21

21.

I took a moment to consider if I was embarrassing myself or Noah. Everyone was looking at me like I had asked for both of their kidneys.
But, then, I realized, what the heck? Noah had done the same thing with me and Zain, and he had done it with confidence, then, why couldn’t I do it?!
Yup, I had to do whatever I had to do.
The silence was broken by heavy footsteps of the one and only Will, the asshat.
If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under long ago. But, even princes had only so much power.
“Who invited you and your maniac friends?” Will finally roared.
I didn’t even need to open my mouth to answer. Sophia appeared behind him, tapping on his shoulder. Will turned around and was shoved backwards when Sophia stuck the invitation card to his face.
“See this, asshat,” Sophia smirked, “this is a premium invitation which allows entry for ten people. Be grateful Chloe brought only three of us.”
Will glared at Sophia, then, at the invitation card, then, turned to direct the same glare at Noah.
Oh, yeah, Noah…
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
But, since when did anything faze Noah, the real prince charming?
I cleared my throat and turned to him. “Hi,” was all that came out of my mouth.
I mentally face palmed. Really? Hi? Ugh!
Noah was looking at me, but, it looked like his mind was somewhere else, or that he couldn’t believe that he was looking at me. Or maybe, he couldn’t believe that I just greeted him with a ‘hi’ after my solid entry a few minutes ago.
“Um, excuse me?”
I turned around to see the pink glittery gown girl, frowning at me.
And, here it begins…
“Noah is committed,” she started, “I don’t know who you think you are-”
“His mate,” I cut her off with a tight smile, “or the better term is soul mate.”
She nodded, “I get it. You are one of his fangirls-”
“No, I am not his fangirl,” I interjected, “I am his girl, his soul mate.”
Wow…what was I doing?
“You are delusional,” the girl laughed, “Noah is going to marry me in a few years, sweetie.”
No, it didn’t come as a surprise at all; I had come prepared for this.
I beamed at her, “First of all, don’t call me sweetie. Secondly, tell me this, did he ever say he Will marry you?”
This made her halt and think for a second. I could hear Noah inhaling a sharp breath behind me.
“Uhm,” she winced, “he didn’t…”
“That’s what I thought,” I replied. I cast a thankful look in Sophia’s direction. Before coming here, my friends and I did a teensy tiny bit of research on the royal family, their lifestyle and that queen who ruled with an iron fist.
I was still in denial about the Noah and the prince part, because truth be told, I could only believe it when I hear it from Noah’s mouth. But, still, some facts about this missing prince were useful after all. Like his betrothal.
“But, we are committed to be married,” the girl insisted, “since we were five years old.”
“Geez, girl, I didn’t even know what marriage meant when I was five,” Sophia commented.
“Shut up!” Will glowered at her, then, at me.
Both of us ignored him.
“But, the bottom line is did Noah ever say he wants to marry you? Or he loves you? Or even likes you?” I asked her again.
This time she turned to face Noah, “No, he didn’t. But, he Will now. Noah, tell them.”
Noah took another deep breath, and ran a hand through his hair, averting his face.
“Tell her the truth, Noah,” I prodded gently, “I am not saying that you have to like me, but, you don’t have to feel the pressure of liking anyone else too.”
Noah’s eyes snapped towards me and for the second time of the day, he looked like he couldn’t believe what he was listening, that, someone even said that to him…
There were two possibilities at this point. Either I had misjudged Noah and was going too far, in which case, I was embarrassing myself big time. Another possibility was, I was saying the truth, something that no one had ever dared to tell him, or something he thought he would never hear.
Either way, I was too far gone to care. I needed answers, I needed to get myself out of the mess I had fallen into by developing feelings for Noah and maybe, just maybe, I needed to help Noah in getting out of a colossal mess too.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Will walked up to us, to me specifically, “you need to get out of here and stop confusing Noah and everyone.”
I met his eyes, “But, why are you confused, if you all are so confident about everything?”
“That’s because, you are right,” Noah’s quiet voice traveled to us.
Everyone turned to him with widened eyes. I held my breath, waiting for him to continue.
“I don’t think I have ever had any say in any decision about my life,” he stated, then, turned to the girl in pink gown, “Chloe is right, Alice. I don’t love you. I don’t see myself marrying you in a few years. Even, I didn’t know what marriage meant when my mother engaged both of us,” his eyebrows knitted into a grim expression, “all I remember from that time is, that she told me to keep quiet and nod in response to whatever question I was asked in front of everyone. In fact, it’s been like that for as long as I can remember.”
“Noah, stop it,” Will, finally said.
“Yes,” the girl whose name was Alice shook her head, “you don’t mean it, Noah. I Will show you how much you love me.”
Um…what?
My eyes widened when she started advancing towards Noah with outstretched hands. Noah seemed to have caught on to her intentions too because he ducked at the same time I pulled at his arm to get him out of Alice’s way.
And, what happened next was…unbelievably hilarious.
Since, Alice had closed her eyes, she didn’t even realize what she was doing or to whom she was doing it to. Will, who was earlier standing behind Noah, completely stilled as Alice wrapped her arms around his neck and…kissed him.
My first instinct was to glance at Sophia, who was watching everything with her mouth agape.
But, my attention was soon diverted when I felt a squeeze on my hand. I looked up to see Noah, giving me a slight smile, a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I have to leave now,” he said, in a low voice, “I exposed myself too much today and Liam informed me that the press is going to be here soon.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, “Will you have to leave town?”
“I don’t know yet.”
My heart instantly fell. I wanted to ask him to take me with him; I wanted him to want to talk to me. I wanted to stop him. And, I wanted many things from him. But, the words never came out.
“But, remember,” he said with his trademark grin, melting my heart, “no matter what happens, only Chloe awesome Scott is my soul mate.”
And, with that, he disappeared in the crowd, leaving me there to there to witness the drama that followed with Will, Alice and Sophia.
A/N: I hope you guys liked the chapter. I pushed through my writer’s block to write this and I don’t like the outcome. Anyway, thank you to all of you who nominated my books for the fiction awards 2019! If you feel like my books deserve the nomination, you can nominate them under the ‘Best teen fiction’ category. The rules about the category are a bit confusing because nowadays Wattpad bases the system on tags, but, from what I gathered, one book can be nominated in only one main category.
My books are eligible for ‘Best teen fiction’ and ‘Best overall story.’ Thank you for all your support! I love you all tons! See ya!