17th November
Today was when the torrential late autumn/winter weather truly set in with the downpour of rain that I woke up to this morning.
It rattled through the castle, through the halls, floors and windows, and to say it was unnerving was an understatement.
It was freaky on all levels if you were in the wrong place.
And the ballroom was one of those places that was the freakiest of freaks in the thunderous rain.
Which, in my opinion, with the lower light levels and horrible weather, is a terribly built room.
In the time I had spent in there, trying desperately to do some sort of work for setting up a dinner tomorrow with all the governors and nobles and things like that, preparing them for the coronation on my birthday, I had jumped a numerous amount of times.
Eventually, I did give up, figuring that going to go and have lunch would be better than being scared out of my wits in the echoey room.
{----------}
When I arrived in the small dining room, I saw Mum and Jameson sitting down, and I made my way to sit beside Jameson as Mum smiled at me.
"How are you?" Mum asked me, making me look over at her.
"I'm doing okay, eh, thank you for asking," I say as I look around the table, wondering why the presence of my best friend and sister were not there, "Hey, do either of you know why Xander and Alice aren't here yet?" I then ask.
Jameson sticks an arm around my shoulders before replying, "No, we don't, or at least I'm speaking for myself here. We both presumed that they would be with you in the ballroom."
"Kaitlyn, now that you do say it," Mum says, a confused look on her face, "I haven't seen either Alice or Xander since breakfast this morning."
"Should we maybe go look for them?" I ask and we all begin to get up, but not for long as the doors to the room burst open with a very dishevelled, but strangely dry, Alice and Xander.
"Sorry we're late!" They both say in a hurry, taking their seats opposite Jameson and I, leaving Mum at the head of the table with a suspicious look on all our faces.
I look over at Jameson who gives me a look of hilarity from the way they both looked, and for the first time in the last few minutes, I properly had a look at both of them.
On both parts, their hair and clothes were a mess, clothes looking ill-fitting and hair seemingly being pushed further up than down, meanwhile for Alice, her makeup was slightly smudged as she tried to sit there, acting like everything was normal.
And I think I know why.
So, I contained the idea to myself until I had finished lunch so I could drag both Xander and Alice away separately to interrogate them about their activities this morning.
{----------}
As I dropped my cutlery on my plate, I looked up at the table seeing that everybody was either close to, or had done the same, so I thought that now would be an appropriate time to at least drag Xander away, who had at least finished his lunch.
"Would you all please be able to excuse Xander and I for a second, as I need to talk to him in private," I say and leave the silence to slowly look at Xander and see him implode from the inside out by the look on his face of 'oh-shit-is-she-going-to-kill-me?' and I try to contain my laughter while I hear Mum say a small 'you are excused and I stand up, Xander does the same and we exit the room to the hallway just outside.
We walked down it a little bit, not wanting anybody to hear what I was about to accuse Xander of, and entered a small sunroom, walls lined with shelves filled to the brim with books and davenport side tables covered in different things from photos to alcoholic drinks.
I then closed the door as Xander looked like he wanted to escape as soon as I asked the first question, so I stood by the door as well after I closed it.
"Why have you brought me in here?" Xander asks me while I try to keep a solemn look on my face, giving nothing away, meanwhile inside, I'm groaning, laughing, cheering and puking all at the same time.
"Because, I wanted to do something, and say something to you," I say to him and then walk forward, taking my hand off where it rests on the brass doorknob and walk towards Xander.
"Well, what-" Xander begins to say, before I cut him off by slapping him, "Ow! What was that for?" Xander asked and I just give him and 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me-right-now' kind of look.
"My sister! Really? Really Xander? You had to go and sleep with her, didn't you!" I exclaim, trying with all my effort, to not l slap Xander. Again.
"What! How do you know?" Xander then exclaims right back at me, shock taking over his face more now rather than the pain of the slap.
"You have sex hair! Number one rule when you're trying to hide sleeping with someone is to ALWAYS brush your hair properly!" I exclaim, putting emphasis on the always as Xander had known how I had had to go through the same process a year ago at least.
Xander quickly runs a hand through his hair, realising he screwed up badly by sleeping with my sister, while I see a slightly wistful look grow on his face.
"Wait! Hold on a second, so you're not mad at me for sleeping with your sister?" He asks me and I scoff and look around.
"Oh no, I'm still mad that you're sleeping with my sister, but I'm more mad that you screwed up in trying to hide it," I say and giggle slightly at Xander's current state.
"You know, sometimes I hate your intuition, you know that right?" Xander says and I smile.
"Yeah, but you love me and it anyways, don't you? Besides, I'm happy for you both, you guys are going to be great together," I say and smile wider than I had done in a while.
"I think I'm in love, Kaitlyn. Now, I don't know what it feels like, but if what I'm feeling is just a smidge of what you and Jameson experience, I'll be the luckiest man alive," Xander replies, a wide, cheesy, lovesick grin overtaking his features as we both hear a small knock on the door.
"Come in," I say and then I see both Jameson and Alice walk in, before Alice darts over to Xander, a slightly worried look on her face.
"Does she-" Alice starts to say, but Xander cuts her off.
"She knows. And she's happy for us," Xander says and then Alice turns around to face me with a goofy grin I've never quite seen before displayed on her features.
"You do know your Mum is going to hate us all for hiding all of this under her nose," I hear Jameson say from behind me and I laugh, turning to then wrap my arms around him and stick my head on his shoulder, not wanting to go back to what I was supposed to be doing.
"I don't want to go back to work now," I say and everyone else laughs while I sigh.
"Yeah, well, you know what?" Jameson whispers in my ear, "If you go back down there, I'll come with you, and as soon as you are done for the day, we can go outside and slow dance in the rain like we always do in this type of weather."
"Really?" I whisper-ask back.
"Really," Jameson whispers, "Now let's get you back down to that ballroom, shall we, and leave these two love birds alone," He says, now at a normal voice level while I hear Xander laugh behind me as Jameson and I exit the sunroom to go down to the ballroom.
"Remember when Xander used to not say exactly that, but stuff along those lines so then we could have time alone?" I say to Jameson as we walk hand in hand down to the ballroom.
"Yeah, I do. Feels strange saying it to them now, doesn't it?" Jameson replies.
"I feel like a Mum sending her child off on a date with a guy she just met," I say as Jameson laughs beside me.
"Good job, we're becoming parents then. We can put this practice into use then, can't we?" Jameson jokingly says as we continue to walk down, chatting and trying not to let the echoey sounds bother us that much on the way.
UPDATED; 15/08/2023
WORDS; 1425