Facade

Chapter 22

    Another ball was being held, but to my luck I would be going alone. With no date, I would be going with just Mother to another masquerade ball. Since Philip was out of the picture for the day, I felt relieved.

    Mother was walking in front of me and I was walking behind her as we entered the ballroom. For once we weren't waking side by side, putting up a facade that we were the perfect family. Admittedly, it was partly my fault for feeling uncomfortable around my own mother, but I wasn't sure why she had been keeping her distance from me. It wasn't like I had done anything wrong.

   Sighing, I followed her to our usual table. Instead of admiring the scene around me, I stared at Mother. I watched her look around and my heart suddenly dropped, realizing how distant we had become with each other. We were never perfect, but we were never like this. We were never strangers, but right now, we were.

   My eyes stayed glued to her and I wondered about her. For once, I allowed myself to think about Mother and her errands. I felt like there had to be a reason behind them. Mother didn't seem to be the type of person who'd just sleep around, so I knew there had to be a reason to why she was doing it. What the reason was, was the new question in my life.

   Suddenly, Mother looked at me. She looked surprised when our eyes met, and I flushed, realizing I had been caught staring at her. As her eyes narrowed at me, I looked down, ashamed.

     "Diana, I'll be going to King Henry," Mother suddenly said, pushing her chair back. "I'll leave you to do whatever you want."

   I nodded and only allowed myself to look up when Mother's footsteps sounded distant. My eyes went to where she was and I saw that she was with King Henry. He had given her a large, jolly grin, and soon they were walking out of the ballroom together. The sight left me frowning, and I wondered what was going on between them. It was bizarre and it definitely seemed like something more than what I had witnessed.

     "Diana."

   I jumped at the smooth voice of a boy, and quickly turned to the owner. My eyes flew wide as I saw Alexander standing before me, smiling with bright eyes. As usual he looked gorgeous, but for the first time my heart wasn't racing at the sight of him. To my surprise, I then realized I hadn't even thought about him.

    "Hi," I said, smiling. "Um... How are you?"

    "Better now." He winked. "How about you?"

    Staring at him, I thought about the last time I saw him. He had helped me. By simply kissing me, he has saved me from Philip's disgusting lips. It had been so sweet and perfect, yet I currently didn't feel ecstatic over him. It was confusing.

    "Diana?" Alexander said, zoning me back in.  

    "Oh," I said, embarrassed. "I'm good."

    He cocked his head to the side suddenly, and began to analyze me. I let him and stared back at him, letting his blue eyes roam around my face. As he did that, I couldn't help but think about how familiar his eyes looked.

    "Should we go outside?" Alexander suddenly asked.

    "Sure, that sounds nice," I answered.

    Alexander extended a hand towards me and I took it, letting him pull me up. Our fingers then intertwined as we began to walk to the exit, and I took in the heat of his hand. It was nice - as usual - but not exhilarating like before.