Royally Flushed

Brutally, Beautifully Scarred

~Malia~

The rest of the school day was spent with Louis following behind me like a lost puppy.  I never let him get close enough to get beside me in the hallway and every innuendo and come on was ignored to the fullest extent.

I was so used to him being there making comments about how he was glad that I was walking in front of him so that he could see my behind up close and personal that I forgot that everyone at the lunch table probably didn't know what was happening or what to make of what he was doing in the first place with me.  Lord knows I had no clue.

"Umm, hey Malia..." Lizzy trailed off as we approached the tables that were separated only by a thin inch of air.  I still had no idea why they needed to be separate in the first place when all of the other tables in the cafeteria seemed to all be pushed together anyways, but I wasn't about to say anything.

"Hey," I responded to her, sitting down at the same spot I had sat in the day before, only Louis made a shooing motion to the girl who was to my left, I couldn't really remember her name.  Maybe it was Rainer?  Rayna?

"Ray-ray, come sit by me," Lizzy said, motioning to the empty seat beside her on the opposite side of the table.  She looked at her gratefully with wide brown eyes and scurried over to her long time friend, and I blushed as they all stared me down with something akin to curiosity and jealousy all rolled into one.

"Babe, why are you sitting all the way over there?" a girl at the other table asked Louis, and he visibly flinched at her use of the word 'babe'.

"I just feel like sitting next to our new friend today, is that such a crime?"

She tensed up at the harshness of his tone, he was practically spitting the words out at her.  Even I almost felt bad for the girl.

"No, not a crime at all..." she trailed off, slightly bowing her head in submission.  I noticed that no one in his immediate friend circle called him, 'Your Highness', or 'Your Majesty' or anything like that like everyone else that he didn't normally associate with did, but if they did, I would have imagined her using it at that time.

It seemed like she was so put off by how he had talked to her, like she was his shiny toy until something else came along and captured his attention.  I just hoped that the person that would keep his attention wouldn't be me for long, I had far too many problems in my life to add to the ever growing list.

I didn't want to even think about what would happen to me if Robert found me, or his gang that apparently helped break him out of a high security prison.

It was so easy to dismiss it and think that he wouldn't dare try to come overseas just for me, but when I thought even harder about it, my brain just wanted to turn to mush.

I rubbed my hands over my sleepy eyes and tried to focus on the unappetizing food my family had made for me that day. It was a nice gesture but with everything happening I didn't want to eat anything.

"What's wrong?" Louis asked me and I didn't realize how long I'd been in my thoughts, the whole table staring at me.

"Nothing, just not feeling that well. I've had a bug that's been following me around all day..." I trailed off, smiling sweetly at Louis who looked almost impressed by what I said, not the reaction I was looking for.

The rest of the table either gasped or laughed out loud, lots of mixed reactions there but I didn't really mind them.

"Whatever. Hey did you guys hear about that gang that's been tearing up half of London?!" I heard one of the more upper class girls on the other table exclaim. "It just started with graffiti everywhere and a few shootings and stabbings and now they're actively shooting up banks after robbing them and I heard they're behind that bomb that went off at the train station, too!"