^^Listen to: You're somebody else ~ Flora Cash whilst reading this chapter.
Flo gave me all the scoop from last night. Apparently I came last in the polls, no surprise there, and Hardin took Rory on my date. I guess that was better than it being Ivy or Sienna but it still hurt.
Don't get me wrong, I was happy for Rory. She deserved to have a wonderful night more than anyone and I'm sure the two of them had a lovely night. It just stung, knowing that it could of been me with him.
Flo also got a glimpse at the date Hardin set up, when the maids were getting it all ready and apparently it was the most romantic date yet. A candle lit dinner in a private room, no cameras as well.
No cameras, meaning they could have done anything in there.
I wanted to ask her if they kissed. Then again, that would be rude right?
I should just wait and see if she said anything, who knows, she might want someone to confide in? God, why is this bothering me so much?
"Rise and shine Ari." Flo announced, ripping my curtains open and placing a bowl of steaming hot porridge and a mug of cold milk down onto my desk.
"I've been up for about an hour." I whined, pulling off the covers and stuffing my feet into a pair of fluffy slippers.
"Rough night?"
"My body is still sore and every time I turned around in my bed, I felt this scorching pain. Like my skin was burning off and when I put water on it, it hurt even more. I could kill Ivy and Sienna." I muttered the last part under my breath.
"But you can't, because that would just end up in you being eliminated. Something we don't want." She gave me a knowing look to which I just rolled my eyes at.
I sat down and slowly stirred my porridge, mixing in the warm succulent honey. The milk washed down my throat and by the end of my meal I was left with a full belly and a milk moustache. I didn't even realise until Flo managed to point to the mirror in her hysterical fit of laughter.
I playfully shoved her and laughed to myself as I walked into the bathroom. My body was still aching but the burning has subsided, meaning I could finally have a cool shower.
I stripped and turned on the water, before having a good twenty minute soak. It never ceased to amaze me at how awesome it felt to have a nice long shower.
We only used to ever get barely five minutes to wash everything and most times people had left over shampoo in their hair and still stunk.
I wrapped a blue towel around my body and walked back into my room, where Flo handed me undergarments and a white dress. The neckline showed hardly any cleavage and the the dress ended just above my knees.
It was incredibly form-fitting, capturing all my curves, but other than that, it was quite modest.
I paired it with some velvet black pumps and put on a gold bracelet, with some matching dangly earrings and my necklace. Flo left my hair in its naturally wavy form and placed a bobby pin on either side of my head, to pin my hair away from my face.
The door swung open and Xander strolled in with heavy bags under his eyes and messy disheveled hair. I'm guessing someone had a long night.
"I heard about what happened yesterday and I'm sorry I didn't come to see you. I had a talk with Ivy's and Sienna's advisors. They assure me that what happened won't happen again and they're going to talk to them both. Prince Hardin also had a talk with the two and you should be expecting an apology soon."
An apology and loose promise not to do it again, in exchange for humiliating me and almost killing me? Wow, sounds fair.
"Great, I look forward to it." I muttered sarcastically, running a hand through my hair. He sighed and walked around placing a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry. Truly. You could have been killed because of them so that's why I've made sure that security is upped on this floor and more cameras are placed around the grounds. Just don't be around them alone. Make sure you always have someone." I nodded and gave him a small smile, one he tried to return but failed to.
"Come on, let's get going." I gave Flo a little hug and laughed as she whispered kick their asses in my ear.
We made our way down to the great hall, where today's competition would be taking place. There were two long oak tables in either side of a podium standing in the middle. Five microphones were placed on the two tables although, three on the left and two on the right, as well as a bunch of cameras and lights set up in- front.
Flicker was standing over in the corner with the other girls and I nervously made my way over. I made sure to stand next to Rory, who offered a small smile and her concerns about me yesterday.
Apparently news of the incident got around fast and she was threatening to help
me cut Sienna and Ivy's hair off whilst they slept, which I politely declined.
Note to self, never piss of Rory.
