Among Royalty

XXIII

Vincent adjusted the straps of his bag, and banged on the door, yet again. He had been doing this for the past 10 minutes, but got no reply.

Dialling Adrian's number, he waited for the other to pick up. But alas, he refused to accept his calls too.

"I know you're in there, Adrian! If you don't open this instance I'll fucking kill your bonsai tree."

Did he get a reply?
No...

Sighing, he took out the duplicate key to Adrian's apartment that he never used, but now seems to be the time he will.

Quickly opening the door, he barged in, just to see a huge mess in the living room.

Oh my fucking goodness...

"Adrian!!" He yelled, heading towards the bedroom.

His best friend had not talked to him since a few days, has not answered his calls. But today, Vincent decided he had to fix, whatever this is, up.

As soon as he opened the bedroom door, he could feel his eyes pop off.

The bedroom was worse than the living room. Used tissues lying around, pizza boxes and yogurt containers scattered all over the place.

And let's not forget the main piece of the mess. Adrian.

He looked incredibly vulnerable. At first he didn't even notice the short boy, as he was huddled up in the corner of the room in a million blankets.

"The hell is wrong with you??!!!" Vincent yelled, quickly dashing towards Adrian and trying to move the blankets to at least look at his face.

Adrian peeked at Vincent with his overly red eyes, as they started to water again.

"Hell the last time this happened was when you discovered your sexuality. What happened man?! You look horrible!!" Vincent exclaimed, earning him a tiny sob.

Oh god I'm not helping at all..

He continued to look at Adrian as he tried to figure out what to do. Getting up, he threw some things off an edge of the bed, to at least make it possible for them to sit.

"Get up." He commanded, dragging Adrian to the bed and making him plop there.

"Tell me and don't you dare hide a thing, stupid bitch." He glared.

He obviously knew Adrian had been hiding things from him the past few days, but didn't question as he knew he would eventually tell him.

But this?

He didn't know it would end up like this.

Adrian's bottom lip wobbled as he tried to talk.

"He....he's mar-"

"From the start, Adrian." Vincent said sternly.

Adrian whined. Vincent knew the best tricks to get some words out of him. He knew if he wasn't stern Adrian would just cry and eventually sleep, and if he'd ask again, the cycle would just continue.

"I like Zion. We started spending a lot of time with each other. He was being really sweet to me all the time and we al-also kissed and he gifted me this really beautiful necklace and then-"
He let out a sob. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Vincent to figure out the matter.

"The engagement announcement!!
HOLY SHIT-" Vincent stood up in shock, his words making Adrian cry harder.

"Shit, I'm not helping at all..." Vincent said to himself. Hesitantly heading towards Adrian, he awkwardly patted his head.

"There, there..."

What is wrong with me...

"Did he not try to come in contact with you after that?" He asked after a few moments, making Adrian shrug in reply.

"I- I don't know..." Adrian replied.

"Oh God.." Vincent got up and quickly dashed around the room to look for Adrian's phone.

Meanwhile, Adrian slowly got up and headed to the living room without telling his friend that he had kept the phone there.

Vincent quickly followed him and snatched the phone out of his hand, but before opening it he switched the tv on, searching for the channels that would show the live conference.

"What are you even do-" Adrian stopped mid way when he saw Zion and Aldrich's faces on the screen.

"They have a conference today. I need to get to know about their story." Vincent simply replied, now switching Adrian's phone on.

Heading towards the messaging app, he read the conversation between the two.

"Bitch why didn't you read the messages??!!" He yelled, punching Adrian on the arm.

"Wha-"

"He's asking to meet you. Fucking talk to him and ask what this all is about." Vincent said.

Adrian took his phone out of Vincent's hand and read the text. He felt a bit relieved that Zion wanted to at least talk to him. But now, even the thought of looking at him made him worried.

What if this is a goodbye kinda meet..
What if he says he doesn't want to do anything with me after this...

"-- and I always had an eye for him. Somewhere deep down I knew I wanted to be with him." Aldrich said, making Zion turn to him and they both exchanged loving glances.

Adrian looked at the screen, feeling...

Jealous?...

"What should I reply with?" He quietly asked Vincent as his own mind was completely blank.

"Tell him that you agree on meeting him. If you do, that is. It's completely up to you. You do want to listen to his side of the story, right?" Vincent asked, a bit more clear headed now.

"Yeah.." Adrian drawled, lazily typing out a message saying he would like to meet tomorrow, and sending it to the King.

"What if he tells me that he wants to completely cut me out of his lif-"

"What if we go to that stupid art museum that you like so much?" Vincent cut him off.

"Vince, no.."

And so, Adrian was dragged around the apartment by his friend, making him get ready for a day he would rather spend with himself.

Adrian was scared for meeting with Zion. It would be completely awkward, and he was sure he would break into tears as soon as he would look at him.

But today, he was sure Vincent will keep his mind off these thoughts.

Yeah...I'll just have a panic attack later when I meet him..

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