Above All

-Twenty-

Asking of a wish

Entertained beyond this world

Branches sprout freely

Layton:

I had no idea why Amani and Éliane thought bringing one of the butlers to the bowling outing was the right move; it honestly annoyed me. I'd see him around, but we rarely interacted with each other. Everything about his demeanor screamed that he wasn't fond of being around me... or my brother when in the palace; like he had some sort of stick up his ass.

Fuck him.

Regardless, I was excited to bowl. I don't remember the last time I did something like this; I was definitely envious of Amani and her friends and how adventurous they were with their late-night events, whereas my "friends" tended to default to parties as their form of entertainment. I wondered to myself how I never grew tired of doing the same thing when it seemed like this group had something new planned every week?

Is this what it was like having real friends?

I never got the opportunity to deem anyone worthy of that status; the closest person to me I could think of was my twin and my late grandfather from my mother's side. I loved that man so much, it tore me when he died when I was about fourteen years of age. I knew I was pretty dismissive when Amani told me that I had to find my "tribe" but in hindsight, my grandfather had said the same thing to me before he left, but it had been extremely more difficult the older I got, I ended up giving up.

I was jealous but I would never admit that to Éliane or Amani, it was embarrassing.

My finger subconsciously twirled around the ring encapsulated in the golden chain necklace that I always wore on me; I never took that damn thing off so much it had become a part of me, sometimes I even forgot it was on me until someone would point it out.

It was the only thing of my grandfather I had left.

"What too you guys so long! I almost froze my ass out there until Johnny suggested we wait outside!" Rose grimaced as she watched all of us walk into the bowling center.

Amani instantly pointed her perfectly manicured fingers in my direction. "It was all him! He decided he wanted to show up." She said blaming everything on me. I turned and gave her an outraged look, "Is it a crime to want to go out and enjoy myself now?" I asked her.

She rolled her eyes not even bothering to answer the question.

Rose cocked her head to the side, "You should have just texted if you wanted the updates to all out social outings." She said to me in a soft-tone.

This time Amani looked dumbfounded by her best friend's comment. "Seriously! First of all, you have his number?" She questioned the both of us with wide eyes.

I nodded. "We exchanged them when we first met at the bakery." I explained.

Amani's mouth gaped in shock before turning to her friend, "Really, Rose?" She questioned to which Rose replied with a slow shrug, "Can't he have friends?" She asked her curiously.

Amani furrowed her brow and scratched the back of her head, "Well... yeah, I can't stop that." She muttered to herself. She lowered her voice as she spoke, "But you do realize he's a prince too, right." She said to her seriously.

Rose look unbothered by her comment, "Amani... I have the sons and daughters of heads of states from various countries numbers in my phones... I don't think having Prince Layton's number on my phone would be the most controversial one of them all." She sighed.