Аманда Хокинг - Switched

“You need to come in with me,” I reminded him, then pointed to my dress. “I can’t unzip this thing on my own.”

“Of course.”

Finn followed me into the darkened room and flipped on the lights.

The glass wall worked as a mirror thanks to the black night. In my reflection, I still thought I looked nice, and then I realized that’s probably why I had to have other people pick out my clothes. My judgment was too flawed. I turned away from it, and waited for Finn to unzip me.

“I really botched things tonight, didn’t I?” I asked sadly.

“No, of course not,” Finn insisted. His hand pressed warm on my back and I felt the dress loosen around me as he pulled the zipper down. I wrapped my arms around me to keep it up, then turned back to look at him. Some part of me was distinctly aware that we were only a few inches from each other, my dress was barely on, and his dark eyes were fixed on me. “You did exactly what I told you. If anyone ruined things, it was me. But the night wasn’t ruined. Elora is just sensitive about them.”

“Why? Why does she let them get to her so much?” I wondered. “She’s the Queen.”

“Monarchs have been overthrown before,” Finn answered calmly. “If you seemed unfit for the position, they could contest it, and they would be next in line to take the title.” All the color drained from face. There was suddenly way too much pressure on me to perform. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” His expression saddened again, and he added quietly, “Elora has a plan to appease them.”

“What is it?” I pressed. Instead of answering, his eyes got far away and his expression blanked. His brow furrowed, and then he nodded.

“I am sorry. You’re going to have to excuse me. Elora requires assistance in getting to her room.”

“You’re helping Elora?” I stumbled over the question, unable to hide my shock.

Somehow, it seemed it vaguely inappropriate that Finn would be helping her to her room. Maybe it was because she had just asked him inside his head, and I couldn’t get read on what exactly was the nature of their relationship. I might have been feeling a little jealous of my mother, and that added a nauseous feeling on top of everything else.

“Yes. Her migraine is quite severe,” Finn explained and started taking a step away from me.

“Alright, well, have fun with that,” I muttered.

The door closed softly behind him, and I went into the bathroom to take off my jewelry and change into baggy pajamas. Sleep was very difficult for me that night. I was too anxious thinking about all the things I was expected to accomplish. I knew nothing about this world or these people, and yet I was supposed to rule over them someday. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that I was supposed to master enough of everything in less than a week so they would believe that I could rule. If I didn’t, everything my mother worked so hard for would be taken away. Even though I wasn’t that fond of Elora most of the time, I was even less fond of Aurora, and I didn’t like the idea of my family’s legacy being ruined by me.

Apparently, lazy Sundays happened even in Förening. I woke up late, and the chef was still on hand to make breakfast. I saw Finn briefly, passing him in the hall, but it was no more than a nod hello. I flopped in my bed, thinking I would spend the day bored out of my mind, then Rhys knocked on my door. He invited me over to his room to watch movies with him and Rhiannon. His room was basically a masculine version of mine, except that he had a huge overstuffed couch sitting in front of his plasma TV. We ended up watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy because Rhys insisted it was much funnier once you’d spent time with actual trolls.

I sat on one end of the couch, and Rhiannon sat on the other, so Rhys sat between us. He started directly in the middle, but somewhere around three or four hours into the marathon, I noticed him moving closer to me, not that I minded. He still talked and joked a lot with Rhiannon, and they had a way of making me feel comfortable and happy. She left right after the third movie started, saying she had to get up early in the morning.

Once Rhiannon had gone, I became aware of the fact that Rhys and I were sitting alone in his darkened bedroom. I thought about moving away or something, but I didn’t really have any reason to. The movie was fun, he was foxy, and I enjoyed being with him. It wasn’t too long before his arm “casually” went around my shoulders. I almost laughed at how he did it, reminding me of boys on sitcoms, but I liked the way it felt and I didn’t want to scare him away.

He never made any moves farther than that, and eventually I leaned into him and rested my head on his shoulder.

What most people may not realize is that watching all three extended edition versions of Lord of the Rings in one sitting ends up being over eleven hours of movie viewing. If we had skipped extended, we could’ve cut two hours out of the time, but Rhys claimed it wouldn’t be the same experience. At one in the afternoon on a boring Sunday, that might sound like a genius idea, but by the time midnight rolls around, it’s a different story. The films are still good, but keeping my eyes open became a battle that I eventually lost.

In the morning, there was a commotion going on that I was completely unaware of. Maybe if I hadn’t tried running away once previous, everyone wouldn’t have been so paranoid. But I had, and they were, and when someone checked on my room that morning, they found it empty. This was because I was across the hall, on the couch with Rhys, sound asleep. Finn threw open the door in a panic, and that’s what jolted me awake.

“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed, jumping up off the couch. I was mid-heart attack from having Finn slam the bedroom door open. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

Instead of answering, Finn just stood there, staring at me. Behind me, Rhys was coming awake much slower than I was. I glanced back at him, dressed in a tee shirt and sweats that somehow managed to look good on him, and it dawned on me how this looked to Finn. I was still clothed in my only lazy day comfy clothes, but we had been curled up together. My mind scrambled to think of some kind of excuse, but suddenly, even the innocent truth escaped me.

“She’s in here!” Finn said flatly.

I groaned, realizing it was going to be even worse than if he’d just found me.

Elora appeared in the door, her emerald robe flaring out from behind in her a dramatic billow. She was standing behind Finn, but she somehow managed to eclipse everything else. There were times I had thought she looked unhappy before, but they had nothing on the severe expression she had now. Her scowl was so deep, it looked painful. She’d obviously been roused from her sleep to hunt for me, and her hair was still in a thick braid hanging down her back.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Elora barked. Her voice echoed painfully inside my head, and I had a feeling that she had added some of her psychic voice to make it more intense. Rhys was completely alert now, and he stood sheepishly next to me.

“Sorry. We were just watching movies and fell asleep,” I stumbled through an apology.

“It was my fault. I put the-” Rhys attempted to come to my aid, but Elora cut him off.

“I don’t care what you were doing! Do you have any idea how inappropriate this behavior is?” Her eyes narrowed on Rhys, and he shrunk back even more. “Rhys, you knew this was completely unacceptable. I can’t even begin to imagine what you were thinking, and frankly, I don’t even care!”

She rubbed her temples as if this were giving her a headache, and Finn gave her a concerned look. “I don’t even want to deal you. Get ready for school, and get out of my sight!”