The next morning, Alix was packing, trying to figure out which of her ridiculously expensive outfits would be appropriate to bring with her.

None of them, she thought bitterly to herself. Even the suitcase laying open on top her bed was wrong. She would be arriving to help those who had lost everything, carrying a fifteen hundred dollar suitcase filled with clothing that she’d only worn once or twice.

There was a knock at her door and she rushed to answer it. She had sent Stella an SOS text, and was looking forward to seeing her. Alix had been so wrapped up in Duncan; she hadn’t realized how little she’d actually seen Stella this summer, besides their movie date weeks ago. It hadn’t bothered her before, when she wasn’t sure that she’d actually be leaving.

Alix was used to having her best friend thousands of miles away, but this was different. She wasn’t going back to school, where the worst thing that could happen was a bitchy girl or a rude teacher ruining her day. She wouldn’t be a phone call away to help her sort things out.

Stella walked in, taking in the mess. She let out a low whistle.

“Geez, Alix, what happened? Did your closet explode?” She was more concerned than she let on. Alix was the most organized person she knew. To see her so frantic, with her room a mess, was something entirely out of character.

“Duncan proposed,” Alix said in a nonchalant voice as she continued to fold clothes.

Stella sat on the bed, on top of a pile of t-shirts in varying shades of grey.

“When?”

“Last night. I went over to tell him about my placement, to say goodbye in a nice way, and we…” Alix shrugged. Stella smiled.

“Ah, these princes have a way about them, don’t they?” she said with a laugh. “I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve been mad at Anton, and then we ended up in bed…”

“What is going on with you two?” Alix asked, suddenly curious. Stella had been unusually tight-lipped about finally achieving her lifelong goal of holding Anton’s attention for more than a few days.

“Don’t try to change the subject!” Stella warned, pointing a finger accusingly. “Proposal? Hello?!”

“He just did it out of panic,” Alix assured her. “Leo is abdicating—I assume that you know?”

“Anton did mention it.”

Alix was impressed with her friend for not having called her the second she found out. She really seemed to be trying to control her gossipy ways lately.

“Well, he just wants someone to help him, like with everything else he does,” Alix said, rolling a pair of jeans in a distracted way.

“Do you love him?”

Alix shrugged.

“He’s sweeter than I expected, and smart, and funny,” she admitted. “I just don’t have room for him in my life right now.”

Stella waited to see if there was more. Alix continued to sort her clothes, not willing to admit any actual feelings.

“Did he say he loves you?” Stella tried another tactic.

“Yes,” Alix admitted. “But he just loves the idea of me, the idea of someone who actually knows what she wants—”

“Alix!” Stella interrupted, holding up her hands. “Whoa! Stop trying to talk yourself out of this. Knowing what you want and actually getting it are two different things. It’s okay to change your mind.”

Stella knew what she was talking about from recent experience. Alix finally stopped the charade of packing and sat down next to her on the bed, amidst the mountains of clothes.

“I haven’t changed my mind,” she said stubbornly. “I’m still going,”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Stella said. “Of course you’re going. But it’s the whole ‘I don’t need a man’ thing that you’ve had going on since you were like, twelve.”

Alix smiled as she remembered making a pact with Stella with words to that effect. Stella had quickly forgotten it almost as soon as she’d said it. After all, they’d been young and boys had suddenly become quite interesting, but Alix had held on to it for much longer.

“Why would it be so bad to love him?” Stella asked, putting her arm around her.

“I would have to stay,” she said. “He wants me to stay.”

“Did you ever think about asking him to go with you?”

“No. He can’t, not now that Leo is stepping down,” Alix said. “Besides, why would he do that?”

“Um, because he loves you.”

“So did my parents, and they still left me,” her voice was laced with bitterness that she hadn’t realized was there.

Stella pulled her in close.

“You know they would have been there if they could have,” Stella said. “It made me crazy, too, that you were so far away all the time.”

Alix started to cry. She would miss Stella, who knew her so well. Even if they hadn’t seen each other that often, it had been amazing to have her in the same city instead of across the ocean for the past few months.

“But look how awesome you turned out because you spent time away from all of this Prynesse drama,” said Stella. “None of us have even half the drive that you do. We’re just happy to marry another noble and continue with our nice, little lives. No wonder Duncan’s crazy about you. You’re so much better than all of us.”

Alix sniffed miserably. She didn’t think that she was better than everyone. Was that how people saw her?

“You’re too hard on yourself,” she told Stella, thinking of her conversation with her parents. “It’s not a bad thing that people here are the way they are. I’m starting to realize that.”

“Well that’s good to hear,” said Stella encouragingly. “At least you won’t leave thinking we’re all crazy, shallow bitches.”

Alix let out a wet, snotty laugh through her tears. There was a reason Stella was her best friend.

“Sorry you won’t be best friends with the future queen,” said Alix, as she stood up to start packing again. “But a doctor’s still pretty cool too, right?”

“Of course,” Stella smiled reassuringly. “And you can still come back here to go to medical school, right?”

“Maybe…” Alix looks thoughtful for a minute. “A year might be enough time for him to sort things out, don’t you think? Get his act together?”

“Sure,” Stella said optimistically. “If Anton can manage to focus on one girl for this long, anything is possible.”

“Seriously, what is going on there?” Alix was now dying to know.

With her friend’s drama as sorted as it could be at the moment, Stella was happy to turn the discussion to her own boy issues, which seemed easy in comparison.

Alix listened with a smile to hear Stella detail the situation. Anton was fabulous, but incredibly moody. He was passionate, but art came first. She was competing less with other girls and more with his studio, which she had never seen.

“What if it’s full of nude portraits of every other girl he’s been with?” she asked, “He’s never even asked me to sit for him!”

Alix happily spent some of her last few hours in the country talking with her best friend about boys, the way any girl would. It was a nice last memory of her time at the palace, which she hoped would help to block out some of the less happy ones.