Royals

Chapter 28

Thank you for the edit @Sham2002 !

"Emily! Wake. Up," Lillia screamed as she threw my warm covers at the foot of my bed.

"Headache," I hissed, throwing a pillow at her.

"It's Monday morning. We have school," she spoke in a slightly gentler tone. "Get up."

"I'm skipping." I shrugged, re-wrapping myself in my silky, cream comforter.

"You missed all of last week; you're not skipping today, too."

"Grab my homework for me?" I muffled in a slurred voice before allowing my heavy eyelids to shut for good.

When I woke up minutes later, I was shocked when the flashing numbers of my alarm clock indicated that it was already one o'clock in the afternoon.

"Better get some food in me," I grumbled to myself. I slowly sat up, allowing myself a few moments of self-loathing over my stomach ache. When my time was up, I climbed into the attic in my secret hallway.

It looked like a three-year-old came in here and trashed the place.

I cleaned up the bottles and glasses that were scattered around the floor and dropped them in my crate. Afterwards, I tidied up a few trinkets in the room and checked my phone. Apparently I had drunk-texted Brandon last night, but my message didn't made any sense, so he replied with a series of question marks.

Emily: Sorry, I didn't mean to send that last night.

Brandon: Why were you up so late? Are you okay?

Emily: I got sick in the middle of the night, no biggie.

Brandon: Feel better, babe. Let me know if I can do anything to help. Xx

I was scrolling through my other texts, when I stumbled upon Joey's message.

Joey: Are you home today, too?

Emily: I'm sick. What's your excuse?

Joey: I'm dealing with the same sickness you are. Get dressed. I'll be over in 5.

Emily: What part of sick don't you understand? I don't want to infect the public.

Joey: Hangovers aren't contagious.

Joey: Up for iHop?

Emily: ... you win this round.

Joey: ;) See you soon.

As much as I wanted to avoid Joey, I knew that I would have to face him sooner or later. I guess facing him alone would be better than having the others catch onto the awkwardness between us. Besides, I couldn't push away the pang of excitement that vibrated around my gut.

After getting dressed, I marched across the thin layer of snow topping the ground to climb into Joey's heated car. Without a word, he backed out of my driveway and headed along the all too familiar route. To avoid the awkward silence, I turned on the radio and sang along to a throwback song by Michael Jackson.

We pulled into iHop and silently made our way to a booth in the far corner. Joey appeared to be deeply analyzing the contents of the menu, despite ordering the same entree every time we come. When he finally noticed my unfaltering stare, he put his menu down and sighed.