Sweet Oblivion

You owe me one Princess.

"Lei, wake up!" Sky's irritated voice boomed in my room. I ignored her as best as I could and snuggled into my cozy blankets. I crawled up from under them to peer at the time on the wall clock hanging on the wall above me. HA! Six o'clock, in the morning. What a joke. I rolled my eyes, crawling back into the blanket.

"Leave Sky!" I huffed. "Do you have no respect for a person's sleep!" I closed my eyes hoping maybe sleep would just kick in.

"Leilanne Violet Haimilton, you're mother won't be too happy about this." Maria warned as she walked into my room, I peaked up at Sky through my pillow and she was dressed and ready for the another rehearsal before the masquerade ball. "Rehearsal starts in ten minutes!"

"We won't make it, just leave without me!" I tried to compromise. "You don't want to be late again."

Skylynn laughed, a bitter laugh. Soon my blankets were pulled away from me. " 'A queen is never late, everyone else is just simply early.'' "

"Queen Clarisse Renald" The room fell silent. The voice of power has spoken, my mother. I shot right of bed. "Would you like to explain why you aren't at the grand hall?" She asked with so much authority in her voice. No one spoke, of course they didn't. My mother lived by the rule 'Don't speak unless spoken too.' We didn't know who her question was directed to.

"Just a bit behind, that is all." I stared at my toes as I wiggled them from the nervous feeling that I was getting.

"Non-sense." My mother dismissed the excuse. "And look at me when I speak to you Leilanne." By the time I looked up at her she was already making her way out of my room.

Everyone in the room seemed to snapped back into reality. I ran into my closet grabbing a simple sundress and white flats, I'd just have to get dressed in the limo.

This time, once I reached the door I quietly creaked it open attempting to sneak in without being noticed just like Asher had done the previous morning. As I crept into the ball room I caught a glimpse of Asher smirking at me.

Help me! I mouthed to him. He gave me a quick thumbs up, latching his arms with Mrs.Florie leading her away. I made a mental note to thank him for that later as we snuck in.

After a few minutes, the girls and guys were sent away in two different directions. The girls to get their ball gowns fitted and the guys were sent to get their ball attire together. When we all met back up everything about the ball room looked very 18th century. I smiled, it looked way better than I thought it would. It looked very nicely decorated. Maybe tonight couldn't be so bad.

"You are very welcome" Asher smirked putting on his mask as he walked towards me. He was wearing a false burgundy satin fronted waistcoat with ties to the back. It looked very nice on him

"You look lovely." He smiled grabbing me by the waist as we once again begin to practice our waltz. I was wearing a very large strapless ruffle white dress that resembled a wedding dress but with many ruffles and sleeves that went down to the elbow. A heart shaped neck line. I liked it.

"Why thank you, you look very handsome Mr.Leon" I smiled.

"I was told so." He laughed pointing the direction of a few girls staring at him. I laughed along with him.

"Attention, everyone." I heard Mrs.Florie yell. "As you can already know the ball will be held very soon. Now you are all in your costumes so you can get use to how it feels, mostly you girls since those dresses weigh a couple pounds." She chuckled as all the girls including me agreed. The dress were much more heavier that I thought the would be since they added a few extra things to it. She continued giving details about the ball for the next few minutes. After a while she dismissed herself and we went back to practicing.

"Are you allergic to sea food?" Asher asked, as we danced.

"Why?"

"Well I wouldnt want you to have a sudden attack when I took you on a date," He winked. "Now would I?" I let up a small chuckle.

"No." I said, as Asher twirled me around.

He smiled. "That's great. So after rehears-"

I cut him off. "No, I'm not going on a date with you." I winked back at him. "This princess is staying under the radar for a while." Being chased by reporters was enough for me in a month. Going out with Asher wouldn't work out in my favor. He nodded like he understood what I meant. In the moment, I realized he did in fact know what I meant. He was just in the spot light as I was.

Then all his understanding went out the window. "But you owe me, so you'll go Princess." He winked. I knew he meant from his morning, helping me sneak in. If I knew he would be collecting for that, I wouldn't have asked for his help. Note to self; Don't ask for any more help.

-

"Self entitled." Asher chuckled, shaking his head. I was in the middle of taking another spoonful of my soup when I froze.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

For a second, I was shocked but I didn't understand what he was talking about. "That what I expected you to be like." He continued as shoving a forked wrapped in spaghetti into his mouth. "I've read about you before somewhere, so who thats I was expecting to meet."

"Handed everything, never worked a day in his life." Now it was his turn to be shocked. "You think you're the only one who's read something?" He raised glass as in saying touche' but he wasn't done there.

"Born into power doesn't know what a struggle is." He said. We went back in forth for a while. It was beginning to get amusing after a while, some of the things Asher mentioned to me I had never heard before.

"Not the best looking guy in person." Asher fell silent for a second.

"Now you are just making things up." Shaking his head, he said with confidence. After a while, our nice talk got inturrupted by a phone ringing.

"Sorry." Asher excused himself and walked outside the small restarant to take his call. I waiting inside for quite a while just twirling my spoon in my soup. "So, I have another proposition for you." Asher walked up to our table so casually. He waiting for me to give him some sort of sign that I was listening, so I nodded my head for him to continue.

"You can either join me or we can cut this little date-" He paused for a second to wink at me "short, but you agree to another one." I considered my two opitions. I had no idea what Archer wanted me to join him in and on the other hand, I didn't want him to get the wrong idea that we were going to be having many more dates after this. "My offer stands for 10 more seconds." He warned placing his hand on my chair's headboard.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Can't say." He smiled, shaking his head.

"Okay"

"Okay to which one?" He asked as I stood up.

"Lead to me to your secret location." I gestured towards the door. He took my hand in his, leading us out of the small restaurant. There was no way in hell he was getting another date out of me. This had been nice, but I needed to stay out of trouble. And I sensed that he was trouble. Instead of walking down a certain direction, he just planted his feet on the sidewalk, not moving.

"So are we going to-"

"Be patient" He laughed with amusment in his voice. I didn't press the subject.

Moments later, a black limo comes into view, the driver pulls up next to us. The window in the back seat rolls down, a cheery guy pokes his head out. "Well if it isn't Asher." extends his hand out to Asher, who shakes it in return. Then he turned to me. "And .. Jail buddy." He smirks.

Oh brother...

Yeah, he's absolute trouble.