"What are you doing here?" I asked Eddie, only opening the door with the chain still on it.
"I am sorry to say I have been tardy in my explanation," Eddie said carefully. "It is my fault that all this mess is going on. Won't you let me in?"
"Is it okay for a prince?" I replied sarcastically, opening the door wide. Although I had gotten the proof that nothing had been going on with them, I still didn't like him. Before he came along she and I had been fine. We never had that extra tension.
"If it's okay for Mia, then yes, it is fine for me." He sat down on my futon in the living room.
"Take a seat," I said with a sigh. "What do you want?"
"I want to extend my sincerest apologies."
"Cut the formal shit would ya?" I said, walking into the kitchen for a beer.
"Fine. Look, I'll be straight with ya. When I first met her, sure I had a crush on her. But then she started talking about you and how great you were and I got over it, within like minutes of meeting her. I think she is a very beautiful girl and she's my best friend, but nothing else.And yes, I'll admit this much, I do have some non-platonic feelings for her. But they are not anything like you feel for her. Nothing like she feels for you. I would never do anything to ruin your relationship, not purposely. I aspire to have a relationship like you guys have. To have someone look at me like she looks at you. To have someone light up at the mere mention of me.

" She's been a real good friend here. Back home I didn't have very much experience in what being a friend is. Everyone would stab one another in the back. She kept my secret because she...she told me that you kept her secret last year and she respected you for that. And I respect that as well.
"She was a confidant for me. She was the only person in the whole world that knew what it was like to be royal...even if she did find out about the royal status so late. She didn't have all those stupid European nobility ideas in her head. She listened to me when I had complaints about royalty and I was able to teach her a few things about guys."
"Oh?" I asked, interested officially peaked.
"She's been doing something for you, I can't tell you what it is, but I had to help her. That is why she's been hanging out with me so much. She talk about you so much...she really does love you, Michael. Please believe me."
I don't know why, but I really believed him. "So why didn't she tell me about the video then?" I demanded.
"What video? Ohhh, for Lilly?"
"Yeah."
He laughed, "Because that was just us goofing around and doing Lilly a favor. We didn't even talk about it afterwards. It wasn't a big deal. She actually asked Lilly to have you come do the video with her. But you were busy so Lilly just asked me to do it for her one Friday afternoon."
I glared at him. Trying to decide whether or not he was telling the truth. And I don't know why, but I believed him. "Fine."
"Fine? You'll talk to her again?"
"I need some time still. I can't deal with her this week though. I have my finals."
"Michael..."
"But the masque."
"Yeah?"

MIA:
I had asked Eddie to talk to Michael for me, but he told me that Michael wasn't home. Oh well, didn't hurt to try, right?
I twirled the ring Michael gave me around my finger. No other ring would ever mean as much as this one did. He designed it for me for I had always thought we'd be together. Maybe we could eventually. Maybe Mom was right, that he'd come around in his own time.
I got out of school early on the Thursday of the masque. I was getting some crazy stuff done to my hair (Grandmere expected hair extensions and stuff, I thought I'd look kind of silly).
"You look... nice," Mom said. She was with me at Grandmere's suite in the Plaza. She looked so out of place. Not that she wasn't good enough for the Plaza, but now my two separate worlds were colliding. They are supposed to be separate. Too much stress.
"We are getting wonderful press for this masque!" Grandmere said excitedly. "They are re-broadcasting the interview of you, Amelia, from September. This is such wonderful news. Such great press!" she said as she took another sip of her sidecar.
I looked at the clock. I was scheduled to enter the masque at seven. Eddie and I agreed to be one another's 'dates', since I had no boyfriend and Tina wasn't considered the proper escort for a prince (being all non C
I was in a bad mood. "Stop making faces," the make up artist said.
"Who is going to be looking at my makeup?" I demanded. "I mean, I have a mask, for heaven's sake."
"Mia, it's part of your mask," my mom said, looking up from her magazine. "And keep quiet. You'll wake up your brother."
"Sorry."
The makeup artist looked surprised that my mother would be talking to me like this. I am sure that he would be going to the press about how my mother still scolds me, although I am the princess of a small country.
"I hear Eddie's mask is very detailed," Mom said, looking at the clock.
"Oh have you seen it?" I asked. He had been talking about it all week.
"Yeah. Very manly," she said with a wink.
"Oh please, MOTHER."
"He has a lion mask," she said. "And the poor boy...he lost his voice entirely."
My face fell. Lions made me think of Michael and his crazy mane. "Oh."
"You won't even recognize him."
"Mom, I think that is the point."

