Royalty

XIV

A/N: So I just found out that a lot of people think that Jack is supposed to be jacksepticeye? Um he's actually just one of my oc's lol. I probably should've specified that at the beginning but I didn't even know people thought that until someone messaged me about it on tumblr... so sorry if you thought that.

Thank you to all the people who are still reading this! Please vote and comment :)

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I didn't leave my room for two days. I refused to see my parents, though they tried everyday to try and get me to come down. I'd been sleeping in Jack's bed. I missed him. I still wasn't sure how I felt about him. I did love him, but I don't think it was a romantic kind of love. I loved him as my best friend, and it was killing me to not be able to see him. My brain was at war with itself. I was torn between crying about Jack, and Phil. I missed them both, though I was still mad at Phil. I thought a lot about what Jack said, about him knowing that Phil was my soulmate. You can't run away from your soulmate. Then how did Phil run away from me? That's what he did. He ran away. Why else would he not be here? During those few days alone, I completely lost hope that Phil would come back.

Today was the day of the final ball. My parents were going to make me choose someone tonight, even though they knew that I was gay. They knew, and they didn't care. I cried a lot when I thought about it. I cried until I didn't have any tears left. I was numb. I didn't get to decide my future, it was already decided for me. And I had to be okay with it. Because what else was I going to do? Run away? Where would I go? What would I do? I had no way out of this. I felt numb and cold. I felt... hopeless.

"Dan?" there was a knock at the door. I had just finished getting dressed. It took me longer because I didn't have Jack to help me, and the buttons on my shirt were a pain to do myself. "The ball starts in just a few minutes, are you ready?" I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My skin was pale and I had bags under my bloodshot eyes. I looked like a fucking mess.

"Yea-" I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I'm ready" I put the shining crown on my head and, for the first time in several days, stepped out of my room. I was going to spend as much time as possible away from my parents, so I took the long way to get to the balcony that over looked the ballroom.

As the voice downstairs grew louder I started panic. Everything started to feel real. I was about to chose the person that I was going to have to spend the rest of my life with. My pulse quickened. I wasn't ready for this. I couldn't do this.

But it was already to late. The ball had already started. I heard my fathers voice from the floor. I braced my arms against the railing as I listened. His voice sounded distorted, and my vision was starting to get blurry. I covered my face with my hands and sucked in several deep breaths. This wasn't happening to me. This wasn't happened. This wasn't real.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then I was being led down to the ballroom floor. The voices grew quiet as I walked in. I lifted my head and tried to focus on one spot as the ball began. I stayed there until the people started dance. Everything was a blur for the next few minutes. My mother said something to me, I'm sure it was some inspirational thing about me finding the best woman, but I couldn't hear her. After she went back to sit down I walked over to the edge of the room and looked around the room. Everyone was watching me, waiting for me to make my move. I had to move, I couldn't just stand here all night.

It took me a few minutes to calm myself down enough to move. When my vision was less clouded, I pushed myself off the wall and walked towards the people. I could still hardly breathe, but I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. I just wanted this all to be over. I scanned the crowd. My eyes landed on a girl with bright blue eyes. My heart squeezed painfully. Everyone I looked at reminded me of Phil. I walked towards her. She looked vaguely familiar, I'd probably danced with her before. "Good evening" I said to her, bowing my bed. Her face was glowing. The people around us all turned to watch.

"Prince Daniel" she bowed.

"I'm terribly sorry, but have we met before?" I said. "I can't quite recall your name" she beamed.

"It's Madeline. Madeline Donovan. I believe I was the first girl you danced with" she said proudly.

"Madeline..." I repeated. "Would you care to have this dance?" she accepted, and I pulled her out to the dance floor. Everyone's eyes were on us. Most girls were glaring and several parents were muttering angrily to each other. They all wanted to be her. They wanted to be the girl that I picked. I was going to pick Madeline. It would make things a lot easier, plus it made for a good story. She was the first girl I saw.

"Um," Madeline was looking at me weird. "Are you alright?" I must've sighed out loud.

"Terribly sorry" I said. "I've had a very long week so I'm quite tired" she nodded and we continued to dance. People were getting bored of watching us so they all started to dance around us. "So, um" Now that we were dancing I suddenly realized that I had no idea where to go from here. I didn't know what to say. How do you ask a complete stranger to marry you?

"Yes?" her eyes sparkled in excitement.

"I know that we don't know each other..." I started. The words were getting stuck in my throat. My head was screaming at me to stop. "B-but I think... over time we could get to know each other... and-" my eyes were suddenly pulled away from her. My heart leapt into my throat. Jack. He was carrying trays of food out from the kitchen. I watched in cross the floor. He turned to look at me, and our eyes locked. His eyes flashed with sadness and he quickly looked away. I looked back at Madeline who was giving me a weird look. "And- and we could..." my eyes were drawn back to him again. His back was to me. I shook my head and tried to refocus myself on the girl. "Um, would you like- I mean," I kept seeing Jack out of the corner of my eye. My heart hurt every time I looked at him. "Sorry, could you give me a minute? I'll be back right back" I dropped my arms and started to walk away from her.

"O- oh, okay" she watched in confusion as I quickly made my way across the room. Jack couldn't see me as I approached him. I was only a few steps away when I saw my mother watching me. My blood ran cold, and I suddenly remembered what Jack said to me, about them moving him somewhere else if they saw us together again. I couldn't be the reason that Jack never saw his family again.

I grit my teeth and walked right past the table, past Jack, and out the door. I braced my arms against the wall and tried to calm my breathing. I didn't think I'd see Jack, not tonight, not this soon. I missed him more than I thought I would. He was my best friend for years, I saw him everyday and now I was expected to just forget about him? I needed a minute to get myself back together before I went back in there.

"Prince Daniel!" I heard someone call for me. I turned and saw one of the servants running after me. "Your father is looking for you. He says you need to come back immediately" I ran my fingers through my hair. It was time.

"Tell him- tell him I'll be there in just a moment" This was it. I was choosing my ending. I was giving up my happiness for my parents. I was out of time, I was out of options. "Just... give me a minute" the servant nodded and went back to tell my father. I leaned against the wall and put a hand over my mouth. I felt sick. I turned and started to run towards the door. I was about to throw up. I had my head down while I was running, so I didn't see the guard in front of me. I ran into him, and hit the floor. He looked startled, and help me up, apologizing frantically as he did. I shook my head.

"It's okay. I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going" I felt dazed. "I was about to go back-" I was interrupted by a loud shout coming from in front of me.

"Stop!" There were two guards standing in front of the door. "You can't do this!" I inched forward curiously. "I'm not that late!" The guards were struggling to keep the door shut.

"Hey," they turned to look at me. "You can tell them to leave" I said loudly. "The balls almost over. I've already chosen a girl" the guards looked at each other and then back at me.

"He hasn't got a girl with him" one of them said. I opened my mouth.

"Dan?" I heard the person outside say. I frowned. "Dan, it's me!" My heart stopped in my chest. "Let me in!" the voice cried again. "Dan! It's me, Phil! They won't let me in!" Time seemed to stop around me. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.

It was him. It was Phil.

He came back.