FicWad

“Oh my god that was awesome!” Keri sang as soon as she bounced through the door. “Peter is so easy to hang out with.”
“That’s good,” I said with a fake smile that didn’t fool her for a second.
“What’s wrong?” she asked coming over to sit with me on the couch. I didn’t want to ruin her mood but I guess it’s too late for that.
“I got in a fight with Edmund. No big deal,” I said with a shrug.
“About what?” she asked still sounding concerned. She clearly didn’t believe me that it wasn’t a big deal.
“It wasn’t one particular thing… it- I don’t know,” I said thinking hard. What had we been fighting about? His age? That sounds really stupid.
“Ok well go over what you both said,” she said trying to be helpful.
“Well I was actually trying to compliment him and he took it the wrong way. I said he was young for a king and he thought I meant that he was too young, you know?”
“Ok… and I assume you tried to explain?”
“Yeah I tried but he talked over me and finished my sentence.” She winced at that, she knew nobody got away with that when they did it to me.
“Poor guy, he probably didn’t even know what was coming,” she said and laughed.
“Yeah… I may have accused him of being a tyrant,” I said slowly.
“Ouch,” she said with a chuckle. We sat in silence for a while, both lost in thought.
“So what did you do with Peter?” I asked finally.
“Oh you know, stuff,” she said lamely. I knew she just didn’t want to brag about her awesome time when I had had a bad such a bad one.
“Come on,” I said in a fake scolding voice. She smiled then began to rant.
“Ok so first he let me choose a horse, and they have so many, they are all gorgeous. I kept impressing him- or at least he kept saying he was impressed. First I lifted the saddle no problem, 'cause you know they’re actually pretty heavy. Then I was able to put it on correctly, I was surprised that the saddles here are pretty much like the saddles in our world. I did have to use the fence to get a boost up, but he said that that horse was tall; he may have just been trying to make me feel better. Then we rode to the beach, and we raced along the water,” she finished spacing out a little. I had to smile at her inability to tell stories, she always got distracted.
“And then?” I prompted.
“Oh well we talked, and walked around, and wadded… then he busted out a picnic for us… incredibly sweet. Anyways after a while we came back and now I’m here,” she finished then she spaced out again. “He said that he would like to do it again,” she added after a few seconds with a blush.
“Did it get easier to talk to him?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have too many problems with that anymore…I hope.”
“You’ll be fine,” I said.
“And what about Edmund?” she asked.
“What about him?”
“Are you going to try to explain again?” she asked. I thought about it for a while and decided that I would explain and apologize only after he does.
“Maybe,” I finally said.
“Uh huh,” she said in a tone that told me that she understood exactly what had just gone through my head.
“Oh shut up hoe,” I muttered causing her to giggle a little. There was a knock on the door and we both sat there waiting for the other to get it.
“Come in,” Keri called after a second, she was too lazy to get up, I could tell that she was tired after riding for so long. The door swung open and I saw Peter’s blond head poke around it.
“Hey,” he said cheerfully.
“Hey,” Keri said seeming to forget how tired she was. He smiled at her, it looked like he forgot I was here for a second then he snapped out of it. I tried to hide a smile at their little display but I failed a little. Ok a lot, I actually laughed, which is what caused him to remember that I was here.
“Heard you had a fight with Ed,” he said sounding… understanding.
“Yeah,” I said unsure of what he could offer for the situation.
“Yeah he told me what happened. He sort of has a one track mind, and he isn’t one for backing down from a fight… a verbal fight anyway,” he explained. Was he trying to make excuses for his brother, or what?
“Ha, sounds like you Kristi,” Keri said with a smile. Thanks Keri. Peter smiled at her and continued.
“Anyway, now that he calmed down he wants to talk to you,” he said.
“Am I being summand or something?” I asked sarcastically.
“God no, he just wanted me to ask in case you didn’t want to see him yet,” he said waving his hands slightly in front of him. I thought for a while, I’m not sure I want to see him.
“Kristi, come on. You’re stuck in a world with him, you should at least try to make nice,” Keri reasoned. She did have a point.
“Fine, but… it might get worse,” I said slowly.
“True, but I think you should try,” she said. I got up and walked over to the door.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Just down the hall to the left,” Peter said moving to sit by Keri on the couch, and they started up a conversation about what they should do on their next ride. At least two of us were getting along. I went through the door and down the hallway, I found him staring out of a window.
“You summand me?” I said then mentally winced. I wanted to be civil; I didn’t want to be the one to make it into another argument. Thankfully he ignored my comment.
“Sorry, you know, for everything. I shouldn’t have assumed that you were criticizing me. And I definitely shouldn’t have put words in your mouth,” he said not taking his eyes off the window. I could tell that it was hard for him and I forgot how to use my voice for a second. I hadn’t expected him to apologize so easily.
“I-uh… I’m sorry too,” I forced out. “I’m sure you’re a good king, and you would not use you power unfairly.” I thought for a moment then decided that I should still explain what I was trying to say. “When I said that you were young I meant that as a compliment. You have accomplished a lot in such a short time…” I trailed off awkwardly. I wasn’t good with this sort of thing.
“Thanks,” he mumbled. We stood in awkward silence for what seemed like forever. I started searching desperately for a way out of there.
