Royally Kissed | ✓

40|2; the reunion

—forty—

{ part two }
the reunion

BIRDS.

He could hear the singsongy chirps of the birds somewhere, and Arthur cracked his eyes open, squinting at the sunlight seeping through his eyelids. Sitting straight up, he blinked the confusion away and realized he'd fallen asleep in the truck as he parked outside of the Cadwyn's mansion.

And then there came the pounding ache in his head.

Yeah, he was pretty smashed.

Massaging the intensifying pain by pressing on his temples, he reached for his phone lying on the passenger's seat and found several messages and missed calls from Cain.

"Shit."

He leaned his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he recovered from faint annoyance, he swiftly composed a text and sent it to Cain to assure him that he was fine. Told him he fell asleep, just to relieve him from his worry.

His eyes flickered up at the digital numbers on the screen. 08:12. Wondering if Paige was still in the mansion, he got out of his truck, only to pause in his tracks when a nerve seemed to inflate in his head again. Where was aspirin when he needed it?

Running his hand through his hair, he proceeded towards the gateway. Although the towering iron gates were meters off from the mansion, he could still see anyone coming through the main door if he'd squint enough.

A familiar sleek black car was parked a little bit on the right side of the mansion, and a supercar lingered in front of it. There was another car parked on the far left, with two men standing near it. He remembered the second one. It was Owen Callaghan's car, the very same one he'd used when he saw the bastard kissing Paige on her cheek at campus.

"Excuse me, sir?" he asked at the guard on post when he neared the gates. The man tightened his scarf around his neck as he studied him. "Can you please inform Paige that I'm here?"

The man grimaced. "You're Arthur Huxley, is that correct?"

"Yes." He straightened up at the glimmer of hope. "So you remember me."

"Yessir," he nodded politely, "and we've been particularly instructed not to let you in."

His smile faded, the hope beginning to go down the drain. "Please, sir," he said, his breath visibly wafting before his face, "I need to see her. I–It's important. I need to tell her now. I won't be long, I promise. Just please allow me to talk to her. I assure you, after that, you won't have to deal with me ever again."

But the guard had simply shook his head in disapproval at his plea. He clutched the bars that kept him from reaching out to Paige, and he stared at the man in his eyes.

"Sir, I have an important question."

He tipped his chin. "Ask away."

"What would you say to that one special person if, by any chance, you'd never be able to see them ever again?"

The guard turned silent. Arthur swallowed the lump in his throat as he pored over the man's expression. Stern, until it slowly softened, his eyes turning dull as if he was drinking his words in.

"You let them know that your life would be a lot different had your paths never crossed; it could be worse, it could be better, but it'll never be the same without them in it so you'd let them know how significant it is that you get to learn that someone like them exist in this world."