Three days after Sarina and I's date and I still couldn't get down from my happy high. I hummed as I headed through the palace halls, twirling and dancing. I even headed to the gardens and picked some of the best flowers before heading around the halls and placed them in the Royal Guards' breast pockets. Only two of them couldn't contain themselves and managed to crack a smile, however barely. Needless to say my brothers intervened at this, standing smugly at the door to my private study as I made up a vase.
"You seem to be in an overly buoyant mood today, dearest sister," Bartholomew said, breaking me from my thoughts as he rubbed his imaginary beard.
"Evidence reveals this has been going on ever since the return from Paris," Cornelius replied, nodding his head like a detective. I giggled in response, both of their eyes widening at my reaction.
"Good gracious! The alien queen has replaced her!" I turned to them with a wide jaw.
"Have you guys been speaking with Sarina?" they shrugged in reply.
"Actually, she came to us convinced that our grandmother was the alien hive queen and interrogated us on Area 51. She has some crazy imagination," Cornelius said whilst shaking his head. I chuckled a bit and turned back to my flowers.
"So..." Bartholomew began, sliding up behind me. "Tell me..."
"Yeah?"
"Did you and Sarina get intimate?" if I had any liquid in my mouth, it would've been gone by now. I turned to him with wide eyes and a slacked jaw, my expression completely bewildered.
"What?" Bartholomew rolled his eyes.
"Do I need to spell it out to you? Fine then. Did you two have se-" I placed a hand over his mouth, stopping his words.
"Bartholomew. You are thirteen. No. Just no," I shook my head at him, allowing my hand to fall to my side.
"Yeah, but you are eighteen. So tell me the truth: what was it that made you so... girly?" he spat it out like a curse word. I chuckled at him and ruffled up his hair which he immediately tried to fix.
"Relationships aren't just physical, Bartholomew. We just had one wonderful day where we opened up about everything to each other. It just makes me very happy," he frowned deeply at me.
"Well that's boring," he told me before dramatically pivoting on his foot and leaving my study. Cornelius stayed for a second longer, chuckling to himself.
"Well, I am happy for you," he told me and I couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you," and with that, he left as well.
After doing some cleaning in my study, I headed back to my room with a spring in my step. Toro was finally healed again and spend his time in the castle-themed cat tower we got for him. We also put a bell on his collar so that everyone can be alerted where he is and the kitchen was more secured now with locks on the cupboards and fridges. We 'Toro-proofed' the palace.
I listened to some of the music Sarina lent me as I sat on my bed, painting my nails as I hummed along with the songs. Everything was gentle and it was a relaxing day. If I hadn't already wasted so much time, I might've actually considered going to the spa. But with the Royal Variety Performance being the next week, Sarina's schedule was upped and now had practice eight hours a day. Just for the next two weeks, we accepted the reality that face-to-face meetings would be hard.
But right now, right in this instance, everything was calm and I truly felt untouchable, the tranquillity of my life.
That reality quickly shattered.
"What were you thinking?! You deranged shit!" my heart began to beat so fast until I couldn't hear it anymore. The voice was one I knew very well, my father's voice booming through the palace halls. It was such a sudden and surprising rip through the air that my door guards were thrown off guard, momentarily bumping into my door before recreating their previous posture. I didn't know what was worse: my father's insulting voice or my heart-breaking scream from weeks ago. The palace servants deserved a raise.
Nevertheless, was I going to remain here completely oblivious? That would be a negative. I rose off my bed, completely ignoring everything I was doing and jumped off the steps moving to my bed's platform. I rushed at the door, barefoot with wet nail polish. I threw open the door, seeing my guards holding more tense figures than I'm used to. They didn't stop me when I went dashing towards the source. In fact, no one stopped me.
I could hear a very vocal fight break out in the drawing room, and I headed there. I could only make out my father's voice and I figured he was having one very heated discussion with a client. Because of this, I didn't both in moving to the ground floor. Instead I used the first floor's entryway, appearing next to the upper level's library. I snuck until I could loom over the balcony, seeing the drawing board from above. Instead of seeing the lunatic King and his client, I saw something even worse.
The fight broke out between my father and Bartholomew.
"You didn't think I would found out? You thought if you just waited it out, then everything would go back to normal? How would you ever think something like this is acceptable?!" if I had to guess, I would speculate that he found out about the jet.
"I wanted to pull a prank on you! Try and make you understand!" Bartholomew countered, and even I had to admit that was one weak response. I still didn't exactly understand why they had pulled that stunt in the first place, but they were upset thirteen year-olds.
I then realized Bartholomew's words. He talked in singular, meaning that he wanted to keep Cornelius out of it. Justified maybe, but a little stupid I admit. Especially since it isn't a good sign when you lie to the King.
