Chapter 12

"Hey Mrs. James." I said happily as she opened the front door for me.

"Scarlett! Hi!" She smiled, letting me inside. "Are you here to see OJ?"

"Yea, my dad dropped me off here, Oliver and I are supposed to spend the day together." I shrugged. "If that's okay with you..."

"Oh yea absolutely. Sundays are always pretty chill around here. Uh, it's a little bit early for OJ so I think he's still sleeping, but you can head on up if you'd like." Mrs. James smiled.

"Great, thanks." I told her, heading towards the stairs.

Humming softly to myself, I skipped down the hall towards Oliver's room.

"Good morning sleepy head." I grinned, pushing open the door.

A frown crossed my face when I noticed that he wasn't even there...

The bed covers were pushed back and the sheets wrinkled as if he'd just been there, but the room was empty.

I sighed, walking over to the bed anyways.

I kicked off my shoes and sat down, pulling out my phone to go on Twitter.

It was about two minutes until Oliver walked back into his room.

He stopped dead when he saw me, rubbing his messy hair while he squinted at me.

"Scarlett?" He asked sleepily, shutting the door behind him.

"Morning!" I laughed, giving him a smile. "Where were you?"

"Bathroom, why are you here?" Oliver asked, his voice thick with sleep as he laid down next to me.

"Because I had nothing better to do." I teased, my heart fluttering as Oliver rested his head on my stomach, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"I missed you." He said softly, closing his eyes.

"I was gone for like a day." I laughed, patting the top of his head.

"It was your birthday." Oliver said quietly.

"Well then you can make it up to me today." I grinned, fondly looking down at him.

"For now just let me sleep." Oliver whispered, snuggling closer to me.

I laughed, resting my phone on the bed next to me as I scrolled through Twitter.

But when I got bored with that, I headed to Instagram.

I surprisingly hadn't been on since before the ball, and wondered what my friends had posted about the occasion.

The first post that I saw was one that Jessica posted, it was a transformation Tuesday sort of thing, even though it was Sunday. The top picture was of us at about two or three, laughter lighting up our faces. There was a little tiara on top of my head, and the two of us were dressed in fancy dresses, no doubt at an event at the castle. We were absolutely adorable. And the bottom picture was from last night, a candid picture of the moment that Jessica walked into the ballroom to the line of my family greeting guests.

We were both laughing, both of us looking absolutely magnificent in the elaborate dresses.

The caption was the best.

To the best friend I could ever ask for, happy 18th birthday. I know your life has been anything but normal, but you're probably one of the strongest people I've ever known. I could bore everyone with a super long, cheesy post about how much I love you, but you know how much I love you and I don't need to say it again. Happy 18th Scarlett!

I sighed, continuing to scroll through the posts.

Jessica had posted another picture of herself from the event last night.

The twins, Allison and Alexander, had posted pictures from the ball as well. I hadn't gotten a chance to see them much, but by the looks of it, they were having fun.

Then I came across a post that made my heart swell.

My grandma 'has' an Instagram, but it's really run by people in the castle for the people of Castello to feel like they have an inside to the royal family.

The account had posted a picture of me standing with my grandma last night, at the height of the ball.

Both of us looked healthy and thriving, relishing in the attention we were getting by the kingdom.

The caption was a boring 'happy birthday' to me and everything.

"OJ? You up?" Someone asked, walking into the room.

I looked up to see Parker standing there, looking tired as hell.

"Oh." He mumbled. "Sorry."

"What are you doing here?" I asked quietly, putting my phone away.

"Uh, um, what are you doing here?" Parker frowned.

"We were gonna hang out but he's still sleeping." I shrugged.

Parker just nodded, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"How was your family thing?" I asked curiously, desperate to get out of the awkward silence.

"Oh uh, I was sick this weekend so my mom went without me." Parker shrugged. "I don't really care, I mean I don't know my family at all and they're all rich and posh and shit like that."

"That sucks." I said with a shrug.

