Atlas (A Selection/Hat Films Fanfiction)

~ Eighteen ~

"Hey," I said, tossing a pillow over so it landed on top of the prince, "wake up."

He awoke with a start, but then realized it was just a pillow on top of him and fell back onto the bed with a groan.

There's was a pause before he jumped up again. "Wait shit," he exclaimed, "this isn't my bedroom. . . Atlas!" He jumped as if I had suddenly popped into the room, but I hadn't moved from my spot where I had thrown the pillow.

"This is your bedroom. . ." he muttered.

"I take it you're not a morning person?" I asked, slightly annoyed. I was hungry, but I had something important to talk to him about. I wasn't expecting him to start this slowly.

"Sorry, my head's just killing me. . ." he mumbled, looking around and shielding his eyes from the sun that was streaming in through the balcony windows, "What time is it?"

"Ten."

"Shit," he swore again, "I need to meet with Ross and Chris in half an hour to go over-" His mouth snapped shut and he gave me a concerned look. Judging by the way he cut off and stiffened, he didn't need to tell me what the meeting was about. It was about the Elites. I didn't comment.

"Uh. . ." he looked around, and then down at himself, still fully clothed in his Halloween ball attire. "Did we-"

"Are you seriously going to ask if we had sex last night?" I snapped, noticing him tense up uncomfortably just hearing the word itself. I would have found it amusing if my brother hadn't been kidnapped. . . and I didn't have a lot of things to sort out if I want to go out tonight. . . and I wasn't wasting away from hunger.

"What?! No!" he balked as if it were egregious to even suggest it. I just looked at him expectantly. "Sex outside of marriage is illegal anyway. . ." he said lamely as he avoided eye contact.

"Oh, I'm sure it is," I sighed, rolling my eyes, and turned away from him to start looking for a bag I could pack things in. Unfortunately, I didn't even know what I needed to bring with me yet, so I just tried to look busy.

"Wait. . ." he said again, trailing off. I looked back over my shoulder and then straightened up to watch as the gears started turning in his head. "Have you-"

"Unimportant," I snapped.

He made a face like he wanted to start and argument. "Well I think it's pretty imp-"

"UN-" I started again, cutting him off, "important."

He glared at me. "I take it you're not a morning person either," he sneered.

"I guess you're not a people person either," I shot back.

He straightened, clearly annoyed by the comment. He opened his mouth, presumably to hurl another insult at me, but then closed it again. "I'm leaving," he announced a moment later, stalking towards the door.

"No wait," I said, softening my tone in hopes of sounding apologetic, "I need to talk to you, it's important." I was glad he had been the mature one to cut that argument off before it got worse; I made a note to remember that the next time I felt frustrated with him.

Alexandre looked down at my hand after I had grabbed his arm. He was suddenly more alert. "What is it?" he asked quietly. I grabbed the key from the pocket of my nightgown and was about to show it to him when there was a knock at the door.

Stuffing it back deep into my pocket, I ran my hand through my hair once before going to greet whoever was there. I assumed it was my maids with breakfast; they were always really kind about making sure I was getting all my meals in.