The door knocked and I tensed. Khalil had stayed behind with me, as
faithful as ever by my side.
Khalil motioned impatiently for me to open the door.
I glared at him and went to the door, taking a few seconds to take three quick breaths before opening the door.
My face fell as Khalil's laughter rang ludicrously in my ears.
Roald stood at the doorstep, three times as handsome and sexy as he'd been before…with roses.
He smiled, 'You look dazzling.'
I shot a dagger-sharp glare at Khalil before smiling winsomely at Roald, grabbing the roses, and without looking, throwing the roses backwards, where they shot out the window and plunged down, with a serine smile plastered on my face.
Khalil snorted.
Roald looked baffled and a trifle hurt.
'Let's go,' I quickly said, tucking my arm under Roald's and steering him away from Khalil's roaring laughter.
The ball was loud, noisy and suffocating; beautiful ladies clad in the latest fashions giggled and gossiped, while the elegant, handsome men conversed quietly with a few drinks here and there. Music was playing quite loudly and food was laid out on tables in a professional, sophisticated manner. All of that made me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.
I liked simple things; a small party consisting of close friends is my kind of fun. But walking around with hundreds of nobles that I didn't know at all was definitely not fun at all; it was infuriating.
People kept looking at me and sneering, people I didn't know and vice versa, but they still judged me!
I stared back at them as blankly as possible, clinging to Roald like you'd cling to a lifeline, while noble women looked me up and down and huffed, but turned to the Prince with sweet, dazzling smiles.
I didn't know what Roald had been thinking, waltzing in with me in tow! I was embarrassing him; everyone hated me and loved him. I was the ugly freak; he was the hunky Prince. Total mismatch.
'You want me to slip away and disappear into the wallpaper?' I murmured.
'What? Why in the name of Mithros would I want you to do that?' Roald exclaimed, frowning at me as Khalil had done before.
'Well…I'm embarrassing you!' I shot back, my eyes scanning ahead; I was right, the ladies were glaring at me and fluttering their eyelashes at the Prince, wondering why I, a freak, was strolling with the Prince.
'Embarrassing me?' he chuckled. 'If it's anything, I'm probably embarrassing you.'
'Yeah, right. The drop dead gorgeous, hunk of the millennia is embarrassing the queen of utter freakiness and grotesqueness.' I rolled my eyes at him.
He halted and looked over at me for a few seconds, making me shift nervously. Was he evaluating me!?
'You think you're…grotesque?' His eyes were squinted and he was actually angry.
'Ah…yeah, I suppose.' I said quietly, trying to get him to keep his voice down, but he didn't get the hint.
'You are the most beaut—'
I cut in with a laugh and covered his mouth with my hand quickly, looking around; the ladies around us were staring at us, waiting for what we had to say to pass it down the hall and spread the "goss".
'Look, you go dance with the "besotted ladies" for a bit, I need to get some fresh air, all right?' I said,
He was about to protest but I turned my heel and found the closest exit, while I heard scornful gossiping thrown around the room; 'She's in love with the Prince!', 'The Prince is besotted!', 'The King will go mad!' and more hateful things that shouldn't be repeated and won't be.
I breathed out a sigh of relief as I found myself in a beautiful garden.
I walked around for a while, drenched with the dripping spit of rain from the growling sky, shivering in my clingy dress. Pity the dress would spoil so fast, I thought with a glum smile as I sat on a bench looking out to the damp, mossy garden of greens. I closed my eyes and breathed in slowly, my breaths coming in short gasps and letting go in short, puffy clouds.
When I next opened my eyes, I jumped; Khalil was sitting beside me with a deep frown on his face. I hadn't heard him coming of course.
'Hey,' I said, blowing against my cold fingers to warm them up.
Khalil took my hands and rubbed them gently with his firm, warm ones. I smiled gratefully.
'What are you doing out here?' he demanded.
'I don't know…relaxing?'
'You're at a ball! You don't relax at balls, you dance and flirt—not that I want you to flirt, far from it—'
'Oh really, and why shouldn't I flirt?' I grinned.
