Royally Kissed | ✓

23; the villainous switch

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Her lips tugged up into an affectionate smile when Arthur eased his head onto her lap. They comforted themselves on the grass, her back against the wall. While Arthur randomly picked the blades of grass, Paige ran her fingers through his locks out of habit as stray hairs naturally fell into his eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" she finally asked.

He stilled.

Paige didn't want to ruin the silence, the moment. But it had been several minutes now since they made it here, with Arthur seemingly bilking at the prospect of having 'the talk'. But she needed to get that question off her chest.

"I'm just wondering..." he mused, not quite answering her question after a lengthy pause. He looked up, not directly staring at her but at the clouds above, the flecks of sunlight reflecting in his eyes, "what if what you think is real isn't actually the truth, Paige? What if that person you trust turned out to be a horrible person?"

She frowned, quite stunned by this, and to be frank, she wasn't feeling too good about it. I'm probably overthinking again, she thought. Waiting for him to latch his eyes to hers, she cradled his face with one hand when he did and his chest rose high then fell deeply.

"Then I can only blame myself for believing," she said, at last, after moments of contemplation. "Trust−we give that to someone out of faith, Art. It's not entirely that person's fault when they turned out to be not what they seemed to be. Sometimes, we let our feelings make the decision for us and, yes, that might not be the wisest way of handling things. You're running a risk at that point but," she shrugged, "we could only hope, you know? Wishing they won't turn out to be the bad guy in our story."

Arthur clenched his jaw then swiftly lifted himself up from her lap. He turned back to her, threading his fingers through his hair out of what seemed like frustration.

"What if..." Arthur pursed his lips, a flicker of emotion in his eyes. His head angled slightly like he wanted to just get away. Just anywhere but here in front of her. Paige weaved her eyebrows together when he braved his eyes into hers. A stare so full of nothings and everythings and Paige pondered what that was like inside him. "What if I turned out to be the villain in your story all along, Paige?"

Her chest began to tighten.

Blinking, she stared at him, her eyes curiously dry. It was as though her tears welled up behind their sockets but she couldn't cry. "What d'you mean?"

Arthur dragged his tongue across his lip. "I just−what if this is all a lie?"

Her eyes fluttered close. Then her thoughts flashed the memory of her grandfather. It probably looked odd to Arthur because her lips flitted into a smile. Staring back at him, she replied, "I would ask myself: what would my grandfather do at a time like this?, and I think what he wants me to remember is that−my perception is not your reality. No matter how much we've been good, we'd still be the villain in someone else's story, Art. We aren't the person we are in our own reality. We are the way we are because of certain circumstances."

Silence heavily sunk between them. Muffled voices of other students were heard from a distance but she never heard so much quietness like this before. This just boded ill and it was all she could do not to run away from the situation.

Perhaps she was scared; afraid that she might be wrong about the way she always thought of Arthur.

After what seemed like forever, his expression started to change. It was as if he was relishing his time to do the switch.