The Masquerade

Chapter 15 - The Ball Redux pt.2

I found myself in the same exact situation as before. I had fled in a moment of panic, and there were several people who I did not want to be spotted by.

One of whom was my father. After all, his third rule was... how did he put it? 'I better not see you without a lady by your side.'

Hold on. There was something odd about that sentence. I felt the wheels in my brain whirring as they searched for a loophole.

And then, it hit me.

He had said he shouldn't see me without a lady. He never said he had to see me.

If I went somewhere where he couldn't see me, I was technically obeying his rule.

So I went to the only place I could.

The garden.

As I got closer to my destination, I scoffed at myself for being so predictable. But, nevertheless, I still ended up it the same spot as before.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised when I heard the rustling of bushes behind me. The noises didn't last long and were followed by footsteps.

"I see you've improved your ability to climb over and through bushes." I said, breaking the silence.

I heard the person take a short and sudden breath, before they remembered what had happened before and released the air.

"I see you're not at the party again." The person said, taking a few steps towards me. His voice was as smooth as I remembered it, with a faint hint of an accent I couldn't recognize.

I sighed. "Yep. Here's my father, forcing me to go again. Whoopee."

He walked up to me, and with a smile, he said. "If it was up to me, I'd rather be forced to go than be purposely left behind."

As he got closer, I realized rather oddly, that the man was still wearing his masquerade mask.

"You do know that you don't need to wear that, right?" I asked.

This time he laughed. "It's for disguise. Although I suppose that now that I'm here I don't really need it."

He took off his mask, and once again I caught a glimpse of those sparkling amber eyes.

We talked a little more. I learned that we both didn't like our fathers. The mystery man never knew his mother, but supposed she was probably nice enough and as he never knew her, had no reason to miss her.

I couldn't imagine life without my mother. She was so nice to everyone, and was always willing to listen to you when you had a problem.

Somehow we got on the topic of pets, and as I explained the long list of Australia's pets, he only laughed.

"My father never allowed us to have pets. The closest we had was when my little sister drew a smiley face on a potato and named him Rupert."

I couldn't help but crack up. "Why'd she choose Rupert? That's such a random name!"

"I know!" He added. "We all told her, choose something different, like Nicholas or Veronica, but she was determined, and eventually we just let it happen."

I could see the joy in his eyes as he remembered the story. He clearly cared about his siblings a lot.

We stayed in silence for a bit, but it wasn't awkward. It was actually quite plesant.

After a while, the man sighed. "I'm sorry, I must be going. I want to catch my siblings before they leave."

"Oh, of course, I understand." I said, a little sad our time had come to an end.

As he shuffled towards the hallway though, I remembered. "Wait— I never caught your name."

He chuckled softly. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

I blinked. "What does that mean?" I asked, not in a rude way.

"I'm sorry, but..." he pointed to the open door.

"Okay." I bit my lip. "Well, if you must go..."

He smiled sadly, before giving me a small wave and turning.

I sighed and looked down, only to find the man's mask lying on the ground. He must have dropped it.

I picked it up, and ran back into the hallway. "Wait, you left your—"

But the hallway was empty.

I sighed, and grudgingly headed back to the garden. I still didn't want to get in trouble. I looked down at the mask still in my hand.

It had the same tri-color appearance as when I had first seen it, but it seemed to have less sparkle now that it was in my possession.

I decided to stay out in the garden a little longer, one because I liked the silence, and two because I still didn't want to be seen by my father.

Eventually I heard some sounds that sounded like Britain getting dragged away by his brothers, and I knew it was okay to leave the sanctuary of the garden.

I slunk away, slowly heading towards the ballroom.

The party was still going on just as strongly as when I had left. Which was good, with all the chaos I could get right back into the swing of things without anyone knowing anything had even happened.

I didn't want to go back to Poland and Germany, or Canada and Ukraine. So I looked around for another option.

Luckily for me, New Zealand was hanging out with two other people I'd never met and so I figured it was as good an opportunity as any to hang out with my little brother.

"...And so I told him, 'you'd better get that spider out of my room or-' Hey, America! Didn't see you there!" New Zealand smiled at me, clearly telling his two new friends about Australia. I mean, I didn't know any other person who owned a spider.

"Kiwi! How've you been doing?" I smiled back at New Zealand.

"Chur, Ame!" New Zealand responded. I think that was good? I can never tell with all the random stuff Aussie and Kiwi say.

"Let me introduce my friends!" Kiwi continued, gesturing to the two new people who both waved. "This is Belarus and Kazakhstan!"

"Hi! I'm sure you know me, I'm America!" I put up my hand for a high five.

Belarus instantly went for the high five, but Kazakhstan hesitated a little before putting his hand up too.

"Oh and before you make any mistakes, I prefer the pronouns they/them." Belarus said, twirling a curl of hair.

"O-oh!" I stuttered unsure how to reply to that remark.

I spent the rest of the night hanging out with New Zealand, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. They were really nice people, although something was a little familiar about them...