I also noticed how she was cleverly avoiding the topic of her date until Ivy decided to ask her bluntly in-front if everyone. Apparently it was a nice lovely date and they were both comfortable with each other.
Comfortable? What the hell is that meant to mean? Comfortable as friends, comfortable eating with each other, comfortable naked?
Today was going to be a knowledge quiz. I for one was glad it was something simple and straight forward for once but Sienna looked panicked. Guessing history wasn't her strong point.
I took my seat on the right, next to Astrid, whilst the other three sat on the next table.
The music played, and the producer held his fingers up counting down from five. "Three, two, one." He mouthed and then pointed at Flicker, who immediately perked up. I don't know how this woman does her job.
"Welcome Dahlia, to the second month of the coming-of-age competition! For today's intellectual competition we want to see if our girls aren't just all a bunch of pretty faces. Today the girls will compete against each other in a knowledge quiz all about our beautiful kingdom. A point will be scored for the person who presses their buzzer quickest and answers the question correctly. If they get the answer wrong however, they lose a point, even if they have zero. Let's just hope you don't go into minuses ladies, and I want to say welcome back to Miss Arabella, who unfortunately couldn't be with us on Friday due to her health but she's now back and better than ever." The camera moved to focus on me and I flashed it a huge smile with a small wave.
"Let's start the quiz. Okay so ladies, who was the founder of Dahlia?" Buzz.
"Gustavo Lewis." Rory answered, before I could even place my hand on the buzzer.
"Correct." A loud noise resembling bell rung and I watched as the large scoreboard behind me changed, a one next to Rory's name in place of the zero.
"Name all the sectors and the colour worm to represent them." Haha, I know this one. Buzz. Crap, Ivy got to it before me and statedred each one correctly.
"Correct. Who were the other five originals?" Buzz.
"Arabella?" Flicker said, I realised that I've been sat here without answering the question at all.
"Um Cedrick Capowski, Vicenzo Grimaldi, Archibald..." Fuck, Archibald what?
"Um, um..." A buzzer sounded and Flicker awed at me like I was a child.
"Sorry Arabella, you're out of time." The scoreboard changed and my name now had -1 next to it. Great, I'm losing.
Astrid answered the question correctly and then we moved onto the next. An hour passed by and we were only half way through. I was too scared to answer another question, in the fear of getting in wrong and being absolutely humiliated, so I was stuck on -1. Ivy was winning and Sienna was two points ahead of me.
I rested my elbow on the table and held my face in my hand. A yawn left my mouth and my eyelids were slowly closing shut. I felt myself leaning to the left and my elbow suddenly slipped. Buzz.
"Arabella?" Shit, shit shit shit.
"Um, can you repeat the question?"
"How many years ago was Dahlia founded?" I did some quick math in my head and eventually came to nothing so I just said the first number that popped into my head.
"221." I closed my eyes and waited for that stupid buzzer noise, the sound of my failure.
"Correct." My head shot up and I looked around in confusion. My score changed to 0 and don't think I've ever been more elated to see that number before.
"Next question, why did Gustavo name out Kingdom Dahlia?" Buzz.
"Arabella,"
"He was a botanist and loved that Dahlias were the symbol of new life."
"Correct." I'm not last place anymore!
My sudden confidence boost led me ending up third, beating both Sienna and Rory. Astrid came second and seemed pleased with her place, leaving Ivy first and as usual she acted like a stuck up bitch because of it.
Flicker announced the scores and gave the final speech, consequently ending the show. I think I was the first one up and of my seat, as I dashed towards the back of the room to meet Wyatt.
He was wearing the official Palace guard uniform, except his was pure white and gold, instead of the usual black. Probably due to his higher rank.
"Hey, you were great." I gave him a look that said are you serious.
"You were, well at the end anyway. I was getting a little worried about you. At one point you looked like you were almost falling asleep." We both laughed together and I took the time to admire the way his eyes narrowed slightly and his lips curled up as he laughed.
"Wow, worried about me now are we?" I teased, arching my eyebrow up at him.
