Summer Hearts

lovers' push and pull

I open my eyes and stretch with a satisfying groan in my bed. It's dark in the room, the sky lit with the moon and the stars. I must have slept till night fall.

My tummy growls, bitingly reminding me I've not had a proper meal for dinner. I put my feet into my fur slides and laze out of the softness of my bed. The mattress is so comforting, it swallows your body, making you never want to leave.

I pad out of the room with groggy eyes, in search of food. A long hallway stretches out before me, with doors on either side and small decorative lamps hung on the oak walls. The moon's shine at its apogee mesmerises me through the large window at the far end.

I turn for the stairs and come around the corner when a hard body rams directly into me, knocking the breath out of me.

"Look out!" I yell, one hundred percent awake now and wide eyed so I see the perpetrator clearly. Before me is Vince in a black tracksuit, with AirPods plugging his ears. My heart skips a beat, annoyingly intimidated at the sight of him. So much for him staying away from me.

"You watch where you're going. Why are you slinking around corners?" He probes, his dark brows bunched together in true bewilderment.

Slinking? "You can't apologise? You were literally running up these stairs, with your ears blocked too."

Out of nowhere, a genuine smile spreads on his lips and it scares me because Vince doesn't smile at me.

"Of course, you think you're in the right. The perfect princess can do no wrong."

"Get away from me." I snap, irritation bubbling in my stomach. I have no room in my life for this sort of energy, much less from someone as mean as him.

He laughs like my display is all silliness and jogs off down the hallway to enter his room, leaving me with an ache in my body from his force.

The sky starts to ombré into an artistic display of pinks and gold, the sun starting its ascent. Meaning I slept from yesterday into this morning.

I try to cheer up, but his attitude has just cast a cloud on my mood. What was with that princess comment anyway? And what's he still miffed about after eight good years?

I grab some cereal and practically gulp the whole thing, drinking the milk like a traveller in the Sahara. Still ravenous, I find the fixings for a beef sandwich and scarf that down too.

In a better mood, I trek back up the stretch of stairs, admiring the beautiful decor. The living area is open space with large windows and high wood ceilings, furnished with artful, opulent pieces that must have adorned for years and years in time.

I walk with rapt attention through the hallway, careful so if he's somewhere around here I can successfully avoid him.

Weary from the short walk, I find myself dozing off again when I lay in bed.

My nap doesn't last long when I'm woken with a start at a knocking on my door.

Bea pokes her head in through my door, fresh faced and all smiles. "Hey. We missed you at dinner last night."

I sit up in the plush bed as she walks in. The sun's fully shining now through the thin curtains, making the white decor room even brighter.

"I didn't know if I should wake you," she says as she comes to sit in the bed next to me. Her eyes, hazel and always holding the colour of curiosity roam the room.

"It's alright. I ate something of an early breakfast. Is everything okay?"

She smiles but it drops as she takes with my ring finger, a nervous tick she'd always had. Instead of sucking on her thumb, she'd grown up fiddling with those of her closest ones.