The Princess and the Pauper

So I’m used to being treated like a princess. I look like a celebrity, thanks to all the fashions that designers just sent us (my daddy’s a rich music producer so I get to go to all the Hollywood events to represent him, though I stay out of the limelight so that I can go to private school). Plus I’m a platinum blonde, and you know gentlemen prefer them.1

Tonight I’m having a party. You know, just one of those run-of-the-mill unlimited credit card live band gourmet dinner valet parking type deals. The house is absolutely spic and span thanks to our foreign maids.2

Absolutely everyone is going to be here. Mommy and Daddy left for the weekend and they said I could do whatever I want, so I decided to have a party. No one misses them, no matter how short the notice.3

Nicky, my BFF, came over first. She drove her brand new Porsche that was an early graduation present. She’s almost as rich as me, but a lot less pretty. That’s fine with me, since I’m used to girl’s being less pretty than me. Probably why so many of them hate me while they love me.4

I decided to wear a red dress, short of course, and I put it on after blow-drying my hair and putting on makeup. I would look better than everyone. I always did.5

About an hour into the party, I made my grand entrance, smiling and waving at all the little peons below me. All the girls looked a little less confident when I walked in, which pleased me a lot.6

I felt someone grab me around the waist from behind and spin me around while I screamed. The person finally set me down, and I saw that it was Jake from school, the very hot, very taken quarterback. At least, he was taken when he wasn’t around me. Let’s just saw I can make any guy a single man, at least long enough to get me out of my dress.7

The moment I turned around, he was planting one on me, a rough, hungry kiss. He was always one of my favorite kissers.8

When he pulled back, I giggled my perfect, man-killer giggle. “My god, Jake, with PDA like that your little girlfriend might notice!”9

“Oh, let her notice,” he said, kissing me again as I locked my arms around his neck. He locked his extremely ripped arms around me and pulled me closer, then pulled back to talk confidentially in my ear. “Why won’t you be my girlfriend?”10

“Oh Jakey-pie,” I cooed back, “I am every man’s woman.”11

“My favorite,” he growled playfully, and pretended to gnaw on my neck as I giggled again.12

“Oh Jake, you are just an animal aren’t you?”13

“You change me into one, Kristin. An animal that wants you,” he said, and I giggled again as he kissed my neck.14

Over Jake’s incredibly burly shoulder, I spotted something that absolutely did NOT belong anywhere near my house, let alone at any party I was hosting.15

“Excuse me for a second,” I said suddenly to Jake, and he knew better than to argue.16

I walked to the breathing blasphemy (I like to look up things in the thesaurus so I sound more intimidating), glaring coldly. In his ten dollar jeans, plain t-shirt, Legend of Zelda jacket and roughed up sneakers, he sat, talking to one of the desperate girls trying hard to flirt. Amateur. She was a dog anyway, and he wasn’t much better.17

I stepped between them, putting on a sweet expression. “Hello kids, excuse the interruption, but I need to steal him for just a minute.” I smiled innocently at the girl, and she left quickly, taking a few cautious steps backward as if running from a rattlesnake. I then grabbed the abomination’s sleeve and yanked him out the front door, shutting it behind me.18

“What the hell are YOU doing at my party?” I asked icily, my voice still at a normal level, though icy enough to freeze the blood in your veins. It had happened before. “What makes you think that you belong with any of these people? They BREATHE more expensive air than you, boy! Some nerd does not belong at this party, let alone ANYWHERE near this house! You know, I can call security on you!”19

He stared at me a moment through his thick, black rimmed glasses. I was sure he was blind without them, since they made his eyes all huge and alien-y, but his staring was less about wonder and more about confusion. Usually geeks like him were hyperventilating by now.20

“Don’t have that guy beat me up, okay, I’m sorry,” he finally said.21

He’s sorry? What the…? “Good,” was all I could think to say. He just looked at me for a minute, and the way he looked at me wasn’t hungry or lusty; it was more like he was looking into my soul, trying to figure out who I really was under all the makeup and the diamonds. It amazed me so much that I found myself staring back.22