He let go of my hands and looked around at the garden. 'I don't think I like the idea of you flirting with guys. You're too young.'
'Excuse me? This coming from a guy only seven months older than me who flirts with nearly every girl at the school dances?' I exclaimed loudly.
He turned back to look at me and said, 'That's different, I'm older.'
'Yeah, I'm seventeen, Khalil! Old enough to do anything…well in a few months I'll be eighteen, so yes. I can flirt with whomever I like.'
He cocked an eyebrow and laughed. 'I can see you doing that, Reem. Sure. You, the anti-anything-to-do-with-boys, will flirt with practically every single man in that room?'
'Do I look desperate?' I snapped.
'See, you wouldn't,' Khalil replied with a triumphant smile.
'What the hell are you trying to say?'
'That,' he began, with a grin, 'you are terrified of gaining attention from guys.'
'What?!' I exclaimed, laughing. 'I get heaps of attention from guys, sure I do. When I'm punching their heads in! Which is what's gonna happen to you now if you don't quit it.'
His eyes twinkled dangerously. 'I didn't mean that sort of attention and you know it.'
'Well what other attention is there, Romeo?' I rolled my eyes at him as I always do when he annoys me (twenty-four seven).
'This,' he said as he gripped my chin, lifted it up gently and kissed me.
I pushed him away as quickly as I could, my eyes as wide as they could go. I was furious. Khalil was the last person on earth that I thought would do this, I trusted him!
'What the hell did you do that for you moron!?' I cried out in fury, my fists curled in tight balls as I glared at him.
He just smiled. 'See, it kills you…the attention I mean.'
I couldn't believe him. He, my closest friend, kisses me, without my consent and just for experimenting whether I really hated attention from guys.
So I slapped him.
'Feel lucky,' I snapped, 'if it were another guy, he'd be on the floor, with broken bones.'
'Reem, I was just—'
'You explained what you were "just trying to do", and bloody experimenting on me, your best friend, is the worst friggin' thing you could have done you asshole!' I growled, tears pricking at my eyes.
'Reem?'
Both, Khalil and me, turned to look at Roald stepping out from the door to the hall.
'What?' I asked, forcing the tears back and regaining control of my emotions.
'You want to come back in now?'
I nodded and gave Khalil one hard look before following Roald back into the hall, feeling angry and vulnerable.
'What happened?' Roald asked quietly, once we were dancing.
'Nothing,' I replied, my voice strangely squeaking.
'Right,' he replied with a look of utter disbelief.
'Really,' I said with a smile, feeling something brush against my throat and tickle it. 'How's everything going?'
'What did Khalil do?' Roald insisted.
'Nothing,' I snapped. All of a sudden, a pang hit my head and my eyes burned without reason, but I forced a smile at Roald and held back the pain. 'Everything's all right.'
Roald merely raised an eyebrow and remained silent, making sure his face was almost glittering with disbelief.
My eyes scanned the hall, meeting for a brief moment the eyes of the Yamani squire, who was grinning at me, holding a glass of wine in his hand and swaying it slowly.
I shuddered and turned back to the Prince.
After a long silence, due to me trying to figure out where the pain I was experiencing was coming from, Roald said, 'I have to go for a week.'
'Oh?' I said quietly, not really paying any attention, my mind on other things.
'Yeah…sent to…since I'm…' I heard snippets of what he said, but I just couldn't focus. My head was spinning and I felt strangely harassed. I touched my fingertips to my head and closed my eyes.
It felt like my mind was being shredded, piece-by-piece, and it was driving me mad. My head felt like it was on fire as it swung from side to side. I gasped for breath, wheezing as I gripped my throat and tried to breathe again.
Roald was frantically calling my name, asking what's wrong, but I couldn't speak, all I did as croak for air.
All of a sudden, a black fog burst through my head, it was overwhelming, I gasped for one last time and just before I slipped to the ground, I saw the Yamani squire, grinning as maliciously as possible, at me.
