Chapter 14: Swimming
"Holy shit!" Iris exclaimed as she came face to face with Dryden. "What are you doing here!?" she demanded from him. He chuckled at the expression on her face.
"What does it look like? I'm swimming." Iris bit her lip and began to swim backwards, away from him. When she made it to the edge she went to climb out but a hand grabbed her upper arm. She frowned inwardly and turned to see Dryden beside her. "Where are you going?"
"To my room."
"Why? You just got here."
"I was looking for some privacy."
"Oh . . .Why?"
"Because . . .I want to be alone right now."
"Iris, please tell me what's wrong." she held her breath and debated with herself whether to tell him how se felt or not. Her eyes drifted downwards and onto Dryden's body. *whoa . . .he has a nice body . . .*a small smile came to her lips but quickly disappeared. *What am I thinking!? Alright should I say it or not? God! Why must this be so god damn fucking hard!?*
"Does it have to with that night on the Crusade when you got so god damn drunk?" her eyes went wide in surprise. He chuckled and grinned. "I figured that's what was bothering you. So why is it bothering you?" Dryden was finding amusement questioning her. The way she blushed and her meekness he found to be, cute.
"Well . . .umm . . .It's just that I . . .I usually don't go around doing that."
"Then why did you do it?" he raised an eyebrow amused and curious.
"It was Millerna! She dared me to do it and I accepted the challenge."
"Did you want to?" Iris was silent for a moment and began to wonder. As she thought back to that night she tried to figure out her feelings.
"Well, I dunno. I'm not sure really." she began to curl a lock of her hair around her finger as she thought. It was a habit that her parents hated. Every time she thought about something or had to make a decision she would curl a lock of hair around her finger. When she looked back up at Dryden, she realized he had slowly closed the space between them. Her breathing quickened the closer he got. *Wow . . .he's got really nice green eyes.* her cheeks flushed the more closer her got.
"Are you embarrassed about something?" Iris lower her head and nodded slightly.
"Sorta . . ." she mumbled.
"Well then, what about?"
"Um . . .that night . . ."
"Why are you embarrassed about that?!" he seemed shocked and surprised that she would be embarrassed about it.
"Well I dunno! It was my first time and I hardly knew you and-" he put his thumb to her lips in a gesture to silence her. She looked at him confused. What was he going to do? It was all she could think about.
"You shouldn't be embarrassed that." he moved his hand to cup her left cheek. *By the Gods, she is so beautiful. She looks like a Goddess.* he admired her beauty in silence.
Iris felt like she had a swarm of butterflies swimming in her stomach. What was she to do? What was he doing? What was he going to do? All these questions ran through her mind so quickly that she could barely think. "Uh . . .Dr . . .Dryden-" before she could finish, Dryden brought his lips to her own. She was tempted to push him away but did she want to? Her arms found their way around his body. She didn't know why she was doing it but she could only guess it was some sort of instinct.
Like Iris, Dryden's arms found their way around her slender waist. As their lips parted, Iris was slowly brought back to her senses. "What- . . .why . . .what was that for?" she asked baffled and meekly.
"Just taking what was mine." he grinned.
"Your's? Excuse me but who said my lips were yours?" she asked in a demanding and offended tone.
"Well you did steal a kiss from me so I was stealing back what was mine." her mouth opened but no words came out. She couldn't think of what to say.
"Well . . .stealing isn't nice and especially stealing from a woman. Shame on you!" she frowned and pointed he finger at him. Dryden laughed out loud.
"Woman?! You certainly fooled me. You look nothing like a woman but rather a prissy teen who wants to be a woman." Iris gritted her teeth in frustration. *I can't believe he's insulting me!*
"Ya well . . .at least I'm . . ."
"You're . . .what?" her eyes narrowed as he continued to grin. However, a thought came to mind and Iris' frown changed to a mischievous smirk. Dryden looked at her confused. What was she thinking or planning for that matter?
