Page 34 of Unloved

How was your day today? Better?

PRINCESS

Yes.

And then, separately:

PRINCESS

Thank you for checking on me, Freddy, but you don’t need to worry about me.

FREDDY

I do need to. How else am I going to pass my test?

There’s another long moment where I watch the bubbles appear and disappear repeatedly. I’m nearly ready to send some funny GIF to make her smile from this far away, hating the memory of her reddened eyes and distraught face in the corner booth last time I saw her.

Leaning back against the door, I tap my fingers along the side of my phone, desperate to cling to this conversation and keep it from ending.

FREDDY

Let’s play twenty questions. Favorite movie?

PRINCESS

I should probably get some sleep, butEver After.

I don’t know it, but I immediately search for it on my phone, trying to figure out where I can stream it, debating asking her to come watch it with me, my constant want for relief of loneliness beckoning yet again.

FREDDY

I don’t have a favorite, there’s too many.

This time, the wait is too long between messages and I impulsively call her, a little shocked when she answers on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“I figured this is easier for me to ask all my questions and get all my answers in real time. I hate texting.”

“Hi, Freddy,” Ro says. Swearing I can feel her smile through the phone, I flick through the apps on my hand-me-down Xbox and select the one that I know has her favorite movie on it.

“If this movie sucks, I’m going to be very disappointed, Rosalie.”

“Wait—which movie?”

“Ever After, your favorite one,” I say with inflection, like her question is ridiculous.

“You’re watching it? Right now?”

“Just queuing it up—but I want to talk to you first.” I try to keep my timbre calm and quiet, matching her sleepy tone. “Unless I woke you up.”

She waits a long moment and my heart starts to sink before her hesitant voice whispers, “No, I’m good. We can continue your twenty questions.”

“I’ve got way more than twenty, princess, but we can start there.” She laughs and makes my stomach swoop like a free fall. “Favorite color?”

“I don’t have a favorite. There’s too many,” she says, repeating my words from earlier back to me. “You?”

“Green—like, any shade, I like them all.” I clear my throat and relax against my headboard, feeling any earlier tension leak out of me as we talk. We toss questions back and forth, Ro choosing some after warming up to me a bit more.

---