Tormented Royal by Lily Wildhart
Chapter Twenty-One
“Girls’ trip, baby!” Indi practically sings as she slides in her socks across the hardwood of the entry hall. Thank God Smithy isn’t here to see her nearly slam into the artwork on the walls. He’d have a conniption. It’s officially Labor Day weekend. I’m a little sad he still isn’t back yet, but I understand that he’s looking after his family.
This past week has been one of the strangest in my life. There hasn’t been any bullying, no comments have been made behind my back, and somehow the deep fake sex tape has been wiped from existence. And Lincoln has spent every night in my bed, sneaking in through the window each night and disappearing before I wake.
Some nights I went to sleep without him there, and the only way I knew he was there was his scent on my pillow the next day.
Stranger yet, the three of them haven’t said a word to me all week long. It’s as if they’re pretending I don’t exist. It’s not much different from when I arrived, just minus the bullshit from the rest of the student body.
Indi dances around in the doorway like an absolute loon, but she brings me so much joy. I laugh at her antics and excitement. “Three whole days of no school, no Echoes Cove, and nothing but utter relaxation. What’s not to be excited about?”
“Absolutely nothing!” She slips her feet into her Chucks before spinning to face me. “Let’s go!”
I grab my weekend bag, keys, and phone before double checking that the doors are all locked up. Once I’m sure everything’s good to go, I grab my handbag, enable the alarm, and haul ass out of the house before locking the front door too.
We jump into her Wrangler, set up our road trip playlist, and prepare ourselves for the couple hour drive inland to the resort.
As we drive out of Echoes Cove, I can’t help but feel like we’re being followed. There’s a prickling on the back of my neck as if I’m being watched, but when I check the mirrors, I can’t see anyone there. It’s creepy as fuck, but I shrug it off and put it down to paranoia. Despite my nightmares quieting with Lincoln’s presence, I’m still not over the whole being jumped in the middle of the night thing.
Which isn’t really that surprising considering the trauma from the experience, but this weekend is about getting away from all of that, relaxing, and being at one with myself. I’m totally sure I can do that.
Not.
I finally relax as Echoes Cove disappears in the rearview and sing along to the playlist with Indi, getting into the road trip spirit.
The time passes quickly, and before I know it, the navigation system announces we’ve arrived at our destination. We turn off onto the entry road, the giant wooden arch welcoming us to Mountain View Spa Resort, and I swear I’m already feeling more relaxed than I have in months. Indi drives us through the green expanses, and it feels like the world falls away as the mountains come into view before us. Tucked away to the left, behind a giant fountain, is the resort.
“Holy shit, this looks better than it did in the pictures!” Indi exclaims, bouncing in her seat as we pull into the valet bay. My door’s opened in an instant, and the valet smiles at me warmly.
“Welcome to Mountain View, Miss Royal. Please let us get your bags. If you’d like to head inside with your friend and get checked in, we’ll take your luggage straight up to your suite.” He offers me a hand and helps me down from the car, and Indi shrugs at me as she reaches me.
“I figured if I put it in your name, we’d get better service, but this is something else.”
I shake my head, not caring that she used my name. There are definite perks to being my father’s daughter. “Fine by me, let’s head inside.”
She links her arm with mine, and we head inside. I lift my aviators as we cross the threshold into the building, and the house manager greets us. “Miss Royal, it’s good to have you with us. We’ve already checked you in. If you follow me, I’ll show you to your suite. We upgraded you for your stay. There is a private spa space in your suite that you can use as well as the facilities here.”
“Thank you,” I say, as Indi nudges me like an excited kid. Her joy is officially overspilling. We follow the manager up to the suite on the top floor of the resort.
She opens all of the rooms and shows us the spa menu that’s available. She’s finishing the tour as our bags are delivered to the room. Indi looks like she’s almost a little freaked out by the service, so I try to take charge of the situation, tipping the bell boys before they disappear. Their grins are wide as they thank me before scurrying away.
A knock sounds at the door, and the house manager moves to open it. “Delivery for Miss Royal.”
What the fuck?
She takes the delivery and closes the door before turning back to face me with a bouquet of yellow tulips. “For you.”
She hands them to me, and I tamp down the freak out that’s threatening. What the actual fuck?
