The Royal Series 02: The Royal Wooing

Chapter 5

LAURICE

"Seriously? Nothing?" Tara asked with disbelief.

"Yeah, nothing, why?" I said while changing my clothes.

She's in the next cubicle, changing her clothes as well. When I finished changing mine, lumabas na ako and proceeded to remove all of my jewelry. And it took quite some time for Tara to finish but when she came out, she continued asking about Christopher and I since it's the first time in quite some time since I went to dinner with a guy.

As expected, people still saw us and the media doing their job, made us an issue. We're not saying anything because they can speculate whatever they want, we're friends. Kasi even if we tell them that, there will be people who would not accept it as it's not the answer that they want.

Seriously, single public figures of opposite genders when seen together in public are always assumed to be dating. What if they're gay, a lesbian, or asexual?

Hanggang paglabas nga namin panay tanong s'ya pero I just ignored her and proceeded to where we left Neil, Keane, and Candice who arrived in the Archery Center before we did. I know why she keeps asking and I'm okay. Definitely better than the media who makes me want to bury their companies to the ground.

"Oh my God," I gasped as I'm the first one to enter the place where the members of the Archery Center were.

"Why?"

"Your ex-girlfriend's here," sabi ko kay Tara and her eyes widened. "Smile, you're not the toxic one, she is. Her loss, not yours," I reminded her.

When we got to the bench where our things were, I looked at Tara who was hastily putting her gears. Pagkatapos n'ya ay dumiretso s'ya agad sa gitna ni Keane at Candice, probably arguing whose score was higher.

"Damn, she's mad," Neil commented and I shook my head with a smile.

Saka ko lang kinuha yung bag ko where my archery equipment and gears are. Inuna ko suotin yung chest guard, followed by the arm guard. And I was about to take my own bow out when I heard my phone's notification and decided to check it first. My brows furrowed when I saw Christopher's name and I ended up shaking my head with a smile when I saw his message.

Your brother told me he's bringing me somewhere. He didn't mention that I'll be babysitting Kyle while he flirts with his wife, his text read. He's not even telling me which things are not for him! He'll definitely kill me if something happens to Kyle, a little help?

Oh, welcome to the club, I replied then followed it with the stuff na bawal kay Kyle.

"Uy, sino 'yan?" Neil pried.

"Kuya's latest victim," sagot ko.

"Yun lang," natatawang sabi ni Neil kaya natawa na rin ako. "Buti pala nagyaya kami, nakatakas ka."

I finished preparing and then joined the gang. We purposely kept Tara in the middle of us because her ex that's on my left kept on looking. But we were still having fun as Candice and Keane kept arguing about their shots. In the end, they went to a separate untouched target and had one of the employees tally their scores through the scoreboard.

While the three of us focused on making our aims more accurate. Tara's clearly a bit off and just as I was about to ask her to come with me to buy some snacks, when I heard a squeal that says, "Aunt Lauren!"

"Kyle?" Nasabi ko na lang and when I turned around, my nephew was already running towards me. "Ate," bati ko naman kasi nakasunod s'ya. I hugged her and she returned it.

That's when Kuya and Christopher entered the place. Lumapit naman kami kasi baka mapaglaruan ni Kyle yung arrows. Binuhat pa ni Ate Ellis si Kyle kasi even after I held the bow away from him, he still tried to reach for it and good thing Neil put away the arrowheads when he saw Kyle.