Fall Into You

3

i'll take it one day at a time

The next day came much too soon for Nicollette's liking, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was a royal lunch, to which all of the related Kingdom's royalty and their children were to be invited. There would be a fancy feast, fancy clothing, the whole works.

Nicollette wasn't excited.

Not only was she going to have to go act like one of the prissy princesses that would be attending, but she'd also have to face Matthias and Ryker - in the same room, yet again.

She hadn't spoken to Matthias since they arrived back on the property, to which she hopped off of Maximus, gave him a nice pet goodbye, and made her way away from the Prince and to the side of the property her house resided on.

As she got in, her parents asked her how her donating went - as they usually did. She told them the usual, leaving out any part with Ryker and Matthias. She didn't want to tell them because the last thing she needed was a lecture - both from how she spoke to Ryker, and the other being how she and Matthias need to learn to get along.

It's been that way since they were young, and Nicollette couldn't tell anyone exactly why or how it started. She just knew one day Matthias was nice, and the next... he wasn't. He was rude, cocky, and arrogant. He let his royalty get to his head like most royals did, and that's the day she learned to hate him.

All he ever did was look down on her, and for what? Because their fathers happen to be best friends? As if it's her fault she wasn't born royalty the way he was and their fathers looked past the royalties and bonded based on their personalities. Not to mention her father is the right-hand man to King Sutcliffe, so even if they weren't best friends - they'd still have to see each other either way.

"I need you to stand up straight, Nicollette." The sound of the Sutcliffe's servant, Malia Prim, spoke. "I can't tighten your corset properly without you standing straight."

"Sorry," Nicollette muttered, looking at herself in the mirror. She wasn't ready yet, to which her mother would yell at her at any moment now. She was supposed to be ready half an hour prior, but she found herself accompanying Charles at the stables again.

It was only when Malia came out in a panicked voice she finally rolled her eyes and left her best friend to go get ready for something she didn't even want to attend. She listened to the frustrated rant of the servant, listening to how she didn't want to have to get in trouble because Nicollette had run off to do who knows what instead of getting ready as she was supposed to.

Nicollette understood, but at the same time didn't care enough to apologize. She didn't ask to attend this lunch, and she didn't understand why she was forced to anyway. She wasn't royal. She wasn't a princess or even a duchess. She was nothing compared to the royalties of Aradia and the kingdoms surrounding it, so who would even notice had she been missing from this very important lunch?

Nobody important.

"Nicollette? How on Earth are you not ready yet?" The sound of her mother's voice echoed through the giant room as she entered, a look of shock on her face as she saw she was still getting dressed.

"Because I don't want to go," Nicollette spoke honestly, looking at the wretched dress she was wearing.

It wasn't the ugliest dress of the bunch, but that's only because it was a hand-me-down from Maria Sutcliffe - the princess herself. They were very similar in size, except Nicollette was just a bit curvier when it came to her hips and bust area. This caused the dress to be much tighter than it should have been, but she couldn't complain as this was a dress her mother chose her to wear, and there was no negotiating that.