Hello Hello Hello. How are you guys? Long time no see! Here is the WAY overdue Chapter 6! In this chapter something big happens... Guy I am deeply sorry about these sparse chapters. I have so many things going on, and I know that that is no excuse but its just bad reasoning... All I know is that I hope to be uploading a lot more because I have a lot of fun ideas for this story and I hope that you guys will stick around for the ride :)

Alex

October 9th

…

Everyone has their group of friends, you know, the people that they always hang out with. Well, I have my own group of friends just like everyone else. Tyler, Lucas, Sam, Pierson, Ray, Jarsen, and Zander.

Tyler is the jokester. He has about a million April fools pranks up his sleeve and you never know when you'll be the next victim of his pranks. He is somewhat tall but extremely lanky, his face kind of reminds me of Peter the Great from Russia. (The Czar that brought Russia out of the dark ages and into westernization? Yeah, that's him.) He has short brown hair and he takes like fifteen minutes to make sure that it is perfect every. Single. Day.

Lucas is the musician of the group, in fact, his name just sounds like the name of a famous singer. 'Hey are you going to that Lucas Carpenter concert?' His music is like that grunge kind of depressing kind. He's the happiest guy that you'll ever meet but his music is just so damn sad. Lucas is about average height and his black hair is pretty long. When I first met him, he had these glasses that made him look like a stock market mogul from the 20th century. A couple years ago, he decided that the glasses weren't adding anything good to his 'image' so he opted for some contacts and BOOM, about a hundred more girls were all over him and his guitar named Francesca.

Sam is the mysterious one of the group. Mysterious but sensitive. He has an older brother named Dean that stops by every so often to check up on him. Sam is a pre-Law kid and let me tell you, he is a genius. He scored a 174 on the Law exam and that is almost unheard of. Sam's a tall and muscular dude, he has long brown hair and he doesn't style it but for some reason it always looks like the perfect combination of the 'I-just-crawled-out-of-bed' look and the 'don't-touch-my-hair-it-took-me-three-hours' look. Whenever I ask him where he and Dean run off to, he just says that he goes on hunting trips. Sam doesn't own a lick of camo and he never comes back with meat. Also, his brother drives a 1967 Chevy impala, not some sort of truck that is usually used for hunting. But it's whatever, Sam's a cool dude and he has his head on straight.

Pierson is obviously on of my best friends, he is the guy that took me under his wing my freshman year and I can't thank him enough for that. He is crazy and wild but underneath his party-animal skin, he is a really nice guy. Since he is older than me, he can get me into all the crazy frat-parties and clubs that we like. Pierson is basically the older brother who teaches you how to do all the bad stuff around three years before you're legal to do them… If my mom knew that she would shoot me, but anyways, Pierson is a business major and he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life. All he knows is that he wants to make money… How? Well, don't ask him because he doesn't know.

Ray is just like his name sounds; he is a genuinely nice guy (We call him a 'Ray' of sunshine). I don't think I have ever seen a person that is more smiley than he is. The guys and I wondered if he was gay when we first met him, but once we saw his girlfriend, Naomi, we decided that maybe we should be as nice as Ray because maybe we could find someone as awesome as Naomi… (Reagan is better in my opinion, but Naomi is so sweet). Ray came here last year, so he is one year older than I am, but he and I are really close. Naomi and Reagan are friends so we always find ourselves paying on our double dates. Ray is a technology major and someday he wants to work at the palace to be in charge of security. Maybe I should introduce him to Emma… Anyways, Ray is hands down the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

Troy: the collegiate athlete, the 4.0 grade point average-er, the 'my-hair-is-always-perfect-even-though-I never-touch-it'. Troy is a 6'4" man. I say man because he isn't an adolescent, he isn't a boy, he is a man. Troy has a chiseled jaw line and his dark brown hair and he always has girls swooning over him. A couple days ago, I saw him in the cafeteria walking with Ray and a girl asked him to grab a ketchup packet from the top shelf of the condiments area. He smiled and gave her one, the usual Troy way, and when he turned around, she looked so light headed and she almost fainted. Troy is the type of guy that looks like a douche bag but when you get to know him, he is really chill and fun to be around. Our friend group wouldn't be the same without Troy… He is what makes our group look a thousand times more attractive. I saw him a few weeks ago walking around with Emma, he looked so happy, I hope that they work out because he deserves someone as nice as her.

….

The guys and I decided that every week we should have a night where we just play video games, drink beer, and turn off our phones. Usually it's every Wednesday night, unless we have an exam or something in the morning, but tonight, it's just game night.

We all take turns bringing in different foods, tonight I'm in charge of the pizza, Troy is getting chips and dips, Ray is grabbing the candy that we are going to gamble with, Sam's brother offered to buy the beer, Jaxon is bringing the games over, and Lucas has all the music.

The phone rings and a voice picks up.

"Eight Slice Pizzeria, My name is Cassie, how can I help you?"

I answer, "Hi, I'd like to order four large pizzas. Two meat-lovers and two cheese."

"What's the name for the order?"

"Alex Payne."

"The Address?"

"Uh—Rhodes Apartment Complex. Just leave it at the front door."

"Okay, your order will be ready in about forty-five minutes."

"Thanks."

The line goes dead and I text the boys that the pizzas are ordered.