"Yea uh, how was your family thing?" Parker asked curiously.

"It was fine." I shrugged. "Just uh, lots of family that I didn't really know." I lied.

Well not completely a lie, there were people that I didn't know, but it wasn't my family. It was mostly high, aristocratic families with lots of money.

"Parker what are you doing here?" Oliver sighed, sitting up.

"My mom wanted to know if you wanted to come over for lunch, she said she hadn't seen you in ages." Parker shrugged.

"I'm busy today." Oliver replied, getting up from the bed. "But tell her I'll be around soon."

Parker just nodded. "Right well then I'll be going now." He mumbled, turning to walk out of the room.

Oliver shrugged, shutting the door behind him before turning to me.

"Alright. I'm going to go shower and get dressed and then we are going to go out." He said happily.

"Alright." I nodded.

"Today is going to be the best day after your birthday you've ever had." Oliver winked, walking towards his dresser.

~*~*~

"Why do you keep checking your phone?" Oliver sighed, taking a sip of his milkshake.

"Sorry, sorry." I mumbled. "Jessica keeps calling me."

"Your friend from your old home?" Oliver asked curiously.

"Yea. She's probably just talking about this weekend or whatever." I shrugged, sticking my phone in my pocket.

"So did you have fun today?" He asked, his foot brushing against mine underneath the table.

"I most definitely did." I smiled, looking down at my ice cream. "Thank you."

"Two more weekends until homecoming." Oliver grinned, resting his elbows on the table.

"Exciting." I said happily, looking up at him.

"Can't wait." He winked.

I gasped. "I need to get a dress! Oh my Gosh!" I laughed. "I didn't realize how soon it was!"

Oliver laughed, shaking his head.

"You're adorable."

"Why thank you." I laughed, leaning forwards to press a kiss to his lips.

"Oliver?" A familiar voice asked behind me.

"Mrs. Jones! Hey!" Oliver grinned, giving someone a wave.

"You haven't been around for dinner in ages, you haven't forgotten about us have you?" The woman asked as she approached our table.

"Mom don't embarrass him, that's his girlfriend, I told you he was with her today." Parker laughed, walking up behind the woman.

I looked up, my eyes widening when I saw who was standing in front of me.

Instantly I saw the resemblance between Parker and my Aunt Clara.

Everything suddenly seemed to fall into place.

"Scarlett?" Aunt Clara asked in shock. "Darling hi!'

"Wh-what are you doing here?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"How do you know Scarlett?" Parker frowned, giving his mom a weird look.

Aunt Clara frowned at her son.

"That's Delilah's daughter, honey." Aunt Clara said.

My stomach clenched at the mention of my mom.

Parker's eyes widened in shock.

"I knew you looked familiar! Holy shit!" Parker exclaimed.

"Hush, that's no way to speak to a lady." Aunt Clara said harshly, snapping her fingers.

"Hold on, how do you two know each other?" Oliver frowned, glancing between Aunt Clara and I.

"This is my Aunt Clara. Her sister is my mother." I explained, feeling sick to my stomach.

"You're cousins with my best friend?" Oliver raised his eyebrows with a laugh.

"Guess so." I shrugged, my eyes meeting Parker's.

He was watching me carefully.

"Parker couldn't make it this weekend because he was sick, but we definitely need to take a family trip out there soon before my mother passes away." Aunt Clara said, turning to look at Parker. "But did you two honestly not know that you were related?" She asked with a laugh.

Parker and I both shook our heads.

"Wow, Henry and I both assumed you knew each other but just didn't care to interact." Aunt Clara laughed. "Well anyways, Scarlett it was lovely to see you again, you looked absolutely stunning this weekend but I didn't get a chance to see you after the ball. You and your father need to come over for dinner soon so we can catch up. Oliver, you too, it's been too long."

"Bye Mrs. Jones." Oliver smiled as they started walking away.

"Bye!" I said happily before turning to Oliver.

I instantly started a conversation about our English homework to keep away any questions that I would struggle to answer.