Lily walked in front of me as we left the throne room. My step mother had taken my little brother back to his room to have a bath.

  Lily was walking quickly, fiddling with her hands which hung just above her hip. Her anxiety was written all over her face. Even though it was over, talking to my parents was over, she still seemed nervous.

  I thought it was partly my step mothers fault. She was trying to make her insecure on purpose. My step mother wasn’t a bad person, but she could be rude and bossy at times. As soon as she got to know Lily personally, I was sure she’ll love her, just like she loved me and my brother.

  I jogged up beside her, gently putting my hand on her shoulder, feeling the softness of her pretty dress touch my palm.

  “Hey. You did great. And now, you get to be my very own coronation hall decorator!” I attempted to cheer her up, just to see her shining smile.

  She gave me a smile. Not a genuine one though. It was easy to tell. It was quite simple to read her, for me at least.

  “Come,” I said, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the castle, leaving her with no expnation. She didn’t even question me, so I continued on, walking through the castle's courtyard. Our feet both made quiet crunching sounds in the grass, mine more than hers since my shoes were ft.

  I took her to the sparring arena. She looked up when our shoes made louder crunching sounds as we stepped into the sand. She gnced at the wooden swords, and the real swords. I went for the wooden swords, since it would be dangerous to use the real ones if she wasn’t professionally trained. I tossed her a wooden sword, which she caught perfectly at the grip. I shot her a smile, which she gave one back too. A real one.

  And so we started. We sparred, hearing the wood clunk against each other over and over again.

  I can’t even expin what happened. I was too focused on her. On her and the fun we were having. She was smiling, ughing even. She squinted her eyes when she was focusing on trying to defend herself from me or trying to attack me. Basically the whole time. The wrinkles on her forehead appeared with her squinting eyes. Cute.

  After about an hour, we both colpsed and sat on the grass after putting the swords away, breathing heavily and wiping away the sweat on our foreheads. She ughed and so did I. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. Breathed in the fresh air. Opened my eyes again and looked at the blue blue sky. Then my eyes found her again. She had copied me, looking up at the sky.

  I wished, at that moment, that I could be stuck in time. I would watch her forever, breathing in the cold air, scanning each feature on her face.

  I love my Lily Rose.