ETERNALLY ⇢ HENRY MILLS [2]

chapter eighteen

camelot

The day after the ball, Henry and I got called by Hook to come into one of the bedroom's in King Arthur's palace. It took us a while to find it since there's so bloody many, but in the end we got there.
Emma was lying down on the bed, looking like she'd just seen a ghost. She didn't look good at all.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" I asked.
"I have no idea, she hasn't said a word." Hook answered.
"She needs rest; somewhere quiet." Regina suggested.
"I know the perfect place." Henry said to her.
"Perhaps Henry can take me and Emma there," Hook said before turning round to face me. "Brooke too."
"Come on, love. Let's go."
Emma got up without being asked twice and took of Hook's hand. We followed Henry.

He lead us to a stable in the middle of the woods and opened the door for us to walk inside. It stank of horse poo, food and hay. "Go find a place to rest, you'll feel better in no time." Henry to said to Emma, who smiled at her son's kindness.
"Who's place is this?" I asked.
"Yeah, how'd you find such a peaceful place to refuge, lad?"

Henry looked around as if he was trying to find an excuse. Does this place even belong to anyone?
"Well..." his eyes quickly met mine before returning to Hook's. "It's a girl's..."
Hook's face lit up. "I like this tale already!" He said, as if I wasn't stood right next to Henry. Emma looked at Hook and aggressively hit him with her elbow. He winced.
"It's not like that." Henry explained. "The stable belongs to her family. Her name's Violet.
"Do you know about this girl? Did Henry meet her through you or something?" Emma asked me.
I suddenly felt extremely awkward. "Er, no. I don't know this girl."
Hook raised an eyebrow.
"We were just hanging out at the ball." Henry said to us.

So that's the girl I saw him getting friendly with...

"Hello?" I voice I didn't recognise said from outside.
"That's her!" Henry whispered. "Hide!"
Emma and Hook panicked and ran behind a large wooden barrier separating two of horse's pens.

a/n: i have no knowledge about horses at all so sorry if i sound so unprofessional explaining a stable lmao

To be honest, I didn't want to be here anymore. I ran out of what seemed to be the back door and hovered outside, hoping to hear Henry talking to Violet. I wanted to see about just how friendly they are.

I looked through a tiny crack in the wood and saw a girl run in with a pitch fork... or whatever it was, with her hair tied back in braids.
"H-Henry." She smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"I came here to see... if you'd be interested in... taking me riding." He said. It sounded pretty unconvincing.
Nevertheless, Violet seemed to believe him. "Yeah, I'd love to."
"Come on, I'll introduce you to my horse." She took hold of his hand and grinned. "I hope you're ready to get your heart racing."
Henry looked at Hook, who was grinning, putting his free hand to his face and pressing his finger against his lips, before letting Violet take him outside.

"Oh my gosh my son has a crush when he has a girlfriend and he didn't even ask his own mother for help." Emma said, astonished.
They both came out of their hiding place.
"You can't hide the bloom of first love."
Emma shot him a glare.
"Second..." He joked.
"This isn't funny, Hook! Henry has a girlfriend! A lovely one, I might add and I don't want my son to break a girl's heart."
"Remind me, love, how long have they been together?"
"Almost a year."
Hook winced. "He's in a pretty awkward situation then, isn't he?"

I didn't want to hear anything else. I felt the tears coming once again. I turned and ran. I ran and ran and ran until I was out of breath. I looked around and panicked once I realised I was in the centre of forest and had no idea how I was going to get back.

"Brooke?" I spun around and saw Belle, carrying a basket full of apples.
She frowned and dropped her basket of apples and held my face in her hands, wiping away my tears with her thumbs. The tears just kept coming, though.
"What's wrong?"

I didn't expect this but Belle seemed like the girl I wanted to talk to right now. Regina would take none of it since Henry is her son and would probably murder this mysterious Violet girl. Emma and Hook are out of the question and I'm not that close with David or Mary Margaret. Then again, I'm not that close with Belle, either. But it's something about her that I trust.

"Brooke, you can tell me." She insisted. I let the tears flow as I explained everything.