DISCLAIMER: I do not own Choices. This fun game belongs to Pixelberry! :)
Chapter Three: Happy Neigh
Normally, he kept to himself at these balls. Drake really only came to support Liam at these things. He wanted to have his friend's back in case anything went wrong – or in case he wanted somebody he could be himself around… and Liam being himself usually meant losing push-up bets to Drake.
He smirked.
As he was enjoying his solitude, it was disrupted by Riley, who, at first glance, had the least expensive gown of all the suitors – even Drake could see that, and that was without him being like Bertrand, who could have probably named all the types of lace Cordonia was capable of producing. He knew right away that Riley's relatively cheap dress would get instantly attract the wrong kind of attention, and told her so.
"They're being nice to your face. What they're saying behind your back is a whole other story."
"If they're that bad, Drake, then why are you friends with them?"
He was mildly offended that she could think that he was friends with all of these uppity nobles, but he couldn't really blame her, since she was new to the court. After telling her he was friends with Liam, she asked about Maxwell – and what Drake knew about him wasn't appropriate conversation for the ballroom, so he chose to just leave the conversation.
Drake did wish her luck before he left, though, because as he knew very well, commoners like them could use all the luck they could get when it came to formal functions like this.
From what he saw, it seemed to have worked, because when she and Liam shared a dance, he pulled his trusty 'waltz into the balcony' move – and whatever they talked about out there must have made an impact on Liam, because afterwards, he asked Drake to look out for Riley the next day at the Derby…
…which turned out to be very wise of Liam, since Riley somehow got into the stables and startled the poor horse who had probably been minding its own business when she came in.
Darting between her and the rearing horse, Drake gently stroked the horse's flowing mane, conveying with touch that everything was alright.
"There's nothing to worry about, big fella. You just relax now… no need to be all worked up about this when there's a big race today that you're gonna win…"
Locking eyes with the horse, he continued to murmur, "And you can't win if you're panicking about some trespassing human wandering around your stable, so just calm down… that's a good horse; settle down now…"
The horse neighed happily.
Glad that he had managed to calm the horse down, he locked it securely in its stall, and after one last affectionate pat, Drake took a look around the stable – and saw a girl in a blue dress lying on a hay bale, staring up at him with a surprised expression.
Oh, look at that. Riley was okay. That was good too.
(End of Chapter Three.) (T-30/05/17.) (F-17/06/18.)
Chapter Three notes: (B01-C02C05.) While it would have been possible to turn the "saving the MC from the horse" scene into something overly romantic on Drake's part, I decided to go with something more understated :) Besides, in the game, he was very gentle with the horse, which was good for the horse… though the human in the stable with him might have thought otherwise! :P
About my main Pixelberry fanfic: Hello! :) If you like Pixelberry's Hollywood U or Pixelberry's Red Carpet Diaries, then I encourage you to read my MC/Hunt fanfic "NYTMC 1: Not Your Typical Meet-Cute." It currently has 219,000 words (64 chapters), and it is written from Thomas Hunt's perspective :D
(Thanks for reading! :D Reviews make me smile! ^_^)