A Previous Selection

Chapter Twenty-One

"No! You can't do this to me!" 

Addison and I stop in the middle of the hallway when we hear the voice, and I turn to look at her. 

"Sounds like he broke the news." 

"Yeah, and she's definitely not too happy about it," she says. 

"Should we take cover?" I ask. 

"I kind of want to watch her walk out." 

"In a weird way, I do too. But if we are going to stick around, I'm going to have to prepare myself for her yelling at me when she gets here." 

"How long do you think it will take her to get here?" 

"Cameron told me that he had already asked her maids to start packing her stuff as soon as she left for breakfast. That way he could get her out of here as fast as possible. So it shouldn't take too long." 

We turn at the sound of footsteps and see Cameron walking up to us. He runs a hand through his hair with a sigh before stopping in front of me. I give him a small smile. 

"Hey." 

"Hey." He returns the smile. "Well, it's done." 

"Yeah, we heard," Addison says. 

"How are you doing?" I ask him, and he sighs again. 

"If I'm being honest, I'm incredibly stressed. I had to deal with all of my advisors last night. Let's just say they weren't too happy about this whole London thing, and they definitely put up a fight. But I put my foot down, and thankfully, they realized that I wasn't some little kid anymore playing pretend. I'm about to be King. Which is a whole other terrifying thing that I won't get into now. And of course, we have London who was not at all pleased with my decision and voiced that loud and clear," he explains, and I take both of his hands in mine. 

"I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" 

"A hug might help." 

I immediately wrap my arms around his neck, and he's quick to wrap his arms around my waist and bury his face in my neck. We stay in that position for a minute or two, me playing with his hair the whole time. When he pulls back to look at me, he has a small smile on his face. 

"Thanks. That actually made me feel a lot better." 

"Well, there are plenty more where that came from," I say. 

"I'll hold you to that." 

"I literally can't stand how cute you two are," Addison says, and I bury my face in his chest to hide my reddening cheeks. He chuckles before pulling me closer to him and kissing the top of my head. 

"YOU!" 

We pull apart just as London storms up to us. 

"This is your fault!" London exclaims while pointing her finger at me. "You're the reason why I'm being sent home!" 

"No. You're the reason why you're going home." 

"Oh, please! I've done nothing to deserve this!" 

"You really want me to list all of the things you've done? Because we could be here for awhile." 

"You should be the one leaving! I deserve to be here! Not you!" 

She takes a step closer, and Cameron steps in front of me, grabbing my hand to make sure I stay behind him. 

"Lay so much as a finger on her, and you'll regret it," he says, and she scowls at him. 

"Oh, look at that. Prince Charming is protecting his little princess. How sweet."