Khalil motioned impatiently for me to open the door.
I glared at him and went to the door, taking a few seconds to take three quick breaths before opening the door.
My face fell as Khalil's laughter rang ludicrously in my ears.
Roald stood at the doorstep, three times as handsome and sexy as he'd been before…with roses.
He smiled, 'You look dazzling.'
I shot a dagger-sharp glare at Khalil before smiling winsomely at Roald, grabbing the roses, and without looking, throwing the roses backwards, where they shot out the window and plunged down, with a serine smile plastered on my face.
Khalil snorted.
Roald looked baffled and a trifle hurt.
'Let's go,' I quickly said, tucking my arm under Roald's and steering him away from Khalil's roaring laughter.
The ball was loud, noisy and suffocating; beautiful ladies clad in the latest fashions giggled and gossiped, while the elegant, handsome men conversed quietly with a few drinks here and there. Music was playing quite loudly and food was laid out on tables in a professional, sophisticated manner. All of that made me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.
I liked simple things; a small party consisting of close friends is my kind of fun. But walking around with hundreds of nobles that I didn't know at all was definitely not fun at all; it was infuriating.
People kept looking at me and sneering, people I didn't know and vice versa, but they still judged me!
I stared back at them as blankly as possible, clinging to Roald like you'd cling to a lifeline, while noble women looked me up and down and huffed, but turned to the Prince with sweet, dazzling smiles.
I didn't know what Roald had been thinking, waltzing in with me in tow! I was embarrassing him; everyone hated me and loved him. I was the ugly freak; he was the hunky Prince. Total mismatch.
'You want me to slip away and disappear into the wallpaper?' I murmured.
'What? Why in the name of Mithros would I want you to do that?' Roald exclaimed, frowning at me as Khalil had done before.
'Well…I'm embarrassing you!' I shot back, my eyes scanning ahead; I was right, the ladies were glaring at me and fluttering their eyelashes at the Prince, wondering why I, a freak, was strolling with the Prince.
'Embarrassing me?' he chuckled. 'If it's anything, I'm probably embarrassing you.'
'Yeah, right. The drop dead gorgeous, hunk of the millennia is embarrassing the queen of utter freakiness and grotesqueness.' I rolled my eyes at him.
He halted and looked over at me for a few seconds, making me shift nervously. Was he evaluating me!?
'You think you're…grotesque?' His eyes were squinted and he was actually angry.
'Ah…yeah, I suppose.' I said quietly, trying to get him to keep his voice down, but he didn't get the hint.
'You are the most beaut—'
I cut in with a laugh and covered his mouth with my hand quickly, looking around; the ladies around us were staring at us, waiting for what we had to say to pass it down the hall and spread the "goss".
'Look, you go dance with the "besotted ladies" for a bit, I need to get some fresh air, all right?' I said,
He was about to protest but I turned my heel and found the closest exit, while I heard scornful gossiping thrown around the room; 'She's in love with the Prince!', 'The Prince is besotted!', 'The King will go mad!' and more hateful things that shouldn't be repeated and won't be.
I breathed out a sigh of relief as I found myself in a beautiful garden.
I walked around for a while, drenched with the dripping spit of rain from the growling sky, shivering in my clingy dress. Pity the dress would spoil so fast, I thought with a glum smile as I sat on a bench looking out to the damp, mossy garden of greens. I closed my eyes and breathed in slowly, my breaths coming in short gasps and letting go in short, puffy clouds.
When I next opened my eyes, I jumped; Khalil was sitting beside me with a deep frown on his face. I hadn't heard him coming of course.
'Hey,' I said, blowing against my cold fingers to warm them up.
Khalil took my hands and rubbed them gently with his firm, warm ones. I smiled gratefully.
'What are you doing out here?' he demanded.
'I don't know…relaxing?'
'You're at a ball! You don't relax at balls, you dance and flirt—not that I want you to flirt, far from it—'
'Oh really, and why shouldn't I flirt?' I grinned.
