Chapter six

It was early in the morning when Tiana heard a knock on her door, she had sleepy eyes, she had just woken up from a great slumber.

Sluggishly she walked to the door, she rubbed her eyes before she opened the door.

Her mouth nearly dropped to the floor when she saw Trevor her boyfriend standing by her doorstep.

"What are you doing here, Trevor?" She stammered, she did not expect him to show up in front of her door early this morning.

He came in and then he grabbed her by the arm. He shut the door and his eyes narrowed.

"What the fuck am I seeing on the internet." He roared like a lion about to devour prey.

"What?" She squeaked and that made him angrier.

"What? The fucking pictures of you and Prince Chadwick I am seeing on the internet, what's it about." He growled.

"They are just pictures and nothing else." Tiana defended herself.

"Don't play fucking say that Tiana, everything about it is wrong."

"So that is why you showed up at my house by this time of the day?"

"What's going on between you and that motherfucker Chadwick."  Tiana now understood why he was in her living room at this time of the day.

"So that is why you came here?" Her voice became louder and she removed her arm from his grip. "And don't ever refer to Prince Chad like that."

"If I do what the fuck will happen? What will you do to me?" He laughed mockingly. "Oh now he is your lover, that's great, Tiana, you are going to call him to beat me up or throw me into a dungeon or so?"

"He is not my lover, Trevor, you are." She tried to make him see that she still loved him. Princess Tiana and Trevor have been dating for a long time and they were already engaged, Trevor promised that when she was done with her university he was going to marry her, but it seemed like he was not going to keep that promise again.

"I am?" He said and she nodded. She came closer to him and placed her smallish hands on his cheeks as she did a lot of memories of her and Trevor went through her mind and she felt very terrible for ignoring his calls and text messages for a month. She was going to apologise to him and tell him everything, but would Trevor accept her apology?

"I still love you, Trevor." She muttered and tried to kiss him, but he turned his head away and started laughing. He removed her hands from his cheeks roughly.

"You have not been picking up my calls or replying to my text for a month, is that what you call love?" He raised his voice and she shuddered. She had never seen him like this, she knew him as being calm and gentle but seeing him this angry frightened her.

"I am sorry, I have been so busy with school." she tried to apologise to him, she wanted him to reason with her, she wanted him to forgive her.

Trevor started laughing and he used his hand to cover his face.

"What do you think I am, Tiana? A foolish person? A dumb person? You have been busy in school but you also go about with a guy, taking all types of sweet pictures and yet you've been ignoring your boyfriend's calls and text messages...how sweet is that?"

"I can explain..."

"Don't explain any bullshit." He cut her off. "You are a fucking whore, Tiana." He shouted, then he removed the engagement ring on his finger and threw it at her. "It's over."  She gasped and tears started rolling down her cheeks. His calling her a whore hurts her but his throwing his ring at her hurts her a lot.

Kirsten came out of one of the bedrooms when she heard loud voices coming from the living room.

She walked to the living room and she saw Tiana on the floor weeping and Trevor leaving.

"What is going on here?" She asked but Trevor did not bother to turn around he shut the door and left leaving a broken Tiana behind.

"Oh my gosh, Tiana." Kristen rushed to princess Tiana and wiped off the tears on her cheeks with a hanky.

"It's all my fault," Tiana said in between sobs, her face red like ripened tomatoes.

"No it's not your fault, Tiana, trust me, everything will be fine." Kirsten consoled her.

"Nothing will be fine without him." Tiana cried.

"Trust me, Tiana everything will be fine," Kirsten told her and then hugged her and she felt better immediately.

Kirsten helped Tiana get up from the floor.

"Let me make something for you to eat," Kirsten said and Tiana nodded.

Truly, a genuine hug mends broken hearts and heals wounds, a friend in time of trials and distress is priceless.

...

It had been a week since Trevor broke up with Tiana and Tiana had not still recovered, she was still feeling devastated. Her performance in school dropped, she was not outspoken anymore, she hardly talked and her face always looked moody.

She was walking to the university library with some books in her hands when she met Jack the 300-level medical student. She did not even notice him it was him that approached her.

When Jack saw her face he knew something was wrong.

"What"s wrong Tiana?" He asked with so much concern.

