The closed curtains

Chapter 6

"Crown prince Wilhelm and his partner Simon Eriksson confirm their hot romance in an exclusive interview," I read in a gossip magazine. I could not recall ever using the words "hot romance" in the statements. "The prince has previously been very quiet about his love life, but after a series of pictures and screenshots leaked from his phone he now confirms a long term relationship with Simon Eriksson. The couple are high school sweethearts, seeing as they met at Hillerska boarding school their first year. Crown prince Wilhelm is the first ever royal in Swedish history to have an open relationship with a person of the same sex. How will this work with future heirs to the crown? And who is Simon Eriksson, who appears to have stolen our crown prince's heart? Simon Eriksson is of Latin American descent and appears to have been a classmate of prince Wilhelm during his time at Hillerska. Unlike most of his classmates, Eriksson grew up in Bjärstad. From pictures from the prince's stay at Hillerska Eriksson appear in the school choir and on the rowing team, of which the crown prince was team captain his third year. And from the leaked pictures of the couple, they seem to be quite a cute couple not afraid to show physical affection. Is Simon Eriksson our future prince? If we believe crown prince Wilhelm, we can only assume so. When asked about the future he said that he saw his current partner in it. From the leaked text messages between the two, we can only assume that the current long distance relationship has come with its challenges. We hope that crown prince Wilhelm's military education will pass fast so that these lovebirds can finally live their life together." They already spoke of marriage, basically. We had just confirmed that we were a couple and the media wanted to make it seem like I had already put a ring on Simon's finger. Not that I did not want that, eventually. But I found it funny that they spoke about my future in terms that Simon and I barely had discussed. We were only nineteen for heaven's sake. Simon laughed when I had finished reading the article. We were laying in bed at the palace.

"They love to gossip about you. Don't they?" he said. His fingers touched my chin. He looked me deeply in the eyes. It felt like he could see my soul when he looked at me that way. He was the only one who could make me feel like that.

"Yeah," I replied. "At least they don't gossip about our first kiss or when we hooked up the first time." Such details only Simon and I knew about. He kissed me on a movie night at school for the first time. That was the first kiss I had shared with someone. I had been so shocked that I had not moved an inch. It must have been like kissing a brick wall, because I did not react to his first two pecks. Then I was about to say something stupid, because while my body just knew how to love him from the moment we first met, my brain told me it was impossible. Before I had finished that sentence I had pulled Simon close and kissed him back. It was quite an awkward first kiss, but I loved that memory anyway. That kiss had released something I had locked deep inside and after that I could not stay away from him.

"And you must be very glad they cannot. Because then they would know about another time you were drunk and high out of your mind," Simon said teasingly. After I came back to Hillerska after Erik died, August and some of his boys had dragged me out to some secret society meeting and I was in so much pain that I tried to make it go away with alcohol and pills. I had attempted to walk to Simon's house afterwards and ended up on the football field, where I finally called Simon and talked just pure nonsense. I had confessed that I loved him on that call though. And Simon, who was scared out of his mind, had gotten out in the middle of the night to find me. He had led me back to my dorm, so that my security would not report me missing in the morning and then we fell asleep on my bed. When we woke up together we had made love with each other for the first time. I remembered my dorm being dark from my blackout curtains and his body against mine. How safe and loved I had felt. How all the constant pain and grief from losing Erik just disappeared, even so just for the moment.

"If they only knew half of what happened at Hillerska I would be in so much trouble," I said. Simon giggled and kissed me. He had kept me out of a lot of trouble too. There were definitely parties that I knew went overboard that I never showed up to, because I was in my dorm watching movies and kissing Simon instead. People knew we were best friends and I had excused myself by my social anxiety getting worse after Erik's death, so it had not crossed people's minds that we were actually in a relationship. We had been to some parties during our time at Hillerska too, of course. But with Simon by my side, I never felt the need to drink myself senseless anymore. He could take away more anxiety and pain by just being with me than any alcohol ever could.

"Probably," Simon said. "From what I have understood you were not the first crazy royal at Hillerska though, and if they begin digging for your skeletons they will probably find some more." My mom had also been at Hillerska, and she had told us stories about her wild high school period. And I can imagine Erik was no better, even if he had the reputation to be responsible. He did like a good party and drinking a bit.

"And they will never know that Erik knew your name before he died," I said. I had never told anyone that I had told Erik about Simon before. Not even Simon. It was parent day at Hillerska and mom and dad had a state visit, so I was in my dorm trying to escape lunch and talking to people. Erik had been asking me questions about why I wanted to stay at school instead of going home and I had confessed to him that I had met someone, and that this certain someone was the cute choir boy called Simon. He had pestered me about how sweet it was that I had fallen in love in the short time I had been at Hillerska and told me I had to go and seduce Simon into staying with me. That was the last time we spoke.

"Did he know about me?" Simon asked. I nodded.

"At the parent lunch thing our first year I was talking to Erik on the phone, and he wanted to know why I did not want to go home that weekend. And I told him that I had met this really cute choir boy Simon and that I kind of had fallen in love with you," I replied. "And he told me I was an idiot that was not already at lunch flirting with you, basically." Simon hugged me. He knew that it was emotional to talk about Erik for me.

"So was it Erik who made you sit with me instead of August that day?" Simon asked. I nodded.

"I wanted to sit with you though," I said. "It was just a perk that I could skip out on sitting next to August." After that lunch, I had sneaked Simon into my dorm. That was our first kiss after he kissed me on the movie night. We had talked about what we were going to do that weekend. That weekend never happened. Erik died the day after. He was driving too fast and lost control of the car. It went straight into an old oak and he was instantly killed.

"I can't see why you would want to skip out on sitting next to August," Simon replied sarcastically. I grinned. I knew he was as annoyed as I was with my second cousin.