Maybe I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew: Book three

The next day (Mel's Pov)

When I wake, I find that the spot next to me is empty. I sit up sleepily, rub my eyes, and get out of bed. I find ben standing at the window talking on the phone. "By old rule, if the lady wears the promise ring then the other suitors have to bow out. Therefore if your son makes another advance then he will have to be dealt the punishment. I know it would declare our countries as enemies but the old rule is word." there's a pause as he listens to the person on the other end. "Yes sir, he has... No sir... Yes exactly. I understand but could you at least remind him of the old rule?" Ben grins widely and then speaks again. "Thank you sir." He then hangs up and notices me staring inquisitively.

 "That was Felix the first, he said that he would remind felix of the old rules. His family follows them to a tee, he also said he would tell queen leah to back off." He explains. "That's great!" I exclaim and jump up to hug him. He catches me and laughs. "Now how about that skip day?" I ask with a smirk. He kisses me deeply and then pulls away. "I can't today, another day." He tells me with a sorry expression. "Alright I'm gonna hold you to that." I tell him and kiss his cheek. "I'll see you at lunch beautiful. Now go get dressed." He says and gestures to his oversized shirt and shorts on me. "Alright see ya love." I reply and then head for my dorm room. "Hey mel how was your date? Faith asks when I walk in. "Wonderful, he took me to so many places and gave me a promise ring." I say holding up my hand. "Look at that bling. Better start planning the wedding." she jokes and I grin. "I already am, mal is my maid of honor, then you, lyssia and trin will be the bridesmaids. And either nate or kurt will be flower boy, and harry, gill or carlos will be ring bearer." I tell her and she laughs.

"Hey mel, you'd tell me if there was anything wrong right?" She asks suddenly. I pull my shirt over my head and then look at her and nod. "Of course faith. Why do you ask?" "Because we know something is up with you and felix, and we know leah is causing it." She says and I turn back to my clothes, internally panicking. I pull a skirt on and start to speak, "Faith, leah has no power over me. If she were trying to pull something with felix then I wouldn't know and certainly wouldn't play along." I assure her, rolling my eyes playfully just to get her to believe it. "I'm believing you blindly, you better be absolutely completely truthful about this." She warns. "If I'm not being truthful you can make me eat mystery sludge." I tell her. "I'll hold you to it and if you're not telling the truth then I'll make you eat the mystery sludge every day for two weeks." She says. 

"Okay so what's up with you and mason? Did you two do anything cute lately?" I ask, changing the subject. "We went to the zoo, and he paid to get us into the enclosure to pet the baby tigers." "That's adorable." I muse and she smiles. There's a knock at the door and I turn to faith. "Your turn." I say and she nods and answers it. "Ooh where's my girl?" Nate's voice questions and I turn to see the group walking in. "So little miss lover girl, what's the sitch?" Kurt questions. I grin and hold up my hand. They gasp and nate snatches my hand in his. "Girl he put a ring on it?" He asks in shock. "An expensive ass ring, he turned straight sugar daddy status on you." Kurt says and I look up at him in confusion. "Sugar daddy is an older guy who splurges on his younger partner." Trin explains helpfully and I blush red. "So are you two engaged? When's the wedding? And am I the maid of honor?" "No, it's a promise ring. We'll get engaged later, so I don't exactly have a wedding date picked out. But no, mal is my maid of honor." I answer and he gasps loudly. "You're gonna let me design the dress for you right?" "Of course nate, but then evie gets to design the bridesmaids gowns or vice versa." "That's fair."

There's another knock at the door and in walks the vks, gil, harry, and travis. "Hey princess, sleep well last night?" Harry questions with a smirk. "Look at the bling, ben gave her." Trin interrupts and holds out my hand. Mal rushes forward, taking my hand and looking it over. "It better not be a wedding ring or an engagement ring." She scolds. "It's a promise ring, a promise that when we're 100% ready we'll get married." I assure her. Harry gives me a look and mouths, 'did you figure things out?' I nod and mouth back, 'Talk about it later.' He nods and waltzes over with gil. "That's a gorgeous ring, I'll have to ask where he got it." Harry muses, taking my hand and pulling it close. Everyone awws and gil blushes and hides in harry's shoulder. "So where did you go for your date?" Evie asks. "He took me to tianna's place, and then the fair. Oh and after the fair we went to the lake." I list and then blush when I mention the lake. 

