The Princess & The Thief

Chapter 14-Flying Solo

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"I won't, won't lie,"
"Last night I cried a little,"
"Now I, I'm fine,"
"Let you push me to the edge, 'bout to lose my mind..."
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Julie's POV

"Are you kidding me Julie?" Flynn's eyes gleamed with sudden accusation.

Julie recoiled slightly, the excitement of telling her about last night dying in her chest. She picked at a loose string on her gown, wishing she could sink into her bed and never had made the obvious mistake of mentioning her and Luke's adventure.

"What? I promise, nothing bad happened, and I actually really had a lot of fun. Can I not do that?"

"Obviously you're allowed to have fun, but don't blame me if I'm a little offended that some boy you saved from the streets and decided to like was the first person to get you outside of these walls in forever! I've been offering to help you all year Julie! First they get you to sing again, then you make a band with them, and now this—"

"Flynn where is this coming from?" Julie shot at her.

"I feel like I'm being replaced Jules!" She burst, regardless of who might hear outside of the bedroom doors.

Julie gawked at her. Slowly stood up. "Flynn. I could never replace you, you're my best friend."

She scoffed, "Right. Get back to me when you're done being so damn obsessed with these guys."

Julie's jaw dropped, actually dropped, as Flynn turned on her heel and left the room.

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Luke's POV

Luke grunted as Knox tackled him into the sand, scowling when the guard leaned over him with a sneer and plucked the football from his arms. He then pinned him harshly to the ground, about to say something when Luke struck him hard in the shoulder, sending him reeling away.

Standing and dusting the sand off his shorts, Luke glared. "Touch me again and I'm fucking waterboarding you."

Knox scoffed, casting a careless glance at the ocean to their right, "how 'bout I touch your little princess instead?"

Alex and Reggie were there in time to restrain Luke from brutally murdering. Every day it got worse, the rivalry between the two boys. Knox knew just what to say and do to make Luke want to kill him, and Luke let most of the little power trips slide, but god, when Knox so much as mentioned one of his friends...especially Julie...

Sometimes it scared him what he would actually be willing to do to the guy.

Knox's arched eyebrows somehow lifted even higher, an ugly smile crossing his face before one of his friends made him put distance between him and Luke. Alex and Reggie loosened their grips and Luke shook them off, stalking back over to his starting position.

Beach football, they'd soon learned, was a custom with the guards every Friday afternoon. No matter the weather, no matter how cold it was, they always played. And they always played in shorts and just shorts. Instructor Kepp told them it was to help them build thick skin. Luke called that bullshit.

He could feel Kepps, who indeed enjoyed joining in on the mayhem, watching him from his position on the other side of the sand. The instructor unsurprisingly wouldn't jump in if Luke and Knox happened to get into a fight, he never did with any of the guard scuffles, and Luke didn't know if that fact was a bad or a good thing. Only the possibility of them killing each other would get Kepps moving, otherwise he'd made it clear that his belief system involved allowing them to sort out their own problems.