r e d

32. Tesseract

ASTORIA

I woke up to a weight on my chest and stomach. Looking down, I find a certain, dark haired witch quietly snoring, face against my stomach, arms around my waist. If it wasn't for the red rose, plucked out from the field before running back to the castle, placed on my nightstand, I would have thought the whole thing had been a dream. It felt like a dream too good to be true.

I pretty much knocked out as soon as I hit the bed. All I remembered was Zander telling me that his love potion finally worked on me and he has me right where he wants, followed by a terrible, evil laughter. The memory forced a laugh out of me, causing the witch to stir and bury his face on my stomach.

"Zander." I ruffled his hair to wake him up. "I really need to go to the bathroom. Wake up if you don't want me to push you off the bed." He just shifted and nuzzled his face on my neck instead. "Wake up, Prince Idiot."

"No." He groaned, attempting to cover my mouth but ended up accidentally slapping my cheek.

"I need to pee."

He yawned. "Cool."

I'm sure it's late in the morning and we will miss breakfast if we do not wake up soon.

"Zander, I have to go."

"No. No no no no. My prisoner." He mumbled with a tired voice, tightening his arms around me. "Mine."

I smiled and pinched his cheeks, ignoring my stomach full of butterflies. Those annoying little shits. "I'm telling everyone you're the little spoon in cuddling."

His eyes snapped open, squinting them at me. "I do not cuddle." He frowned. "And I most certainly am not a little spoon. Whatever that is. It sounds insulting. I'm not a little spoon. Or a big spoon. I am a knife. I am a fire breathing, sharp, edgy knife that can - "

"You're a little spoon who loves cuddling."

"Do not."

"So, what are you doing right now?"

"Not cuddling." He scoffs, releasing me instantly, almost pushing me off my bed.

I then stood up and patted his cheeks lightly. "Thank you. And good morning. I'm going to take a shower. I'll see you at breakfast."

***

I take such quick showers, my whole family always thought I never took decent showers when in reality, they all took unnecessary long showers. Celeste takes at least two hours, which is why when she barely started going out with her wife, she would always be late for their date. It's because she has an entire concert, pretending to be Janelle Monae in the shower. Oh how I miss teasing my sister and embarrassing her in front of her wife. But then she does it to me too. I bet when she meets Zander, I will be crying in my room forever. But will I be crying because of what my sister will be saying, or what Zander will be telling her? Please, please, let them meet. I don't care if I have to suffer.

When I arrived at the dining hall, there aren't too many people left. Orion already finished his breakfast, though he is taking his time drinking his coffee just to keep Zander company, halfway through his meal. I found the two boys talking to each other when I entered. As I sat down across the two of them, I noticed the differences with their expression. Orion has a brow raised while Zander is smirking.

"What."

"Orion said I should have kissed your back. That means we kissed the wrong way. That means we have to redo our first kiss. For the third time." We have to make out but with our backs."