Iris brought her hands towards her body and to the surface. She then thrusted her hands forward, splashing Dryden with the water. She laughed and watched him rub his eyes. "What was that for?" Iris grinned and replied.
"That was for calling me a prissy teen." she stood proudly and let down her guard. That was her first mistake. Dryden took advantage of her moment of glory to play the same trick on her. "Hey! That's wasn't fair!" she splashed him back.
Melody walked up the white marble steps of the palace masking her boredom. She vowed to herself that she'd never again spend an afternoon with just Millerna. Her feet and legs ached with immense pain. Melody bit on her bit with every step to hopefully avoid thinking of the throbbing feeling in her poor feet.
"That was so much fun! We should do this again tomorrow!" Millerna said gleefully. The colour in Melody's face began to fade away as listened to the 'prissy' princess. *does she not talk about anything else except shopping or clothes?* she said and blocked out every word the princess said. "Hey you know what! Tomorrow if we can get Iris to come, you should really buy those black leather boots to go with that dress you bought today." Melody completely blocked out Millerna. She was sick of hearing her talk about clothes, fashion, courting, Allen, and jewels.
"Well I'll think about it Millerna." Melody replied before hurrying off to her room in the east wing of the palace.
As she walked down the corridors, she stopped to look at the large portraits. As she looked at them carefully, she came to an obvious conclusion. The portraits were of the ancestors of Iris's family. It only seemed typical that there were portraits and that most of the portraits were of the kings. She saw hardly any of ruling queens. *Typical, men 'always' have to have the more power.*
The weight of the bags in her hands seemed to increase the longer she stood and observed the paintings. *I guess I should go drop these off in my room and change.* as soon as she finished hat thought, she was on her way. When she came to the east wing, she climbed the flight of stairs and walked down the long hallway. already maids were beginning to light the oil lamps which hung from the pale gold walls.
When Melody came to her room, she turned the polished brass handle and pushed open the wooden door. After she shut the door, she walked sluggishly to her four poster bed. She set the bags down clumsily on the crimson red comforter and sat down for a moment to take off her high heeled shoes.
*I wonder where Iris is.* Melody wondered as she let her feet air out for a minute or two before rising to her aching feet. She walked slowly to the door and slipped on her running shoes. She left her room and, of course, shut the door behind her. Iris had warned Melody that her parents hated when Iris left doors to rooms open. Neither Iris or Melody understood why.
*Okay, if I were Iris where would I be?* Melody asked herself as she walked down the corridor searching for her friend. At the end of hallway she came to the main stairwell. She looked up and then down. *where should I start looking?* just as she was about to climb the red carpeted stairs she ran into Ian.
"Hey Ian where's Iris?" she asked him.
"I think she's in the pool on the main floor." he answered and continued on his way.
Melody went down the stairs instead and began to wonder around the hallways looking for the swimming pool. *grr....why are there so many rooms?!* she tried opening one of the doors but it wasn't the pool. She walked a little more down the hallway and went to open another door. *At this rate I'll never find the swimming-* her thoughts stopped at she opened the door. *finally!* she sighed and went in.
The sounds on splashing water and Iris' laughter echoed in the room. Melody raised an eyebrow and walked further into the room. The pool was breath taking for Melody. The size of it was huge and the shape was very abnormal. There wasn't really a shape to it but there were shapes that could make up it. Along the walls of the room were tropical looking tress, plants and flowers. In the far end of the pool, behind a group of plants that grew out of a marble island in the water was Iris and someone else.
Melody tiptoed closer to see who it was. It couldn't have been Ian, she just saw him not too long ago. Perhaps Millerna? Or maybe Merle. She laughed inwardly at the thought of Merle swimming.
"Ah! Dryden! That wasn't fair!" *Dryden? She's swimming with Dryden? Well, at least they're getting long . . .somewhat.*
A/N: Sorry for that wait. I've been real busy with school. I just had a 1000 word essay due in english. God, that was so hard to write! Well, hope you enjoyed!
