Page 4 of My Best Friend Prince Charming

2

Shannon

“We’re having mac and cheese again tonight,” I told my sixteen-year-old sister, Maddie.

“Oh joy,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, if you don’t like it, you can make dinner,” I said, pointing at her with a wooden spoon.

Maddie had her nose buried in a library book—one of those werewolf love stories. It was her fourth one this week. I had no idea how she had time for all that reading and her homework too. I’d spent every moment since coming home from school working on my assignments. I’d only taken a break to make some dinner. As soon as I finished eating, I’d be right back in my room, knocking out the rest of my assignments.

Mom worked evenings this week, so it fell to me to make dinner. Maddie was perfectly capable of doing it, but if I left it to her, I’d end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because she wouldn’t remember to cook anything until nine p.m. So I usually did the cooking when Mom was working.

We rarely saw our dad anymore. He cheated on Mom when I was in third grade. That was when we moved into this house. We’d struggled to make ends meet. It was tough, but with my money from Toppings, the ice cream parlor in town, we were able to make it.

I met Ryker when we moved into the 1950s home we lived in now. He’d been playing outside, building a fort in his backyard next to the mature oak tree that shaded his backyard. I asked him if I could help, and the rest was history. We ended up turning the fort into our clubhouse. We had official meetings and everything.

Then his mom left when we were ten, and we grew even closer. I understood what it was like to have divorced parents. I used to joke that our parents should get together, but Ryker didn’t seem to like that, so I dropped it.

After dinner, I went to my room. I tackled the rest of my homework and then checked on the fan fiction. After writing for about ten minutes, I had a brilliant idea pop into my head for what I could do for Ryker’s birthday. It was coming up in just a few days. I pulled out my sketch pad and began the outline of the original character Ryker had created for the fan fiction. For the next hour, I focused on the drawing, putting meticulous detail and emotion into the character’s face.

A knock sounded on my bedroom door. Before I could answer, it opened a crack, and Austin looked in.

“What’s the point of knocking if you’re just going to barge in anyway?” I asked, tucking the drawing under a stack of papers on my desk.

“Hey, you,” he said, smiling because he knew he could get away with anything when it came to me. I was putty in his hands.

“I could have been naked,” I said.

“And your point is?” he said, coming up to me and burying his face into my hair.

I twisted around in my desk chair and smacked him. “That’s not funny.” I frowned. Austin knew I wasn’t interested in taking our relationship that far.

That didn’t stop him from constantly bringing it up. It was like he thought if he joked about it enough, I’d just wake up one morning and decide I wanted to push my boundaries too far with him.

“You’re not even supposed to be over here when my mom’s not home.”

He kissed my ear, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “I thought she was supposed to be home soon.”

I wriggled out of his embrace and pushed up from my desk.

He slid into my desk chair. “What are you writing?” He studied the screen. “Is this that Katana Warrior fan fiction you’re writing with Ryker? I thought you guys had moved on to your own ideas instead of stealing someone else's story world.”

Austin’s words stabbed into my heart like a dagger. I snapped my laptop shut. “It’s private.” I never let Austin read my stuff. Not since he made fun of it when I shared it with him once. He said he was just joking around and that I couldn’t take a joke, but mocking my writing was taking it too far. I’d wanted to be a published author for as long as I could remember. But Austin never seemed to see it as an achievable goal. His words had hurt because I was too scared to branch out on my own with an original story, and he seemed to think writing was just some dumb waste of my time.

“What do you want, Austin?” I really just wanted to get back to my story. Ryker and I were at the good part.

He stood up and turned around to face me. He took a hand and tucked my hair over my shoulder and caressed my cheek. “You’re my girlfriend. I came to see you. Is that too much to ask?”

I blew out a puff of air. My mom would probably scold me if she saw the way I was treating Austin. “I’m sorry, I know I’m being rude. I was just caught up in my story.”

Austin wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. I let him kiss me, but my heart wasn’t in it. I kept thinking about the big plot twist I’d been planning with Ryker over burgers and shakes last night.

My door exploded open. “I know how to fix the plot hole! We just need to have our characters kiss before they talk it out.” I turned away from Austin to see Ryker standing in my doorway.

I grinned. “That’s genius. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Surprise crossed Ryker’s features when he saw Austin standing close to me with his arms still around my waist. “Am I interrupting something?” Ryker asked.

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