Young Royals: What...now?

Pregaming.

Wilhelm

All Saturday night, Wilhelm stared at his ceiling, rehearsing and re-rehearsing what he was going to say to each group, until he saw the sun beginning to peek through his dorm room window. 

Ugh. He was so not ready for the day to begin. He rolled over to grab his phone off of his desk, and he noticed an alert. How had he not heard it buzz? He must have fallen asleep for some of the night after all.

Two new messages.

He snapped open his phone in one quick motion and pressed on the app.

The first message was from Simon.

2:43am

Simon: My brain hurts from practicing what to say tomorrow. You?

Wilhelm smiled at his phone. Simon was doing the same thing he was. It's not that he didn't trust that Simon liked him, and maybe even loved him, but Simon played his cards close to the vest. It was hard to know sometimes with him. Wilhelm felt those little butterflies start flapping in his stomach. Simon was in this with him. Maybe not as much as Wilhelm, but he was in it. 

The second message was, predictably, from Felice.

5:01am

Felice: You ready?! T - 5 hours!  

Wilhelm groaned. Of course Felice would have to remind him almost to the minute. Thankfully, he realized that it was only 7:00am. Three more hours to pretend this wasn't happening.

Realistically, though, part of him wished it was actually already 10:00. That way, he could rush to get dressed, have a quick breakfast, and then be off. Felice would kill him if he wasn't at least an hour early, but it least it would be a few hours less of twiddling his thumbs in miserable anticipation. 

Instead, Wilhelm decided to go for a run. Honestly, he hated running, but it was the single best way to get his mind off this whole mess of a day. And he was good at it. He didn't know if it was his long legs or all the running he ended up having to do for rowing, but he could run 5km without really breaking a sweat and 10km without his legs starting to ache. He could just pop in his Airbuds and go. 

He texted David so that the guard could get changed for the run as well, and he laced up his shoes, threw on his sweatshirt and sweatpants, and carried himself out the door. David was already ready to go when Wilhelm reached the hallway. 

That was the one thing about David. He never minded a sudden change of plan. Wilhelm knew that he was just thrilled to leave the boy's hallway or not have to sit outside History class all morning long. A run was the bright spot in David's workday. 

As his feet hit the dirt path around the school, he thought about how different his life was than when he had arrived at the school just 5 months before. Simon had once asked him if he had known he liked guys before meeting Simon, and Wilhelm couldn't really give him an answer. He guessed he probably knew deep down. He never showed much interest in girls, but he always avoided the men's locker rooms unless it was absolutely necessary. It was just always so uncomfortable for him. And he didn't know how to not look around. Who could? Even if just to compare your equipment to everyone else's.

Erik knew. He was sure Erik had known for forever. When Wilhelm had told him about Simon during their last call, the one during the Parent's Day luncheon, Erik hadn't asked who the girl was, or what she looked like. He had said, "You've met someone". Your crush. Everything gender-neutral. Even when he was saying how he didn't want details, he referred to "it", the relationship, not the person. Those were just not terms anyone would choose if they didn't at least have a suspicion that there might have been something else going on. He definitely knew.