I Gave You My Heart

Chapter 8

The next day, Ophelia returned, and things continued on like they had before she had left. They went about their business, while Hamlet secretly thought about Horatio. Horatio, for the most part sat alone in the clinic, with his thoughts, wishing Hamlet could come visit him. Once in a while, he would be visited by Fransisco.

It was night, Hamlet was restless, he laid in bed next to the sleeping Ophelia, staring at the ceiling thinking about Horatio. The way his blue eyes lit up every time he saw Hamlet, his soft kissable lips, the way he smiled, and the way he laughed. Hamlet slowly got out of bed trying not to wake his sleeping fiancé. He stood over the bed for a second staring at Ophelia. He compared her to Horatio. He could never love her.
He opened the door and slipped out of their bedroom and headed down the hall towards the nurses room.

He walked down the corridor, his bare feet hitting the cold stone floor with a small slapping noise as he quickened his pace. He had to get to Horatio. There was no way around it. Love like theirs was not meant to be kept apart, and they both felt it in their aching hearts.

When he reached the nurses room he heard a muffled sobbing noise, and when he walked in he saw that Horatio seemed to be having as hard of a time as he was, if not worse.

It dawned on Hamlet how lonely Horatio must be, and he rushed over to comfort him, closing the door behind him.

"Shh, it's okay..." He muttered into Horatio's ear, "I'm here... It's okay..."

Horatio looked up at Hamlet, took a shaky breath and said:
"I don't think I can do this anymore."

Hamlets heart dropped.

He held Horatio's hand with his right and tried to stroke Horatio's cheek but Horatio jerked his head away, snatched his hands back and scooted away from Hamlet.

"Horatio, what's this about?" Hamlet questioned sadly.

Horatio paused and sniffed before he started blurting out everything he'd kept bottled up, "Hamlet, were never going to be together, why are we wasting our time. Your marrying Ophelia soon and I can't but feel bad when we have these secret meetings. You're betraying your fiancée for God's sake!" Horatio started crying. Hamlet tried to console Horatio by putting a hand on Horatio's shoulder but Horatio once again shrugged him off. "Please leave," Horatio pleaded, "Go back to your fiancée. Let's forget the past month and just move on with our lives. For good."

Hamlet signed as he got up and left, his heart shattered into a million little pieces.

"I'll still come in and check on you," the prince said.

"Don't bother," Horatio said cold heartedly, "They're letting me out tomorrow anyways. Just forget about me completely."

"Horatio, plea-"

"Get out!" Horatio cried.

Knowing he should leave him alone, Hamlet left his X-friend and silently cried all the way back to his room, unlike Horatio who loudly balled his eyes out for the next morning.

Neither of them slept much that night. They were busy thinking about what just happened. Hamlet knew Horatio was right. Even though he hated it so much, he knew he would have to stop seeing Horatio. He knew he had to be loyal to his fiancée. He knew he didn't want to. But he knew he was the prince and he knew the kingdom came first. He knew that meant he had to marry Ophelia.

Hamlet took a deep breath in and he remembered all the fun times he had with Horatio, their inside jokes, their adventures, their stolen kisses. But then he exhaled and let go of all of that. He inhaled once more and thought of his future, soon to be husband to a beautiful girl, father to wonderful children, ruler to the mighty kingdom. He exhaled once more and confirmed all of what he just thought, pushing Horatio out of his mind.
Hamlet rolled over, wrapping his arm around Ophelia and falling asleep.

The next day came and it started pretty boring, Hamlet and Ophelia were choosing the design for their upcoming wedding. Ophelia seemed to like it a lot more than Hamlet did but he forced himself to try and be excited about it and soon enough he too was enjoying himself a little as well. He forced himself to find joy in Ophelia's excitement and by the end they were fooling around and joking together. Though Hamlet had forced these happy feelings onto himself they felt pretty real to him.

The two held hands and walked to the dinning hall for dinner. They sat at the head table at the front of the hall where the royal court would dine. All throughout dinner Polonius had been giving Hamlet dirty looks, he hated the fact that Hamlet and his daughter were getting married. Ophelia and Hamlet would try and hide their snickers every time Polonius gave Hamlet a look.

When desert came out it was chocolate cake, Hamlet's favourite! Ophelia fed Hamlet the chocolate cake, but she ended up saying something funny and while mid-chewing Hamlet burst out laughing and cake sputtered out of his mouth. That just made him laugh more.

His mother was trying to look stern but was cracking a smile as she shooed the couple out of the hall for being unprofessional. She was happy, Hamlet looked happier than he had been on a while and that made her smile.

Horatio stormed back to his room. He didn't know what he was feeling. Anger? Jealousy? Sadness? Maybe a bit of all three? He had been the one to break things off with Hamlet. Why was he the one getting upset?

When Horatio had seen Hamlet and Ophelia goofing around all dinner it had made him so incredibly upset. He envied the way they laughed at each other, the way they smiled together.

He cried and cried and cried. He was so stupid. Why had he told Hamlet to leave? They could've just ran away together and lived happily ever after. He regretted getting mad at Hamlet. He hated the way he had acted. But it was too late. He couldn't take back what he had done. Right?