The Story of Udonia

Chapter Four: Hikaru

I was woken up by Ashley in my face. I grimaced as she smiled. She gave me breakfast in bed of pancakes and orange juice.
"Here you go." She smiled as she pushed the tray closer to me.
"Wow, thanks." I sat up and poured the syrup on the cakes.
"It's your birthday breakfast." She smiled.
"No!" I shouted.
She seemed confused. "What?" She asked.
"I don't want you to say anything about my birthday, because then I get all upset thinking about how my family isn't with me to celebrate." I explained as I attempted to drown my sorrows with syrup.
Ashley frowned. "Oh, honey. I'm sorry. You're right."
"It's fine. Just don't think about my birthday or say anything and I won't feel bad." I smiled as I shoved pancake down my throat.
"I can do that." She headed for the door. "Finish eating and then we will start loading up boxes into the cars." She then scurried out the door.
The car ride to Hikaru is about two and a half hours long. It was a boring drive consisting of mostly empty grasslands or farm fields.
We finally reached the castle. After taking a day to unpack, Ashley and I went out. We got lunch, went shopping, and then saw a movie. If anyone is curious what we saw, then we saw Begin Again. It was a good movie. Ashley wanted to see A Fault in Our Stars, but then she decided it would be too sad for my fragile state.
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I wish I could tell you all about what happened between July 4th December 22nd, but nothing too exciting happened. I managed not to drink almost the first month there, but fell off the wagon near the end of the month. That was when Ashley decided I would need to stay longer. So one month turned into three, into four, and then five.
Christmas was nearing. This brought about all sorts of depressing feelings. I thought back to when we were younger. We would wake up to find presents under the 12 feet tall tree. Bianca's were wrapped in pink, mine were in purple, and Tim's were wrapped in green. We would each get ten presents. Then as the day went on we would run around the house as the staff tore down the decorations from last night's Christmas party. It was an adult party, so we weren't allowed to go until we turned 18. The Covingtons would bring Ashley and Ashton over. We would all have our own fun, which typically involved cheesy Christmas movies.
I didn't like recounting in these memories. Knowing that they would never happen the same again killed me. I ended up drinking more. I spent three days trapped in my room. Not even Ashley could get me to come out. Finally Christmas Eve came. The Covingtons were going to throw a Christmas party this year to make up for the lose of our yearly Christmas party.
I got up at two p.m. and took a shower. I shaved, put on some make-up, and a dress. That night I was wearing a long high-low hem red dress with a sliver belt around my waist. It had thin spaghetti straps and a deep V-neck line. I wore a thin silver necklace and a matching bracelet. I wore silver heels and straightened my hair. I looked great, but I felt like crap.
I entered the ballroom with a smile plastered on my face. Ashley immediately stuck to my side.
"Hey." She smiled, a genuine smile that then turned to a nagging face. "Don't let me catch you drinking anything! I know it's a holiday, but that isn't a good excuse." She scolded.
"I know." I smiled back. "I will be good tonight." I was sadly lying to her and myself; I didn't really have much self control.
Her smile resurfaced. "Okay. I trust you. Now I need to find my parents." She scanned the room. "Ah." She spotted them. "They are going to make some sort of announcement tonight and they want to tell us first." She started to walk towards them.
"Okay." I followed her.
Then she turned to look at me with confusion. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Following you to here what your parents have to say." I replied. "They wanted to tell us first."
She laughed. "Not us." She smiled. "Ashton and I."
My cheeks turned red. "Ashton is here?" Apparently I missed a lot while trapped in my room for three days.
"Yeah, he is on holiday break and came home." Ashley responded.
"He didn't just stay in America...not that he wouldn't want to come home." I asked.
"He actually sold his place in New York and moved into the Princeton dorms. He just wanted to see what it was like to live in New York. The dorms kick students out during breaks. Anyway, he got here three days ago." Then she raised an eyebrow. "And if I remember correctly, you were absent from, well, everything for the last three days." She was a little short with me.
"Okay, I deserve that." I sighed. "Well, I should probably find him and say hi. He texted me after my parents died and I texted him back a month later, then he never replied." I explained. "So I want to talk to him about America and stuff."
Ashley turned around to look at her parents. She saw Ashton making his way through the crowd towards them.
"There his is." She said.
I looked over her head and saw Ashton weaving through the crowd. He then stopped when he reached his parents. I could see his stunning blue eyes from across the room. He was wearing a black suit with a light blue shirt and dark blue bow tie. His smile was as perfect as Ashley's. His dark brown hair was perfectly tamed. It looked soft and touchable from a distant. His face was wonderfully sculpted. I couldn't see his body under his suit, but I could tell it was taunt and perfect.
Ashley grabbed my hand. "Come on, you can talk to him now."
I quickly retracted my hand from her grip. "No, no. That's okay." Ashley looked confused, so I had to clarify things. "Your parents need to tell you two something, so I'll wait here until that's done." I lied.
For some reason I was nervous to talk to Ashton. He was more attractive than I remembered and my ego couldn't handle that at that moment.