"How could I not be? You have a way of crawling into a man's head, plaguing his every thought." I think I just about lost all abilities to speak.
"Hey Ari, who's this?" Thank god for Rory.
"Um this is Wyatt, he's one of the head guards and he patrols our floor. He actually saved me from falling face flat on the floor last week and ever since then we've become great friends. Wyatt, this is Rory but you probably already know that." Wyatt stretched out his hand for her to shake and she slowly shook it, still entranced by his beauty.
"Um, nice to meet you. Any friend of Ari's is a friend of mine." She exclaimed, throwing her arm over my shoulder, causing all of us to laugh.
"Oh, please excuse me, my advisor wants to speak to me. See you around Wyatt, bye Ari." I waved her off and then turned back to face Wyatt, who staring at me intently.
"I may be gone for a few days. My father has some business he wants me to attend to. I just wanted you to know in case you were trying to find me and couldn't. I didn't want to leave without an explanation."
"Oh, well you'll be sorely missed I promise." He laughed at that and then eventually the atmosphere got serious.
"Be safe. Promise me you'll be safe." For some reason, the thought of Wyatt being hurt or dying causes my heart to clench. I don't know why but I had grown to like his company and without him things would certain be a lot more boring.
"I promise." Those two words caused my breath to hitch in the back of my throat and we both stood there for god knows how long staring at each other in total silence.
"Well, I should be going." He nodded and moved out the way for me. I gave him what I hope to be a comforting smile, before walking back up to my room.
Sienna and Ivy didn't bother coming up to me or up to my room so I'm guessing I wouldn't be getting that apology, not that I cared anyway.
The hours flew by and I skipped lunch, still full from breakfast, and decided to take up the art of sewing. Me and Flo spent hours simply stitching thread into a plain piece of cloth and I ended up shedding more blood that actually creating stitches. Eventually I dismissed Flo, after she brought me my dinner, wanting to just be alone for the rest of the night.
I finished two whole novels and then simply laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was far too late to be exploring the Palace now and everyone was probably in bed. My head turned to the right, and I looked out at the starry night sky. The moon was bright and beaming in from my open windows, practically calling out for me.
Sitting up, I grabbed my silk robe and wrapped it over my black nightdress, that barely reached my knees. I slipped on a pair of black ballet flats and made my way to the wide window.
I stuck out my head and looked up to notice several bricks sticking out, resembling a set of stairs. The bricks looked like they were planted there purposely and led to what seemed like the roof.
Should I? My subconscious was fighting and thinking up every possible way this could go.
I could fall to my death, I could make it up and then be stuck, I could find something completely amazing. Eventually I came to a sensible conclusion.
Climb up to the roof because, what's life without a little adventure?
Carefully, I climbed out onto the ledge and gripped onto the top of my window tightly. The first brick was merely inches away so I reached it with hardly any effort at all. I grasped onto the next brick up and used it up pull myself up.
I wasn't one for heights but as long as I didn't look down I would be fine. I reached up and got ahold of the next brick, meaning I placed my foot on the brick just below me. I continued to climb until my hands finally reached the roof tiles and I hauled myself up.
I laid flat on my back, still panting for air, and stared up at the stars which seemed closer to me now than they ever had. A small breathless laugh left my mouth as I realised what I'd just done.
I scaled a building, the Palace to be exact. I started to laugh some more and fought the urge to scream out in joy.
"What are you doing?" My laugher quickly ceased and I scrambled up to my hands and knees to see the owner of the voice. Hardin.
Wow, this night really was magical.
"Hardin I..."
"Wow, you are really good at finding all my secret spots aren't you? I come here to be alone, just to think. It clears my mind." He looked so goddamn perfect right now.
The moon was hitting his face at exactly the right angle, and he sat with his knees up to his chest, wearing nothing but a pair of joggers and a black jacket that was left unzipped, revealing his bare chiseled chest. Oh god.
"Arabella?" He called out, tearing my attention away from his half naked body and back to his gorgeous face.
From the smirk playing on his lips, I knew I'd been caught and I just hoped that it was dark enough to hide my red cheeks.