I'm about to walk back into the living room when there's a knock on the door. Turning around, I can faintly hear crying trough the wooden entrance. I open the door.

"Emma?" I say surprised to see the crying princess at my door.

She looks up and her brown eyes are filled with tears and her face is red and blotchy.

I grab her hand and pull her into my apartment. She starts crying harder and harder, it breaks my heart to see her like this and in so much pain. I hug her tight and just let her cry into my shoulder. Her shoulder shake each time she lets out a sob and her breathing is staggered because she can never fully capture a solid breath. I don't try to talk to her, I just hold her until she is stable

She squeezes her arms around my waist and she just keeps sobbing into my chest. I want to ask her what is wrong so badly but I don't want her to have to relive anything.

I don't want her in pain.

She doesn't seem to want to move, so I pick her up and walk over to the couch. I sit her down and hug her again. She continues to sob and cry into my shoulder. My shirt is soaked with her tears, but at this point I don't care because she is letting it out.

Finally after what seemed like forever, the gut-wrenching sobs turn into whimpers and shakes.

"Emma?" I timidly ask, "Tell me. Tell me what happened."

She lifts her head off my shoulder and her eyes are red and puffy. Her lips are chapped and her hair is a mess. Her face is red and splotchy and she is trembling.

"It's – It's my b-best friend." She says, "She's in critical condition and she isn't looking good."

The tears start to drip down her face but she doesn't start crying. She is too weak to start sobbing.

"Who?" I ask, trying to get her to tell me more of the story.

She wipes her eyes, "I-Isabella, s-she's the princess of I-Italy."

I grab the tissue box off of the side table next to the couch and I hand it to her.

"Tell me more." I say to her, "Tell me about what she is like."

For a second, I swear I can see her smile.

"She's the funniest person you'll ever meet. She is caring and nice and she would do anything to make the world a better place." She blows her nose in the tissue, "I remember one time, when we were young, we would run around the palace and terrorize my brother. He hated it, but I think that he secretly love the attention."

We both chuckle, and her eyes brighten. Everything seems to be looking up.

"She's in the hospital because she was hit by a drunk driver." She stops smiling. "She was driving home from a gala and out of nowhere a car just hits her. She in a coma now and they're not sure that she will wake up." She starts to pick apart the tissue in her hands.

I sit there and wait for words to come to me, but no miracle epiphanies happen. Emmalina is a tall and strong woman, she walks into a room and everyone stops what they're doing because her presence is so powerful.

But looking at her right now, sitting on my couch, she looks so small. She looks so weak. She looks so hopeless.

"Emma, she will wake up." I say with as much sincerity as I can. "If she is a friend of yours then I know that she is a fighter. Fighters don't give up." The tears well up in her eyes.

"You're a fighter, Em." I whisper.

Her shoulders shake, "I'm a fighter," she whispers back.

A knock breaks the silence in the room.

I walk over to the door and I open it.

"Hey man!" Troy is there holding the pizzas and the chips and dips, "The receptionist had the pizzas, I thought that I'd save you a trip and just bring them up for you… Dude what's up with your shirt?"

I look down and I see all the wet spots from where Emma has been crying.

I look back up at Troy and say, "Hey man, you might want to see her." I watch his eyes drift from me to the couch behind me. His happy-go-lucky attitude is replaced with a protective stare. I grab the food from him and almost instantly he jogs over to Emma.

"Hey baby," I hear him say. She starts crying harder and I can hear him comforting her. A pain stings at my chest. I quickly dismiss it because I know that it's only because Emma is hurting.

I've always been an empathetic freak. I hate seeing people in pain or depressed , all I want to do is switch places with them and take on their burden. It's always been a problem because it physically makes me uncomfortable and it hurts to see others like that. I have no clue why I chose to go into the medical field because obviously I have a problem with people in pain.

I walk into the kitchen with the pizzas and something hurts. Something hurts because I hate to see Emma in this much pain. I hope Isabella recovers because I don't know what I would do if I lost someone who I was that close too.

…

Troy and I finally got Emma to calm down and she ended up joining in on game night. She absolutely destroyed us in Mario Kart. She was that person who chose to play rainbow road. There's this taboo around Rainbow Road, especially when you're a guy… Like it doesn't look right if you choose to play it. On the other hand, Rainbow Road is like the best track on the game. I think that all the guys were relieved when Emma wanted to play it.

Who knew that the princess of Illea would be so cool to hang out with?

"Emma," Pierson asks, "Did you play Mario Kart at the palace?"

Her eyes don't leave the TV when she shakes her head, "Nah, Andrew and I weren't really allowed to play video games and stuff. Mom and Dad didn't want us to play online and have people realize our identities and then try to sabotage the palace via Minecraft or whatever."

She then proceeds to beat Tyler, Zander, and Sam by almost nine seconds. Their faces droop instantly as they realize that they just got their asses kicked by a princess. An actual princess.

But this princess isn't Princess Peach. She's badass. She's sarcastic and funny. She's not arrogant about her title, she hates it. She doesn't feel entitle to anything, she wants to work for it. She doesn't think that everyone will love her because of the family she was born in, she thinks that people like other people by the things they do and how they portray themselves. She is the most real person I have met, but she is also like a dream.

I throw my head back in laughter at their failed attempt to win and I say, "Guys, and Emma, pizzas in the kitchen if ya'll want any."