"Alright." Ashley smiled. "Go mingle."
She headed to her parents and younger brother.
I turned around to see a waiter right behind me. On his tray were glasses of champagne. He continued walking by and I chased after him. I grabbed a glass off the tray and began to drink the bubbly alcohol.
This is when Mr. Covington took to the stage at the far side of the ballroom. He greeted his guests and wished them all a happy holidays. I could see Mrs. Covington, Ashton, and Ashley standing behind him. Ashley's eyes were widened and her smile was gone. Whatever this announcement was, it wasn't anything good. Ashton also had a sad expression. Mrs. Covington looked as though she already knew the information before her husband told their children. I placed the empty champagne glass on a waiter's tray and picked up another glass. The speech continued.
"I sadly have some bad news this holiday season." Mr. Covington glanced back at his family and smiled at them. He then continued to address the crowd with a serious expression. "I must sadly inform the public that I have cancer."
I about choked on my champagne. My thoughts jumped to the question of 'why?!' Everything seemed to be falling apart. If only I knew that it would just get worse from there.
Mr. Covington continued by saying that it was fatal. The doctors were giving him one to two years maximum.
I then saw Ashley. She wasn't crying, but I knew she wanted to. Ashley would keep a straight face in the crowd of people, but then go cry in her pillow that night. She was, like me, the type of person who preferred to grief on their own at first, but then she differed from be by the fact that she would then turn to a loved one after a good day of self pity.
The party resumed. The spirit of the whole room was down, but a little bit of live music helped bring it back up. Either that or everyone just drank a little more. I avoided Ashley for the rest of the night. I suddenly felt guilty about lying to her in the light of this new information. I decided it would probably be best if I just left the party all together. While still a little tipsy, I slumped into the hall towards my room. I thought I heard a noise behind me, so I swung around this is when I collided with what seemed like a wall.
I realized quickly it was a man. At my eye level was his neck which was covered almost completely by a collar of a black suit jacket, a light blue dress shirt, and a dark blue bow tie. I looked up to meet his blue eyes. The hard stomach I had run into was Ashton Covington's. Ashton was built like his father, very tall and broad. His blue eyes continued to pierce through my soul. My mouth was hung open as we continued to stare at each other. My gaze moved down his face to look at his perfect, sensual lips, then continued down to his carved jaw line. My eyes snapped back up when I saw his lips open to show white teeth forming a gorgeous smile.
"Claire." His voice was warm as it was close to my face.
I frantically stepped back and snapped into reality. I smiled back at him. "Hey, Ashton. I haven't seen you in...a while. How's America?" I asked. My voice slurred the words together in a clumpy sentence. I suddenly realized I might've been sticker than I realized.
"I can tell you about all that later." I noticed that he had done the same as I. He looked across every feature of my face, except his gaze also traveled further down. The female body was more pleasuring to look at especially when I was wearing a deep V-neck that left little to the imagination. Not sure what to do next, I took a step back.
"I was just heading to my room. I am tired." I took another step back and nearly tripped over my own feet.
Ashton lunged forward slightly as this happened and then slowly stood up straight again when he saw that I had caught myself.
He smiled. "You know, why don't I help you there. I think you might have had one too many."
Ashton stepped forward and put his arm on the small of my back. His closeness was comforting and warm. I felt my body flare up with an internal heat.
"I might have had a few." I replied as we started to walk back to my room.
Similar to my castle in Udonia, the Hikaru castle was also very big. By the time we finally made it to my room, my fatigue had increased by at least 75%.
Ashton leaned forward and opened the door to my room. He helped me over to my queen sized bed. I kicked off my shoes was we walked towards it. I sat down in the bed quickly realized he was standing over me, very close. I sudden feeling of pleasure traveled through me.
It's just the alcohol. I told myself.
Trying to ignore he feeling, I swung my legs onto my bed. Ashton moved the sheet over me, then headed for the door.
"Wait!" I shouted after him.
He turned back to me. "What?" He asked in a deep whisper.
"Tell me about America. How was New York?" I asked.
"I can tell you about that when you aren't drunk." He said.
"I'm not that drunk." I tried to ensure him although my words were still slurring. "Just come tell me." I shuffled over to the center of my bed and hit the side of it to indicate for Ashton to join me.
He cautiously approached my bed and sat on the side. His eyes met mine and then he smiled. His shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Alright, well. What do you want to know?" He asked.
"Everything." I replied and threw my arms up, smacking the head board in the process. "Oh!" I shouted with a sudden realization. "Tell me how many hot American girls you smashed." I smirked at an attempt to be sexy or flirt.
He smiled a goofy grin and I could tell he was trying not to laugh. "None, actually."
"No." I put on a shocked expression. "You're lying."
"I'm not." He blushed slightly.
"Why not? You could have had any girl you wanted I'm sure." I smirked again.
"Well, maybe I'm just waiting for the right girl." His eyes met mine again.
Ignoring the moment again, I asked him about his studies. He began to talk about his riveting business studies and I fell asleep listening to his voice.