“Well uh…” I muttered out of sheer discomfort, I still didn’t have anything to say.
“Yeah um, I’ll see you later?” he said it like a question taking a few steps back.
“Yeah,” I said, thankful for a chance to escape. I have to be honest; he makes me a little nervous. That’s probably because I saw a glimpse of the king in him already. I turned and retreated quickly back to the room. I was stopped outside the door by the sounds of laughter coming from inside, then I remembered that Peter stayed in there after I left. I felt a little bad but I was so curious, I cracked the door open so I could hear what they were saying. I knew Keri wouldn’t mind, she would probably tell me herself what happened if I asked.
“…could not,” Peter was saying.
“I so could, I have two brothers. One is nine years older than me and the other is seven years older,” Keri explained.
“That still doesn’t mean that you could take me down,” he said, I could hear the smile in his voice. In fact I’m sure that they both had huge grins.
“Wanna bet?” she asked and I could hear movement and I guessed that she had stood up.
“Fine, bring it,” Peter laughed and it sounded like he stood as well. There was a second of silence then…
CRASH
There was a thud followed by what sounded like wood breaking. I burst through the door but I stopped in my tracts and doubled over in laughter. They were lying on the floor with splintered wood all around them. She had tackled him and they had fallen through an end table. They didn’t notice that I was there because of how hard they were laughing. Keri was still lying halfway on top of Peter from her tackle. He still had one arm absentmindedly wrapped around her waist. God I wish I had a camera, wait, I do! I ran over to our clothes that we had worn here and pulled out my phone, I ran back and snapped a few pictures while they still didn’t notice I was there.
“Fucker! Give me that!” I looked up from checking the quality of the pictures to find Keri scrambling off of Peter and coming at me. I stopped her with my right arm and held the phone way out with my left. I knew she didn’t really want it, otherwise I would be on the floor as well, she probably just wanted to see what they had looked like.
“What is this,” I heard from my other side and felt the phone get tugged out of my hand. Peter turned it over and over examining it closely. Ah, 1943. I wonder if Keri knows that. I glanced at her and saw that she did, she looked concerned.
“Should we tell them about it?” she whispered so only I could hear.
“I don’t see why not,” I whispered back. She thought for another second then shrugged.
“It’s a cell phone. It’s a telephone but it doesn’t use a chord and does… a lot of other things. It can take pictures, get you information from a… world wide network, and play music,” she explained.
“Well mine doesn’t play music,” I said. “Show him yours, it’s a touch screen.” She went to get her phone and handed it to him. He handed mine back without ever taking his eyes off hers. He held it gingerly and she touched the screen to make a side panel scroll out as a demonstration. He almost dropped it in surprise as it vibrated in his hand. He poked the screen lightly and grinned as he made a menu pop up. He continued to make menu after menu pop up until noise erupted from the little speaker. He almost dropped it, I couldn’t blame him, it was surprisingly loud. It was a song I had heard a few times, I recognized the voice of the person singing as Bruce Springsteen.
“What the… is this what you call music?” he asked. I waited for her to freak out on him; she loved that singer with a passion.
“Yes, he came around thirty years after you. Though this song came out in 2005,” she explained.
“Radio Nowhere,” I finally said. I knew I knew the name, but the song had just gotten to the chorus giving me an aid.
“Huh?” Peter asked looking confused.
“That’s the name of the song,” I said. “Right?” I asked Keri.
“Yup. I’m impressed,” she said and laughed. He eventually figured out how to stop the music and handed it back.
“Here, I don’t want to mess up anything,” he said with a smile.
“You were doing just fine,” Keri said as she took the phone.
“Well thanks. Anyway I’d better go see if Ed is feeling better about life,” he said and gave a small wave as he backed out of the room. Keri closed the door behind him and turned to face me.
“Let me see,” she said practically bouncing with excitement. I knew it. I handed over my phone and she scrolled through it until she found the picture. As she looked at it her face turned steadily redder and she couldn’t keep the grin off of her face.
“You two looked really cute,” I said.
“So how did it go with Edmund?” she asked, trying to get the attention off of her.
“Fine. We both apologized but… that was the most awkward silence after that I had ever been involved in,” I said. She finally took her eyes of the phone to look at me.
“Really?” she asked giving me an odd look.
“Yeah, why?” I asked slowly. She gave me a smile; I knew she was hiding something from me.
“Nothing, I just wish that you two would get along,” she said. Liar.
“Well you and Peter are getting along enough for all of us,” I said shifting the attention back to her, causing her to blush again.
“Whatever, he’s just a nice person,” she said with a shrug. I rolled my eyes but left it, she would never accept that he could like her. We just hung around in the room for the rest of the day, specifically not talking about either of the boys. However, Keri kept spacing out, like she always does, and I knew she was thinking about Peter. I caught myself thinking a few times about Edmund, and how he apologized even though it was clearly hard for him. I guess that shows that he’s a good king.
“Hey Kristi?” Keri asked as we lay in bed that night.
“Huh?”
“Do you think we’ll ever get back?” she asked finally voicing what we had both been wondering since we got here.
“I honestly don’t know,” I whispered into the darkness.