Another way (Young Royals)

Stockholm

Simon was so nervous I feared he might throw up in the car. I had never seen him like that before. He was trembling. I knew it would turn out great. He was the best singer I knew, and I had heard a lot of people sing live for me as a prince of Sweden.

"Hey, everything will be fine, okay?" I said to him and took his hand in mine. "You will do great in that meeting. I promise." I could of course not go in with him, even if we both might have wanted to both be there. I wanted to be there for him. This was everything he had worked for. His biggest dream. And I just wanted to see him succeed. He had earned it.

"I hope so," he replied and looked out of the car.

"Of course you will, mi hijo," Linda said. She was so supportive. I wondered what that felt like. To have a mother who was proud of you. I had always been a disappointment to mine. I was so happy Simon had his mother. He needed that support. I knew it had not always been easy. I had never met his father, but I had understood it was for the better. He did not have a good influence on their life when his parents were still a couple.

"You are the next big star and if they don't see that they are stupid, okay?" I said. His music was something holy to him. It was something he couldn't live without. Like I couldn't live without him. His songs. His voice. That was what first made me fall for him. I had never heard a voice like his until I sat in the little church in Bjärstad on my first day of school.

"If you say so," he said. I pulled him closer to myself and embraced him. Smelled the scent of perfume on his neck. It was sweet. His natural scent was also sweet, but another kind.

"Just wait and see," I said. Then I kissed him all over his face until he was giggling. My goal was to distract him from his nerves, which I seemed to be fairly good at. I pulled the candy bag out of my bag and offered it to Simon. He looked down into the bag and tried to find candies he liked.

"You have a weird taste in candy, baby," he said. He made a disgusted face at the salty liquorice and sour candies. He found some sweet ones and gave the bag back to me.

"Hey, no bullying my taste in candy here," I replied.

"I thought candy was supposed to be tasty. Not worse than mom's homemade cough medicine," he teased. I grinned. Linda laughed in the front seat.

"Be nice to your boyfriend, Simon," she said and shook her head.

"I am," he said and kissed me. "Look how nice I am to my boyfriend who eats candies like a 85 year old without taste buds." He was still teasing me. Obviously joking. Linda looked at us in the rearview mirror with a grin.

"Did I really raise you to call your boyfriend such things, mi hijo?" she replied.

"Well I do it lovingly," Simon said and wrapped his arms around me. I laughed.

"Well I have a very young and pretty boyfriend for being 85, I must say," I joked and kissed his cheek.

"I only said that you ate like an 85 year old. Not that you were 85," he defended himself.

"Well as if that makes it any better, darling," I said and gave him a look and grinned. He grinned too.

"It does though. If you were really 85 it would be pretty creepy of you to be involved with me," he said.

"Yeah. It is already a scandal that you are three months younger than me though," I joked. I had read in some magazine about my "younger lover". My birthday was in the middle of July. His birthday was in September. And we were born the same year. They made it sound like I had a relationship with a twelve year old. Which was not the case.

"Well I do look younger than you, so I can't blame them, can I?" Simon joked and kissed me.

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