Days passed as Nik and I grew closer and there was an obvious attraction from both of us.

But one morning I couldn't find him, or Kelly. But I ended up running into someone familiar.

"Amy, right?" he asked with slight recollection. Kevin Hodge was varsity first-string football and basketball. I've had a slight crush on him since second grade...

"Y-yeah," I answered. My eyes trailed from his dusty hair down to his body. His perfectly chiseled body was carrying a pair of crutches and his left knee had a brace on it.

"Oh my god, what happened?" I asked, concerned.

"Nothing major; I just tore something," he answered. "I'll be in the trainer's for a couple weeks."

Major was a different word compared between us, then. He gave me a look before walking off, but I knew that I'd see him later in the office...well that was until I had to deal with a different jock recovering from an ACL tear. Worse to me because he tried hitting on me each moment he could.

"How about when I recover, we go out on a date? My treat..." he offered. I gave him a look.

"Don't you know, she's involved with Tyree," I heard Kevin say. I turned to him.

"Who told you that?" I asked, freaking out.

"It's all over the school—probably the entire land. I mean he basically dumped Candace for you and—"

"I am certainly not going out with Nikolai Tyree," I denied.

"Prove it," the ACL guy said. "Go out with me."

"No. She needs to go out with a real man to prove it," Kevin said. "Like me...would you like to go out on a date with me tomorrow?"

It was like music to my ears. I wanted to jump up and down yelling "YES! YES! YES!", but I composed myself into a simple: "Sure."

He flashed his signature award winning smile and then left when the bell rang. First Prince Nik, and now Kevin Hodge—oh no.

Nik's POV

"This is insane," I roared, listening to Emmett and looking at the computer screen.

I looked as some jerk changed to "in a relationship" and his friend, Kevin Hodge decided to comment by saying "Good job, bro. you got yours and hopefully I'll get mine." Who? The assh0le asked. "Amy St. Claire is my date for tomorrow."

The f*ck!?

"Hmm...has Kelly been around you and Amy the past couple of days?" Emmett asked, calmly.

"I don't know? She hasn't even been in school and who cares?! I have to deal with this guy stealing my girl—" I shouted.

"Stop being a selfish assh0le," he said in a regular tone. "Did you just say Kelly hasn't been at school, at all?"

"I guess?!"

"F*ck," he commented before getting up from his bed and looking around for his phone.

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned now. He pointed up at the ceiling which was lined with parts of our separate prophecies.

"Your love shall fall in deep sleep

If not woken in time, your heart will be broken in a piece

Her in an embrace is what you envision,

But WHEN is not your decision"

It's not like he could go right now and break the curse considering it was nearly sunset, but it's not like he can hesitate with the timing because maybe his time could be up before then and there's two lives at sake. I watched as the blue petal fell from the plant—unusual because it was norm for the white petals to fall...

I instantly saw Emmett grabbing his head and thrashing wildly.

The spell was taking its place at its end.

He was just lucky that Kelly was, in fact, at work study and not stuck in an eternal sleep.

***

Do you know how hard it is to see the girl you like, hanging on the guy who talked sh!t about you the first week you attended their school? IT F*CKING SUCKED.

Amy and Kevin were strong for nearly three weeks. It only made me weaker and weaker on the inside, but my rage grew and grew.

"Come on, Tyree!" Kevin's voice said on the basketball court. Oh right. Mr. Team Captain feels as if he can order me around now that he was off his injury...

Just as I took my layup, slamming into Kevin who was on defense, he fell to the floor, grabbing his leg. I scoffed.

"Tyree, pick him up and take him to the trainer's," coach ordered. Trainer's? AMY.

I threw his arm around my shoulder and helped him to the trainer's.

"You boys are so aggressive," Ms. Peterson commented as she iced Kevin's leg. I waited impatiently since Amy wasn't here...but she was here this morning...and lunch...and in class after that.

"Okay. He said he forgot it at home," an out-of-breath Amy informed to Ms. Peterson when she returned to the office with a plastic inhaler. She just nodded and then Amy looked to the patient in the chair.

"What the heck? What happened?!" Amy asked Kevin.

