Royal love

Chapter 48

Multiple footsteps wake me up. Hayden is still asleep in my bed when my bedroom door swings open. Before I can scream for help I realize it's Daniella.

And behind her, everyone else.

"Holly sh*t," Daniella says blankly. "HOLY SH*T!!" She squeals before backing up and slamming the door closed.

"LEVY PAY UP!" I hear her scream through the door.

"No way," he answers, I hear his footsteps come to the door. He opens it and takes one look inside. His jaw drops before he closes the door again.

"GIVE ME MY MONEYYYY," Daniella chants, I hear her dancing around behind the closed door.

"It's not what it looks like!" I yell through the door.

"Are you decent?" I hear Jody's voice ask.

"What the f*ck?" I look around my room. "Obviously I'm decent, get in."

The door opens very slowly and carefully, then it stops before it's even fully open. "Is he—"

"Yes! Get in!"

So then he does, and everyone after him.

"So what's really happening here," Levy asks.

"What?"

"Why are you sleeping in the same bed as—"

"Oh." I realize this isn't normal for us. "I had a nightmare," I smile, the lie spilling off my tongue way to easily.

"Mhm," Jody.

"I really did, see?" I pull the covers off myself. "We're both decent. I forced him to come to my room because I had a nightmare and we both just fell asleep."

"Really?" Daniella asks her huge puppy dog eyes filling with tears of sadness as she hands Levy his money back.

"Yes," I answer. "It was like three in the morning. He was exhausted so the second he reached my bed he was sleeping," lie. "Liar, liar, liar," I can hear Hayden's voice say in my mind.

"Okay, well we came here to get you two because you were about to miss the time we planned to meet up today. We still have a lot of planning to do."

"Oh, okay."

"Wake him up, I'm going to raid your kitchen," Levy says leaving the room.

"Ohh, I'm coming too!" Jody called after him.

"Same here," Mateo called.

"No fair!" I hear Jody yell. "Your dorm is bigger than everyones!"

"Deal with it, punk!" I yell back.

Soon the they're all gone.

I lay back down, unable to fall asleep but feeling the warmth of the blankets and softness of my pillow is just so calming.

Then I remember I have to wake up Hayden. 

I'm surprised he hasn't woken up from all the rucku—

As I turn my head to him, I see both his eyes are open, he's staring at me.

A scream escapes my mouth and now I'm up, out of the bed and trying to catch my breath. I jumped a good nine feet away from the bed in my frightened state.

Everyone comes rushing back into my room, screaming and demanding to know what happened.

Hayden's laughing. He's sitting up in my bed laughing. His eyes are closed, hair a mess, cheeks flushed. He's gorgeous. His shirtless body staring back at everyone in the room. My cheeks immediately turn red at the realization.

"Just a nightmare," Jody asks, his eyebrow in the middle of his forehead.

I glare at him.

Levy gives Daniella the money she gave back to him just a few minutes ago, a defeated look on his face. Daniella's face is full of excitement and determination as she grabs the money from him.

"Guys—"

"All boys sleep shirtless, it's normal," Rowan taps in, his soft spoken voice calming everyone.

Daniella hands the money back to Levy. He thinks about it for a moment before taking it back. He whispers something to her and she nods her head in agreement.

"Okay, out!" I order. Everyone soils out of the room with mumbles about how unfair I am and blah blah.

Hayden is sitting on my bed shirtless.

He's sitting in my bed shirtless and I can't help but stare at his abs. Under a shirt, I can handle. But they aren't under a shirt. They're bare, out in the open and I don't know what happening to me but I can't stop staring at them, counting them over and over.

"I'm more than just my abs, you know," he says, scaring me out of my thoughts. He says it so quietly I can hardly hear the words but I catch them just as they're about to fly over my head. I catch them and I hold on to them for as long as I can. His smile is so genuine as he gets off the bed, his baggy grey sweatpants hanging low on his waist, revealing the start of his black boxers and his burns. I wonder how far down they go. I've seen him in shorts before, at the pool before everything bad happened, there were none then. But has he created more since then?

He walks over to me and stares down at me. When I stop thinking about his burns I realize the look on his face. A look that screams, "you'll never see me the same again, will you?" And the answer is no. I will never see him as an arrogant good for nothing jerk. He's more than that.

For some reason I forgot that. I forgot everyone is a person with feelings and emotions. I forgot Hayden was not just a robot, engineered to be perfect. He is a human who has problems.

"Adeline—"

Before he can say a nothing, I hug him. My face is in his chest. His head is above mine but I feel his chin rest on the top of my head. We stay there for a while. No talking, no thinking, just breathing each other in, enjoying the moment.

"GUYS HURRY UP!" I head Mateo yell. I roll my eyes as k pull away from the hug.

"Go put a shirt on and get out of here, quickly, they think we had sex or something."

He smiles at that. "Seriously?" I ask as I roll my eyes at him too. He's so childish.

Word count: 1020
7-23-23
9:23 pm
(Not revised)
I like this chapter 😜