Page 34 of His Princess

Matthew

My heart stops beatingfor a moment when I see Piper over Betty’s shoulder. I know exactly how this looks and if I were her, I’d be furious right now too.

“I can explain…” I try to shove Betty out of my way, my eyes never leaving Piper’s face. She just shakes her head at me and glares, all that hurt turning into seething anger.

She doesn’t realize that I haven’t done anything wrong, in her mind she must be thinking the worst of me. That much is evident by the unmasked betrayal and heartbreak on her pretty face. I need to tell her that what she thinks is happening here isn’t what it looks like, that it’s just some stupid cow throwing herself at me. It stings that could think I would do this to her, but I can’t blame her for that either. I’ve been holding back, allowing my demons to keep me from embracing my feelings for her. If I had told her the truth, if I hadn’t hesitated, afraid to accidentally hurt her, we wouldn’t be in this mess. This is my fault and I have to make it right!

Betty clings to me, laughing cruelly at Piper. “Sorry honey, looks like I got here first…”

Anger grabs hold of me. How dare this tramp speak to her like that? My patience has run out, I grab her firmly by the arms and physically shove her out of my way.

“Hey jack off, take it easy!” She protests. “Why the fuck are you giving into that uptight little bitch’s drama anyway? I’m all the woman you need, soldier boy.”

By now Piper has disappeared out the door. I have a powerful urge to whirl around and set Betty straight, to tell her that Piper is worth more than a thousand skanky women combined. If I had the time I’d do just that, but catching up to Piper so I can tell her what really happened is far more important than wasting my breath on a drunk twit.

I burst out of the locker room, very nearly bowling my poor mother over. “Matty! Goodness!” She puts a hand on her chest and takes a deep breath. “So that’s where you’ve been! Everyone’s asking where you—”

“Sorry Mom, can’t talk!” I only pause long enough to squeeze her arm and make sure I didn’t hit with the door. “I got… a thing, I’ll just, I’ll be right back! Sorry!”

I dart into the horde without a second thought, dipping and spinning around everyone so that I don’t accidentally bowl anyone over. After all the trouble everyone went to it’d be pretty shitty of me to wreck my own party. It’s bad enough I’m ignoring everyone who tries to stop me a chat. To a couple I manage to shout over my shoulder that we can talk in a minute, but mostly I just work my way across the gym until I finally make it to the doors. This time I’m a little more careful exiting, but once I’m over the threshold I don’t stop moving.

Expecting to find Piper out here crying, I immediately start to panic when she’s no where in sight. “Piper!” I call down the hall, jogging to check out the intersecting hallways on the off chance that she’s in one of them. Still nothing. I don’t think my heart has ever raced this much, it’s a wonder I haven’t collapsed from a coronary! Where the fuck is she?!

I need to keep my head, so I pause, taking a slow deep breath to calm the uncomfortable knot of fear and dread that’s churning in my gut. She couldn’t have gotten that far, she was only a few seconds ahead of me. There’s a lot of places inside the school she could be. The dance classroom, maybe the garage where shop class is held? All the options whirl around in my head, making me growl out loud in frustration. By the time I search all of them she could have gotten to anywhere!

Lucky for me, I spot a guy coming up the hall and vaguely recognize him as someone I went to high school with. In my current state I can’t place a name to the face, but his name really isn’t important to me right now. I hurry up to him, grabbing his arm and demanding in a gruff voice, “did you see Piper?”

He momentarily startled, but recovers after a second and then grins when he realizes who I am. “Hey Matt, good to see you, bro. Gotta say you—”

“Piper!” I interrupt gruffly. “Did you see her on your way in or not?”

“Uhh,” he hesitates, clearly thrown off by my manner. “Piper? Yeah. Yeah! I saw her heading toward the parking lot I think… She looked kind of upset though. Is everything—”

I don’t wait for him to finish, I break into a sprint and race through the halls at breakneck speed. Any minute I expect Principle Loman to appear, grab me by the arm and cart me off to detention for running in the hallway like a Neanderthal. If the old boy were here he’d probably be quite pleased to enforce the school rules, whether I’m a graduate or not. He’d be even more pleased if he knew that the mere memory of his hard-nosed reign was enough to strike fear into a student almost half a decade later! Since he’s not here, having retired last year according to my mother, I snub the rules and put on a fresh burst of speed when I see the front door ahead.

Propelled out of the building, I don’t bother slowing my pace until I have a clear view of the parking lot. Huffing after my mad dash, I anxiously scan the area, hunting for even just a glimpse of Piper. I still don’t see her anywhere.

“Come on, baby,” I say more to myself than out of any false hope that she might hear me. “Where are you?!” I’m not ready to give up, not even close. I jog into the parking lot intending to check down every damn row and peek inside every damn car if I have to! Nothing is too drastic or too much of a hassle when it comes to putting things right between us. I don’t care what I have to go through, I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose her now!

My luck seems to be holding on by a thread. I don’t get more than a few feet down the sidewalk when Piper’s car drives by the front of the building in the direction of the exit.

“Hey, stop!” I scream, chasing after her purely on instinct. I keeping calling her name, waving frantically and hoping she’ll notice the crazy man running behind her car flailing about like an idiot! I’m so caught up desperately attempting to flag her down that I’m not paying attention to where I’m stepping. My foot hits a patch of ice and I slip, nearly tumbling to the pavement like clumsy clown in a sloppy circus act. Arms spinning I try to catch my balance and somehow manage not to end up on my ass.

The last drop of luck is gone though. By the time I recover, Piper is gone.

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