"Why are you here again?"
I snapped wide awake at the sound of her words.
The same, long hallway greeted me, beautiful red carpet plush underneath my feet. The curtains swayed gently, even without a breeze, as though greeting the new companion that had arrived so willingly.
"How… I was clearly about to fall asleep just now, why did I come here?" I kicked my feet on the soft carpet, clutching the cup like it was my last hope. I wasn't sure what hope I was searching for, however it felt like it would be here if anywhere, for some reason.
My companion, who was always here, remained the same. Still dressed in an extravagant dress clad with all sorts of jewels that sparked underneath the strange light that seemed to come out of nowhere, delicately holding the teacup in one dainty hand, the other set on the table, tapping as though impatient about something.
Her lips pursed as I said my piece, as though dissatisfied at my appearance in this place. Now that I take a better look at her, I realise that she had very beautiful and delicate makeup on, the soft edges that her face always embodied made slightly sharper with the contour and the eyeliner, giving her a slightly more dangerous atmosphere. She seemed slightly older now, growing up somewhere I didn't, maybe couldn't, reach, ever.
"How I'm I supposed to know how you got here? You always seem to appear now and then huh. Hey, I usually come here to relax, not to listen to other people's problems, so could you kindly go away?" She gave me a soft smile.
I ate a cookie slowly, trying to process why I was here.
"I would go away, but I have no idea how to. Sorry."
The corners of her lips thinned slightly when I said that, mindlessly sipping my tea and eating what was probably a chocolate chip cookie.
"It's alright. I'm just a little on edge recently. Just… didn't mean to snap like that." She tapped the side of her teacup with one hand and dainty reached out a hand to grab a cookie between her index and thumb fingers.
Like a little princess.
"So, why are you here this time? You usually come when you have some problem you want me to solve, but jokes on you, I have no idea how to solve them usually. I can't even solve my own problems, what makes you think I can solve yours?" She snapped at me, before covering her mouth with her hand and coughing slightly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it again. I just… sorry."
I shook my head. "It's fine, although I don't usually expect people to snap twice in a row, it happens quite often when we aren't sure of what we want to do in life."
Stirring my tea, I drank it all in one gulp, completely ignoring the disgusted look on my companion, the ability to act like a lady similar to her unfortunately not something that was trained into me at what was probably her young age.
"Instead of you listening to my problems, how about I listen to yours this time? Just a little change of pace, can't hurt, and apparently the feeling of letting something go can be quite therapeutic to some people." I offered, standing up and walking over to her side of the table. Leaning over, I grabbed the teapot and refilled her tea, putting in a few sugar cubes while I was at it.
Now that we were closer, I could feel how… unearthly her existence was. Like she wasn't actually there at all, and instead somewhere far far away, where I couldn't reach her or help her.
The only thing I could do was listen.
"I don't like sugar in my tea. It tastes too sweet." The princess quipped.
I laughed. "Ok then, would you prefer me to pour another cup instead?"
"…No, its fine."
"Suit yourself princess."
I sat down again in my seat and intertwined my fingers together, tapping my index finger against the palm of my other hand rhythmically. I've learnt that constant repetitive motion helps to keep me calm and stabilised, unlike usually, where I feel on edge and uneven all the time.
Like the pavement outside my house, rough and painful to fall on.
The princess breathed in and out suddenly and gulped down all her tea, before spilling out all her secrets. The situation she's in, the family that she works with, her friends, if you could even call those people friends.
People who tore her down and brought her up again for her own 'good', claiming that she couldn't live another minute if she didn't rely on them. Ridiculous. Why can't somebody as strong as she do what she wants?
It wasn't my place to say anything, yet as she talked more and more I couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness and anger in her place. Somebody and young, small and pathetic as she shouldn't need to have such complicated thoughts.
I told her just that, to which she just smiled and said, 'you're having the same thoughts as me right now, so its fine.' No matter how much I wanted to tell her it wasn't fine, I found that I couldn't.
We were all suffering from our own demons, and there was nothing that we could do to help each other. Only to listen can we truly provide some sort of comfort.
Once she was done talking, we had finished most of the snacks and the tea was running dry. I wanted to offer alcohol, but realising that that was probably not a good idea, I stopped myself just in time.
She was still underage, I think, and underage people shouldn't drink alcohol. It's going to mess with their growing up if they start so soon.
She smiled at me once she was done with her explosion of emotion, and I felt a sense of relief that she was finally not on edge all the time from bottling that up inside herself, pretending that she was fine all this time.
The sun slowly rose, though I'm not sure how I knew, but it was time to say goodbye, so I waved to her and gave her a sunny smile.
"Go sleep it off. Maybe, if fate allows it, we will meet again."
She gave me a small wave as well, mouthing something as the world around me went dark.
I woke up in my bed the next instant with cold swear dripping down my cheek, wondering what she said at that last moment in time.