I paste a smile on my face as I pull the same envelope sealed with red wax from this bunch as there has been on the others. It felt fine at first, but for whoever’s sending them knowing where I am is a little creepy. I check the envelope and again, just a plain black card, embossed with the same image as the wax seal. I quickly put them in a vase and push the thought to the back of my mind. This weekend is about relaxing with my bestie, not focusing on creepozoids.
I turn my focus back to the house manager, who’s smiling warmly at me as she asks, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, this is all wonderful. Thank you.”
“Perfect, well, if you need anything, dial ‘0’ on your in-room line. You’ll come directly through to me.”
“That’s great, thank you.” I usher her out of the room after tipping her too. I close the door behind her then lean back on it, taking a breath.
I look over at Indi, who still looks pretty overwhelmed from her spot on the sofa, staring at me. “Dude, is this what your life was like before? People tripping all over themselves to be around you?”
“Pretty much,” I say with a shrug before moving into the suite and dropping down next to her. “Not everywhere, and not always, but yeah. It can be a little much.”
“It’s totally out of this world. I’m sorry if putting it in your name was out of line.”
“Dude, you’re fine,” I say, swatting her with a cushion and making her chuckle. “What do you want to do first?”
She picks up the menu, handing me the second one, and grins. “Let’s try everything!” Her excitement is contagious, and I’m not about to stomp on it.
I grin at her, happy as hell that she pushed me to get away this weekend. “Sounds perfect.”
* * *
After two days of total relaxation and treatments, I think I might be tapped out. There are only so many ways a girl can be poked and prodded before she needs some space.
Indi bounces into the bedroom, her excitement at full capacity as ever, before dropping down onto the bed beside me. She shoves her phone under my nose, and I pull away so I can actually focus on the screen. “I found this low-key music bar in the next town over. Restaurant by day, bar by night. Do you want to check it out?”
“Sure, why not?”
“And it’s called Midnight Blues! What are the chances?”
“That’s kind of brilliant. We can head there in a bit?” I ask with a smile, seeing the open mic night announcement on the website seconds after the agreement leaves my mouth.
Devious little shit. “I’m not singing, though.”
“But, V,” she draws out the letter, practically singing it. “You’re so good! You should share your gift with the world, rather than just me and your shower head!”
I burst out laughing as she wags her eyebrows at me. “My ‘gift,’” I say, making air quotes with my fingers, “is a curse. I saw what it did to my dad. I’d rather stay behind the scenes, thank you.”
She sighs and flings herself backward dramatically, lying down as she stares up at me. “But it’s just a small place, I’m sure there'll be hardly anyone there.”
I raise an eyebrow at her and she huffs. “Fine, fine. No singing, but it looks like they do banging chicken wings, and I'm so down for that right now.”
“What the fuck is a banging chicken wing?” I ask, completely bewildered.
She sits up and huffs, crossing her arms across her chest. “I really need to get you to watch more British TV. Their language is so much more imaginative. They have such a way with words. Banging means really good. So, banging chicken wings.”
“And you couldn’t have just said good wings?” I laugh, and she shakes her head violently.
“It just doesn’t have that same feeling. The same… pizzazz.”
Her pouting makes me laugh harder until she’s laughing along with me. “Okay, so no singing but great wings. Sounds good.”
It doesn’t take us long to get ready and request the car back from the valet. Before long, we’re in the Wrangler and heading to the next town.
We pull into the lot of Midnight Blues to find that it’s already crazy busy, and I immediately wonder whether we should’ve booked a table. We can at least see how bad the wait’s going to be, I guess. My internal worries are reflected on Indi’s face as we climb from the car.
We walk in, and even though it’s pretty busy, the hostess greets us straight away. Her eyes go wide when she sees me, and I instantly regret the decision to come here. She visibly gulps before smiling again. “Good evening, just the two of you?”
“Please,” Indi says, moving to stand slightly in front of me. It’s a bit over protective, but my heart swells anyway.
The girl nods and grabs two menus before motioning for us to follow. “Follow me, please.” She weaves us through the tables to the back corner, and offers us a small smile before saying, “I thought you might like some privacy.”
This girl is awesome. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“Of course,” she nods, and Indi and I slide into the booth. “I’ll give you a few minutes to go through the menu, and then I’ll check back in with you.”
