Another way (Young Royals)

The studio

I had gotten back into bed after helping Wille getting ready for school. I was exhausted and I could really do with some extra hours of sleep. I was thankful I was not the one who had lectures at university that morning. I was so tired I would have fallen asleep. I woke up again at lunchtime. I had messages from Peter and Hector on my phone. They wanted me to come to the studio as they had something new I had to listen to. I texted them I would be right in. I just needed to get something to eat and some clothes on. And I texted Wille that I would be in the studio during the afternoon. Then I got ready to leave the apartment and went down to the subway. I noticed people looking at me. I had still not gotten used to being recognised after years of being a singer. But now I was at least recognised for something else than the sextape that was released of me and Wille, our first year of high school. I was happy it had fallen into oblivion and that we were not reminded of it everyday. I barely thought about it anymore. It felt like it was a lifetime ago, but also like it was yesterday somehow. I walked up to the studio and Hector greeted me by the front door.

"Simon! How good to see you. How are you?" he asked. I smiled at him. I took off my shoes and got my jacket on a clothes hanger.

"I am good. How are you guys doing?" I asked. Their golden Maple came running for me and I petted him. "And how is this sweet boy doing, huh?"

"He is good. But he does not love when Adelaide plays with his tail or fur," Hector replied in Maple's place and petted his dog on the head. Hector and Peter had a daughter the year Wille and I were in second year of high school. She was almost two years old by now and apparently it was a whole business to have children. Peter and Hector had been sleep deprived since she came. "But we are doing good. Adelaide sleeps a little better now and therefore we are no longer living dead anymore."

"That's good," I replied.

"And how is Wille doing?" Hector asked as we went into the studio.

"He was almost late to his first day at university today, but apart from that he is fine. His mother has reached out and tried to make him come back to the royal family again, though. After Erik's engagement Kristina has become obsessed with the thought of grandchildren," I rambled on.

"And then she wants her nineteen year old son to make that happen for her?" Peter said from the mixing table.

"Apparently," I replied.

"Wild," Peter said. I couldn't agree more. She had not wanted to accept that Wille had chosen himself. His freedom before a life in chains. Us. God knew how much she despised me for being with her son. That she would not have a biological heir to the crown. "Does she not know how hard it is to have small children? We are happy if Addie sleeps at all. And you guys are not even twenty years old yet. Maybe you would like to do something else with your lives before you give your lives to the God of sleep deprivation." I shook my head. I did not think Wille's mother knew how hard small children were. Wille and Erik had been raised more by nannies than their own parents.

"I don't think she does know how hard young children are," I said. "Wille has told me he was more like raised by a bunch of nannies rather than his own parents." I guessed that was how he became so anxious as a teenager and young adult. He still had his anxiety and there were days I had to help him through panic attacks still.

"That's crazy," Hector and Peter said. "But now to why we asked you to come in. We have a new track we want to show you. It is based on one of the poems you wrote last spring." I sat down at the computer and Peter played a song. It was Hector who sang on the tape. It was good. Maybe I would change some of the drum arrangements to make it fit perfectly for my voice.

"This is really good," I said.

"Maybe this could be a song on an album," Peter said.

"It could even be a single," I replied. "It is strong enough on its own." It was a really good song.

"I can call Anton tomorrow about it," Hector said. "We will have to see what he and the label think about it too."

"We recorded the first tape of my version of the song. I will probably need to rest my voice before we do the real studio version though," I said. They wanted me to sing the song, so I got the lyrics downloaded on my phone and got into the recording booth. I had written the base of the song, so I knew some of it. Peter and Hector had changed some of it and made a melody to it. So I did not know the lyrics by heart yet. Not like the fifteen songs I had on my set list on the tour. I knew them in my sleep. Wille had told me so, because I apparently talked in my sleep sometimes. I felt my phone vibrate and it was him. Wille. He texted that he was done with his first lecture. I texted him back that I was in the studio.