The Last Dance

Chapter 3

Delilah tried her hardest to keep watching the dance and just be happy for her best friend, but eventually it was just too much for her. She turned away from the royals and disappeared into the crowd. She tried to respond when the people she knew from growing up in the palace tried to say hello to her, but she wasn't able to form the right words. All she wanted to do was leave this scene and pretend none of this was happening.

She made her way to the buffet tables, trying her hardest to keep her back straight and her shoulders up. That was decently easy, considering how tense she was. The hard part was keeping her on her smile, which couldn't seem to stop faltering.

Eventually she made it to the table, and began to pick at the food. She really had no appetite, but she still picked up a couple sweets to nibble on. She tried to eat one of the cream filled puff pastries, but remembering how much Mirabelle loved them only made her feel worse.

***

They began to take their lunch together as a tea time during their mid-teens. They often tried to use it as a time to gossip, but there really wasn't much for them to say, with them hardly ever leaving the castle, and hardly ever being separate. Mostly, they used the time to discuss the books they had read, or to share what they learned during the rare one-on-one chats that they would have with their parents.

Delilah shared the news of her betrothment when she was sixteen, as Mirabelle had done the year earlier. There wasn't much reaction either time, as they had both known that it would be coming eventually. They were, of course, saddened each time, but they both knew there was nothing they could do about it.

They had the same conversation many times, about running away. They would take their tea at a table near the house, and after a few minutes they would gather a couple of the pastries and walk into the garden.

They would eat a few of them as they walked, and eventually Mirabelle would hand most of hers to Delilah. She would take them without complaint, partially because that was her job as a lady in waiting, but mostly because she knew what would happen next.

Mirabelle would check to make sure that there was nobody else around before picking one of the nearest flowers. She would kiss Delilah somewhere on her face, usually her lips or cheeks, and then tuck her long dark hair behind her ears along with the flower. Then Delilah would giggle as Mirabelle placed a matching flower to tuck into her own strawberry blonde updo.

They would keep walking until they found a bench with no one around, and they would sit. Delilah would lay out the pastries on her skirt-clad lap, and Mirabelle would take one every few minutes. After a few minutes, Mirabelle would ask Delilah to run away with her.

They would sit there and discuss all of the things that they could do if they left the palace. They argue about where they would go and how they would make a living. Once they were done making up a story about their future, Delilah would always be the one to tell Mirabelle that it was impossible.

They return to their room for the night, continuing to fantasize in their heads, the thoughts leaking into their dreams.