"Understand? Understand what?! Understand that my son is a psychotic little devil?! This is the most lunatic and preposterous thing I have ever heard of! You broke into my private grounds and vandalised my jet! How foolish can you be?!" his voice was unhinged with ferocity and I worried for Bartholomew. I felt bad for hiding out, but I honestly feared him when he was in this state. I peeked through the railing to see that my mother and Cornelius were both present, but stood more to the side. I couldn't decipher her expression, but it was a mixture between concern and anger.
This was not good. This was nowhere near good.
"You don't have any idea, do you?!" Bartholomew grew furious. "You and Mother don't understand what you put us through! We try to be the perfect heirs, we try to be the best princes and try to honour the family name but our individuality is pushed away by your expectations! We're not stuck-up and we can't confide with your obeys! You want us to perform in front of the world, yet you don't understand what we feel. We can't sleep because we're afraid, and we can't focus because we're self-conscious. You're conservative and refuse to adapt to modern times, forcing Melanie to change herself and forcing us to uphold traditions that have long since been deemed inadequate! You look down on commoners and you'd rather want us all locked up in the palace, away from forming friendships with people without blue blood. You don't like dyeing hair or piercings or tattoos because you believe that the only trustworthy people are those who look exactly the same way as when they were born. You hated it when Melanie dyed her hair and couldn't uphold the shame of having the heir look like that and forced her to change. When you found out she had been sneaking out to see Caleb, you were furious because you couldn't understand why she would want to meet with a commoner or even why she didn't tell you. You were upset that she didn't trust you, yet why should that be a surprise? After everything you've done, why do you honestly think we'd trust you? The real reason why you kept us from the media was not because you waited until we were eligible royals, but because you were ashamed of us! We were rebellious and hated to be supressed, and you couldn't stand the thought of the media turning our family into a scandal. Well, guess what? Melanie took on Caleb to protect her pride and you ridiculed the entire situation, adapting to the 'I didn't know what was happening' innocent façade to get out of the public's evil eyes and 'corrected' Melanie until she fit your perfect category. But you don't understand! The media loves Melanie! They support her! Not because of her agreeing to change herself to be a suitable royal, but instead for standing up for herself! She didn't adapt to being the distressed damsel and you don't realize it, but that's what you're trying to make out of her. Out of all of us, even Mother! You just want everything to be perfect," Bartholomew hissed in absolute disdain, Cornelius on the side shaking form the tense atmosphere. Seeing his impression I knew that he might start crying any second, and hoped that he wouldn't. Father would get angry with him then for showing weakness.
"What do you have to say about any of this?! Your sister is the most eligible heir, and I accept that she might have had her flaws but she is a teenager and teenagers have their phases but she corrected them and she is respected because of her admitting to her mistakes. There is a reason why you're the last heir and why the others are above you, because clearly you don't belong anywhere near the throne!" I had never heard such things spout from his lips, and I didn't understand where he came from. He thought that what I did was only a phase? He thought that I was just going through a bad time and needed to straighten myself out? That was his excuse for the thing that made me happy after the sombre years of nothing but princess training; training which might as well have taken a part of my soul?
I stood up from my hiding place, clearly enraged at his accusations and his venomous words. Mother was the first to spot me, giving my eyes that told me to stay out of the situation. I would not be listening to her, not today.
"Father!" he looked up at me with his glaring eyes, his brows unfurrowing ever so slightly as he spotted me. "You think that everything I've done until now was just a phase? You think the love I felt for Caleb was just some teenage longing and that I blinded myself by that? You think that I snuck out of the palace because of my teenage rebellious desires? You blame everything I've ever done on the fact that I might or might not be at that stage in my life when I might not want to obey every single demand you make of me? Do you think Sarina is just a phase? If that was true then why did you give her the title of 'Friend of the Crown' or was that all just a ruse to not upset me? Do you honestly think that I changed myself because I thought it was the right thing to do? You are mistaken! I don't regret a single thing I've done because I know the decisions I've made were the right ones! I don't even regret Caleb, because I did it for love and that is more important than what you may think of me. If there is one thing I regret doing, it is listening to your wishes!" I voiced my own angers, my father's face falling into one of hurt but frankly, I had no care for his feelings. "And you know what?! I didn't trust you one bit because I feared that you might disown me because that's the type of person you are; but guess what? Sarina is my girlfriend! I'm gay!" wide eyes spread like an illness, the twins looking at me like I was the craziest one here.
"What?!" my father yelled, his eyes wide and furious as he regarded me. "Are you telling me that my daughter is a lesbian?!" I was not going to explain the term 'bisexuality' to him at this point so instead I just opted to nod sternly. "Do not lie to me, child!"
