Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

13. Wilhelm's room

Simon and Wilhelm made their way through the mostly empty hallways to Wilhelm's room. Wilhelm led the way and looked back at Simon every once in a while to smile at him. Simon carried his jacket over his right arm and his backpack on his left shoulder.

He'd retrieved his backpack from Felice's room earlier that morning and taken the opportunity to thank her for ambushing August. She told Simon she was "overjoyed to be helping screw over August because he deserved it more than anyone she'd ever known". He zipped the smaller bag he'd brought to school with him into his regular backpack before heading to class that morning.

Now he let Wilhelm open the door and followed him inside the double room. He hung his jacket over the chair and set his backpack on the ground next to it so that he could take a seat. He pulled the chair closer to the bed where Wilhelm had sat down to look at Simon. Simon had been quiet and deep in thought all the way from the dining hall.

Simon smiled to himself, "I've just nearly outed August. They might even figure out it was him on their own now that I've narrowed it down to just the guys in that room. I'm actually surprised they haven't picked up on why you've been treating him like trash this term." Wilhelm smiled at him and laughed.

"I feel like I need to go to the headmistress now and admit the drug thing, then tell her I'm going to the police about August and the video."

Wilhelm's eyes got wide. "Are you sure you want to tell the school about the drugs?"

"I think they'd be the ones to decide what to do with me, like they did with Alexander. Maybe they'd see that it's hypocritical for them to throw me out just because my parents don't have money to buy my way back in like..." Simon stopped suddenly mid sentence, looking past Wilhelm for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Wilhelm gave Simon a puzzled look and sat forward to get closer to him.

"I'm...", Simon hesitated and concentrated hard, furrowing his brow which made him look confused and angry at once, "...why didn't they already figure out that the pills were my dad's? Did they not care where they came from when they found them on Alexander? Either they didn't care where they came from...or....he's lying... he's fucking lying!" Simon had a almost pained look on his face suddenly as he realised. "No...Alexander wasn't caught with any of the pills that had my dad's name on them! The ADHD meds had his name because they were the only ones he was actually prescribed, and that's what August asked me to get him before, so he could use them himself... He would have kept them all for himself! You said he showed you a bottle with my dad's name one it?

"Yeah, just the one white bottle."

"It's from his own stash because he's kept them for himself! He wouldn't have given the rest away or even sold them. He was desperate to get his hands on that shit before. They don't have any of those bottles as evidence. I'm sure of it! What's he gonna do, go to the school or police and say I gave him the pills that he's been using because he asked me for them? He's bluffing. They've got no proof!
The rest of the pills were like strong pain killers, like oxycodone and like, opiates, morphine and strong shit like that, and I remember those were either in blister packs, like the ADHD meds sometimes were, but they never had my dad's name on them even if they were in bottles."

Simon sensed Wilhelm wasn't following and he needed to give some background that would make his family look even worse but it was too late to save face at this point. Simon sighed.

"My dad hurt his back a long time ago and got addicted to pain killers, but I remember he started stealing them or getting fake doctor's prescriptions so his friends could get him more by using different names because the doctors wouldn't prescribe him any more."

Simon sighed deeply and leaned forward, covering his face with his hands. Wilhelm leaned forward and held Simon's head against his own. He kissed his cheek trying to comfort him and calm him down. Wilhelm realised that Simon was panicking and could feel tears on his cheek. Wilhelm recognized Simon was probably feeling overwhelmed by all of this, besides remembering how it had been with his father. Wilhelm had never seen Simon this upset before.

"Here, Simon, come on." Wilhelm helped him stand up from the chair and led Simon over to the bed to help him lie down on his side closest to the wall. He took off Simon's shoes and put a blanket over him before he took off his own shoes and slid under the blanket with him, looking into his eyes. He saw the tears streaming down his cheek and used the back of his hand to wipe them away and kissed his forehead softly. He kissed it over and over again bundling him in the blanket and draping his arm over him.

"I'll go to the police with you whenever you're ready." Wilhelm told him quietly. Simon looked at Wilheln at that moment and smiled through the tears. Wilhelm hesitated, then said softly while looking into Simon's eyes, "jag stöttar dig, Simon..och...jag...jag älskar dig."

Simon smiled with tear filled eyes and lifted his chin to kiss Wilhelm who kissed him back passionately, pulling Simon even closer, cradling the back of his neck, then holding his shoulders, moving his hands down to his waist and under the back of his shirt that he began to lift so he could feel more of Simon's skin.

Wilhelm tugged at Simon's shirt helping him ease it off over his head. He dropped it on the floor and sat up slightly to pull off his own shirt and drop it to the floor as well. He lowered himself down again next to Simon and they looked into each other's eyes for a moment side by side. Wilhelm put his hand to Simon's cheek and wiped his tears before kissing him softly on the lips and staying there for a moment, listening to his breath. Wilhelm wrapped Simon tightly in his arms and felt his warm, bare skin on his chest.
________________

The boys had fallen asleep in each other's arms and woken up a little over an hour later. Wilhelm woke up first and studied Simon as he slept, smiling as he admired his smooth, tan skin and dark curls. Wilhelm contemplated touching them, even let his hand hover above them for a moment, but decided to let him sleep a bit longer. He sat up very slowly moving to the edge of the bed and bent down to pick up his jeans from the floor. He pulled them on trying not to move around too much, then buttoned and zipped them.
Simon stirred when he realised that Wilhelm was no longer next to him. He opened his eyes and asked, "Hur mår du?"

"Jag? Bra. Hur mår du?"

"Bättre." Simon smiled up at him.

Wilhelm smiled back as he remembered a similar conversation in this room a few months ago, but with the roles reversed.

"Could you hand me my backpack?"

Wilhelm leaned over and grabbed it from the floor and passed it over to Simon who sat up, covered with the blanket and unzipped his backpack. He extracted the smaller, drawstring bag from it and opened it. He pulled out the orange sweater and handed it to Wilhelm.

"Here, you left this in class the day they tried to pull you out of school."

Wilhelm looked confused.
"That was a long time ago. Where's it been?"

"I just had it at my place for a while, waiting to give it back to you." Simon smiled slyly.

Wilhelm looked at him doubtfully and thanked him for returning it.