Unexpected

26 | The Deal

Dedicated to PinkReader01 because The Five Deadly Brothers is awesome! Still starting out but AWESOMESAUCE OH GOD. Anyone wanna ship me and Reece?

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"Hey," someone whispered from beside me but my head hurt too much to speak. "Winter, open your eyes."

"What do you want?" I grumbled as I opened my eyes to see Cassie beside me.

"You look like shit. I need you to go and have a bath," she said.

"Wow, thanks," I said as I glared at her.

"Tough love," she said. "You need to toughen up, girl. How are you going to forget about him if you don't?"

"Well, how am I going to forget about him if I love him and you keep reminding him to me?" I replied angrily as I stood up from the bed to walk to the bathroom. "Shit, this hurts."

I looked down at my bandaged feet and realized that walking would be hard for the next couple of days.

"You know, if you hadn't drank last night then that would not have happened. It's completely your fault," Cassie said as she painted her nails with the new nail polish that was on my bedside table.

"I know, I know," I said and rolled my eyes. "Is that a great color?"

"Yes it is," she said as she showed me her nails. "Aren't they lovely?"

"Yeah they are. Considering that I haven't used that nail polish yet," I said as I continued wobbling towards the bathroom.

"Oh come on, don't be such a grump," she said with a chuckle.

"Alright, whatever," I replied and entered the bathroom. I ran a bath and relaxed a bit, not wanting to think about Nate.

* * *

When I got out of the bathroom, Cassie was flipping through a newspaper with her eyebrows furrowed.

"I didn't know you read the paper," I commented as I dried my hair with a towel.

"No, I just read the paper when my best friend's in it," she said as she pretended to lick her finger and turn the page.

"Let me see," I said as I jumped on the bed, careful not to put too much pressure on my feet.

I grabbed the paper from her hands, much to her annoyance, and saw me and Nate plastered on the page. I was hugging him and although the picture was a bit blurred, it can be seen that I was crying. Another photo showed me looking down and holding Nate's arm as he tried to get it off. The words "Royal Breakup!!!" were in bold letter on the page as well.

"I didn't know that you ran to the airport before he left," Cassie said.

"Yeah, tried to stop him," I scoffed. "It worked marvelously!"

"Let me give you a hug," she said. "You need lots of them."

"Thanks," I said as I felt the urge to cry again but blinked it away just in time.

"Plus you're Mom dropped by when you were in the bath. She said go see her," she said. "So you definitely need a hug."

"Oh god," I groaned and released her from the hug. "Here we go."

I wobbled towards my mother's study and saw her sitting, reading a magazine.

"Mother," I said.

"Winter, come sit beside me," she said.

"Alright," I said awkwardly as I sat beside her.

She closed her magazine and looked at me.

"I saw what happened on the news today," she said. "They managed to get a few shots of you at the airport. It was also on the paper."

I looked down at my hands and said, "I'm sorry. It's another public disaster isn't it?"

Much to my surprise, my mother cupped my chin and made me look at her.

"Don't be sorry, Isabella," she said with a smile. "I... I should be the one who's sorry. I've been nothing but strict to you when I should have guided you all these years. I just... I think I've always grieved for the loss of your sister that I did not want my other daughter to leave. So I made sure you would always be perfect--having the right posture of a princess, knowing authority, and all the stuff I have made you do--without realizing that you already are perfect."

She had tears in her eyes and I was beyond awed of her confession. She hugged me tightly and sobbed on my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. Now, the boy you love has gone to Australia because I wanted to get you both engaged early," she said and released me from her hug. "I'm sorry."

"How do you know that I love him?" I asked.

"As cheesy as it may sound, I can see it in your eyes," she said with a smile. "You loved the boy and you were absolutely distraught about him being gone."

I smiled sadly at her.

"It's not your fault, Mom," I said. "To be honest, I think it would still have failed because we're both too young to understand everything. It was bound to happen at some point."

She hugged me again and said, "It's not a bad thing to love someone, Darling. I guess you just have to have the right person and the right time."

"He said he didn't love me," I said, my voice cracking.

"Shhh," she said. "Don't... don't think about it anymore, my brave girl."

At that moment, I knew that this was what I needed. My mom. I sobbed on her shoulders and she whispered comforting words to me as I did. After that, I told her good night and headed back to my room.

Cassie was still there. Still watching a film.

"Hey," she said as I entered.

I sat down next to her and grabbed some of her cookies.

"Come with me tomorrow?" I asked her as I munched on the deliciously good cookie.

"Where to?" she asked, not even looking away from the telly.

"I'm getting my old hair color back," I said.

That certainly caught her attention as she looked at me with wide eyes.

"I'm going to embrace this princess title," I said to her with a grin.

At first she looked at me with a blank expression on her face and the next, she was laughing her butt off.

"Yeah, sure," she mocked. "I bet you'll only last a week."

"I bet you 10 pounds I'll last forever," I said with a smirk.

"Deal," she said.

"Deal."

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HEYOOOOO. Hope you likey because me likey (whut).

CHRISTMAS IS SO CLOOOOOOSE!!!!

-Alex