"Nothing that important." She sniffed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her and she stared at him and nodded.

They went to a café near buy and Jack bought coffee for him and her, they pick a table close to the window and Jack sat abreast of her. All this while Tiana was trying to avoid staring at him.

"Are you scared of me?" He asked chuckling lightly.

She nodded no.

"But you are acting like you are." He said and then she looked at him and their eyes met, everywhere became silent. Jack cleared his throat. "So, what happened, T?" His voice and aura were so calm and gentle that she felt very uncomfortable around him.

"My fiancee broke up with me." She said and sniffed. "And it's all my fault."

"No, it's not, when you think you are the cause of other people's mistakes it will do you no good." He slipped his hands into hers and rubbed them slowly.

"But I was terrible to him, I was not good to him."

"What did you do to him?"

"I was ignoring his calls and text for a month and then he got mad at me for doing so." Tiana did not tell Jack the other side of the story-the Prince Chad's side of the story.

"Did he ask why you were doing that?"

"Nope he didn't, he said a lot of hurtful things to me and left." Tears started rolling down her cheeks. He stood up as swiftly as possible and used his thumb to wipe away the tears from her cheeks.

"You don't have to get sad, Tiana, if he loved you he shouldn't have done that." Jack consoled Tiana. Tiana had a burst of emotion and then she hug Jack and sank her head into him, crying.

Jack rubbed her gently, it hurt him so much seeing her this way even though he barely knew her. Because of the way people around were staring at them, he took her to a quiet place and a place where people were not around.

"I felt the same when my ex Laura cheated on me with my best friend," Jack said and sighed.

"Really?" Tiana said cleaning the tears from her cheeks and eyes with the back of her hands.

"Yeah, this world is so messed up and if you can't cope with it you will get eaten by it." He said. "Like a monster eating a human." He told her making funny faces and she giggled.

"We had goals, we both wanted to be doctors and help a lot of people, we wanted to get married and spend our married life helping the needy and sick but in just a day those dreams faded away like smoke in the skies." Jack lowered his voice.

"What happened?" Tiana was very curious about what happened between him and his ex.

"It was on a Friday morning and Laura the sweetest person in my life just came back from overseas, I was about to enter the university and she was about to enter the higher institutions too but she was going to school abroad and I was going to school here, so soon I was not going to see her again. I wanted to pay her surprise visit when she came back from overseas, she stayed alone, and her parents stayed in the countryside with her siblings who were younger than her.

In my greatest delight, I put on my best clothes, I wanted to look my best for my baby girl, but if I had known that the happiest day in my life will turn into the worst I should have stayed behind. Well, I wasn't from a rich home, but Laura was from a rich home and my best friend Brian was from a rich home too. We were like a trio--we always did things together, but I never knew that they would both betray me, I didn't know that they weren't really my friend and that they were just using me.

I came to her house, since her parents were rich they could afford a nice apartment for her in Duban. I knocked on her door but no one was responding, I knocked and knocked but no one came out, I thought that she hasn't yet come back from overseas so I turned to live but I decided not to live because I was sure that she was back.

I opened the door and to my surprise, it was opened. I came into the house, and when I entered the living room, I saw clothes scattered around the living room. My heart started pounding when I saw her underwear in the hallway, and I started sweating when I heard uncanny noises coming from her bedroom."

Jack took in a deep breath.

"Her bedroom door was opened and I saw my best friend and my girlfriend, yes Luara the love of my life, the one I hoped to marry in future, the only person I held so dear, the only person that was part of my future, having sex on her bed with my best friend's hands touching placing where only I should touch."

"Did they know that you were in the room?" Tiana asked with curiosity.

"At first they didn't, because I froze and I became as still as the Statue of Liberty, it was like watching a very scary movie."

"When they saw you what did they do?"

"They didn't do anything, they weren't remorseful, they just continued having sex right in my front. If I vividly remember, when Laura saw me standing by the door she just said 'oh it's Jack' and they both laughed and continued having sex. Then Brian my best friend, my childhood friend asked me to join them to make it a threesome."

"Damn, that was terrible. What did you do?"

"I felt disgusted and left." Jack said and sighed.

