I was at a party.

Not just any party. Oh no.

I was at a Royal Wedding. Avoiding alcohol. Pretending I was drinking like everyone else. I was also avoiding Prince Keith... which wasn't that hard, because I suspected he was doing the same. I stood to one side, eating slowly, drinking water as I sat beside my 'stunned woman in arms' Eleira. Alcohol wasn't usually an issue for me but I had taken nausea medication all day and it wasn't the kind of thing I should mix.

Prince Joshua was hovering around too, dancing with any woman who took his fancy, which tended to not be us. It was like watching him switch smiles on and off- clearly to any observer his interest was fake.

Still... none of his dance partners really seemed to mind.

Prince Wilifred walked past, smiling at us, and once again I had that 'out of body' feeling rise up. This whole situation was madness.

You ever had one of those chance friendships? Like... you ended up friends because you just so happened to take the same class, or you were dragged along to some party and they were dragged along too, or you caught the wrong train but ended up chatting to someone pretty cool?

All I did was my job. One week before I'd finished the second year of my surgical intern I ended up with this crazy woman called Sophia and boom. There I was. Caught up in her life all because this group of Princes decided she needed a friend. (At least that was my mum's theory. She was probably right- she usually always was. But I never told her that.)

Oh, I didn't mind, not in the slightest.

It wasn't her fault either what I'd ...well, that situation. With Prince Keith. That wasn't Sophia's fault at all. I hadn't even been able to confess to her what I'd done.

But that entire day, Eleira and I were in a daze, and I think I only really came out of that daze at the party afterwords when we got a chance to regroup, the two of us stunned, and breathe.

"The food is so pretty." She whispered, leaning closer, adding, "Are flowers really edible?"

I prodded a flower carefully with the 'correct' spoon and saw it had a light crust of sugar. "I think so."

"I feel so bad eating flowers." She whispered and laughed. That butler from Oriens, Yu, gave her a soft smile as she tried to figure out how 'one ate a flower'.

My stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch. I'd been sick so much lately that it wasn't shocking at all. Mum thought it was probably some foreign food from Alteria and she was probably right. I had kind of gotten obsessed with street food. It was just so awesome to be able to walk down the street, between clubs, and eat a hot fried banana with jam. Yum!

"Miss Eleira." Prince Glenn appeared, bowing, and she jumped as they made eye contact. "Please- will you not dance now? It's rude to not dance at a wedding." I could have sworn he'd slightly pressed the last part, like he was telling us both something important, but he still had a smile on his face.

"Oh. Um. I don't know how..."

That was kind of a lie. The butler of Alteria, Alberto, had made sure we'd had lessons. The truth was that Eleira was a shocking dancer in heels. She glanced at me for help and I had no idea what to say to help her out.

"I guess so." She said quietly as she stood up. The poor girl barely could walk in those heels.

At least she'd put it off till half the guests were tipsy and distracted by their amazing plates of edible flowers.

"Jennifer." A far too familiar voice appeared. Prince Keith seemed bored as he yanked me to my feet. "We should dance."

I had been trying to coach myself all week about this moment. Of course Prince Keith would have to dance with me, best man and maid of honour, and I was trying so hard to control my emotions. I couldn't. I was angry with him. I was furious! Oh, maybe it wasn't entirely his fault, but … I was still angry! "You're just going to do it without asking?"

"What?"

"Make me stand." I glared at him. It was madness- I hated how he had me both peeing myself and wanting to yell at him. He was scary and provoking. People shouldn't be able to do both- make someone angry and afraid all at once. "What if I'm sick?"

"We're dancing. It's expected. We need not let our ...indiscretion... start rumours." Prince Keith's voice lowered, but he fixed his eyes in mine, and silently we had a battle.

I sighed and gave in after a tense thirty seconds. He wasn't wrong- we were supposed to dance. I hated that he called it a 'Indiscretion' though. He led me out into the ballroom floor, this quick stride that totally disregarded the fact that I was on heels, and yanked me into a dancing position.

This close to him, with his smell in my nostrils, it was hard to not remember the last time we'd been this close. I trembled, ignoring everyone's stares, trying so hard to not glare at him.

It had been about three weeks ago. Prince Keith had hired me for a 'trial' with his little sister as her GP, completely ignoring the fact that I didn't want to be a GP, I wanted to be a surgeon. But I'd gone along with it because it seemed like a good experience and I did kind of need a break from the intern-ship. So I'd agreed.

First night, I'd been stressed so I drank. Then I went outside for fresh air in the hot summer night.

I don't know how we managed to find one another, or why we'd both been drunk, but we had been. I didn't remember who'd started arguing first. Maybe I had- I was pretty angry about the medical system in Liberty and probably told him off big time. And I definably couldn't remember which one of us had kissed the other first. It had been the heat of the night, the alcohol, the smell of roses, both of us drunk, both of us totally out of control of ourselves, but I still blamed him.

I kind of blamed myself too.

That wasn't what had made me angry. Yeah. We'd slept together. First time I'd done something so stupid, and the second man I'd ever slept with, but we weren't children. Right? We could deal with it. Pretend it hadn't happened. Go about this like a pair of adults and admit it was a mistake.

That next day I'd woken to find my bags already packed and my old intern ship resumed. No notes. Nothing. I was made to leave the Manse immediately and ...well, I did. That'd been the day I'd realised that Prince Keith was a spoiled asshole of a man who probably slept around and assumed I'd do it as well.

I'd decided that I'd forget that stupid Prince, avoid him, and count my blessings. I was back in my surgical internship and had just passed the two year milestone. I'd also got to perform surgery on an unborn baby the day I'd come back.

So... I deserved better. Or something.

We pretended to smile, to dance, something I actually usually enjoyed doing, ignoring the wedding, but we were so angry with each other. The end of the song came way too soon for me and I shoved him back, trying to breathe, so relieved with one of the wedding guests offered to take Prince Keiths' place.

I mean- he was the Prime Minister of Alteria- but I was so flustered and upset by Prince Keith right now that even the PM couldn't shake me. So I accepted and when I was done, I returned to Sophia's side.

She was radiant, laughing, smiling in her wheelchair, completely absorbed in Prince Roberto. He was exactly the same. This face was the reason I couldn't confess to her what had happened. We barely knew each other anyway, so I wasn't sure why I wanted to tell her, but maybe it was because she had some understanding about how it felt.

But I didn't manage to tell her. Not during the dinner, or the dancing, and after the cake was cut...

In the end I watched her drive off to her honeymoon, feeling kind of lonely all of a sudden, wishing I'd had enough bravery to confess the stupid thing I'd done.

A/N

So please excuse the delay and length- I have a fever and I figured I'd upload what I had written pre-sickness. :) Great way to cheer up.