Tale as Old as Time

XIV

I don't think I like hospitals. It's like an entire building like Doctor Maxon's office. There's a smell that a person should never have to smell. There's a woman with a screaming baby in the waiting room and sick people in chairs on wheels come by every so often. Adam and I sit together in, waiting to hear how Raven is. Everyone else left hours ago. Well I don't know where Thomas is. I haven't seen him since the rink and he was with Aurelia. Now it's just Adam and I. He's fiddling with a metal... thing and we haven't spoken since the hands of the clock on the wall were at the two and now they're almost back at there. I let out a sigh and slump down even father in my seat. It's uncomfortable and I've been sitting for way too long.

"Go for a walk Elise," Adam says, his gaze still trained in front of him and his fingers still playing with the thing. 

"What?"

"I'm tired of listening to you moaning over there. Go take a walk or get a drink or something," Adam says.

"Maybe I'm tired of listening to you do whatever it is you're doing to that thing," I grumble.

"It's a puzzle. Keeps the mind sharp," Adam snaps to defend himself. I watch him play with the puzzle for a minute.

"Tell me about Thomas and Aurelia."

Adam snorts.

"Don't ask about the ex darling. That's what Raven did. She asked about Belle. Never ask about the ex," he replies.

"That's why I'm asking you," I say dryly. Adam raises an eyebrow.

"Touché," Adam rises and pockets the puzzle. "But I'm going to need an apple juice before e get into this."

Adam holds out a hand and I take it, guiding him around the chairs to the store. After a minute of fumbling I filing a bottle of the orange liquid that Adam pays for at the counter. Then we go back to our seats and he drinks half the bottle before saying anything to me again.

"Thomas and Aurelia," Adam sighs. "The Romeo and Juliet of our age. They were that sickly sweet couple that was always like I love you more. No I love you more nonsense. Ridiculous. Sort of like the two of you are getting. Anyways, they met in school. In a history class of all things. My brother's never been good with women. Oh sure they love him but he respectfully declined advances. He's too honorable. But Thomas fell head over heels for Aurelia Saint James. Completely mad. I caught him giggling once. Can you imagine that? Thomas was ready to give up everything to be with her. They were going to sail the world and find all of Thomas's lost cities. A week before their expedition, Aurelia said that she couldn't be responsible for taking him away from Kiana and left him. Six months later, you came."

I can't breath. My chest feels pressed on and my head is spinning. He's in love with her. You don't just fall out of love. In all the things I've read here, love last forever.

"Why do you want to know anyway?" Adam asks after finishing off the bottle.

"She's back."

Adam gives one short laugh.

"Well that does put a damper on things doesn't it," he laughs. "He wouldn't leave you. That's not him. Don't worry about it."

"But I don't want him with me because he has to. I want him to love because of me, the way I love him," I blurt out before I can even think about what I'm saying.

Adam opens his mouth but a doctor comes out with a grey look on his face. I don't know if someone's face can look grey but that's the only way I can describe this doctor. Grey.

"Prince Adam and Princess Elise?" He questions, his emotionless eyes bouncing back and forth between the two of us. Adam's head swivels back and forth as he looks for the sound of the doctors voice. He almost makes it look like he's looking at the doctor but he's a few inches off and is staring at the space next to the doctor's shoulder.