Page 10 of Royals
“Ugh, stop!” I toss a balled-up napkin at her, and she laughs again.
But then, after a second, she rests her elbows on the table. “I’m serious, you know. Not about making out with Seb—well, I mean, I’m serious about that, too, but you really do need to look into all of this. Know what you’re getting yourself into.”
I look back to the page in front of me, chewing my lower lip. “I didn’t get myself into anything. El got us all into this, and she and Alex say nothing is going to change.”
Isabel goes quiet, and I look up from my test. She’s leaned back in her chair, her dark eyes slightly narrowed, and that means I’m about to get some serious Isabel Alonso Truthiness in my life.
“Dais,” she says, and yup, here it comes. “Why are you so resistant?”
Scooting closer to the table, she takes my wrist, shaking my arm. “Aprince, Daisy.Castles.It’s a whole new world opening up to you, and you should be, like...” She lets go of my wrist to clench both fists in the air, opening her mouth to give a sort of silent shriek of excitement, eyes squeezed shut.
I laugh, flicking her with my pencil. “I’m not all”—I mimic her gesture, then drop my hands back to the table—“because this isn’tmything. It’s Ellie’s. And now it’s...” I don’t want to get into that, not even with my best friend, but Isa is merciless.
“Oh no,” she says. “Not the wistful ‘if only...’ look. Spill.”
Shooting her a glare, I shrug my shoulders, wondering how even to explain it. Finally, I settle on an example.
“Okay, remember when I was in fourth grade, and my parents lost their minds and decided to do that road trip out west?”
“The Grand Canyon Incident,” Isabel says, nodding sagely, and I point my pencil at her.
“That’s the one. So on that trip, we ended in California for the last day, and I wanted to go see the Winchester Mystery House becauseobviously.”
“Obviously,” Isa echoes.
“But that same time we were there, this college Ellie wanted to check out in San Francisco was doing an open house, and she wanted to go tothat. So my parents said we’d add an extra day—do Ellie’s college thing first, then, on that extra day, go seemything.”
Isabel tilts her head to one side. “Fair,” she decides, and I nod.
“Problem is, we all ate these little shrimp thingies during the open house, and then got food poisoning, so there was no second day. No Winchester Mystery House. And I get that it was an Act of God—”
“An act of bacteria, but continue.”
“But the point is that it’s always been like that. Ellie’s thing, then my thing if we have time. And I can’t even be mad about it because Ellie’s thing is always, like, going to see a college, or volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, or taking a summer trip to Guatemala to teach English.”
I hold up my hand, turning it to one side, keeping my palm straight. “She’s always been laser-focused on stuff that matters.”
Dropping my hand, I shrug again. “And I just want to see weird houses or exhibits or whatever, so I get why her stuff has to come first. It’s just... marrying Alex means her stuff isalwaysgoing to come first. We’re going to spend the rest of our lives planning Christmas aroundherschedule. And like I said, I can’t be mad about it. Igetit. I just...”
This time when I trail off, Isabel doesn’t call me on it, and I shake my head.
“Less focus on Ellie and royals, and more focus on Key West,” I say, tapping the end of my pencil on the top of her laptop screen. “We are now attwoweeks, and we still haven’t coordinated wardrobes.”
If there’s one thing that can distract Isabel from talk of “Seb,” it’s our Key Con visit, and she nods, giving me an exaggerated wink.
“You’re right,” she agrees. “Eyes on the prize.”
We’re talking about the trip—namely, what we’re going to wear and what panels we want to hit up—when Hannah and Maddy enter my peripheral vision.
I’ve known both of them since third grade, but they’re both approaching so hesitantly, you’d think we were total strangers. I can actually feel my heart sinking.
“Heeeey, Daisy,” Maddy drawls, playing with the ends of her hair. It’s about the same dark blond mine used to be before the big dye job.
“Um. Hi?”
“So. Your sister.” That’s it. Literally all she says, like that explains it all, and I just nod at her. Across the table, Isabel is slumped down in her chair a little, watching them both as she taps her nails on her plastic cup.
“You’re going to be in the wedding, right?” Hannah asks. She has the same black hair as Isabel, although hers is cut in a long bob, the points brushing her shoulders as she leans closer. “And, like, on TV?”