"How did you cope with that traumatizing event?" Tiana was wondering how Jack coped and she was also wondering why would anyone want to cheat on someone as handsome and friendly as him.

"I moved on, I made new friends, spend much time with people that cared about me, exercised, studied and I watched a lot of movies and anime." Jack paused. "I did all these things so that I won't even have the time to think about what happened, yes sometimes I do think about it and feel devastated but I had to create new goals in life and focus on more positive things."

"That's how you did it? If it were me I don't think I'd be able to cope," Tiana said and giggled.

"It was hard, very hard, the pain of seeing the most important people in your live betraying you at the same time, c'mon it will be painful to anyone who experiences it unless that person is a robot without feelings." They both laugh, it was quite weird and surprising that they have gotten this acquainted with each other, this was the first time they have talked for this long.

"I wish I was a robot, no feelings and all." Tiana said and sighed.

"I bet, life would be horrible."

"Less horrible."

"You love chocolates right?" Jack asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I love chocolates."

"If you are a robot you won't love chocolates."

"Damn, that's right, I don't want to be a robot again." She said and laughed.

"Really? 'Cause I wanted to give you to one of my friends who is studying robotic engineering so that he will turn you into a robot with no feelings." Jack offered and there was no way Tiana would accept.

"Thank you, I love the way I am." They both laughed. "Well, I guess I will be going before my friends think I am missing." Before leaving Tiana hugged him and whispered, "thank you."

Tiana left, she was going to meet Kirsten and her other friends, and she longed to talk with Jack again.

Meanwhile in the Royal Castle, in the servants' quarters Megan was called for the most dreaded call in the servant quarters that no servant wished for. She walked slowly to the designations, all her senses were telling her that there was trouble. She stopped in front of a large door, this place was so quiet that only her breathing heavily was heard, every maid in this palace feared this place.

Above the door 'The House Mistress Office' was written on a board.

She knocked twice before a raspy voice said: "come in." 

She pushed the door opened and it made scary creaking sounds. She saw the house mistress sitting down at a large wooden table with a computer and a lot of papers on it, in front of her. As usual, the house mistress was angry- but today she looked more menacing and evil.

"Shut the door and have a sit." The house mistress pointed her wrinkled fingers to a chair abreast of her.

Megan gulped, this was the second time she came to this hell of a place called an office, this first was when she was applying to be a maid in the castle and rumours had it that the second time anyone coming to this office would be there last time in this office and this palace.

Megan sat down slowly and the burning gaze of the house mistress pierced through her.

"Do you want to keep on working in this palace?" The house mistress voice echoed throughout the eerie office.

"Yes ma'am, I want to." Megan stammered with her heart pounding against her chest.

"Nope, you don't want to, you have disobeyed the laws of this castle, you have disobeyed the laws of the house mistress and you know what happens when you do so."

"I am sorry ma, it wasn't my fault." Megan begged and the house mistress computer started beeping.

"Silence." And everywhere became dead silent even the computer on her table obeyed her and stopped beeping. "What did I say in that meeting? That anyone caught that person and the person's friend will suffer consequences."

"I am sorry, ma'am it was not my fault, it was Kate's fault she met me and told me about her encounter with both Prince Chad and Prince Calvin she told me not to tell anyone...I don't want to lose this job ma'am I need this job so much." Megan was now on her knees pleading for mercy.

The house mistress started laughing and her laughter echoed throughout the office.

"I didn't say you are guilty." The house mistress said in between laughter.

"But..." Megan was confused.

"You just exposed yourself and your friend without you even knowing, how spiteful."

Megan gasped when she realized what she just did--she just betrayed her best friend Kate, the house mistress who tricked her.

"You and she will be fired from the palace workers and the both of you will do community service for a year to atone for your sins." The house mistress said and laughed evilly.

"Please ma'am, I need this job to take care of my brother and my parent."

"Do you really want this job, Megan?" The house mistress asked her.

"Yes, ma'am I do."

"Sit down." The house mistress commanded her and she obliged immediately.

Megan was still afraid, her hands were shaky and her legs were wobbly.

"Now, enlighten me more about Kate and her encounter with their highnesses."

Megan needed to save her job even though it meant betraying Kate, she felt bad for what she did but she had no choice.