Hidden Away

Sixteen: King

A knock on the door of the bedroom woke me up. I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes, frowning when I noticed that Rowan's bed was left messy and empty.

The knock echoed throught the room again making me rush out the bed and over to the door. I smoothed my shirt out and quickly fixed my hair before opening the door.

I had to jump back to avoid being trampled by two young ladies that walked into the room. My eyebrows creased as I followed them with my eyes. One had a large bag in her hand and the other carried a box. They placed them on the bed and turned to face me, connecting their hands together in front of them.

I went to close the door, but noticed Andrew standing in the doorway. "I'm guessing this is your doing," I addressed him, smiling. "What's all this for?"

"You're my date for today. Remember?" He said, making my smile drop.

Now what am I supposed to do? I asked Taryn. I can't turn him down now.

So don't. I inwardly rolled my eyes at her. Easy for her to say. She wasn't the one who had to deal with this. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, she was right. There was no way I could turn him down now.

"Right," I gave him a smile that was somewhat forced. "Date."

"These ladies are my friends. They'll help you get ready." I turned and saw them sming at me. I smiled back before turning back towards Andrew.

"You didn't have to get me the dress. You don't have to get your friends to help me either. I could've done all this myself," I said, making him frown.

"You don't want to go with me, do you?"

"No!" I realized I said that too loud and lowered my voice. "I mean, no. That's not what I said. I want to go with you. It's just that you didn't have to take the extra step. I would've said yes with just a simple invitation."

He nodded. "Yeah, I could've just asked you, but I wanted to give you something." He said. He checked his watch that was placed on his wrist. "I'll leave you to get ready. The ceremony starts in two hours." I nodded. Andrew shot me a smile before leaving and I closed the door behind him.

I turned and one of Andrew's friends gestured for me to sit on the stool in front of the vanity. I did as I was told and the young ladies started working on me.

*

I thought I wasn't going to get through the hair process. As one of the ladies did my hair, her fingers ran through it soothingly, making me sleepy. The other woman did my makeup while the other finished up my hair. It took an incredible amount of concentration to not yawn or sneeze while my makeup was being done.

In the midst of getting ready, Rowan walked in the room for the first time that morning. From the corner of my eye, I saw that he dropped a large bag on the floor next to the door and turned to me. He gave me a wierd look as he glanced from one of the women to the other.

"What's this?" He asked as he walked further into the room.

"Andrew asked these ladies to help me get ready," I explained. "He's my date."

"Have you told mom and dad yet?"

I shook my head. "I haven't seen them since. . ." I trailed off, silently thinking for a moment. "Since we got here." The lady doing my hair finished braiding and grabbed the curling iron she had heating up on the side, starting to curl my hair.

"You should tell them," he said.

"I will when I see them."

He nodded. "I'm going to shower," he said before grabbing the bag and walking into the bathroom that was connected to our room.