Fall Into You

15

would you lie with me and just forget the world?

It had been a few days since the incident with Charles, and Nicollette was still just as upset - if not more. The longer she isolated herself in her bedroom, coming up with excuse after excuse to not attend fancy events or brunches, the more her mind thought about what had possibly gone wrong. What had she done to Charles?

Charles knew her better than anyone else had—or so she thought. He knew her pet peeves, likes, dislikes, views on the world, and, most of the time, what she ate for breakfast. He was the person she told everything to and who told her everything. He had been the one thing that made living life on the Sutcliffe residence bearable.

Well... until now.

Matthias had shown her a different side of him. Would she have chosen to spend that much time with him? No, probably not. But it happened, without either of them asking for it. And now that they had spent that time together, chatting and not tearing each other's heads off - she felt... different. She didn't feel like she hated him the way she had before. Did she still have her views on royalty and royal people? Of course. They were still selfish, arrogant, horrible people who cared about nobody but themselves. 

However, Matthias wasn't as bad as he made himself seem most of the time. He wasn't the way he had been before; something had shifted. Whether it was that he knew she'd been having a rough time with Ryker or just in general - he was kinder. Without asking, even.

Nicollette sighed as she looked out of her bedroom window. It was getting close to evening, although the sun hadn't set yet. She watched as Charles ran around the stables, doing last-minute things for the day. She bit her lip, hesitating, before finally jumping from the window nook.

She'd had enough. She'd isolated herself for days, wondering why he was so angry at her - but she just couldn't think of anything. She'd never done anything to him, and even though she explained that Ryker was the reason she didn't see him that day - he didn't seem to care.

Nicollette slid her Converse on before shrugging on a jacket, booking it from her bedroom. She managed to leave the house without running into anyone and wasted no time in running from her house on the property toward the stables.

She arrived just as Charles had finished closing up for the night. He turned to see her standing in front of him, her chest heaving up and down slightly from rushing to get there. He didn't greet her - he didn't even smile. He just clenched his jaw, looking away before looking at her again.

"What did I do, Charlie?" Nicollette asked softly. "You- you are so angry at me, and I don't like it. I hate it."

"I'm not angry," Charles denied.

"Really?" Nicollette asked, tilting her head. "Because we haven't talked in almost a week, you haven't checked on me or anything like you usually would."

Charles sighed, flipping his keys around his fingers. "Alright. I'm mad. But not at you. At Ryker." He finally told her, "But, I was taking my anger out on you, and that wasn't right. I just care about you, okay?"

"If you care about me why were you so insistent that I was ignoring you? That- that I'd let someone such as Matthias Sutcliffe break my heart?" She asked, tears glistening in her eyes.

"I-" Charles stopped, unable to think of the words to say. "Nic, I'm sorry, okay? I'm not- I don't know what to say."

Nicollette crossed her arms over her chest, "I just don't want you to be mad at me anymore. You're like- the only reason I can handle it here."