Young Royals: Season 2

Episode 10

"I don't understand, why are you... it just doesn't make sense, Simon!" Sara exclaimed, her hands gripping her hood to keep the wind from blowing it off her head for the fourth time since stepping outside. The siblings had made it somewhat routine to meet at the bus stop in the mornings, walking together to Simon's locker just to spend a little more time with each other since they no longer lived together. Recently the mornings had been filled with Sara nagging her brother for his most recent choice, mistake as she referred to it, of being friends with Wilhelm.

"Sara. Seriously, this is almost every day now. Is it really so bad that we are friends?" He asked, pulling his stripped beanie back over his ears. "It's not just bad, it's stupid! You're letting him in again... you were supposed to be making him figure this out on his own! Making him-..."

"Making him what Sara? What?" Simon interrupted, stopping his feet, not caring about the cold biting at his cheeks. "Hurt! Simon make him hurt! Make him understand the pain you went through!" She cried turning around to face her brother. A mixture of anger and disappointment on her face. The curly haired boy stood there for a moment in silence, just staring at his sister. He didn't know what to say, she was right. He had wanted the prince to understand what it was like to be pushed away, to be abandoned the way he was. He did want him to figure himself out like he told him that day, but he also wanted him to understand. But after their talk in the classroom, he started to understand the prince instead.

Simon sighed, shaking his head, moving his gaze down to his now noticeably cold feet. "You hurt Felice, she didn't make you suffer..." he mumbled, causing Sara to slap her hands against her thighs in frustration. "That's not even close to the same thing," she huffed, "and you know it." Rubbing her hands over her face, she sucked in a deep breath, peering through her fingers to see her brother attempting to walk by without her. She quickly reached out grabbing his arm, stopping him once more.

"Can you at least tell me why?" She begged, slowly bringing her eyes up to meet Simon's. Biting at his cracked lip, he swallowed, trying to find the right words. "Because... because he doesn't have the same luxury that I do," he whispered. This seemed to only anger Sara rather than make her understand. "Luxury!? What luxury do you have the fucking Prince of Sweden doesn't?" Simon knew that wasn't the best way to describe it, but in reality that's what it was. A luxury.

"How did you and mom react when I told you I was gay?" He asked, gripping the straps of his backpack. Sara seemed thrown off by the question, unsure how it had anything to do with what they were talking about. "Uh... we supported you of course." Simon nodded, taking a step closer to his sister, "And what happened to all of the people who didn't accept me for who I was?" He hummed out, wondering if she was catching on to what he was hinting at. But of course, she only seemed to be focused on her anger towards Wilhelm. "We just stopped talking to them, ignored them, whatever. What does this have to do with some 'luxury' you have!?" She let out with a frustrated huff, throwing up air quotes around the word.

"That's exactly it Sara. He can't just ignore people or pretend he doesn't hear what they are saying," Simon began to explain, hoping he could get his sister to at least start to understand. "He has the whole country watching him, everyone will have something to say. There's no way to just ignore every media outlet writing stories about you."

Sara sighed in defeat, she knew her brother was right in a sense, but one thing still didn't make sense to her, "Okay, I understand that... but what does any of that have to do with you suddenly being friends again?" Simon huffed looking down at the snow under his feet, pushing it around with his toe,  "Because I was scared to do it even when I had people supporting me, I can't imagine doing it alone."

The curly haired boy slowly brought his gaze back up to meet his sister's waiting for her to say something, whether it was approval or disapproval, he was expecting something. But instead, she stood there, staring at him. The look on her face not entirely clear as to what she was trying to get across, but from what Simon could gather, she still wasn't pleased with him. "We're going to be late to class," he muttered turning around to continue the walk up the hill. He knew Sara might never understand, but knew what he was doing. At least he thought so.