Normani's POV
I lift my head from under the water as I hear my name being called. I quickly get out the tub and wrap a robe around me, heading to the main area of the mansion.
"Madam, I am here. What is your will?" I ask
"Nurse give leave while, we must talk in secret" My mother says while closing the door
I give her a look and cock my head to the side, she opens the door and calls her back.
"Nurse thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age" She smiles
"Thou was the prettiest babe I e'er nursed" Ariana says
"By my count, I was your mother much upon these years, you are now a maid" She says while getting dressed
My mother grabs a magazine and turns around to face me, holding it high.
"Thus there in brief, the valiant Austin seeks you for his love" She grins
"A man young lady! Lady, such a man as all the world, why he's a man of wax" Ari smirks while wiggling her eyebrows
Ugh here we go again with the arrangements.
"Verona's summer hath not such a flower" My mother says while pushing my hair back
"He's a flower; in faith, a very flower" Ari says with much excitement
My mother gets up and walks towards the vanity.
"This night you shall behold him at our feast; read
o'er the volume of young Austin's face. And find
delight writ there with beauty's pen; this precious
book of love, this unbound lover, to beautify him,
only lacks a cover. So shall you share all that he
doth possess, by having him, making yourself no less." She says
I frown my face up and mentally glare at her.
"Speak briefly, can you like of Austin's love?" She asks
"I'll look to like, if looking liking move, but no
more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent to give strength to make it fly" I say sharply, holding eye contact with her
She huffs and blows out smoke from the cigarette. A knock on the door interrupts us and in walks a server.
"Madam, the guests are come" He says
She walks out the door and Ari looks to me.
"Go girl, seek happy nights to happy days"
Lauren's POV
I lean against the wall, dressed in a simple black dress, black heels, with my wavy hair somewhat done. I watch the fireworks intently as they light up the night sky. My attention shifts to the loud voices and music, only to be caused by my best friend Diamond. I watch as she dances to the music ridiculously and I laugh while slightly shaking my head. She walks in my direction, pulling out an invitation to the Hamilton party.
"Young hearts run free, never be caught up, caught up like Victoria and thee" She sings
I lightly push her away and she comes back, grabbing my hand.
"Nay, gentle Lauren, we must have you dance" She says
"Not I, not I believe me, you have dancing shoes with nimble souls, I have a soul of lead" I say, moving myself away from the wall
"You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, and soar with them above a common bound" She smiles
"Under love's heavy burden do I sink" I sigh
"Too great oppression for a tender thing" She says
"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude,
too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn" I say
She grabs my chin and stares me in the eye.
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love; prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" She smirks while dragging me away from my spot
"But 'tis no wit to go" I say
"Why, may one ask?" She asks curiously
"I dream'd a dream tonight" I say
"And so did I" She says
"Well, what was yours?" I ask
"That dreamers often lie" She says
"In bed asleep, while they do dream things true" I say while tapping my head
"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes in shape no
bigger than an agate-stone on the fore-finger of an
alderman, drawn with a team of little atomies over
men's noses as they lie asleep; her chariot is an empty hazel-nut her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, and in this state she gallops night by night through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, and then dreams she of cutting foreign throats, and being thus frighted swears a prayer or two and sleeps again. This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, that presses them and learns them first to bear, making them women of good carriage, this is she, this is she!" She yells while acting out everything she said and pulling out a small pill
"Peace, good Diamond, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing" I say softly
"True, I talk of dreams, which are the children of an
idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy, which
is as thin of substance as the air and more inconstant than the wind, who wooes even now the frozen bosom of the north, and being anger'd, puffs
away from thence, turning her face to the dew-
dropping south." She mumbles
"This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves; supper is done, and we shall come too late" Zayn says
"I fear too early, for my mind misgives some
consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly
begin her fearful date with this night's revels and
expire the term of a despised life closed within my
breast by some vile forfeit of untimely death" I say
I take the pill she had out, immediately feeling it run through my system.
