Undercover Princess

Chapter 38: Not Going Down Without a Fight

ASHTON'S P.O.V

BANG. BANG. BANG.

I heard loud thumping on my door as I suddenly woke up and sat up on my bed, as if I'd just had a nightmare.

"Ashton?" Luke called from the other side, "Dude you missed all your classes today! not like you ever come to school, but you do manage to attend the odd lesson or two" He mumbled to himself, "Ashton!! You there??"

I slowly and miserably stood up and dragged myself to the door, unlocking it, as Luke abruptly barged right in.

"I can't believe you were sleeping at like 3pm?" Luke remarked in disbelief, "I get that Bella's gone and you're grieving but you can't just sleep all day... it's unhealthy"

"Damn it, Luke, I don't need your shit this early in the morning..." I growled, crawling back to bed.

"Dude!" He grabbed onto my wrist pulling me away from my bed, "It's 3pm! You are not sleeping any more. I get that you're hurting, so go, I'm listening, let it all out."

"What are you talking about? Just let me sleep, damn it!" I whined, pulling my wrist from his grip. Just before I was about to jump right back into bed, one of my dorm neighbours walked passed the door that we had left wide open and decided to come in.

"Hey Ashton, I went to get the mail and there's a few letters for you so I picked them up" He said throwing them on the table near the entrance.

"Thanks, mate." I half smiled before he nodded and left the room. It was probably jsut a bunch of bank statements or advertisement letter so I didn't pay too much attention to it at all.

"What's this huge letter?" Luke went towards the table grabbing the large brown envelope with the red sticker to seal it shut. Fancy, I thought to myself, he turned around and looked me straight in the ee with a slightly worried facial expression, "From the palace?"

My eyes widened and I stood up, walking over to him and grabbing the letter, almost as if I didn't believe he was telling the truth. But he was, it was an official letter from the palace. I hesitated for a moment, to catch my breath and prepare myself for all the possibilities that were contained within this letter before opening it.

Dear Ash,

Mother is trying desperately to get me married to all these princes, dukes, nobles and barons. You may have heard of this already from the news, the paparazzi have been surrounding us like a group of hungry bears. It's quite terrifying, having the cameras practically in your face. Anyways, back to the main focus of this letter. I want you to know I'm not moving on from you, no matter how much what you see or hear from people or paparazzi may deceive you, I'm telling you in writing, that I, Isabella Rosavelt Rechberg Agness Grinaldi, love you, Ashton Prescott, and only you. I am completely against being betrothed, I want to be with you, I can't stop thinking about you and I want to marry you, I do. But it just seems so out of reach. Ashton, I promise you, that I will try with all the power I posses, to be with you, to get my mother to accept you. But... In case it doesn't work out, I want you to move on with your life, as if I never existed. I want you to meet a girl, fall in love and be happy. I want you to promise me you won't grieve, or drink, and will be a man about the situation. Stay strong, my love. Hopefully, may we meet again but if not, I wish you all the best in life. You are and always will be my very first love. 

Love, Belle.

I crumpled the piece of paper in my hands, keeping my head straight down so Luke wouldn't see my tear-filled eyes. I didn't know what to think, whether I should be happy that she loves me or whether I should be sad that she had told me to forget about her. My hand holding the letter slowly brought it near my chest and I stood there like those actors in those cheesy classical romance movies which I hated so much.

"Ashton...mate.. What is it?" Luke asked in worry trying hard to look at my face which was hidden as I looked down at the floor.

I decided that Luke cared about Bella just as much as me and he was the one who convinced me to chase after her. He deserved to know what was going on with us. And he was pretty much my best friend since.. ever. 

I extended my hand holding the letter, gesturing him to read it. He quickly took it off me and rapidly scanned through the letter.

"Woah.." He slowly whispered after a while and then placed an arm on me.

"Can we get out of here, I need a beer-- I uh" I stopped  myself remembering Bella's potential last word to me, "I- never mind."

Luke smiled, nodding at me to show me I was making the right decision, "We can still go and have some drinks? I'm in the mood for 7up" He smirked at me. Me and Luke ever since we were little had this tradition to go to the small pretty deserted restaurant straight around Victoria Park and have drinks if one of us was dealing with something. We'd stopped the tradition a while ago, ever since we discovered beer. But 7up sounded perfect right now. I looked at him after my tears had dried up and smiled, nodding.

                                                                       *        *        *

"This is good. Feels just like old times" I mumbled to Luke, trying to convince myself as I took a sip fo the refreshing 7up bottle.

"Yea, why did we stop this tradition?" Luke asked, "Oh right- alcohol." and chuckled making me smile and let out a laugh.

Luke signed, knowing I wasn't really feeling it, "Ashton.. Look. Bella is trying all she can. I mean, there's nothing you can do. It's not in your hands-"

"That's just the thing, Luke. I feel so damn useless! I hate not being able to fight for her. " I said in anger.

Luke was quite for a moment, "Ashton, this is the potential Queen of Wales, I mean I know I was rooting for you guys and all, but it'd just too complicated. Bella is right and what she said in the letter is for your own good."

"Why did you root for us then, damn it Luke!" I shouted across the table, "As if my commitment issues weren't bad enough. Why did you give me hope when I knew she was too good for me!!"

There was dead silence. For what seemed like hours as we sat across each other looking down.

Luke stood up, "You know what, you're right. She may be the princess of Wales, she may live in a palace, she may have princes fighting for her, but you, You're Ashton Prescott. You always get the girls! And you are NOT giving up jsut because this particular one is posh and addressed with 'princess'!"

I looked up at him unsure, but still curious.

"You're gonna fight for her, Ashton, I'm gonna help you."

I stared at him for a while, unsure that I was capable of such a thing. But Luke had that fierce look on his face, so determined and heck I wanted to fight for her! I wasn't going to let her go without a fight. I stood up abruptly, "Let's do this" I smirked at Luke.