Crowns & Chaos

six

My mother and I set off down the road into downtown London, looking for somewhere to grab breakfast. We settled on a small coffee shop and grabbed our stuff to go before continuing our walk. The air was cool and crisp, with the promise of rain later in the day,  but for now, we were okay. 

"Anything specific you wanna look for?" My mom asked, reaching over to take a piece of my muffin. I swatted her hand away, thinking momentarily about my answer.

"I could use a new coat. My ski jacket is too warm but my hoodies are too cold."

My mom nodded. 

"Right you are. Off we go then."

We wandered around, checking google maps for directions to the nearest shopping area. There weren't any big box stores near us, but we found our way to a small dress shop that had some coats in the window.

We walked in, the bell jingling throughout the small space.

"Oh, hello! I'm Dot. If you lovely ladies need any help with anything, don't hesitate to ask."

I smiled a soft smile at her while my mom wandered down the aisle. 

I brushed my hand against a warm brown jacket, probably a wool mix of some kind. It was a dark beige, like dark sand. I held it up and it went down to just past my knees. I took it off the rack after checking the size and walked back over to where my mom was looking. 

"Hey mom, look at this one."

She looked up.

"Ooooh, I like it."

After mulling over some boots she ultimately decided not to buy, we headed up to the till where Dot was waiting.

She looked up, scanning us quickly. A flicker of recognition flashed across her face.

"You two look familiar. Have we met before?"

I looked at her, nonplussed. 

"I don't think so, we've just moved here from Canada, actually."

Her eyes widened.

"Canada... Oh dearie me! Are you the Countess of Pembroke? The one they just interviewed yesterday? And you must be Lady Evangeline!"

My mom looked taken aback.

"Um, yes actually. I am."

"Oh my goodness, Lady Stacy I'm so sorry, I-"

"Oh no please Dot, don't worry about it. I'm actually just curious about how you recognized us?"

She held up her phone, an article open with our picture on the top.

I met my mom's eyes. Of course, there's already an article out. 

"I hope I haven't offended either of you, I really am terribly sorry-"

I waved her concern away. 

"It's alright. We should probably be on our way, though."

She nodded emphatically, quickly ringing up my coat, giving us a discount after I promised to share the store name. 

We stepped out the door, my new coat doing a much better job of keeping me warm than my sweater had been.

"So I'm thinking if that article is out now, we should probably head home before something happens and Theodore skins us alive."

I nodded, hooking my arm through hers and leading the way back to the house. 

"Keep your head down, there's a big group of teenagers up ahead."

We made it home without being spotted by anyone else, which I still thought was weird, to begin with. Why anyone was following our story was beyond me. 

I slammed the door, kicking off my shoes. Out of curiosity, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I searched up my name, only to have four or five articles pop up. They were all surrounding grandma and our new ascension to the earldom. People on Buzzfeed were commenting left and right, someone had found my old high school yearbook photo and posted it, and I still had about thirty missed calls from Adriana. 

"Oookay. Mom, I'm gonna call Adriana before she flies here to murder me herself."

She chuckled and nodded. 

"I'm gonna try to sign in to our Netflix account."

I pulled out my phone and called Adriana. 

"Girl, what the fuck?!" She screeched as soon as she picked up. 

"I'm so sorry, I'm sorryyyyyyyy," I drew the word out, hoping she would hate me less. 

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry Adri, I wasn't allowed to. We found out after the funeral and we were still figuring everything out."

"What even is an earldom?"

I sighed, launching into the rather lengthy explanation about earldoms in the past and how that had changed since then, giving us a seat in Wiltshire."

"So what does this mean for you? You're all over the internet babes."

"Ugh, I know," I groaned, "someone found my yearbook photo."

She snorted on the other line. 

"Okay, Brandon is telling me we're getting dinner soon and I should probably go but listen, just because you're part of the nobility and everything, doesn't mean you get to forget about me, okay?"

I laughed. 

"I won't, I promise. Say hi to everyone for me."

"I will. Love you, Evie. Meet a hot English guy for me."

"Pfft, love you Adri, try not to fuck up the apartment without me."

She laughed again once before hanging up. 

I sighed, closing the call. Out of curiosity, I opened Instagram. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that my follower count was up by nearly 10 000. 

"Oh hello, what the hell?"

I rubbed my eyes. This was turning into a lot. I never anticipated that the media coverage on this would explode the way it did. I kinda figured no one would care. Turns out that that was a very false assumption.

"Hey mom, did you figure out the movie?" I called.

"Yeah, grab some tissues on the way down, huh?"

I grabbed a box from under the bathroom sink before making my way down the steps.

She smiled when she saw me.

"How's Adriana?"

"Good. A little pissed, but also super excited," I chuckled. 

"Fair enough. Ready?"

I sat down on the couch beside her, pulling out my phone and placing it on the couch next to me. 

As the movie continued, both of us sharing a family sized bag of chips, watching the fated ship begin its journey.

 I glanced down at my phone, heart skipping a beat as the follower count continued to climb.