Young Royals: After season 1

Chapter four: Wilhelm

The rest of Christmas break went by fast. Simon and I had texted and facetimed whenever we could. I had decided that I was not going to hide our relationship anymore. It might be the opposite of what my mother had told me to do, but I did not care anymore. She had taken August's side and therefore I chose Simon before the crown. A crown I did not want to begin with. My entire life I had wanted to be ordinary and now I was the king to be. Mom could not force me to stay away from him or make me hide in the closet. It was my right to be in love with whoever I wanted to. I smiled when Simon entered the classroom. He did as well. I saw our classmates look curiously when Simon sat down in the seat next to me. Henry was not there yet, but he clearly would have to sit somewhere else. If Alexander was not thrown out I suspected they would sit together.

"Hi," I said. His eyes sparkled at me. His entire face was smiling.

"Hello there," he replied. I felt him reach for my hand under the table. His hands were always cold, but today they were freezing. He had been outside and it was winter, so that was probably the cause for that. I held his hand anyway.

"How are you?" he asked. Everything was so much better when he was there. And I was finally back in school. I had never thought it would be such a relief to go back, but it was. I had missed Simon every day when we had not seen each other and my mother and father still tried to act as if everything was normal at home. That Erik was somewhere else, but that he was not dead. Nothing was normal, so why try to act like it was? I had missed Erik so much it hurt. It made me more anxious and I had had several panic attacks alone in my room.

"Better now that you are here" I said. It was true and it made him blush. He was cute when he blushed. Who was I trying to fool? He was always cute. But it was dangerously amusing to make him blush. For the first time since we had last seen each other I felt like I was not alone. He saw me in a way no one else did.

"That's good," he replied. The rest of our classmates and Mr. Englund entered the classroom and I had to let go of Simon's hand. We all stood up behind our chairs and greeted him. It felt like we lived in the early days of the previous century when we did that, but tradition was after all tradition. Something very important in the school. The next period was spent doing math problems. I barely understood easy ones, but Simon did not seem to have a problem.

"How did you solve that one?" I asked him. I was working on a problem I could not get right. Simon was already working with problems on the next page in the book.

"Here, let me show you" he said and moved his pen to my notebook. He then explained it in steps as he wrote it down. When he was done he put his hand over what he had written down.

"Show me how to solve it now," he said. I had teased him for not knowing how to read the notes on the sheet music last semester. Now he used my own medicine against me. I smiled at the memory, but wanted to cry at the stupid math problem. Even if I had understood what he did, I could not find a way to replicate it myself.

"No, not like that. You have to take the square root out of 16 and then add the things up" he corrected me. I erased and did it again.

"Look. Now it is right" he said with a smile. I smiled back at him.

*****

I walked down the corridor with Simon after class. I held his hand. We received some glances from people, but no one seemed surprised. We had a little break before social science and I just wanted to kiss him. I had not kissed him since that day when Felice and I had visited him to tell him about August. It felt like an eternity ago. I figured we could sneak into the music room. I pulled him with me and he laughed.

"Why in such a hurry, Wille?" he asked me. I made sure no one else was in the music room before I pulled him in there. I shut the door behind me.

"Because I want to do this" I said and put my lips on his.

"I figured it was something like that you were after" he replied after breaking the first kiss. "You are lucky that I have no objections" he continued. He then kissed me back forcefully. Before we knew it we were making out. His hands were in my hair and on my back. I felt his curly hair between my fingers and held him close to me. I wanted more and more of him as we kissed each other more and more forcefully, but I contained myself. Class would start soon and none of us wanted to be known as the couple that did the dirty in the music room. When we had to stop to catch our breaths we were in each other's arms.

"Sorry to be a mood killer, Wille. But we have to get to class now" Simon said as he took a look at his watch.

"Can't we just skip class? We can stay in my room" I suggested. He giggled and told me that we could not do that.

"But you suggested it yourself that day. You wanted to sneak me out to Bjärstad, remember?" I argued. He laughed and kissed me once more.

"If we are going to do this I can't make you miss class. Your mother will find it as an excuse to say that I have a bad influence on you. But we both know it is the opposite," he teased. He was not wrong though. Before I transfered to Hillerska I had been partying and not taking care of my studies as I was supposed to. He was the good student that attended class, asked questions and answered the teacher when he had the chance.

"Okay then. But will you allow me to kidnap you into my room after school then?" I asked.

"If I consent I don't think you are kidnapping me though," he answered. "But if you call it kidnapping I want to be kidnapped by you for sure." We kissed one more time before going to class.

*****

"So you guys are together now, then?" Henry tried to make conversation with me. He had seen us holding hands in the corridor before we snuck into the music room. We were making some kind of presentation in pairs and we could not choose partners ourselves. Simon was paired up with Felice and he sat across the classroom working with her. I saw that he looked over at us a few times, because I too looked over at him.

"Yes." I replied simply. I knew it was Simon he referred to. It was obvious to everyone I think. I began searching for sources on my computer for our work. We were doing work on criminality and what causes it. I was trying to hide my nerves for the reply.

"Cool" he just said. It was a relief that he did not react in any other way. He did not know how to continue on that subject it seemed like. "Did you have a nice Christmas break?"

"It was okay," I lied. "How about you? Did you do anything fun?" I tried to direct focus onto him instead of myself.

"Yeah. I was in Switzerland with my family. It was nice." he said.

"Nice" I replied. Then we worked with our group work until it was time for lunch. I reconnected with Simon by the lockers.

"Had a nice time with Henry?" he asked. I nodded. Henry was not that bad. Even more socially awkward than myself, but he was not rude. I remember Simon and Henry had kind of an argument in our first class together though. He had no time for rich kids complaining about taxes. That was for sure. I was not supposed to say my political opinion openly, so fortunately I was not included in that bunch of rich kids.

"And you and Felice looked to get along as well" I said. He nodded. They had gotten along better since we hung out at his place during the break.

"Hi boys" I heard someone say teasingly behind me. It was Sara, Simon's big sister, and Felice and a few other girls in our class.

"Hello Sara," I replied. Sara was more out to tease Simon than me, I guessed. Simon had told me she had been on to us from the beginning. Just like Erik had understood that I had met someone when I said I was going to study over the weekend instead of going home.

"Do you want to hang out after lunch? We have a free period after lunch, so we are going to Felice and Maddie's room" she said. I looked at Simon. I had almost planned on kidnapping him into my room during our free period that Simon had suggested we spend in the library doing homework.

"We have no other plans, right Simon?" I said. He shook his head.

"We'll be there." he said.