He wasn’t so bad, I suppose. He was actually kind of cute, in a tall, awkward kind of way, if you ignored the dorky haircut and the clothes and the glasses. He had a nice, natural blonde hair color, however dorky the sloppy, cheap haircut was. And his eyes were deep brown, kind of mesmerizing in a weird kind of way.23

“What’s your name?” he finally asked, and his voice was surprisingly deep and soothed my nerves for some reason.24

“Kristin,” I found myself answering, my voice not it’s usual purr that I had adopted once I realized it made guys crazy. It was just me.25

“That’s a nice name,” he remarked quietly, almost to himself.26

“Well, what’s yours?” I asked suddenly. I wondered why I was interested. The usual guys I liked usually beat these types of guys up.27

“Kevin.”28

I smiled, but once I realized it I stopped myself. I felt myself getting jittery and nervous, and I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. Gross.29

“You look like you’re going to faint or something,” Kevin said, his voice tinged with the slightest worry. No other guy would have noticed.30

“I’m kind of lightheaded, actually. Don’t know why.” I wasn’t pretending for the sake of getting attention, for once in my life. I really was lightheaded.31

“Sit down and put your head between your knees, it helps me when I get dizzy.”32

I briefly wondered how often that happened, because the way he said it implied that it happened a lot.33

“This is a five-hundred and seventy-eight dollar dress,” I reminded him. He didn’t look surprised.34

He took off his sweatshirt and set it on one of the marble steps. The gesture was so inhumanly sweet that I nearly cried. I actually teared up a little, and I was glad I had my head between my knees. The sweatshirt was warm and soft.35

He sat down beside me. “Is it helping?” he asked softly.36

It was. “Yeah.”37

“Good.”38

“Hey Kevin?” I asked after a few minutes.39

“Yeah?”40

“Why are you being so nice to me after I was such a bitch to you? I mean, like a gentleman, not just like scared-of-me nice.”41

“Because you seem like someone who just needs someone to be her real friend.”42

“I have friends,” I defended, pointing toward the house.43

“Yeah, but do they take off their sweatshirts for you to sit on when you’re getting lightheaded?”44

“I don’t get lightheaded very often.”45

“I’m using that hypothetically.” What did that mean? “Would that guy in there that was kissing on you take off his precious letterman jacket for you to sit on?” He said ‘precious’ in a mocking tone.46

He raised a good point. I shook my head.47

“That’s not a real friend, and it’s definitely not someone who deserves you.”48

“I don’t know what I deserve,” I said quietly, putting my head up. I laid back on the sweatshirt, and Kevin laid down too, still a safe distance away from me.49

“You deserve someone who is going to treat you like he loves you, not just like you’re some sex kitten, excuse my boldness, that he wants to have his way with.”50

I liked Kevin. In fact, weirdly enough, I think that the butterflies in my stomach and the lightheadedness and the warmth that came over me were all signs trying to tell me that I was falling in love with him very quickly. I didn’t care that he was a nerd. I didn’t care that his glasses made him look like his eyes were twenty times too big for his head. I didn’t care that he didn’t have buff arms or perfect teeth. He was the first guy to talk to me like I was a person for as long as I could remember.51

And that started the waterworks. There went my hour of makeup.52

Kevin sat up quickly as the tears leaked down out of the corners of my eyes and into my hair. He immediately panicked. “What’s wrong? I’m sorry about what I said, it was j-”53

“No, no, it’s not you. Well it is, but not in the way that you think,” I sniffed, sitting up. I wiped my cheeks off, only for them to be coated again seconds later. “I’ve never had anyone talk to me like this before.”54

“I’m sorry, I’ll shut up.”55

“No, no, I don’t want you to. I like it. I just never realized what I was missing. You‘re the first person in my whole life to talk to me like…I don‘t know, talk to me like I‘m human rather than some goddess, you know? Like, someone who isn’t all powerful and actually has a thought or two in her head.” 56