He let go of my hands and looked around at the garden. 'I don't think I like the idea of you flirting with guys. You're too young.'
'Excuse me? This coming from a guy only seven months older than me who flirts with nearly every girl at the school dances?' I exclaimed loudly.
He turned back to look at me and said, 'That's different, I'm older.'
'Yeah, I'm seventeen, Khalil! Old enough to do anything…well in a few months I'll be eighteen, so yes. I can flirt with whomever I like.'
He cocked an eyebrow and laughed. 'I can see you doing that, Reem. Sure. You, the anti-anything-to-do-with-boys, will flirt with practically every single man in that room?'
'Do I look desperate?' I snapped.
'See, you wouldn't,' Khalil replied with a triumphant smile.
'What the hell are you trying to say?'
'That,' he began, with a grin, 'you are terrified of gaining attention from guys.'
'What?!' I exclaimed, laughing. 'I get heaps of attention from guys, sure I do. When I'm punching their heads in! Which is what's gonna happen to you now if you don't quit it.'
His eyes twinkled dangerously. 'I didn't mean that sort of attention and you know it.'
'Well what other attention is there, Romeo?' I rolled my eyes at him as I always do when he annoys me (twenty-four seven).
'This,' he said as he gripped my chin, lifted it up gently and kissed me.
I pushed him away as quickly as I could, my eyes as wide as they could go. I was furious. Khalil was the last person on earth that I thought would do this, I trusted him!
'What the hell did you do that for you moron!?' I cried out in fury, my fists curled in tight balls as I glared at him.
He just smiled. 'See, it kills you…the attention I mean.'
I couldn't believe him. He, my closest friend, kisses me, without my consent and just for experimenting whether I really hated attention from guys.
So I slapped him.
'Feel lucky,' I snapped, 'if it were another guy, he'd be on the floor, with broken bones.'
'Reem, I was just—'
'You explained what you were "just trying to do", and bloody experimenting on me, your best friend, is the worst friggin' thing you could have done you asshole!' I growled, tears pricking at my eyes.
'Reem?'
Both, Khalil and me, turned to look at Roald stepping out from the door to the hall.
'What?' I asked, forcing the tears back and regaining control of my emotions.
'You want to come back in now?'
I nodded and gave Khalil one hard look before following Roald back into the hall, feeling angry and vulnerable.
'What happened?' Roald asked quietly, once we were dancing.
'Nothing,' I replied, my voice strangely squeaking.
'Right,' he replied with a look of utter disbelief.
'Really,' I said with a smile, feeling something brush against my throat and tickle it. 'How's everything going?'
'What did Khalil do?' Roald insisted.
'Nothing,' I snapped. All of a sudden, a pang hit my head and my eyes burned without reason, but I forced a smile at Roald and held back the pain. 'Everything's all right.'
Roald merely raised an eyebrow and remained silent, making sure his face was almost glittering with disbelief.
My eyes scanned the hall, meeting for a brief moment the eyes of the Yamani squire, who was grinning at me, holding a glass of wine in his hand and swaying it slowly.
I shuddered and turned back to the Prince.
After a long silence, due to me trying to figure out where the pain I was experiencing was coming from, Roald said, 'I have to go for a week.'
'Oh?' I said quietly, not really paying any attention, my mind on other things.
'Yeah…sent to…since I'm…' I heard snippets of what he said, but I just couldn't focus. My head was spinning and I felt strangely harassed. I touched my fingertips to my head and closed my eyes.
It felt like my mind was being shredded, piece-by-piece, and it was driving me mad. My head felt like it was on fire as it swung from side to side. I gasped for breath, wheezing as I gripped my throat and tried to breathe again.
Roald was frantically calling my name, asking what's wrong, but I couldn't speak, all I did as croak for air.
All of a sudden, a black fog burst through my head, it was overwhelming, I gasped for one last time and just before I slipped to the ground, I saw the Yamani squire, grinning as maliciously as possible, at me.