Time in Love

Chapter seven

The walls are grey and I'm aware that I'm sleeping. My legs move on there own and I analyze my surroundings. I'm at the funeral again. Everything in black in white, something I hadn't remembered after waking up the first time but I take into account now.

It's the picture of dreary and I want to wake up but my mind seems split in two. The logical half wanting to know why I can't wake and the other half insisting I see what's behind the door in front of me.

At first I lean up against the door. I can hear things, things I've never particularly wanted to hear from other people. Mewls of pleasure, moans and grunts mixed with a number of sounds that make my stomach turn.

Nobody seems to notice me peeping on the couple in the next room but still I look around guiltily before placing my hand on the door handle. Then I hear it.

It's muffled and distorted and I'm sure if it were any other name I wouldn't have heard it. But Romeo wasn't a common name.

"Romeo!" A woman's voice shouts from the other side.

My stomach churns and I look around but nobody seems to care. Do they all know? Do they just not care?

She'd heard about princes doing whatever they wanted without a care in the world but Romeo had never been like that. Never like the princes in her history books who'd hung civilians just because they felt a little bored.

But did she ever really know Romeo?

Maybe the Romeo I'd thought I knew wouldn't, but a part of me knew that this man behind the door was a different kind of man entirely even while under the same name.

And to do something so vile at my own funeral...

I slam the door back into place and start running in whatever directions nearest. I run past the line of families waiting to talk to my corpse and past a food table lined with desserts I'd never eat until I reach a large door. I swing it open and thrust myself inside.

I'm on the opposite side of the building no doubt and yet it's not far enough.

It's not until I look around do I realize Im surrounded by myself. Pictures framed all over the room all feature my face in them. I study each of them until I come across someone I never expected. It's Kai.

He's in the background of the photo leaning up against the wall but his eyes are fixed on the camera. In the foreground is me and my family along with Romeo. We smile happily at a camera as the decorations around us sparkle with Christmas cheer.

Taken just a month before I died it looks so erie sitting on its knob.

Still I remember it clearly as ever.

That night ma had insisted we wait an hour before desert and spend it praying. Emilia was not thrilled by this and showed it by sticking her tongue out at ma when she wasn't looking : which turns out to be never so Emilia ended up getting her head smacked by ma multiple times that night.

When the five tier cake was finally brought out, courtesy of Romeo, we were all fidgeting in anticipation. I got up from my comfy spot in Romeo's lap to take a closer look at the magnificent cake.

Five tiers of cake was something most people wouldn't see in three lifetimes. And although we were well off then not many in our village were well off enough to afford more than a simple glazed fruit cake for Christmas.

More than anything, even the cake, the glee on my families faces made me smile. Except for Tulip who was scowling at me jealously.

It had been like that after Romeo proposed to me, empty jealousy like usual. She'd told me she didn't understand how a stick in the mud girl like me had even snatched a man with such status to which I'd responded with, "Maybe if you read as much as you flaunted your ribbons catch one."

I'd watched as her face had turned beet red and smiled when I heard Emilia's laughter.

Really, Tulip wasn't that bad. I knew soon that she'd find a man of her own and she'd forget all about mine as she was wrapped in what she always called love. Before my death I'd always thought Tulip had the worst taste in men. Now I didn't know what to think.

Eventually, everyone decided the newly weds should go up and get their first pick on cake. Romeo grazed my back gently, a signal for me to go first. I stepped forward to my surprise I felt a kick to my shins. I was weightless, flailing my arms for balance but I'd never been known for my grace.

I stumbled over my feet like a clutz and toppled right over into the front of the cake.

Romeo had reached out to catch me but my face had already plowed its damage into the cake. "Oh my god!" A voice shouted from behind me and Daphne was by my side in a heart beat her hands coming over Romeo's to lift me up. She'd looked almost angelic in the harsh lights above us. She's put on more makeup than I'd seen her with in a lifetime and her hair was done in a confusing hair do I'd complimented her maid on later.

I looked back expecting to find Tulip snickering behind me but to my surprise she was gawking at me from the staircase. There's no possible way she could've kicked me so who? I wanted to think about it more but the dog Romeo had bought me, Diego, pounced on me. His tongue licked my face as I tried to shove him off through my giggles. When I'd finally managed to peel the tiny furry puppy off me my mother was insisting I go back to Romeo's to clean up.

We'd bid our farewells and hadn't come back that night. Opting for more romantic things instead.

I still remember Romeo's words as I'd walked to he carriage that night.

"I'd it weren't for the dog I'd of licked the cream off you myself you know." He'd insisted before leaning down to brush his kiss along my neck.

I'd laughed until my stomach hurt. "No you wouldn't!" I yelled through my laughter.

Running his fingers through my pale hair. "No I wouldn't." He'd said with a sheepish smile.

With the sweet taste of that memory, I woke up.