"I may be to blame..." I said, awkwardly. She looked at me and then gave me a look.

"You're lucky I can't be mad at you," she pouted with her arms crossed. I gave her a look. "Because you have my necklace, remember?"

"Oh right," I recalled. "I believe I should have it by tonight." I lied. I had it for over a week, now, but I just wanted her to reach out to me to get it back, or maybe having it was an insurance policy that I'd have some connection with her.

"Do you want me to come over and get it?" she offered.

"No," I answered immediately. She was taken back.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, and I don't know for sure if I'll have it, so it would be a waste—"

"I could bring some of our work from class to work on...?"

"No it's fine," I said. I hated having to deny her so much. "I'll just bring it to you at school."

"Oh okay," she said cheerfully and carried on with her pleasant conversation with her stud of a boyfriend until the bell rang and we had to get back to practice—injured or not.

"Tyree," Kevin addressed. I looked to him as he walked at a slower pace. "Are you and Amy close friends?"

"I guess?"

He gave me a look, I thought to be anger, but then looked as if it was nonchalant.

"Do you like her?" he asked. Uh...awkward.

"I don't think that matters, but no, I don't think so," I lied. Why did I lie? Not to spare his feelings because it was his girlfriend, but maybe because Amy was happy with him without complications of a side crush? "Why?"

"No reason," he answered. "I've just known her since elementary and it's quite obvious that she and you have recently met...that's all."

"Alright."

Why did I think he had a bit of suspicion?

Amy's POV

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Kevin asked me, angrily.

"No?" I answered. What was this about?

"Then why would you flirt with Tyree right in front of me?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, shifting in the car seat to face him.

"In the trainer's. I saw how you were so desperately offering to go to his house tonight," Kevin clarified.

"To go get my Mom's necklace," I informed.

"Sure. Right. And you'd still stay if he didn't receive it—for whatever reason he had it in the first place!"

"I'm sorry that the only memory of my mom was broken by my evil step sisters and worn by the head bitch. It was his decision to yank it off Candace's neck and send it to the shop to fix the chain itself and not just buy a new one—or make me buy a new one—because he knew the importance of it!"

"Don't yell at me!" Kevin responded and then smacked me hard enough to where it'd leave a mark, for sure. I rubbed the inside of my cheek and looked away from him. "Amy—I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

"It doesn't matter," I interrupted. He hurt me. I was done.

"I...I'm sorry, Amy," he apologized. "I went through abuse from my dad for half my life...it just slipped, I promise. I won't ever do it again."

"How do I know you won't?" I asked.

"Because I just won't," he reasoned. I gave it some thought before he became his gentleman self again to open my door and escort me into my own home. The only thing strange was that I was silently greeted by Candace, Lydia, Leticia.

What the hell was going on?

Nik's POV

For some reason, I was in a good mood on Friday. That was, until Candace approached me in the parking lot before school.

"What do you want?" I asked her.

"You," she pouted, attempting to reach up and kiss me, but I pulled away. Her face turned sour. "If you're acting this way because of stupid Amy—"

"She's not stupid and it's not because of her," I lied about the last part for obvious reasons. Candace didn't buy it.

"You really think you could ever be with that commoner? Think of your title. Think of your reputation—think of what your father may say—"

"My father's quite alright with it in actuality," I informed. "He knew her parents and he believes they were very respectable people."

"It doesn't matter what her parents were," Candace hissed. "But you know that it's not possible."

"Wanna bet?" I asked, walking around her.

"I have proof," she said. I kept walking at her bluff until I heard a recording of Amy's voice saying: "I'll never be with Prince Nikolai. I don't like him and I don't believe I ever will."

I stopped walking with my back still turned to her and then I felt her behind me.

"Might as well look at what you do have," she said, hinting about herself. She kept walking and I just stood there.

There's no way Amy said that. We'd connected so well and she can't possibly be wrapped up in Kevin this much that she'd say ever. But I noticed that her voice was shaky. No. I wouldn't trust this source—after all it came from Candace, of all people. I made it my priority to find Amy first.

"Where's Amy?" I asked Kelly, who was talking—flirting—with Emmett at the moment.

"At home?" she answered.