"Lie? Lie?! I have never been more serious in my life! You never chose to understand us, any of us! Don't tell us that when we finally tell you the truth, you throw it away as insults and untrue accusations!" if it wasn't already possible, I grew even angrier with the man. I didn't realize a t this point that Cornelius snapped, tears beginning to run down his cheeks and his breaths caught up as he started to hyperventilate. Bartholomew threw him an extremely worried glance but both the Majesties had their eyes trained on me.
"Why did you not tell us this?" the Queen stepped in for the first time in the conversation, her eyes wide but her expression sad. I calmed down a bit at her expression, even if it was for pity.
"Tell me, would you have honestly accepted me if I came out to you normally?" my mother was about to answer when my father intervened.
"Of course not! You are the Royal Princess of the United Kingdom and this is the most improper and scandalous thing you could have done to tardy our name! Dyeing your hair, I can fix that, but you opted to change your sexuality to spite us?!" my jaw fell at this.
"Change? Change?! You think I can change my sexuality?! It isn't a choice, Dad! I didn't suddenly wake up one day and decided to spite you by becoming gay! But even if I could change myself, I wouldn't have done it for you because you don't deserve one bit of my hospitality! You never did!" our raised voices grew and grew and Cornelius's sobbing sounded but only his other half seemed to notice over the noise. The Royal Guards were all disturbed and the palace maids were tearing up at the sounds. The palace, once thought to be the safest and most peaceful place in the world, suddenly turned into a battle ground where the scars run deep and the blood flows in rivers.
My mother joined our yelling, and we all accused each other of things that were untrue. We were ridiculous and the entire thing was pointless, our adrenaline running high until finally my father said the one thing that we all dreaded, and it was the one thing that send us over the top.
"Fine! Melanie! Bartholomew! If you hate this family so fucking much, then why don't you just leave already?!" Cornelius broke, but this was far worse than when I found out about Caleb. His scream was loud and Bartholomew covered his ears at the close proximity. My brother looked like a mess, with the tears staining his cheeks like tattoos and his eyes non-existent as he kept them close. He willed himself away from the situation, and soon his body followed his command. His feet rushed to the end of the drawing room, all of our voices equally sounding to call him back but he had no care for our tedious words. He headed through the open doors to the outdoor chess are and used the elevation from his adrenaline to jump over the railings. He landed skilfully on his feet and disappeared into the gardens, most certainly headed towards the secret exit to the palace only us three knew of.
"Get him back!" the King ordered of the surrounding Royal Guards, and soon a manhunt was underway in search of the missing prince. Bartholomew and I were seated down in the drawing room, our mother looming over us like a hawk checking out her prey.
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" her words sounded venomous, but I still wasn't thinking rationally.
"The right thing?" my rhetorical question sounded at the same time Bartholomew spoke.
"Told you the truth?" my mother sighed, absolutely defeated. She slumped into a chair, miserable at every crease on her face. She placed her hands over her face and snickered, as if starting to tear up. Her crown was crooked on her head, and I thought to myself:
This is what our family has come to.
"I regret it," she told us in a whisper, barely audible.
"What?" I forced out, and Bartholomew retorted his own opinion.
"Stopping birth control?" my mother sighed once more, and I started to think how grey her hair would be after all this.
"Not listening to my mother," she answered and my thoughts immediately went to the Mother Queen. Was my mother rebellious with my grandmother? That was a strange thought. "I should've attended parenting lessons," Bartholomew snickered.
"Yeah, and while you're at it, throw some therapy session in there as well. You have all gone bloody mental!" I grew angry at my brother's words.
"Says the one who vandalised Dad's bloody jet!" I retaliated.
"Excuse you! I'm not the one who suddenly came out! You're the reason Dad got so worked up and why Cornelius freaked out!"
"You're pinning this on me?! You -" my mother cut us off.
"Enough!" we both looked at her with wide eyes. "We will discuss all of this later! For now, we have to find your brother! Who knows we would have to deal with another manhunt?!" she spoke with such determination that I remembered why she was a valuable Queen. She looked at me as she spoke and I remember all those weeks ago when it was I who had run away from the palace. But this was more serious, because back then at least one person knew where I was going.
A Royal Guard entered the drawing room about an hour later with a defeated look. Bartholomew sat up straight when he entered, finally speaking after an hour of silence and contemplation.
"Rodger? Was he there?" he sounded, his voice full of hope. Rodger looked down.
"No, Your Highness. Prince Cornelius was not with your friend, Andrew, nor at any of the places he usually preferred," Bartholomew bit into his nails, concerned an underestimation of his feelings. "The Prince is nowhere to be found," and with that, Bartholomew broke down as well.
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Day One has come to an end, and with it I offer blankets and pitchforks. At long last, we have reached the climax of the story. May you all hold on until the story unfolds.