Royalty

XI

I don't remember the rest of the night, but when I woke up I was in bed, Jack was sitting on the end of it. He wasn't asleep, he was just laying there staring at the ceiling. I laid there motionless for a while, watching him. When he noticed me he bolted up and looked at me. I groaned and grabbed my head. It was pounding.

"Dan," he crawled closer to me. "You're awake" I rubbed my eyes. They were dry. I was all out of tears. "How are you feeling?" I sucked in a breath.

"Stupid" I said honestly. I put my head into my hands and groaned. "I waited for him all night. He obviously wasn't coming"

"Don't beat yourself up over it" Jack said. "Maybe he couldn't come. Maybe he was busy or-"

"Jack" I stopped him off. "Don't do that. Don't try and make me feel better. You were right. I'm the biggest fucking idiot" Jack started to say something, but I cut him off. "Can we just not talk about this?" I said. "I really don't want to talk about it" I got out of bed and looked down at my wrinkled clothes. I guess I hadn't changed when I came upstairs the previous night.

"Okay" Jack looked hurt. I didn't want to be rude, but I really needed some time alone. He got up off the bed and started to walk into his room. He paused in the doorway. "You should hurry and get ready, it's almost time for lunch"

"What happened to breakfast?" I asked.

"You slept through it" I groaned. The last thing I wanted to do was eat lunch with my parents. I started to change my clothes, and as I did the night before started to flash through my mind.

"Hey," I turned around and looked at Jack. "Thank you. For last night. Thank you for staying with me..." Jack bit his lip.

"It's no problem" I knew he wanted to say something else, but he didn't. We both stood there, looking at each other for a long time. "Are you going to go?" he asked. I tried to get myself to move but I couldn't.

"I don't want to go down there" I admitted. I knew they were going to ask about the ball and that was the last thing I wanted to talk about right now. Jack nodded in understanding.

"Do you want to come eat with me?" he asked.

"Yes, please" I sighed gratefully. Jack disappeared into his room to change. My mind started to wander, as I waited for him. I wondered why Phil suddenly disappeared. Where was he? Did something really happen to him or did he just not want to see me anymore? It didn't make sense that he wouldn't want to see me though, seeing as he was my soulmate and we'd spent every night together for the last two weeks. But maybe he didn't feel the same way about me. Jack came back out before I had time to really think about it.

"Are you ready?" he asked. I nodded, and followed him down to the kitchen. It still felt weird for me to be eating in here, it felt like I didn't belong. I didn't belong here. I shouldn't be in here, but I didn't know where else to go. There was no way I was going to eat with my parents. I guess I could skip lunch, but I felt like Jack wasn't going to let me do that.

"Stop frowning so hard" Jack touched my forehead. I slowly looked up at him. He looked at me with pity. "C'mon tell me what you're thinking" I looked down and realized that someone had put a plate of food in front of me when I wasn't paying attention. I looked around, but everybody was busy with their work.

"I dunno" I mumbled as I picked up my fork and started to push my food around. "He- he didn't show up. He just disappeared without a word. Logically I should be thinking that this was just a really mean way to say he didn't want to see me anymore, but I'm not. I keep thinking that something happened to him. That there's a reason he's not here, I act like I've known him for a long time. It's... I'm crazy, right?"Jack was staring down at his plate.

"You're not crazy. That's... It just means that you're a good person. You see the best in people, even when it might not be there"

"Phil's a good person" I said sharply. Jack flashed a smile, but it quickly fell off his face.

"I know you say that, but you don't know him. There's no way you can know everything about a person that you've only known for a few weeks. I mean, do you even know where he lives?"

"He lives... in town. His parents own a bakery" Jack rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"There's at least a dozen bakeries in town, probably more. You hardly know anything about this guy, and you've convinced yourself that you're in love with him!" I stuttered.

"I- I n- I never said that-" My voice trailed off. Jack quirked his eyebrow.

"You think it though, I can tell. You think you're in love with him" I did. I did think I was in love with him. I was in love with him. I don't know when I figured this out, but I knew it.

I didn't say anything. Jack took that as an answer.

"You're going to wait for him again, aren't you?" he asked quietly. "By the stable. You're going to wait for him, even though you know he's not coming" I looked down at my lap.

"...Yeah" Jack sighed angrily and threw his fork down on the table. "Jack," I said pleadingly. He got up from the table. "Jack, wait" I grabbed his arm. He stopped. "Please, why are you mad at me?" he clenched his jaw.

"Because-!" he stopped and sighed. "Because you're making yourself sick over this guy who clearly isn't here for you and I- I'm-" my eyes widened in realization. "I'm here-" he breathed sharply and shook his head.

"Jack..." he wouldn't look at me. Did Jack... like me?

"Don't freeze to death while you wait for him" he said coldly. He pulled his arm away from me and stormed off.