She disappears without another word, and Indi picks up the menu. “Isn’t it strange for the hostess to be our server?”
I shrug as I pick up the other menu and glance over it. “People have always been weird when I go to new places. It’s frustrating, but you just kind of get used to it after a while. Plus, she was reasonably chill. Someone else might not be so laid-back.”
She clamps her lips together and looks almost guilty. It isn’t her fault people are weird. “I didn’t ever really think about this side of your life. Not properly anyway. It doesn’t seem like much fun.”
We chill out and enjoy our food once it arrives. The ambience in this place is so chill, that time slips away without us noticing. When the open mic starts, Indi looks over at me with those big puppy-like eyes of hers. “You sure you don’t want to get up there?”
My heart pangs with the memory of doing small nights like this with Dad when we went to places like Nashville. It was always so much fun. I guess it could be again, but I doubt it would be the same. “Not entirely.”
“Yes!” She jumps to her feet and scrambles toward the stage before I can say another word. I drop my head into my hands, wondering what the fuck I just agreed to. I’m equal parts anxious as fuck and excited about the prospect of being on a stage again. Even if just for a few minutes.
Indi skips back to the table, sliding into the booth beaming with joy. “They had a spot for you.”
She practically sings the words and a flutter of excitement builds in my chest. We watch four acts, and then they call my name and gasps sound around the place.
This might have been a bad idea, but fuck it. I’m here now.
I reach the stage and take the guitar from the sound guy up here. I lift the strap over my shoulder and perch on the stool in front of the mic. As soon as I sit down, I know exactly what I’m going to sing. The song Dad and I wrote together. I lean forward to the mic, the heat of the lights blasting down at me as I try not to squint out at the crowd. “Evening, everybody, it’s great to be out here with you all. My name’s Octavia Royal, and this is ‘Raindrop.’”
* * *
I wake up Sunday morning to Indi shaking me. “What’s wrong?”
“Uhm, so… I know you shut your phone off when we got here so you could escape everything, but you should maybe turn it on.” She wrings out her hands as she speaks to me, shifting from foot to foot, nervous as fuck.
“What happened?” I ask, scrambling to grab my phone from the nightstand.
She shuffles around so she’s sitting cross-legged, looking like she might cry. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think this would happen, but apparently someone recorded you singing last night. And uh… It’s kind of gone viral.”
I let out a deep breath. The way she was going on, I thought someone had died. “Is that all?”
“You’re not mad?”
I laugh softly as she deflates in front of me. “Why would I be mad?”
“Well I basically made you get up on stage.”
I put my hand on hers and squeeze. “Indi, you didn’t make the video or post it. Plus, this isn’t the first tape I’ve had go viral, even just this month. I’d much rather this one than the deep fake. Honestly, it’s fine.”
I push the button on my phone, powering it up as she flops backward on the bed. It’s barely seconds before it’s buzzing out of control in my hand.
I push through most of the junk, deleting all the crazy shit, when I find a text from Raleigh. I haven’t really spoken to him properly since we decided to just be friends.
Raleigh: You were amazing, V.
Raleigh: I miss you
Raleigh: I really wish things could have worked out between us.
Raleigh: Why are you ignoring me?
Raleigh: Oh I see, you go viral and suddenly you’re too good to talk to me. I see how it is.
Raleigh: Well fuck you too
I let out a deep breath and flop back to lie beside Indi. “Why are boys so gross?”
“What happened?”
I pass her my phone because showing is easier than telling. She sits up, red in the face. “What a fucker. He’s been a little weird about you since the whole thing happened, but I figured it was simply a bruised ego. He has no right to talk to you like this.”
I shrug my shoulders, resigned to the fact that boys are not worth the hassle. “Privileged football players aren’t used to hearing the word no, I guess. Not all of them of course, some of them are beautiful humans, like Jackson. But there’s something about quarterbacks. And this is precisely why I don’t usually date sports types. The egos are way too fragile.”
“I’m sorry, V. What a dick.”
I sit up and smile. “Fuck it. It is what it is. Now what are we doing with our last day here before we go back to normalcy?”
“Massages?” she suggests, and I can’t help but grin.
I wonder if there’s a Dylan O’Brien look alike around here.