princess ›› ryan ross

prologue

"Promise we'll be friends forever?"

"I promise, Spencey."

Yup, that's the first promise I ever made.

I was committed to keeping it, never wanting to let our young, three-year-old friendship end.

Spencer James Smith. My first neighbor, first friend, and first crush.

It was cute, the way his cheeks would turn pink when I would call him "Spencey." I did it on purpose for the sole purpose of seeing him happy and bubbly.

We've always known each other. Our mothers have been long-time friends, whatever they did together, so did we. Hell, we were born in the same hospital. Three months apart as a matter of fact.

But oh, no. That promise didn't last long.

It was a nice, sunny Monday. Labor Day, to be exact. I was over at Spencer's house while our moms had coffee together in the kitchen.

Us, being dumb five-year-olds at the time, decided it would be fun if we played golf outside.

Sounds harmless, right?

Haha, no.

Spencer thought that instead of the hole being in the ground (like it's supposed to), he thought it would be cool if we tried to "hit the clouds."

Just saying, it wasn't cool.

While we were playing that, we crossed upon bad luck.

Aka, a black cat.
Aka, Ryan Ross.

He was six, just a year older than us. When suddenly his horrible, nosy self decided to butt in to our little game.

"What are you doing?" the boy snobbishly asked, looking at us as we launched the golf balls across the neighborhood.

"We're playing a game. Go away." I said to him.

"A game? This is a dumb game." He laughed as he picked up a golf ball that didn't make it very far.

"Stop being so mean!" Spencer sniffled.

"Fine. But If I make the ball go far, can I play with you guys?"

"Wait. You just said our game was dumb." I twitched.

"Yeah.. but okay." Spencer passed him a green golf club, and passed it to the boy.

"Watch me!" he said as he flung the club, and away flew the ball.

Spencer and I watched in shock, the golf ball looked like a mere fly to us now. We turned to each other with shocked looks on our faces.

"Wanna be friends?" Spencer immediately ran up to the boy, and hugged him.

There I stood, pathetic and forgotten.

Little did I know that from this day forward, me and Spencer's friendship wouldn't be the same.

Days, months, years passed since the last time I played with Spencer, and Spencer only.

Everywhere we went, Ryan joined along too.

I never knew his mom, or his dad as a matter of fact, but he and his family just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Until one day.

The day I was finally involved in a game.

No more Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it was a Princess game.

Monster, Princess, whatever you wanna call it, I loved it.

This day was the day my life changed, the day I finally felt involved.

"I'm the monster!" shouted ten year old Ryan to Spencer from the top of my treehouse.

"Noo.. I wanted to be the monster!" whined Spencer as he climbed up the rope to be with Ryan.

"Too bad, you're the prince." demanded Ryan.

"Guys! Stop fighting!" I yelled from the porch, not even knowing what the fuss is about.

"Wait a minute, Kaitlyn, do you wanna play with us?" asked Spencer. Those words were something I never thought I would hear again.

Nine year old me jolted up from my chair, and looked up at them as I nodded my head.

"Yeah!" I screamed.

I quickly climbed up the rope, and caught up to the boys.

"We're playing a game where the prince has to run away from a monster." said Ryan.

"Why is he running from the monster? Where's he even going?" I butted in.

Ryan and Spencer's facial expressions changed immediately, as they realized that they missed a key component to the game.

"Oh.. you're right," Ryan said.

There was a long pause of just silence as the three of us tried to figure out what we were going to do.

"I have an idea! We can have a princess!" Spencer smiled.

"Let's make Kaitlyn the princess!" Ryan pointed at me.

"Yay!" I squealed. I finally felt like I belonged, after years of watching my best friend since day one leave me for some bozo.

"Okay. But who's the pri-"

"Me!" Ryan interrupted me with a big smile on his face.

"Alright. I'm gonna chase you and Kate, and you have to save her!" smiled Spencer.

"Okay, give a ten second head start!" I commanded to the monster.

"Fine. 10.. 9.." Spencer counted down.

Ryan and I hopped down from the treehouse, and ran to hide behind a bush.

"We're safe here, Ryan. He's not gonna find us."

"I know, princess." he looked into my eyes and gave me a heartfelt smile. Butterflies scrambled through my stomach like mad, my brain not knowing why.

And from the moment I felt that first butterfly, I knew I was fucked.

dedicated to spnphangirl