"Sorry, I didn't know. I'll just go back to my room and leave you. I'm so sorry." I swung my legs over the side of the roof and turned around, in preparation to climb down.
"No stop, Arabella Jesus. I didn't mean I want you to leave. Come here." He was chuckling in between his words, and I stood up, brushing the dirt of my knees, before making my way over to him.
He had a blanket sprayed out across the roof and he patted at the empty seat next to him. I sat down carefully, making sure my nightie didn't ride up and keeping at least two inches between us.
"How are you? I haven't seen you since Friday." Ah Friday. The day I nearly died and the guy I was currently fighting four other girl to be with had to go on a date with another girl, who is so nice that I couldn't possibly bring myself to hate her.
"I'm fine. My body isn't sore anymore and I no longer feel dizzy or tired, hence the midnight climb up to the roof." He let out a small laugh and I smiled at him, without even realising I was doing so.
"Lay down." I eyed him curiously, before following his instructions. He did the same and he instructed me to now stare up at the sky.
"It's beautiful isn't it. The moon and the stars using the pitch black sky as it's canvas. "Nature is truly amazing." I silently agreed and continued to be in total awe of the beauty in-front of me.
"Can I ask you something?" I turned my head and found him staring straight at me with such a fierce intensity I completely forgot about everything around me.
"Of course."
"Your necklace, what's the significance of it? I mean, you have so many beautiful and expensive pieces to choose from yet you wear that one almost always." Instinctively my hand went straight up to the silver chain hanging around my neck and I fiddled with the end piece.
"My mum gave it to me I guess. It's the only piece of her I have left and I make sure to wear it as much as I can do that it feels like she's always with me. Look, you see that star." I pointed up at the brightest star in the sky and Hardin looked up, following my direction.
"Sometimes I think that's her. That's the star I always see and I treat it like it's her watching over me constantly. I know that sounds crazy, and it probably is.."
"It's not crazy." He whispered so quietly, I could barely hear him.
"I don't think it's crazy at all." I turned onto my side, just like he was, and his hand reached out to tuck my hair behind my ear. I expected him to retract his hand and for us both to go back to star gazing but he didn't.
Instead he keep his hand on my head, and slowly inches forward. I found myself doing the the same until eventually we were so close that his hot breath was fanning my face and our lips were barely a millimetre apart from each other.
"You drive me crazy." He breathed out, before smashing his lips against mine.
I moaned and instinctively leant forward, wrapping my arms around his neck. He rolled us both over, so he was on top of me, and then attacked my lips again with a fierce need.
I become both lost and addicted to the kiss, wrapping my legs around his waist, bringing him impossibly closer.
The belt on my robe suddenly became undone and my hard nipples grazed against his bare chest, only a thin barrier of silk between them. He nibbled on my bottoms lip, causing me to gasp and giving him enough space to plunge his tongue into my mouth.
Our kiss becomes primal and savage. The two of us both clinging onto each other like the other was going to disappear any second now. I tugged lightly on his hair, earning a growl like moan out of him and one hand cradled my head, whilst the other ran up and down my thigh nearing closer and closer to the hem of my panties.
Eventually we both pulled away, the need for air taking over and he placed his forehead on mine. I slowly opened my eyes, afraid that this was all a dream and I was about to wake up, but this time he was really there.
His deep grey eyes staring down into my blue ones and the lips that were just smashed against mine, curled up into a smile.
"You are everything." I had no idea what to say to that so instead I pressed my lips against his.
It was short, soft and quick. The total opposite to what just occurred but it was absolute perfection.
"I should go." I whispered, moving to get up but he stopped me.
"Stay. Stay here with me." I froze, deliberating the sentence in my mind, and then nodded.
"I'll stay."
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A/N: Ahh!! I love this scene so much! It's probably one of my favourites scenes in the entire book!!
How did you like their first kiss? Was it perfect enough for you??
Bring a smile to my face and please press that vote button. Also feel free to write a comment, I love hearing from you guys! ❤️