"What's your name?" I asked curiously as I walked back over to the dress I needed to grab for my sister. I hand the dress to him, he takes it. As he did this he looked at me and said "My name is Mason" when I handed him the money for the dress. He scanned the dress and then handed it back to me. "Nice to meet you," he says as he hands me his number. I took his digits then I waved him goodbye. I walked back to the manor as people stared at me, eventually I delivered the dress home. After that incident Mason and I started to talk more often, over text I found out the dresses in the shop were all made by him and his father. His father died of sickness last year and he has been having a struggle to keep up with rent, the only thing keeping him afloat is his consumers but he hasn't been having as many since his father's death. We had talked a lot and he had told me that he didn't want to go to the gala because everyone was gonna act preppy, pretentious and spoiled even though you were very unlikely to be picked to be with my sister. I told him that I didn't want to go either.
The winter gala was on December 22nd. It came up fast, faster than I could anticipate. The entire town was covered in posters and banners. For some information, the winter gala is a matchmaking gala. The 'peasants' of the town would bring their children and themselves to match with my sister, who is soon to be the queen. They all dance and at the end of the night my sister decides who she wants as her partner. If I don't like the person she picks or I like the person she picks then I'm allowed to say no and that stops her from picking that person. I'm forced to go with the family since I'm a royal.
Last week on Thursday was the day of the gala, I put on my finest suit and walked out into the ballroom. I saw a lot of faces covered with masks who looked at me, they started to blush and ogle. I was wearing a black and white mask with small accents of gold and silver. My suit is jet black with gold and silver highlights that I had picked up from Mason's shop. The mask and the suit matched perfectly. As I walked through the ballroom filled with people I bumped into someone.
I apologized quickly but as I turned to look at who I bumped into, I saw that it was Mason. "oh hey it's you'' I said quietly. He looked at me slightly surprised as he said "you actually showed up?" I gave him a slightly confused look "Why wouldn't I be here?" I asked him with the most confused tone. "Well I just didn't think you'd show up, I mean most of the town doesn't like you" I gave him a 'really' look but before I could say anything he gave me a panicked look "I'm sorry if I offended you at all, that wasn't my intention, I don't mind your company I just-... I'm just gonna shut up now" he cuts himself off quickly to save some dignity. I giggle at the way he stammered over his words. I grabbed his hand and I pulled him over to another room. He followed me quite quickly. "Why are you here? Didn't you say you don't like these types of things because it's pretentious?" I asked as I let go of his hand, he looked at me and then said "I might have come here to see..... You"
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