"Why?" I asked, confused. She shrugged. Emmett sent a look to my eyes, but I didn't care. I needed to talk to Amy. I texted and called her with no response before I actually started to worry. I couldn't even talk to Kevin because he wasn't here either and they better not be skipping together.

***

"Amy?" I asked at their front door at lunch. "Amy? Open up!"

I looked around, impatiently and then found a middle-aged woman standing behind me, off the porch. I didn't want to admit she looked familiar, but I didn't have much time to desire to find out from where.

"If you're looking for the girl that lives here, she's down the street," she informed.

"Not just the girl; Amy. Do you know which one that is?" I questioned. She nodded. And then, slowly, pointed her bony finger to her right, down the street.

"She is at the boy, Blue's, around the alley or, the house across the field, is his," she informed.

"Thank you," I said, rushing off the porch and to my car. I went the half mile down the street and corner to find the same house described by my father and his servicemen about a crook who resides here. When I got out of my car, I went to the front door, nearly standing front door, and knocked lightly. There was no answer. I circled around the back and looked through a small window to see Amy sitting on the kitchen counter and a thin boy putting something on her face with a small cloth. I knocked on the door. I noticed that they stopped talking and stayed quiet.

"Open up," I pleaded, with a bit of an accent. "By the order of the royalty, this door is to be opened at once—"

"How may I be of service?" a thin, brunette haired boy asked without so much as a bow of his head. I assumed he was Blue.

"I come in search for Amy St. Claire," I said confidently.

"And what if I can't produce you with a Miss Amy St. Claire?" the boy teased.

"Then I'll throw you in jail for lying to the court," I answered with no promise whatsoever. He gulped and looked behind him. He turned back to me and then stepped out and closed the door.

"If I were you, I'd leave," he whispered. "She's going through a lot right now and...it'd be best if you go."

"Why?"

"Because she doesn't want to see you," he answered. Normally, I'd size him up and step up threateningly, but in the time of Amy and Kevin getting together, I thought that it was my consequence for being a royal assh0le—which is partially why I was cursed in the first place.

"Let her tell me that," I was quietly.

Moments after bickering, I just gained enough courage to push past him to go into the house and see Amy. When I did, I froze.

She had a big red spot on her left cheek, cuts on her face, a slight busted lip, and who knows what else.

"Nik," she gasped, not expecting to see me. I strode over to her.

"Who did this to you?" I asked, nearly wanting to grab her by the waist and hug her.

"No one," she lied. "Don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry about it?" I asked, rubbing my thumb over her bruise over her left cheek that she was trying to cover with her long slither-cut hair. She winced at the touch. And then it hit me. "It was Kevin wasn't it?"

"Nik, stop," she pleaded.

"—or was it your sisters? Or Candace?"

"Nik, it doesn't matter so just shut up!" she yelled. I snapped my head to her, appalled that she'd take that tone with a royal, and she winced...as if I'd hit her...and that one moment of fear was painful to me more than she could've anticipated for herself.

So I calmed down and took her into a hug instead, where she clung onto me as well.

"Tell me who did it," I whispered into her hair.

"It doesn't matter—"

"It matters to me," I said, looking down at her with softness. She backed away from me.

"Why does it matter?" she asked. "You're a royal, I'm not. I can take it, you may not. We're different. I don't know why the hell you care about me enough to stalk my best friend's house to find me—it's not like you like me right? How could you? I mean you've been involved with bitchy Candace for your entire life and no girl that you meet at school, or a ball, or anywhere will change that."

Not only did I notice her seemingly defense—and slight uprising—from Candace, but I noticed that she mentioned the ball. Was she the girl from the ball? She had the same hair color. Relatively the same voice...

But she could never been allowed to go. She could never afford that expensive dress—Her sisters, maybe, but not her. Not to mention the expensive shoes.

"Just...go," she said.

Although I was of higher class, maturity, and reason, I backed off and left. I couldn't tell her that I liked her. I couldn't deny anything with Candace. Although, I was confident she had some sort of liking to me—even with Kevin—apparently I was wrong about all that. Unless, of course, that was the whole reason why she was beat up in the first place.

p