Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

30. Party Ends

Wilhelm and Simon walked back inside and sat down for a minute, Wilhelm talking quietly to Simon, trying to cheer him. As Wilhelm took Simon's hand, he looked up to see Nils watching them from a short distance away.

"I'll be right back." Wilhelm almost jumped to get to Nils.

"Nils!"

Nils was taken aback and playing dumb, too drunk to pretend more convincingly that he didn't know what was going on."Wille! How's it going?"

"What the fuck did you invite Markus for?!"

He looked around carefully and stepped away from the crowd before speaking quietly, "Well, I told you I matched with him on Grindr. We were supposed to meet later, but I guess he showed up early..."

"Right. You'd invite him to school to hook up with you, and you said he wasn't interested...What are you doing?"

"Listen...I'm just trying to look out for you, Wille. I think it just makes more sense for you to be with someone from your own league, of the same status. I'm sure Simon is great, sings nice, cute, all that, but he's not someone you could have a serious relationship with long term when you're one of us. He'll never understand the pressure you're under like guys in your own league can."

Wilhelm got indignant suddenly "You mean guys like you?"

"Well, yeah!" Nils said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and smiled, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm not interested. And you can stop trying to help me." Wilhelm turned and walked back to Simon without another word.

Felice called through the group to Simon: "Ok Simon, this is ours! Are you ready?" Felice moved toward him and reached out her hand to where he was sat down and he took it out of obligation, but didn't feel in the mood at all.

"What are we singing?" Simon still not at all enthused about this. At least this time it was karaoke with Felice though.

"You'll see!" She was tipsy and clearly having a great time.

He heard the first lines and immediately recognized the song.

🎶Is this the real life...is this just fantasy...caught in a landslide...no escape from reality...🎶

He joined in not wanting to leave Felice alone. Then he thought how much better they sounded than he and Markus had and felt happier almost immediately being able to sing with his friend in front of others. He saw Ayub filming them as well as a few others. He looked over to see Wilhelm smiling widely as he watched them perform.

They went back and forth exchanging verses in the opening ballad section and doing their Freddie Mercury impressions to make their friends laugh and cheer.

They needed help from the crowd in the operatic middle section but everyone joined in without hesitation, squealing into the microphones in turn.

Finally the song returned to its ballad style and concluded.

🎶Nothing really matters...nothing really matters... to meeee..🎶

Everyone cheered widly and congratulated Felice and Simon on the fantastic job they'd done.

Ayub commented, joking with Simon "Much better than last time, that's for sure!"

This time when Simon finished singing, Wilhelm wasn't just smiling proudly, trying to contain his pride and happiness but instead he was able to wrap Simon in a hug that Simon returned, squeezing Wilhelm tightly and resting his head momentarily on Wilhelm's shoulder before the rest of the group started discussing heading out and they pulled apart.

It was decided that Rosh and Ayub would take Sara home but Simon would spend the night at Hillerska with Ayub covering for him.

"Have a safe ride home, you guys!" Simon waved at the three of them as they headed off down the path.

Everyone made their way slowly out of the Palace, some having more difficulty than others mostly because some were more inebriated than others. Simon and Wilhelm were walked out arm in arm behind the girls.

Simon suddenly asked Wilhelm, "Do you remember this?". He pointed at the retaining wall they'd hidden behind to get away from August on Wilhelm's initiation night.

"I was really drunk, but yes, pretty much everything about that night I remember, especially about you. I saw you come in with your sister and really wanted to talk to you then. You looked beautiful. Then I went to talk to you but didn't know what to say and you sort of pied me and walked away. Then I ran after you and convinced you to hang out with me out here to hide from August."

"And you started singing..."

"Oh yeah." Wilhelm cringed for a moment. "Then I told you how much I liked your singing and asked if you were happy here and you didn't answer. I said I was but I didn't mean at school, I meant more that I felt happy just at that moment."

Once they reached the Forest Ridge dorms, Wilhelm and Simon quietly made their way in through Wilhelm's window while the girls did the same at Felice's.