If love could win

The shooting range

I was still hurt after Simon rejected me, after telling me he loved me. Felice had been a really great help during that time. She had proposed that I blow off some steam on the shooting range with her. I had agreed. We had dressed to go down to shoot some clay pigeons.

"Thank you for distracting me, Felice," I said. She looked at me with a little smile.

"Anytime, Wille," she said. I noticed another student from Hillerska finishing up on the field. And someone else I recognized. That guy. He had been on a date with Simon. Simon had said it was not a date, but I had suspicion that it actually was. That Simon actually wanted to move on. That he did not want anything to do with me.

"Does he need to be here?" I asked. I felt myself tense up.

"It is a security thing since we are not eighteen and we don't have a licence," Felice replied. The guy smiled at Felice when we went up to him.

"You must be Felice," he said.

"Yes," she replied.

"I am Marcus," he said. So that was his name. The guy who was out to steal Simon from me.

"I am Wilhelm," I said.

"So you are here to shoot some clay pigeons? Who wants to start?" he asked. Felice said she wanted to start. I stood slightly behind her and she shot. And she hit.

"He has been on a date with Simon," I told her. I didn't even know him, but I already hated his guts. Simon was the love of my life. It was not his fault that Simon and I were not a couple. That was my fault. But he was trying to get with Simon, which would prevent us ever getting back together. What did I have that that guy did not? I had a royal family and a country and a crown to inherit. And Simon did not like that. He was probably nice and funny. Sweet. He probably had it all. And he could go out on dates in public and tell all of his friends that he was seeing someone. Those kinds of things that I would not be able to give him. Simon deserved to have those things. And maybe it was better that he was with Marcus, as he could do those things with him.

"What?" Felice asked. "That sucks. But you are way more handsome than him. Just so you know." He was not even ugly. I could see what Simon saw in him. He was tall and had broad shoulders. He had a sweet smile. I took the gun and told the little voice that told me to point it at Marcus to shut up. But the voice inside me wanted to point the gun at him and shout that he better stay away from my boy. The machine went off and I tried to concentrate on shooting the clay pigeon. I missed it.

"Next time," Marucs said. He was even nice. Encouraging. Fuck him. The next time Felice told him to go, I imagined that little clay thing was him. I did not miss that time. But I was maybe a bit crazy. I probably was. We shot a few times more, and then we walked up to the school again.

"You don't know that Simon is into him. Okay, maybe they went on a date. What if he is an asshole? He is probably an asshole," Felice rambled on. Maybe trying to make me feel better. I did not.

"Stop it. He seemed really nice," I said.

"So you don't hate him?" she asked.

"Oh that makes me hate him even more," I said. She giggled and pulled me into a hug.

"It will be okay, Wille. Simon still has that longing look in his eyes when he looks at you, you know," she replied. "And either way I am here for you. You deserve happiness, Wille."

"So does Simon. And maybe I can't make him happy," I said.

"Yes you can. Stop being so negative," she replied.

"Can you stop being so positive all the time? Let a prince be miserable about his heartbreak," I teased her. She laughed.

*******************

Vincent had taken over as team captain and he was, if possible, worse than August. But I loved seeing August suffer. It made my day a little better. So much that Vincent's bullying did not bother me too much. I was standing outside in the cold with most of the boys from Skogsbacken. Simon was not there yet. I wondered where he was. Vincent spoke of how we were in bad shape and how the rowing team would be picked out for the semester. When Simon joined, Vincent got angry at him for being late and giving bad excuses.

"So you are going to race that trail and the people who get back first will be on the team," Vincent said. I noticed that Simon's shoelaces were untied.

"Vincent, that is not a trail. Someone will end up hurt," August protested. He was not taking it well not being team captain.

"I thought I was the team captain now. You get in a nice line and run. Do you hear me?" he shouted. Everyone told him yes. We did not dare to do anything else. When everyone started running, Simon noticed his shoelaces being untied.

"Simon, come on. Run," I told him. I ran a few steps before him. Made sure he followed along. We were behind everyone. We ran for maybe a hundred metres before he stopped.

"Don't stop," I told him.

"Wille, I don't want to do this. I don't have the energy and I will never get even close to the others. We are too far behind," he replied.

"Come on," I tried to encourage him.

"Why do you even care?" he asked.

"Because... because I don't want your grades to be impacted. The teacher wants us to compete for the school teams, remember?" I replied.

"Fuck this. I am not doing it," he said.

"I know another way," I said.

"You mean you want to cheat?" he asked.

"Who cares. Follow me," I said.

"I care," I heard him comment. I pretended to not hear. He actually followed me. I tried to make some conversation with him, but he was mostly quiet. We got to the stables and I saw Marcus working further away. He raised his hand and waved. Both Simon and I waved back. I looked at Simon.

"Do you know him?" I asked. Now I could raise the question without it being weird, I thought.

"He is from Bjärstad. Everyone knows everyone in Bjärstad," he said.

"Right," I replied.

"Do you know him?" he asked.

"No, or well I met him on the shooting range with Felice a few days ago," I replied. Simon was so hellishly pretty when we ran. If he had not rejected me in the music room a few days before I might have dared to kiss him. Now I was afraid he would slap me if I even tried. We went on running. I asked if he had thought about what to do with August. If he had told Sara. He had not. He said he had been occupied with other things recently. I wondered if one of those things was the cute stable boy we had just ran by. We got to the finishing line as the last ones who made it onto the team. I smiled. I would get to spend a bit more time with Simon after school. That was my motive all along.