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Apollo -
At this point, all the selected have arrived. Luckily, they'll all be taking dinner in the other dining room, the one we usually reserve for guests of the palace. Starting tomorrow, they'll be dining with us in the royal dining room. No more private family meals.
By the end of this selection, Austin will have a princess sitting on his right instead of me. I'll be overshadowed by someone the country didn't even know existed until today.
Pushing all negative thoughts away, I take a short-cut to the dining room and slip in unnoticed by any of the selected girls. Most of them must already be inside the other dining room.
I'm the last one to arrive, so I take the empty seat to Austin's right and try not to think about how it won't be mine for long. We pick at our appetizers in silence, but when the first course comes in, Amber breaks the silence.
"How long are you going to keep ignoring each other?" She asks softly.
Her voice is pained, like it physically hurts her to see us fighting like this. No one answers and it seems like she's dropped it until halfway through the second course, she picks up her plate and leaves. Mom is quick to follow her favorite child and Dad glares and me and Austin out of the corner of his eye like it's somehow our fault. I guess it kind of is, though.
"Why can't you two just make up? It's just a girl. You won't stop being brothers once Austin gets married." His voice is gruff but still gentle.
Dad is usually a patient man, but he's still the king. I want to say something, but Austin just adamantly starts sawing at his steak, which proves to be a difficult task. He's clearly drawing this out, but I don't know why.
June's still at the table, but she's acting like she can't hear what's going on between the three of us and simply taking delicate bites of her steak.
I think being the most overlooked out of all of us by our parents has made it easier for her to slip into the background.
Finally, Austin breaks the silence, speaking curtly.
"We're not fighting, we're just taking some time apart." He says.
He's kind of right, and I have been distancing myself from him, but I thought he'd come and talk to me like we used to. I guess a lot will never be the same again.
Dad just grunts in response and doesn't push it. Mom comes back after a while and we eat in silence, but she leaves again before dessert is served, which we all know is her favorite part of meals. Austin and I exchange loaded glares, but we don't say anything, and June ignores us the whole time while making small talk with Dad to change the subject.
I make a mental note to get her something nice; she's always been underappreciated. Dad finishes his dessert and leaves, but I don't miss how he wraps a couple of strawberry tarts in a napkin and takes them with him for Mom. I want to roll my eyes at how in-love they still are. You'd think after twenty-one years of marriage, they'd be at least a little sick of each other, but it's like they're still newlyweds because they're hopelessly smitten with each other.
Once I finish my dessert, I stand up and scoot my chair back loudly on purpose. I can see the annoyance on Austin's face, but mercifully, neither him nor June comments on it. With as much attitude as I can muster, I saunter out of the dining room in the least girlish way possible and slam the doors behind me. Afterwards, I hate myself for doing it in front of June.
I don't go to the astronomy tower immediately, but that's where I end up. I don't bring anything else with me though. I try to lose myself in setting up the telescope, but guilt eats me up from the inside.
I have been unfair to Austin about this whole thing. None of it is his fault. When we were children, Austin and I would race up here to look at the stars. I've been coming here almost every night for the past three years, and I haven't seen Austin even once. He left that behind with our childhood.
My fingers fumble the eyepiece as I try to attach it the end of the telescope, but I end up knocking the whole thing over. Just as I'm sure it's about to fall and smash into a million pieces, someone catches it. It's Austin. He sets it upright and takes the eyepiece from my frozen fingers before I can say a word.
"Why are you here?" I ask him, when I can finally regain my composure.
He grins up at me, but I can tell it's forced. It's the same one he gave on the Report when he was reading the names of the selected girls.
"What, I can't look at the stars every once in a while?" He asks playfully, but there's a note of seriousness in his voice.
"I'm sorry I've been avoiding you." I say quickly.
He looks slightly taken aback, but then embraces me.
"I know you had your reasons. We'll stand by each other, won't we?" He asks.
When I step back, I no longer see the nineteen-year-old crown prince. I see the Austin that would run slowly on purpose so that I could reach the astronomy tower first, the Austin that never wanted to be in the spotlight. The Austin I haven't seen in three years.
"Of course we will."
That's all for today! The next chapter is a lot longer. Hope you stay to read it!