I stepped into my gown a little while later. My mask was pretty elaborate so my dress was fairly simple. Well, compared to the big ball gowns I've worn before. This one was pure white with a wide open front. Sebastino liked to celebrate the fact that I now have breasts, and wanted the whole world to know it, or at least it seemed that way to me. The dress itself had glitter and a few hundred sprinkled diamonds on it. "Grandmere, do you honestly trust me with something so...expensive?"
"Pfuit, money is no object. We are now in the public eye. Having you come out as a princess has given Genovia so much exposure. I am happy we have had you go tanning these past few weeks. Otherwise you would have looked drab in this."
She was right about that. My skin tone did definitely make the dress stick out more. Who cared if I looked like a Lana clone? But then I remembered something Michael had told me. That I would never look like Lana, that she'd always be a Mia Clone. I smiled at that memory.
I didn't finish describing the dress though. It went all the way down to the ground...on the sides. The middle of the dress had a high slit. It went just as high as a mini skirt would. It was tasteful though. After all, like Grandmere said, I am in the public eye. I have to make good showings at these things. But when she told me to lose a few pounds I stopped her. I told her that I was comfortable with how I looked. That I wanted to project a healthy body image to the girls out there.
But the whole point of the masque was that no one would know who one another was. I liked this. Anonymity was unknown to me now. This was a whole new experience for me. Although, I am sure by the dress I was wearing most would be able to tell who I was.
I loved the gown Grandmere was going to wear. She had chosen a French Revolutionary inspired masque with a matching dress. It was a wine red color. She was wearing a wig with some really elaborate curls. "You look wonderful, Grandmere," I complimented.
She didn't make any expression. Her makeup caused her face to harden. Dad and I teased her a little bit. I was really glad that our relationship was almost friendly now. She had lightened up quite a bit. This was shocking to most, of course, because she was still quite scary. In private though, we were able to joke and tease a little bit.
"What was that Mother?" Dad asked, teasing.
She took out a pen and wrote: "STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!!!"
"Dad, she'll kill you if you keep bugging her. And she can do that now that I am an available heir."
He laughed. "You look beautiful, Mia."
"Thanks Dad. Mom should be coming out soon with Mr. G."
His face dropped, "Of course. How are they doing these days?"
Now that I knew the real story behind their break up I kind of felt bad for him. I bet he hadn't fallen out of love with her. "They're good. She designed their masques. They are sooo funky. He's a court jester and she's a princess. I am glad I don't look like that though..."
Mom and Mr. G appeared. She had a pink and purple mask that covered only half of her face. Pink ribbons made up her 'hair'. "You look beautiful, Helen," my dad said.
Mr. G put his hand on my mother's hip, "He's right, you do," he said softly to her. Aw, that goofy looking bastard was a good guy. Too bad he had come along...maybe my parents would have gotten back together...but then Rocky would never have been born. Okay, so it's good that they didn't get back together.

"Doesn't our daughter look beautiful?" Dad asked Mom. I looked at Mr. G's face. He looked kind of out of place. I mean, my mom produced me with Dad so she HAD to be there. Plus, it must be wicked weird to be standing in the same room with the man that your wife almost married. That she had sex with and produced a baby.

Mom smiled softly at Dad. "Yes, she does look beautiful, Phillippe." I never noticed how they looked at one another before. Like there was a secret longing still there. Maybe Mr. G noticed this and that was why he felt weird.

"This mask she's wearing reminds me of that Halloween-"

"I was a butterfly and you were a coccoon!" my mom said laughing.

"And you lost your wings when we-" Dad cut himself off after Mr. G and Grandmere started staring pointedly.

Mom stepped back and her smile faded. "So, Mia..."

I started twiddling my thumbs behind my back and tried to pretend I never noticed the weird trip down memory lane for Mom and Dad. "I really wish I didn't have this stupid mask permanantly attached to my face."

My mom distracted herself from Dad's face by paying extra attention to showing me how easy it was to remove my mask (I can't even begin to explain my mask to you because tro be honest, I hardly understand how it is staying on my face).

After she finished fixing my hair she went back to Mr. G. He put his hands on her waist and started telling her one of his lame jokes. I love the guy, but he can't tell a real joke.

I frowned though. I used to love how Michael would put his hand on my waist so easily. Showing the world that I was his, and only his. And now...well, I guess I was my own, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, right?

Grandmere sent me out on my own. I had never done this before. Going out on my own, that is. Back in the summer Dad had brought me into all of the functions. Tonight I am all on my own. Well, Eddie was supposed to be with me but he's been out of sight. He hadn't answered his cell phone all day.
I looked for Eddie. Mom had said he had a lion's masque on. Some people recognized me and bowed slightly. I think they all respected that I was trying to keep a low profile.
Then I spotted him.