34.

34.
I waited with bated breath for Noah to open his eyes, while Liam sprinkled some more water over his face.
Nothing happened.
“Ugh! You guys are as slow as snails,” Caleb came forward, taking the glass of water from Liam’s hands. “I will show you how it’s done.” And, without any warning, he poured the whole glass over Noah’s face.
I gasped, jumping up from my position on the sofa, while Noah actually opened his eyes, sitting up straight, wheezing and spluttering water everywhere.
Liam was quick to be at Noah’s side, offering him a handkerchief and patting his back while I smacked the back of Caleb’s head. “You are a big gummy! Are you trying to kill him?”
“Hey! It worked!” he defended, giving me a sheepish smile.
“What the-” Noah glanced around in confusion. “What happened? Where is the party?”
About that…
While Noah had been kissing me, and I had been standing still as a statue, the spotlight had fallen upon us. In short, we were exposed. Before I could respond to Noah’s kiss, I was being pulled away from him by a hand on my shoulder.
It was Liam, with an urgent expression on his face. “Come on, Chloe. You need to get out of here. It’s not safe anymore.”
“What- what is happening?” I had asked in confusion, looking around at everyone who were now whispering and pointing at us.
“I don’t have time to explain.” Liam had replied, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go.”
But, before he could drag me forward, I was being pulled backwards by another hand. Noah.
Noah started throwing a big childish tantrum about how no one let us kiss in peace, then, he randomly started muttering about how he had to abandon his true mate, the fork, on the table because of me. And, by the time he started singing his horrible medley of nursery rhymes, the embarrassment became too real to ignore, and everyone was giving him a horrified look, which clearly spelled; ‘our future king is a nutcase.’
In the end, Liam and I were left with no other option but to kidnap Noah and bring him along with us. On the way to this deserted cabin (which Liam proclaimed was a top secret location), Noah had passed out in the car and now here we were…
“So…let me get this straight,” Noah started, “you guys kidnapped me right under the nose of the queen and the press and that too on the day of my introductory party…?”
“When you put it like that…” Liam trailed off, “…it sounds like we are professional kidnappers.”
“Um, I mean, it was not that difficult to kidnap you, given your state.” I replied, unsurely. “Like, your mother was not around, and those who did see us didn’t actually believe that you are their future prince. I would say, they were a bit relieved that we were taking you away.”
Noah gasped dramatically. “I take offence to that.”
I rolled my eyes. “And, I speak nothing but the truth. Who even gets drugged at their own introduction party?”
“Well, that would be me,” Noah replied cheekily, lying back down on the couch. “Originally, the plan was to disappear, you know, to run away…but, then, Zain appeared as my knight in shining armor.”
Caleb, Liam and I gaped at him.
“I thought, that instead of running away, it would be better to embarrass the queen a little,” he continued. “Please tell me that the press filmed everything.”
“Yeah, the only thing that the press filmed is you snogging Chloe, on the dance floor.” Liam told him, making my cheeks burn.
Noah sat up straight, flashing me a smirk. “That was pretty cool, huh?”
Um…what…?
“Ew, keep dreaming. It was pretty gross.” Caleb scrunched up his nose.
No, it was pretty hot…
“How would you know that, Caleb?” Noah asked. “You are not the one I kissed.”
Caleb immediately went into defensive mode. “Yeah, but, I-”
“If you think it was gross,” Noah interjected, “we can change that. Come here, I will show you my amazing kissing skills first hand.”
Caleb’s face paled on spot and it looked like he was going to throw up whatever food he had stuffed at the party. He ran out of the room faster than you could react to Noah’s statement and say ‘what?’ while Noah and Liam burst out laughing so hard that by the end of it, tears started forming in their eyes.
Liam excused himself to the washroom and I gave Noah a deadpan look, because he was still laughing.
“You are overdoing it,” I told him. “Also, don’t be too smug about your ‘amazing kissing skills,’ you were drugged when you did that.”
This made Noah sober up, and he glanced at me for a moment. “Now that I think about it, you are right. The first kiss of my life and it’s still incomplete!”
That made me freeze. “Y-you remember?”
“Of course, I remember! You didn’t kiss me back!” he pouted.
I tugged a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Um…yeah. I- I was a-about to-”
I was cut off with a sharp tug on my arm. Noah had pulled me down to sit in front of him on the couch, and was now gazing intently in my eyes.
“Chloe, can I ask you something?” he asked, looking deep into my eyes, making my heart leap to my throat.
I gulped, nodding. What could he possibly want to ask? What if he asked whether I loved him or not? I mean, I was not ready to say-
“Where is my true mate, the fork?”
I blinked once, twice, trying to process what he just said. When his words finally registered in my slow brain, my jaw dropped.
“Noah, you annoying SOB!” I seethed, getting up and tossing all the nearby pillows at his stupid, annoying head. He had the nerve to laugh.
“I am sorry! I was kidding, okay?” he wheezed between his laughter, trying to dodge my pillow attack.
“No! Go to hell. Go and kiss your ‘true mate, the fork’ next time!” I snarled, picking up a fallen pillow and throwing it at him.
He abruptly went quiet, making me halt too. I looked at him in confusion, trying to decipher what happened all of a sudden.
“What? What is it?” I asked, worriedly.
He gave me a thoughtful look. “Well, technically, I do kiss the fork every day. It does touch my lips and goes in my mouth during breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
This time my mouth fell so wide open that I am sure it could have engulfed the whole galaxy.
“NOAH! YOU ARE A DEAD SOB!” I yelled, with all the energy I could muster and charged at him with my…bare fist. His eyes widened and he jumped up from the couch.
But, my moment of revenge and victory was interrupted by Noah’s phone ringing. Relief washed over his features and he quickly and gratefully received the call, making me grit my teeth in annoyance.
I took deep breaths to calm myself down, while Noah strolled away to somewhere to talk on the phone. As if on a cue, Caleb came sauntering in.
“Where is your man child?” Caleb asked, glancing around the room.
“What?” I asked, dumbfounded.
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Your man, who acts like a child.”
I closed my eyes in exasperation. “Noah is not my man. And, you are a child too, Cal. So, that makes both you…men children.”
“I mean, I am allowed to be a kid,” Caleb flopped down on the couch, peeling off the top of the ice cream cup he had brought along. “But damn that man doesn’t even show a single sign that he is going to be a king one day.”
“Yeah, that’s Noah for you,” I replied, flopping down next to him.
“Do you know when Soph and Mia are going to arrive here?” I asked, after a while.
“Yeah, Soph told me that they would be here in about an hour.”
“And, when did she tell you that?” I asked again.
“Um,” he glanced at his watch, “about two and a half hours ago.”
My eyes widened and I glanced at cal, to find that he was coming to a realization of his own.
I quickly got up from my seat. “Caleb, what else did Soph say?”
“She said that Mia was having a breakdown…something about Liam and Anna and…nothing else.”
I clutched my head. “Oh my God, they should have been here by now. And, what is this I am hearing about a breakdown? Try their phone again!”
“It’s no use,” Noah interrupted us, his face grave. “Will just called. The queen has locked them up upon charges of assisting in kidnapping me.”



A/N: Wow, I have no idea what I am writing anymore, but, since I am trying to update daily, I try to push through the block and write whatever comes to me. Anyway, I hope you all are liking this. And, yeah, I am taking tomorrow off from updating because my mom wants me to (is forcing me to) go shopping with her. Pray for my poor feet, I hate roaming around in malls all day long and then, end up tired when I come back home. Only bonus point is that I get to eat junk food, so…