Royal 2 (Book two in my Selection series)

Chapter 11

The next day I was ready ten minutes before six. I was wearing a simple ball gown with the top decorated in silver diamonds and the bottom a silky and rich blue color. It wasn't as formal as the one for ball, but I still loved it.

The night before had went by quickly, but I had only danced with Will once. The rest of the night he spent talking with other girls, which I guess was fair but hard for me to understand.

"One more pin for your hair." Tina said before sticking another pin into it. My hair was straightened and a few pieces had been pinned in the back.

"Thank you." I say to her and she scurries off to the bathroom so that the prince didn't see her when he came.

It took about five minutes until there was a knock at the door. I tried not to be too quick on opening the door so it didn't look like I'd been waiting.

I open the door to reveal Will. I smile and shut my door behind me.

"Hey." I say to him.

"Hi." He replies and offers me his arm. I link our arms and let him lead me to wherever we were going.

"So where are we going?" I ask. We turn a corner I'd never been before.

"Well. I thought we could walk in the gardens for a while and then eat." Will says. He was wearing a dark tux with a red tie.

"Sounds good to me." I smile and follow him to the door. He nods to the guard that stands at the door and pushes it open. A rush of fresh air hits my face and I couldn't help but breathe in a sigh of relief. "I don't think I've been outdoors in days."

"If you ever need out, just let me know and I'll let the guards know so you can go." He tells me.

"Thank you." I say and turn to him happily. He allowed me to walk in peace for a few short minutes before asking the questions I knew were going to come up.

"What were the clips about?" Will asks and I turn to see his questioning face. My expression falls.

"The last one was me with my cousin. I was laughing with him at the airport and they were trying to make it out like he was more than my cousin." I start. I look over at him and he wasn't looking at me. "The one in my kitchen was right after the man from the palace had come to talk to us and ask us about the money and stuff."

"What?" This caught his attention. He looked up and waited for my response.

"Well, Umm— they ask about your purity first. Then..." I look away, but feel his eyes on me. It was weird to talk about this with him, and something I wasn't comfortable with. I didn't know how to word it. "He just made me question if you were as kind as I had suspected."

"How did they do that?" Will turns to me and asks. He stops in his path and leads me to a concrete bench. I told myself just to get it over with. Rip the bandage off.

"He said not to refuse you. He said to do what you wanted no matter what and there would be consequences if not." I say quickly. I look down and fiddle with my fingers. "I've never kissed a guy before. I mean, that scares girls."

Without saying anything he puts my hands into his and holds onto them for a minute.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know they did that." Will mutters. "I'll talk to them."

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't do it. When I'd heard the words that the man had said. What would've happened if I'd gotten myself into this mess I couldn't get out of? What if Will hadn't been who he was?

"What was the other clip of, Autumn?" Will asks. I look up and sigh.

"It was the day or so before I had to leave. Where my mom doesn't move on her own, I have to take her on walks so that she stays strong and doesn't get hurt. I was just trying to go back home and the cameras were everywhere. You can't just bother people's lives like that. I would've been okay if it was me, I wouldn't care, but it was her." I tried to explain myself but just ended up rambling.

"And the letter?" I was glad he didn't continue about the problem with my mother but I didn't like what he replaced it with.

"I loved my father. I was a daddy's girl all the way and I was wrapped around his finger. And I just didn't expect him to walk out on us. My brother had just been born and my mother just started getting sick. I don't even know why he did it, but everything just got so much harder after that. Anyway, that was who the letter was from." The expression in his eyes wavered and I knew it was because he didn't understand.

"I'm sorry." He says.

"Me too, but the point is I never want to talk to him again." I stand up from the bench and pull Will up with me. "Let's talk about something happy." I suggest.

"Okay." He nods and agrees. "Tell me about your family."

"Well there's my mom and my little brother. Colton is three. He doesn't talk though, which I've taken him to doctors but they all say he'll probably grow out of it. Then I have my uncle Davy and his wife Katherine. They've both always been very nice to me. Then my cousin James. He's always kind of been my best friend in a way. Or like a brother." I continue on and on.

"That's good." Will smiles. "I have a lot of cousins, but I'm not quite as close with all of them. There's a lot of them though."

"How about Maisie? I saw her on one of the recent reports she's adorable." Maisie was Logan's newborn daughter, who was born nearly two months early and scared the entire country.

"She's beautiful. Logan is supposed to bring her and Olivia in soon, so I guess we'll see." Will says. "I love babies though. I think they're the most innocent things in the world."

I laugh a little at the softness of his voice. It was weird seeing how honest he was about it.

"But really How can't you like babies?" He asks, laughing in surprise.

"I do like babies, but mostly the idea of babies. When Colton was born, it was hard. I wasn't very good with the diapers and spit up and the crying." I laugh about it now, but at the time I swore it was the death of me.

Will throws his head back in a genuine laugh. One of my favorite things in the world was getting someone to actually laugh and not something fake like other people could easily do.

"Are you a cat person or dog person?" He asks me.

"I like them both honestly, but it kind of depends on my situation in life. If I had a big house, and a lot of kids and a big yard, I would have bigger outdoor dogs and indoor cats. If I lived in the house I was in now I would consider a dog, but it's a lot to clean up after for a while so if I got one now it'd be a cat." I say matter of factly.

"You analyze things way more than most people do." Will chuckles. "I like them both too. For the palace, I would get a cat just because dogs need to be outside and all we have is the gardens."

"Yeah." I agree. Everything was so peaceful and so calm. Why couldn't everyday be like this? And I had an answer, but I refused to let myself say it aloud.

"Let's go eat. I'm starving."