Rob any horrible so-you’re-dating-my-daughter questions. Even Anastasia hadn’t pouted too much.
The only embarrassing moment was when Jennifer gushed over Rob because he’d pulled out my chair for me. Poor Rob had turned bright red. I was sure I looked the same. Both Juliette and Anastasia hissed at their mom, wearing frighteningly identical glares. Thankfully, Jennifer got the hint and tried not to act too mom-ish from then on.
After dinner everyone was stuffed, but Dad insisted we order a few of their signature hot lava cakes—this was a birthday party, after all. Not one to say no to fudgy goodness, I happily agreed. As we waited for the dessert to arrive, Juliette started bouncing in her chair. “Can we do gifts now?”
“There are presents?” My cheeks heated up again. I hadn’t expected any gifts.
“Good ones,” Juliette said. “You’re going to love them. Can we give them to her now? Please, please, please?”
It was like watching a kindergartner on Christmas morning. We all laughed at her. “All right.” My dad conceded and handed me a long envelope that he’d pulled from the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket. “This is from the family. It was Juliette’s suggestion, so if you don’t like it, blame her.”
