Young Royals: What...now?

Clubhouse.

Wilhelm

He had to just do it. It'd been two days. Normal people didn't wait days to answer a four-word text message, that wasn't even negative! Unless they were in a coma. Or dead. 

Normal people definitely didn't wait days to text someone they actually liked. 

He had to just do it. He had a plan. Right? Right?!

Wilhelm: Yeah, hey. When do your classes end tomorrow?

Wilhelm closed his eyes and his clammy fingers clicked the Send button. He didn't even know fingers could get clammy. 

He was a wreck. 

A second later, he heard a ping.

Simon: 4:30, but I have a break from 12:00-2:00. You?

Wilhelm's breathe quickened. 4:30? 12:00? Would two hours be enough? When was it getting dark tonight? Who would be out at those times? 

Eenie-meenie-minie-mo.

Wilhelm: Let's plan for 4:30 if that's okay. Meet me by the rowing shed. 

Simon: Sure. See you!

Wilhelm had never felt such a sense of release and had butterflies flapping in his stomach so hard at the same time. 

Now he just had to figure out how he was going to say what he wanted to say without being a dick. Or crying.

Or crying...

--

Simon

Simon looked at his watch as he strode up to the rowboats lined up outside the shed. He looked around and saw bald trees surrounding him, frost covering their highest branches. Simon was glad his mom had decided to settle in Sweden, but man, the weather was not the most glorious feature of the place. He would have settled for maybe Cyprus or Spain-- still developed, but with a few more days of a sun a year. 

A few minutes later, he heard the snap of a twig. He twisted around to see Wilhelm walking towards him. Alone. He had his hands in the pockets of his wool coat, and he strode straight ahead without looking at Simon. 

When Wilhelm stopped in front of him, Simon called, "Hey! Where are Thing 1 and Thing 2?"

Wilhelm didn't laugh. Simon noticed the tension in his stance, and he was fiddling with his fingernails. Not a good sign.

"I snuck out the window. They think I'm taking a nap."

"Dude, they have got to get a security camera there. This is ridiculous!" laughed Simon. Bjarstad was safe and all, but the kid had gone through the window more times than he could count. He sometimes wondered if David and Malin knew but just let him have his moments of freedom. They seemed chill like that. 

Wilhelm laughed nervously. 

Wilhelm pulled out his hand from his coat pocket and motioned to Simon. "Follow me. I want to take you somewhere where we can talk, you know, privately."

Simon looked around. There literally wasn't a squirrel where they were, but he made a choice to not make the guy's life any more stressful and followed him anyways.

They trudged deeper and deeper into the woods. Where could Wilhelm be taking him? To his death? Wilhelm didn't really seem the type. Didn't really have it in 'im. Simon grinned at his own thought as he continued marching on the little path of snapped branched.

Wilhelm looked over at him and gave him a half-hearted smile. "Um, how were your classes today?"

Simon could work with that. A little parental, but anything was better than just walking in silence. "Oh yeah, good. I ended up getting an 85 on the Geometry test, which was better than I expect. What about you? How did you do?"