The Contest

Chapter 28

I closed my door and locked it. I was angry. I grabbed the nearest book off my desk and threw it across the room. It slid under my bed, and I sighed. A maid came out of the bathroom.
"Oh! I'm sorry your highness!" She apologized, curtsying.
"It's just fine. Please, get up. What's your name?" I asked.
"Anna." She said.
"Let whomever you report to know that I've given you the rest of the day off." I said.
"R-really?" She asked, making sure she had heard me correctly.
"Yes. Im staying in my room for the night." I answered. She nodded, and scampered out the door. I wasn't sure why the maids were so afraid of me. I guess I could let her go at any moment, but not that I would. I retrieved the book from under my bed and realized it was the journal I had got from my dad. I sat down and set it on my lap.
"I can't believe I let Amberlyn go." I muttered. I clenched my fists. Someone knocked on my door.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Harmonia." Harmonia's sweet voice called.
"Come on in." I replied, and she came through the door.
"How'd it go?" She asked.
"Not well. I told her...I told her that I loved her." I muttered.
"You what!?" She exclaimed, her mouth falling open.
"I told her I loved her, and then didn't even wait to see if she loved me too. I'm an idiot." I said.
"No you're not. You're scared." She said.
"So I'm not an idiot, I'm a coward. Fantastic." I moaned.
"Archer she loves you too." Harmonia told me.
"How can you know that?" I asked.
"Have you seen the way she looks at you? How much she smiles when you're around? How you're the first person she looks to when something is wrong? That's love." She said.
"But she never said it." I argued.
"You don't have to say it to know." She said. I looked at her.
"I'm going to rather blunt here-"
"Try me." Harmonia interrupted.
"I'm so glad you don't love me like every else here does." I said. She giggled. "Did I say something wrong?" I asked.
"I do love you Archer." She said.
"W-what?! But what about-"
"I love Jaxon too." She said simply.
"Then...I'm confused." I said. She smiled, and placed a hand on mine.
"You're the first person who knows, and I'm sure Jaxon will kill me when he finds out I've told you, but..." She held up her left hand. A beautiful diamond ring sparkled on her ring finger. 
"How is it you've accustomed to living here faster than any of the other girls, and you're not even a part of the Contest anymore?" I asked.  "Congratulations. I'm so glad I'll be able to call you part of my family." I said and hugged her. She smiled at me.
"I'm excited too. Now I must know...who's the lucky lady you have your eyes set on?" She asked. "Who do you think will win the Contest?" She asked.
"To be honest with you Harmonia...I've loved Amberlyn since the day she kicked me in the shin." I answered. Harmonia laughed.
"She was mortified!" She told me.
"I remember!" I exclaimed laughing with her. "She ran faster than a mountain lion, and honestly I didn't know what to expect. You know, she's the reason all of your parents are here." I said.
"How so?" Harmonia asked.
"Well, she wanted to talk to her mother." I said.
"Why's that?" Harmonia asked.
"There's a long story behind that answer." I told her.
"I have plenty of time." Harmonia said. I nodded.
"The night Amberlyn and I met, we were looking at a portrait in the second floor hallways. A portrait of her mother and my father. You know that her mother was in the previous contest correct?" I asked.
"That's all her mother talked about when the letters arrived." Harmonia answered and I saw her eyes reflect on the memory.
"Well the portrait was labeled "Prince Stephen and his fiancé Allison." I told her her eyes widened.
"There's no way." She said.
"I know, and that's what confused me. We were both confused and the next day when I met her officially, she asked me to keep her here as long as it took to find the answer to that portrait, and I could send her home. Well I had no intentions on sending her home but I agreed anyway. We've been looking and looking and we've found barely anything." I said.
"So then why did she need to talk to her mother?" Harmonia asked.
"Well, we found out that her mom was pregnant when she came to the Contest. Pregnant with her older sister-"
"Amethyst." Harmonia completed the sentence.
"Yes. She wanted to ask her mom why she stayed even after she knew, but after everything that's happened, she didn't need to." I said.
"I saw in one of Amberlyn's books that your father went missing for a few days." Harmonia said, giving me a quizzical look.
"According to record books, yes. When I looked deep into everything, I found this." I said, opening the journal that had belonged to my father. I showed her the page. After taking a second to read she looked up at me.
"Your Father ran away to be with Amberlyn's Mom after your grandfather sent her home?" She asked.
"He escaped with the help of a guard. That guard was Amberlyn's father. Andrew had been sent by someone to kill my father, and when he saw how much Allison loved my dad, he helped them escape. They were missing for five days when someone spotted them outside of section eight." I said.
"That's...a lot to take in." Harmonia said.
"And that's why I sent Amberlyn home. If she had stayed she would have found this information and it would have hurt her even more. So, yes. My father and her mother were engaged for almost a week. Then someone, I'm not sure who yet, found them and brought my father back to the castle. I don't know why he didn't choose Amberlyn's mother even after that, but I'm trying to find that out. I want to know, even if Lynnie never will." I said.
"Lynnie?" Harmonia asked.
"Amberlyn!" I exclaimed, my face becoming hot. Harmonia giggled.
"Lynnie is cute. Everyone has a different nickname for her." She said.
"What's yours?" I asked.
"Ams. Plain and simple." She said.
"I like that, but I think I like mine better." I said. Harmonia smiled, and someone knocked at the door.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"The person you shared the womb with."
"Come on in Jax." I said, sighing. Harmonia laughed. Her laugh was clear and bright.
