take your time | young royals

chapter five

It had been a week since Hillerska opened it's doors again. And finally Wilhelm was starting to calm down and try to focus more during his classes.

It was about 7 'o' clock in the morning and he was with everybody else in the dining hall eating breakfast. That was until he noticed an unfamiliar face only a few seats down.

He had blonde hair, brown eyes, and was sitting next to and talking with Henry.

He must be a resident at Forest Ridge. Otherwise, he wouldn't be eating with us and would only come to school for lunch like Simon.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. I'm Wilhelm."

"I know." The boy answered without hesitation or breaking eye contact.

"Right.."

"Sorry, that sounded creepy. I'm Johan."

"Well, nice to meet you Johan." Wilhelm replied, nodding his head.

Something's not right.

———

"Simon! Sara!" Linda called, holding what looked like a letter from Hillerska.

"What is it?" Sara answered, walking out of her room.

"Yeah, we're gonna be late for school."

"This is important." She said, handing the letter to Sara.

Sara read out the letter, "To the Eriksson family, we have wrote this letter to inform you that there are two opening spots to be residents here at Forest Ridge. If you would be interested, an anonymous boy has enlightened us that your family has been wanting a residential place here for a while. Let us know if you will take up the offer. Sorry for the late notice. Sincerely, Anette Headmistress."

Residents? At Hillerska?

Sara chuckled in excitement, whilst Simon had no words.

"I knew he'd do it." Sara whispered, thinking nobody could hear.

"Who?" Simon asked, turning my head.

"Um.." She stuttered hesitantly.

"Who enlightened the Headmistress that we would take up this offer?"

"It was.." She froze.

"August."

"August? Why would he give us residential places at Forest Ridge?"

"To make up for what he did." She replied without hesitation.

She covered her mouth quickly, realising what just slipped out of her mouth.

"What are you talking about?" Simon asked while talking a step forward. "What did August do?"

"He.." She stammered. "He leaked the video."

He did what?!

I thought this boy was just rude a first, but now I realised he's a fucking monster. How could he do such a thing to me? And to Wilhelm? His own cousin?

Simon felt a sour taste in his mouth as his face took over with disgust.

"You knew?!" Simon says angrily. "You knew and didn't think to tell me?!"

"I.."

"You don't know what my life has been like ever since that video was released. I've been miserable!" Simon yells. "Everywhere I fucking go everybody stares at me. Out of all people.. you?! Why did you keep your mouth shut?!"

"Because I like him."

What the fuck is going on.

"I- K- WHAT?!"

"Simon! Chill out!" She says, placing a hand on Simon's shoulder. He shrugs it off.

"Chill out? Chill out?! Sara, he ruined my life!"

Sara looked to the ground and anger overtook Simon's body. He felt emotions flurrying through his head. Each emotion worse than the last.

Before he did something stupid that he would regret, he figured to walk out the door into the fresh air of Winter and walk to school.

Does Wilhelm even know? Should I tell him or would it crush him even more?

———

"Wille.." Simon says in a low voice. "Did you know that August released the video last year?"

Wilhelm took a deep inhale and exhaled with a sigh and fiddled with his fingers. "Yeah."

"What? Y-You did?! Why didn't you tell me?" Simon said in an angry tone.

"Look Simon, I'm sorry. I had a lot going on and-"

"No, I don't wanna hear it."

Wilhelm was unsure why Simon was so angry. He didn't mean to not tell him, he just thought it would be best to not make him even more miserable than he already was. And, they were fighting anyway.

Simon stormed out of the room with tears in his eyes. He didn't get why no one told him anything, and the fact that Sara has a 'crush' on the guy that ruined his life.

If Simon saw August at all during the rest of the day, he would be dead by morning.

Simon rushed through the halls to get to his next class before Wilhelm would.

———

Wilhelm sat there. He didn't know what to do. He thought he was finally getting Simon back but of course that was taken away. For the second time now. He couldn't bare to let it happen again. Because you know what they say, third times a charm, right?

Wilhelm decided to get up and walk to Maths. As he was walking he was stopped by the student he had met a few hours before.

"Hey." Johan said, with a glass of water in his hand.

"Oh, hi."

Johan took a glance at Wilhelm's face, he looked really red. He put the back of his hand on Wilhelm's forehead.

"Woah, you're burning up. Are you okay?" Johan said, flincing his hand away from Wilhelm's skin.

"Really?" He replied, putting his own palm on his head. Johan was right, he did feel hot.

"Here." He said, holding out his water to Wilhelm. "Drink this, it'll cool you down. It has ice in it."

Wilhelm took the glass and raised it to his face to see the ice cubes. At the.. bottom of the glass?

"Why are they at the bottom?"

Johan shrugged. "Dunno. It weirded me out too. But it's fine, I drank some earlier."

Wilhelm agreed and drank almost the whole glass.

Johan laughed. "You must've been thirsty."

"Yeah."

Wilhelm said goodbye to Johan as he continued walking to Maths.

He felt, different. Strange. He couldn't walk properly after a few minutes and was using the walls to get to Math. He was metres away. His head felt dizzy and he felt like there was a heavy weight pressuring on his eyelids.

Once he reached the doorframe of the classroom, his hand was on his head. Simon looked at him with confusion in his seat as Wilhelm tried to stumble his way across the room.

That was until his head hit the floor and black flooded his vision.