I laughed at myself, and hid my face in my hands, trying to calm myself down, and sighed. He patted my bare shoulder gently, as if he was scared I’d slap him or something., and his hand was warm.57

“Kevin?” I asked, my hands still over my face.58

“Hmm?”59

I looked over at him. I was pretty sure I had fixed my eyeliner decently enough and gotten the mascara off my cheeks. “Do you want to go for a walk? With me, I mean.”60

“If you want me to.”61

He stood, holding out his hand to help me up, and I accepted. I took my Christian Louboutin heels off and set them on the porch.62

“You don’t want to go in and get other shoes?” Kevin asked, a little surprised.63

“Believe it or not, I love being barefoot. No one really knows that.”64

“Oh. Cool.”65

I never thought that I would appreciate being called cool by such a nerd.66

We walked down the long driveway, through the automatic gate and past the dozens of cars that lined the streets, and made a right. “I don’t really know where I’m going. I never do this.”67

“Why not?”68

“My parents say that a girl of my status shouldn’t walk anywhere. I think I should be able to walk however I want.”69

It was a beautiful night. The moon was full and there was no wind at all.70

“You’re a lot different than I thought you would be, Kristin.” Kevin spoke after a few minutes of silence.71

“I’m a lot different than I thought I would be too,” I said, “if that made any sense.”72

He laughed, and snorted, then covering his mouth, embarrassed. “Sorry.”73

I laughed, and he smiled, reassured.74

We walked in silence, through the neighborhood filled with huge houses, and my hand brushed against his. Apparently he didn’t know that cue, which didn’t surprise me, so I made it a little more obvious.75

He got beet red when our hands finally met, and I smiled, happy. My hand was very small compared to his, but it fit nicely.76

“I like you, Kevin.” I said after a minute, and he stopped walking, so I stopped too. He stared at me in shock.77

“You… like me? In what context of the word?”78

“What do you think I was holding your hand for?”79

“I don’t know, to keep creepy guys from bugging you?”80

I almost laughed, remembering his skinny arms. “No. You treat me like a person.”81

“I… wow.”82

“Believe me, it’s as surprising to me as it is to you.”83

“So… so you want me to say something back, right?”84

This whole girl thing was probably very new to him, I gathered. “That’s usually customary.”85

“Well I… to tell you the truth…” he hesitated, going beet red again.86

“What? You can say it.”87

He chuckled to himself. “Well, I, uh… I um…”88

“Come on, please!” I begged, smiling.89

“I’ve actually liked you since freshman year. I thought you were a bitch, yeah, but I bet to myself that you were pretty under all that makeup, you know, naturally, but that it had gone to your head. You really surprised me tonight.”90

“I guess we were both only seeing with our eyes, then.”91

“Yeah, I guess we were.”92

His eyes locked with mine for a moment, and he smiled really cute, kind of shy and confused and amazed all at the same time, so I kissed his cheek gently, quickly. I didn’t want to take it fast with him.93

“Will you… wow. Um, will you…”94

“Yes?” I prompted, smiling hopefully.95

“I'm going out on a limb here, but will you, um… be my uh…. Be my girlfriend?”96

I could tell that was the first time he’d ever said that to a real person.97

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah.”98

This was definitely breaking stereotype. I, the princess, the most popular girl in school, had met this total geek at my party and ended up going out with him after knowing him for about fifteen minutes. Hell, at least I could make him look fantastic socially- he was, after all, the first request I hadn’t turned down for the sake of being single and unattached- and he could show me the world through his eyes, through the eyes of the person I longed to be but that he could see as soon as he spoke to me.99

I was the princess, and he was the pauper, but under the full moon, with a grip on his hand and his grip on mine and the smiles that I knew we both had plastered across our faces, I couldn’t care less.