Once Upon a You | A Beauty and the Beast Retelling ✔️

10 | Illusion (Bea)

I miss Ross Thorne.

Miss how his adoring eyes used to follow me everywhere, and his relentless support. Haven't seen him for the last few days so I'm a little worried. It's possible he somehow given up on me and on my humiliating secret and no longer wants to see me anymore. What if he's already gotten bored of me?

I mean, I am not that complex. Sure, I've got some skills but once you get past that, what else is there? Maybe he already sees me as a posh empty-headed Instagrammer, boring underachiever, not worth the effort.

The silence is deafening. A yawning gap where answers are supposed to be.

His core is smart, full of bazillion explanations and rational, but he is also someone who is sweet, childlike, playful and emotional. My heart clenches at the memory of his warm palms cradling my kitten form. I smile at the vivid flashback, at the giddy feelings that had romped through me at the time.

Memories of that wondrous day dissolve into wisps of smoke and disappointment as I remember my "parents'" phone call.

I need to hear Ross' voice and feel those warm feelings again. I never trusted anyone in my life so far but he is giving me the reasons to start.

When I flop on my bed and call his number without hesitation, it goes straight to voicemail.

"Sorry I've missed your call. Hopefully I've been beamed onto a spaceship by friendly aliens and am now working as an ambassador for Earth. I'll get back to you when I can. Live long and prosper."

He's probably at school now. Like all normal teens, duh.

Maybe he ran late this morning and didn't have time to stop by. He seems like the sort. It has to be, because I'd hate to think about what it might mean if he skipped out on me on purpose. From what I have seen of Ross Thorne in the first trimester, he was mostly quiet and didn't have that insistent hunger for attention about him. In school, he just sat there writing and smiling like he was in on some joke no one else got. Which would normally be annoying to me, since I was used to everyone paying attention to me. Not to some scribbles.

But now I found it endearing.

I quietly laugh to myself as I trim my overgrown nails for the third time this morning.

He's not bad looking either. Tall, with broad shoulders, cute stubble. He has a lean, muscular frame. He also has a chin dimple! Who doesn't like chin dimples?

And those eyes. It wasn't so much the color-but their intensity. The way they followed my hands and took in my entire setup. Like he saw everything. Not just my hair or my looks or even my money and fame, like most guys, but everything. And he didn't even know me for all that long.

My "parents," on the other hand. People who supposedly have known me for seventeen years.

I growl and strangle an invisible neck.

Can't wait for Ross to drop by so I can tell him the news.

"You look happy, señorita Bea," Amparo observes from the door. "Feeling better today?" She adds cautiously.

I am a bit miffed with her too, to be honest. She must have known everything all along. Throughout my whole childhood. And she never told me a word.

I nod, choosing not to mention Ross. The fury mounting in me is actually pretty great, but Ross is the real reason I feel so good this morning.

I never realized how much I like being the center of a guy's attention. Not in the sexual, I-wanna-rip-your-clothes-off sort of way. In a me-me way. It's that feeling of being super-interesting because all the questions are about me. He could have talked about his classes or favorite games or whatever, but instead he's asking about my day or what I'd do with my "superpowers" as he calls them.