"Ooh, someone got some." Trin teases with a smirk. "What at the lake?" Jay questions. "Well..." "Well what?" Faith prompts. "We kinda, might have, maybe... Skinny dipped." I say flinching slightly. ""No freaking way!" Lyssia exclaims. "Girl look, she's got a hickey." Trin says tilting my head so that everyone could see the mark. "Oh my god, he's low key a freak." Nate says, giving me a wink. I blush and cover the mark, sticking my tongue out at harry who is smirking and chuckling. "What's skinny dipping?" Evie asks innocently. "M'kay, so you get naked and you "swim" in the lake, a pool, or the ocean. Your choice really." Kurt explains, putting air quotes around swim. "Melrose adeline malora!" Mal exclaims in a scolding tone. "What?!" I ask in a yelp. "Well did you ''swim'' or not?" She asks and I blush and look at the floor. "She totally did, look at her." Faith says with a gasp and I blush even redder. "Please try not to make me an aunt at this young of an age." Mal begs exasperatedly and I feel like I look like a tomato. "Now now mallory, the princess isn't that reckless, and the prince is way to responsible for that to happen." Harry teases and mal glares at him. "Call me mallory again and I'll take your hook and shove it right up-" Jay covers her mouth before she can finish but everyone starts laughing anyway, having an inkling of where that was going. "Enough chatting, we should get to class." Jay tells us and I joke, "Who are you and what have you done with jay? The real jay would never tell us we should get to class." He laughs and flicks my arm.

So nate, faith and I all head to merryweather's class to find felix sitting in nate's seat. "Uhh, I think not, get out of my spot pleb." Nate says. "Melrose is mine, therefore I sit with her." Felix says in a smug tone. "Wrong, she's got a ring on, and it's not from you." He says picking up my hand, before felix can get a look at it I pull my hand out of nate's and start walking to the back table. Faith and nate follow and felix gets up with a sour expression and storms out, shoulder checking ben on the way out. Ben turns back to felix in confusion and then looks around searching for us. When he sees us he smiles and makes his way over. He kisses me on the forehead and sits down across from me. "What happened?" Nate leans in to see ben and replies with "He saw that you wifed her up and threw a baby fit." I shake my head. 

"Also, I heard, and saw that you were a freak." Ben glances at me and then blushes. "Swear that I saw teeth marks too." Nate teases. "I uhh-" Ben stutters. "Be quiet nate, you're over here talking about thing you do with kurt all the time." Faith scolds from beside ben. Nate blushes and grumbles something about disrespect. We get our daily assignment and are left to do it in our little table groups. The phone rings and Mrs. Merryweather answers it, looks over at me and nods. "Alright I'll send her your way." She says and hangs up the phone. "Mel head up to the front office hon, you need to do something." She tells me and I get a bad feeling in my gut. 

"If I'm not back by lunch tell everyone what's going on and then wait for me to text or call." I whisper to ben as I'm gathering my stuff. He nods and gives me a worried look. I walk to the front office and am greeted by queen leah, audrey, my father (with crossed arms and a displeased look on his face), grandpa stefan, and felix the first (with a concerned look on his face, and nervously wringing his hands). "Melrose, I've learned of your promising to ben, however you did not get the permission of the head of your lineage." Leah states. "I did, ben got permission from maleficent malora my older sister and the head of my lineage." I state with my arms crossed. "And the head of your father's family?" She questions smugly. "King stefan gave ben permission, he is the king and therefore he is the head of my father's lineage." I say and give grandpa stefan a pleading look behind leah's back. "Yes ben called me the other night and I gave permission." He answers with a look of realization on his face. Leah gives a murderous glare his way and turns to me. 

"This throws us all off schedule but you and audrey will be on home studies for the rest of your schooling. Not only will it be good for you academically, but being away from those so called friends will give you a better attitude." I start to protest, but then think about what I told ben. I nod and bow my head. "Good, we'll be leaving post haste. Come now audrey, melrose follow me." She instructs. She leads us to a limo and gestures for us to get in. Audrey and I get in and leah closes the door behind us. The window between the driver and us is closed so it's just audrey and I. She turns to me and offers a soft smile. "I know we don't talk much and I was mean to you for quite a while... but I want to tell you that we're in this together. I'll be with you every step." She assures me and I hug her. "Thank you audrey." I reply softly. The car starts to move and we start talking about things we were doing and what was happening before this moment. I tell her about the date, minus the lake and the events that occurred. She tells me she's happy for me and talks about chad, and how dumb he is but how happy she is with him.