The Sleepover

Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ １２

Everyone was silent. Especially Rida who was sobbing into her blanket, absolutely astonished at bald Gojo who was talking to Jean as if he was completely normal.

"I would have preferred him half!" Rida sobbed crying louder. Rayyana and Marium were busy comforting her whole Fatima was trying to gain Jean's attention.

"It's okay Rida." Rayyana didn't mean the words, nothing about this was okay. "It's not okay, we got fucking Gojo from wish in the room with us." Marium said smacking rida on the head "ow! What was that for?!"

"For crying over useless things. We have bigger fish to fry." Marium was right, there was now 2 weeks left till the new month which meant Rumaisa's wedding was coming up soon.

Gojo had explained that he had been on some sucker mission which required him to go undercover. Apparently his grand master undercover plan had been to shave his head.

"We need to hatch some sort of escape plan before the wedding," Rayyana looked over at Jean and Gojo. Fatima had somehow managed to climb on top of Jean begging him to take her out, but he was busy trying to take her off of him.

A knock sounded on the door making everyone stop. "Marium?" A hesitant voice called out. Rayyana recognized that tone, she looked over at Marium accusingly who was looking everywhere but at the door.

"Marium are you in there? Alone?" Valen's voice was desperate. "I haven't talked to him since he ignored me in the barn." Marium whispered explaining to Rayyana. "Okay, so you want me to tell him to go away?"

"No!" Marium jumped up "no..I will." She opened the door and stepped outside coming face to face with Valen, he was a couple inches taller than her making her look up a slight bit.

"Marium," Valen said relieved "I'm so glad you're okay." Marium scoffed "the nerve. Thanks for checking up on me, not like I was kidnapped for an entire month or anything."

Valen flinched as if her words hit him hard "I..I was under direct orders from Rumaisa and Alejandro to not go look for you or your friends. I was on my horse ready to search for you, believe me."

Marium had a hard time believing anyone, he'll it had taken her a long time to trust her friends. But something about Valen's voice and tone made her rethink her decision to ignore him. "I guess we're not going through a divorce era." She muttered.

"What?" Valen asked confused. "Nothing..Valen I don't know if I can trust you, you still could have defied Alejandro."

"I know I should have. But the last guard who did that..it wasn't pretty." He hung his head a little "it was my friend Fallon. He and I had been friends since diapers, we both trained to be national guards in the future.

We studied and trained together, it was like we were starched to the hip. He and I got appointed as national guards on the same day too and we vowed to not only protect the crown but each other too."

He took a deep breath as if saying these next few words haunted him. "We got into a fight one day because of Alejandro assigning us on a big task, I wanted it but he also wanted it which caused us to argue and I ended up drunk because he wouldn't talk to me.

I was under the influence when Alejandro came to me with a..a sword. The same sword I carry around with me everyday." Marium eyes the sword on his hip, she had always seen him carry and polish the sword around. She just assumed he was one of those men obsessed with their possession.

"He told me that to get the assignment I had..kill Fallon. I didn't want too, even drunk I knew it was wrong but Alejandro convinced me that Fallon was going to kill me. I was so stupid, I should have known my best friend would never choose an assignment over me but still...

He was sleeping when I went into his room and I twisted this knife deep into his heart." He took the sword out and examined it as if the blood was still on it "he was bleeding out, I had never seen so much blood. He was reaching out to me, and shaking his head telling me to stop but I didn't

He had died a minute before his 24th birthday. All because of me. His best friends face was the last face he saw before he died. I betrayed him for an assignment that Alejandro later gave to another guard. Alejandro lied to me, Fallon had never intended to kill me."

He looked up at Marium, a small painful smile on his face "I wanted to look for you. I think you're nice, and I consider you someone I like. I didn't want to sit back and not find you but I..I couldn't do it. I couldn't defy Alejandro I'm sorry Marium."

He grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss lightly to the back of it. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me." He sounded very sincere as he looked deep into her eyes. He liked her. That had to mean something, didn't it?

"I..I like you too Valen." Valen smiled wider pulling her close "you forgive me then?" Marium nodded, blushing when Valen kissed her forehead. "Thank you." He whispered leaning in close.

Marium breath hitched, holy shit he was going to kiss her. How do you kiss? Marium had never kissed before! She felt panic as he leaned in closer and closer until the door behind her opened, Jean and Gojo leaving the room with Fatima running behind them.

"JEAN PLEASE!" Jean turned around and said "I like you pretty girl but you need to give me space." Fatima gasped as if she had never heard the term before.

Rida walked out next followed by Rayyana who looked tired from all this madness. "Gojo I accept you bald head or not." Gojo shook his head "you called me Gojo from wish!"

"No Marium did!" Rida protested. Valen looked stunned watching the 2 random men walk out of the girls room. He pulled his sword out stepping in front of Marium to protect her.

"Aww look at the damsel in distress." Rayyana teased Marium who hit her arm. "Who are you?!" Valen yelled about to attack. "It's okay Valen, they're uh..friends!" Rayyana said gesturing Marium to calm Valen down.

"Valen it's okay." Marium placed a hand on Valen's shoulder making him visibly relax. "I've never seen them around town before?" Valen asked how confused.

"Yeah they're new to town." Rayyana said motioning for Fatima and Rida to take them away. "Alejandro will have to know about them." Shit he was right.

"Right of course...that's just where we're going!" Rayyana felt dread in her stomach. No way Alejandro would let them stay.

"What the hell." The girls and the boys turned to see Balisto looking at the intruders. It must be strange for him to see a bald man, and a man who looked like a Mafia don.

"Balisto this is Jean and Gojo. They're our friends." Rayyana quickly explained, if anyone could vouch for them it was Balisto.

"Uh huh. And..when did they arrive at the palace?" Marium looked at Rayyana, "uh they came..a few hours ago! Surprises!" Rayyana said uncertainly.

"Okay. Follow me young gents. We will go to Alejandro."

Double fuck.