"Will you introduce yourself like that from now on? 'Hi my name is Jaxon and I shared the womb with this guy." Harmonia said, laughing in between words. Jaxon blushed.
"Only if you want me too." He said. He looked at me and Harmonia. "You're not trying to steal my girl now are you, Archer?" He asked, taking her hand.
"No Jaxon, I'm not really into stealing other people's fiancé's." I said. Jaxon's head swooped to look at Harmonia, who was smiling an angelic smile.
"I thought we were telling my family together!" He exclaimed.
"It came up in conversation and I wasn't going to hide it!" She fought back.
"Darling..." He started, and she pecked his lips.
"Don't worry about a thing. Archer was just fine with it, and he won't say a word to your parents." She said.
"I promise Jax, I'm not gonna say anything to them. This is your news to share not mine." I said. He smiled and nodded at me.
"Thanks. I really appreciate it." Jaxon said.
"No problem. Now I'm gonna change. Goodnight guys." I said. They left. I looked around the room. After changing I knocked on the door of one of the contestants. The door opened.
"H-hi Archer!" Taylor said.
"Want to go out?" I asked.
"Like an after party?" She asked.
"More like an after date." I said.
"Of course!" She said, and followed me out the door. I took her hand. "I wondered how long it was going to take for you to recognize me." She said.
"I always knew you were here, I was just waiting for the right time to come get you." I lied.
"You're the sweetest." She said, and pulled me into a kiss. It didn't feel right, but I let it happen. She pulled away, and looked at me.
"You know, I always knew that we were meant to be together." She said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Of course. I think that you and I might stick through this together." She said.
"I see." I said. She smiled.
"Where do you want to go?" She asked.
"Why don't we just go get dessert or something?" I asked.
"Sounds good to me." She said and we went to the dining room.

~~~

Evander and I had been standing together in the dining room when the door opened. Archer and Taylor walked in together. As soon as Taylor spotted me she looked up at Archer.
"What is she doing here Archie?" She whined. It took everything in me not to physically tense up. Archie was such a snobbish nickname, and the fact that she was calling him that just left me annoyed.
"I can't control what she does around the castle, Love." He said, his eyes locked on mine. My heart dropped into my stomach. Taylor pouted.
"May I speak with you Taylor?" I asked. She looked at me quizzically.
"Sure I guess." She said, and we walked outside the doors.
"What do you want with him?" I asked, as soon as the doors were closed.
"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice changing drastically from what I had heard in the dining room.
"What do you want him to do for you? He's going to find out you're faking your personality sooner or later." I said.
"I'm not so sure of that." She said.
"How do you figure. I could open these doors right now and he could see how you are behaving with me right now." I argued.
"I'm a pretty good actor Amberlyn. A lot of the girls here are, unlike you." She said.
"Like who?" I asked.
"Take Ember for example. You didn't think that her robotic tone and movement were her actual personality did you? Also, how about Evangeline? That sweet girl has been acting since day one. She didn't have to do much of it, she's pretty much naturally stupid, but she's been acting for me."
"What's that supposed to mean? How has she been acting for you?" I asked, playing with the ring on my finger. Taylors eyes flashed down to the ring.
"Moving on fast there." She said.
"You don't understand the story." I said.
"Oh don't I? The boy which you've been friends with for years comes here and proposes to you, and you just have to say yes." She said.
"That's not-"
"That's not what happened, well you have to admit I'm very close to the story." She said. My stomach clenched and I bit my cheek. Closing my fists I felt my fingernails digging into my palms.
"What do you want Taylor?" I asked.
"Simple. For you to leave." She said.
"Why?" I asked.
"You're oblivious if you don't see the reason." She said. I looked at her, her green eyes seeming positively evil. She sighed.
"Wow. Fine. Archer loves you. Everyone sees it, and everyone, save you, knows. I simply want you out of the picture, and I'm willing to do anything to make it that way." She said.
"So you stole my ring, destroyed my room twice, and now what, you're threatening me?" I asked.
"Possibly." She answered, her jaw set.
"You can't scare me Taylor. You DON'T scare me." I told her.
"I'm not surprised. But I promise you this, if you stay here, I swear your life will be a living hell." She said, enunciating the last two words, making them daggers at me.
"Fine then. Maybe that's where I belong, because I'm not really wanting to go anywhere. My fiancé is here, and marriage is a pretty permanent thing." I said. Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you say." She said, and opened the door.
"Archie!" She called, running over to him. "You made the right choice getting rid of her, she's completely awful!" She cried, falling into his arms dramatically.
"Hey watch it, that's my fiancé you're talking about!" Evander defended. I sucked in a breath, and Archer stiffened.
"Your what?" He asked, calmly.
"My...Fiancé." Evander said, considering if he was going to tell him.
"Get out." Archer said.
"A-archer-"
"Get...out." He said again. I looked at Evander. "Both of you! GET OUT NOW!" He yelled. I jumped back, and Evander ran to me.
"Dude what the crap." Evander said, and took my hand. He pulled me out of the room, and slammed the door. I looked at him, and he opened his arms. I fell into them, crying.
"I j-just want to go h-home." I said, crying into him.
"Then we'll get you home." He said.
"How?" I asked.
"You were eliminated. You can leave whenever you want." He said.
"But what about you?" I asked. He lifted my hand, and pulled the ring off.
"I can wait." He told me.
"Are you sure?" I asked. He lifted a finger to my check, and wiped a tear from my face.
"Positive my love." He said, kissing my cheek. He brought me to my room.
"Get some sleep, and you can leave tomorrow." He told me. I nodded.