Another way (Young Royals)

The birthday party

I had never seen Wille smile as much as he did that night, I was pretty sure. The night was still young and we had hours to spend with our friends. And Erik. Wille had missed him all summer. To have them meet each other on neutral grounds meant everything. Where their mother could not reach them. Where Wille could feel safe that he would leave with me and go back home to Bjärstad. That was what he wanted. What he wished.

"Have you had a nice birthday?" Stella asked Wille. Fredrika held her arm around her girlfriend and looked at her as if Stella was the prettiest thing in the entire world. They had been in a pretty steady relationship since my initiation party. Well, after a little rocky start maybe.

"Thanks to Simon I have had the best birthday to date," Wille replied. The girls smiled, happy for him.

"So what have you done today then?" Fredrika asked.

"We have watched movies and we had cake for breakfast," he said. That made us all giggle a little.

"Easily impressed I see. You were a prince, Wille. How bad were your birthdays at the palace?" Stella asked. It was somehow sad that watching movies and hanging out at home was the best birthday he had had.

"Every year it is a public spectacle on our birthdays. They had a concert on Wille's birthday every year and the media was always there. We never had birthday parties with friends our age. It was always a fancy dinner with lots of adults," Erik, who overheard the conversation, said and walked up to us. He had a glass with coke in his hand. He had driven to the party himself, so he was not drinking that night.

"And it is a pretty horrible way to celebrate your birthday when you suffer from social anxiety. Not to talk about celebrating your birthdays as a child like that. It was pretty boring," Wille filled in.

"But we are taking back the lost birthdays now, aren't we Wille?" Erik said and touched his brother over the head.

"We are," Wille said and smiled. "I wish we could celebrate your birthday like this sometime." Erik was crown prince and the king to be. He had to follow the traditions and rules that were put on him. Wille knew that, just as much as Erik did himself.

"Tonight it is about you though. No time for sad royal traumas from the past, okay?" Erik said. "Let's dance and have some fun." We all followed Erik out on a noutdoor dancefloor and we all danced as if there would be no tomorrow. As if it was the final night we had together. For Wille it was, in some way. He rarely saw his brother and he did not know when they would be able to see each other again after that night. Stella and Fredrika made out and held each other close on the dancefloor. Felice, Sara and Maddie danced together and laughed. Wille and I danced together. The other boys danced as well. Erik danced with Nils and they both laughed. Wille smiled big at me. I felt his hands on my back and I felt his short hair against my own fingers. I could not keep myself from kissing him. I was so grateful for having him. The prettiest boy I had ever known. The kindest and sweetest. When things got heated Wille pulled me away from the dancefloor to continue elsewhere. We ended up making out on the stairs up to the house. The night was lukewarm and there were birds singing in the distance. In a few hours I could imagine we would have a full sky of stars above us. It had been raining earlier that day, but the weather was pretty warm and nice now.

"Do you want to swim in the lake with us?" Felice interrupted us. Wille and I looked at each other and nodded. Everyone at the party went down to the lake. I had packed swimming trunks and beach towels for both Wille and myself. I knew a swim might happen. When everyone had changed into swimwear, we all jumped into the water from the pier. It splashed everywhere. I found Wille in the water and held him close to myself under water. The prettiest boy with the sweetest smile.

"I love you," I whispered in his ear. I kissed him down the neck and nibbled a little on his ear. I felt his hands caress my naked chest and his warm breath against my back.

"I love you too. Thanks for everything you have done to make my birthday something different than it usually is," he replied. Then he kissed me.

"Are they always this way, Sara?" Erik asked my sister.

"They can't keep their hands to themselves if they try, believe me," Sara replied. "They have been this way all summer. We can change places if you like. It is your turn having a little brother snogging his boyfriend everywhere you look." Sara was obviously joking.

"You mean since they came out as a couple, right?" Felice commented. "Those two are just getting worse every time I see them. Soon they will be joined at the hip, I swear." We stopped kissing and looked at them. Felice was smiling big.

"You guys are just jealous," Wille said with a big grin.

"Well I can kiss an Eriksson too, if that is what you mean, Wille," Felice said and looked at Sara. Sara seemed a little confused, but soon she had her lips locked with Felice's.

"Is there some secret to the Eriksson blood, or how is it that both of the Eriksson siblings have someone to kiss, but not me? I am the crown prince and here I am as the only one who has no one to kiss here," Erik joked.

"Felice and I are just friends though," Sara said.

"But he is right. There is something hot in your genes, Sara," Felice said. They both laughed and splashed water around them.

***********

The night was coming to an end. We were all in bathrobes in the dining room in the house Erik had rented for the night. Well, everyone but Erik himself. He was preparing the last surprise for the night in the kitchen. A cake. The birthday cake he had never been able to give to his little brother before. It was a bit over the top, as he had a bigger budget to put towards a cake than my own family did. The room was dimly lit and everyone began singing the birthday song, to wish Wille a happy birthday. Erik came into the room, with a huge cake on a tray. He sang and put the cake on the table, in front of Wille.

"We wish Wille a happy birthday," Erik exclaimed. "My little brother turns 17 years old today. I am so happy to be your bigger brother, Wille. You are the bravest person I know. You live the way you learn, even when it goes against everything you learned from growing up the way we did. I am so proud of you for trusting your heart and being with Simon and giving up your title, because that was what you wanted to do." I saw a tear in the corner of Erik's eye. I knew he felt trapped, just like Wille did. But he could not just leave. It would put the whole state and constitution at risk. Sweden needed to have a monarch. That was what the constitution said. And Wille was no longer an option, so he could never give that mission away. He was the only one who could fill that role. I could not imagine the pressure that came with that. I knew what pressure Wille had on him, and he was not even crown prince when he was a prince.

"Blow the candles and wish for something," Stella said, trying to lighten the mood a little. It had gotten a little emotional when Erik held his little speech. Wille did as Stella had suggested and I wondered what he had wished for.

"And now you cut the first bit," I said. It was a tradition that the birthday child was to cut the cake. He cut the cake and offered me the first piece. We then ate cake from the same plate and the rest of the night, we danced in each other's arms.     

Author's note

Once again, I am back with another part of this story. I hope you guys like it. School is still a lot at the moment. In a month I am supposed to speak in front of, let's say, some of the most well respected lawyers in Europe. And to say that I am nervous is an understatement. I am taking part in a Nordic law contest between Nordic law students. I am currently reading the other teams legal submissions to prepare for the oral part of the contest and it is getting real that I am about to do something I am really scared of doing. I have had terrible stage fright in the past. In high school there was nothing worse you could possibly put me through than public speaking. But you never develop if you never do things out of your comfort zone, I have been told. So now I am doing that. But it takes a lot of time to prepare and I have less time to write this story. I hope you hold out this next month with me, because the updates on here will hopefully be more regular when I am done with this. 

- A.A.