49

49.
“Are you kidding me right now?! Another party?” I exclaimed horrifically.
Noah simply sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “They have parties every other day here.”
“Uh, technically, it’s not a party, Noah…” Anna offered tentatively, “it’s your coronation ceremony…”
“What?!” I exclaimed in horror for the second time, and widened my eyes at Noah. “Why the hell would you not tell me?”
He averted his gaze. “It’s not a big deal. Just another party, another day for me.”
“The crown is no big deal to you?!” I asked him, disbelievingly.
“You know it, Chloe,” he said pointedly, meeting my eyes. “Let’s close this topic. When the time of crowning comes, I will get ready, go to the queen, and do whatever I am supposed to do.”
“Oh, come on, show a bit of enthusiasm,” Quinn, who was also present in the room with Noah, Anna and me, said. “After all, I am organizing this ceremony.”
Noah’s head whipped towards Quinn. “What do you mean?”
Quinn smirked. “Oh, the usual, our mother tried to make it up to me by giving me in charge of this ceremony. But, she has no idea what she has gotten herself into.”
“Quinn…” Anna started cautiously, “are you planning to-”
Quinn rolled her eyes, before Anna could finish her sentence. “No, I am not planning the queen’s assassination. Charlie is already doing that, remember?”
“And, you are so chill about that?” I asked, not being able to comprehend what these siblings were up to.
Quinn simply shrugged. “Oh, she deserves it.” Noah shrugged after her, too.
Before I could scream at them to come to their senses, Anna placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Relax,” Anna said gently, “they are just being bitter about our mother. They will not actually let anything happen to her…” Anna’s voice trailed off towards the end when she noticed the serious expression on Noah and Quinn’s faces. “…or will they?”
“I don’t really care about her, to be honest,” Noah declared flatly and excused himself.
Quinn sighed. “Let’s not talk about her and ruin our moods. Come to this party, I have so many fun things planned,” she said with a wink and walked away.
I sat there, gaping after them. How were they so cool about everything? Something was very wrong here…
***
“Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are ready for a night filled of fun, food, crowning, food, dance, food, romance and food.”
On hearing the familiar voice, my head whipped towards the stage so fast that I was sure that the people standing near to me in the banquet line, had experienced a whiplash.
“Caleb is hosting this event?!” I asked in shock, to no one in particular.
“Oh yeah, I guessed it as soon as I heard ‘food’ more than once.” Soph, whose back was facing me, said as she loaded her plate with some Chinese dish.
“Soph, please stop rolling your eyes at the food.”
Both, soph and I jumped when Caleb’s voice echoed through the whole place.
“Damn it, Caleb,” Soph gritted her teeth, “can you please focus on your job rather than the food here?”
I was pretty sure that Caleb couldn’t hear her. He had already moved on to describing something with the help of food imagery, to the people gathered.
“He makes such a fabulous host!” Quinn walked up to us, smiling broadly, “look at how people can’t stop laughing and admiring him. Oh man, I knew I made the right decision.”
“Are you sure about that?” Mia asked, pointing towards the stage.
Brent, the pizza guy was delivering pizza to Caleb…on stage…and everyone seemed to find this funny.
“See?” Quinn pointed towards the people laughing at Caleb’s actions, “I am sure, Caleb is the ultimate entertainer.”
“Everything else is fine,” I said, “but have you guys seen Noah?”
I hadn’t seen him after he had walked out of the room yesterday, and I was starting to get worried that he had pulled a Noah again…that is, disappeared from his own coronation.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Quinn waved her hands, “he won’t be running away this time. He might be getting ready or something.”
As if on a cue, Noah appeared alongside Will, both of them looking like…princes. I couldn’t find any other word to describe them. and, sue me for my lack of knowledge but I didn’t even know the name of the formal attires they were wearing, or could it be that words were failing me after…seeing Noah like that? All I knew was that both of them looked incredibly charming and they were going to break hearts tonight.
“Oh, my heart,” a sickening sweet voice brought me out of my reverie. “Noah baby looks so dashing. And, look at Will! Gosh! I wish I can have them both tonight.”
I almost blanched at Alice’s words and Soph almost dropped her plate. What the heck was Alice still doing here?
“Help me God, I am about to throw up the contents of my empty stomach.” Soph muttered loudly, for Alice to hear.
For a change, Alice was wearing a shimmering yellow gown rather than her usual pink ones. She had the nerve to shoot Soph a dirty look.
“I didn’t know that peasants were invited to this coronation too,” Alice said, making a disgusted face at Soph, Mia and I.
Did she just-
“Call me ‘peasant’, one more time, I dare you,” Soph fumed, tightening the clutches of her fingers on her plate. Only Will had the permission to call her peasant, no doubt. I could see it- that plate (along with its contents), in Soph’s hands was going to be tossed at Alice’s face within fifteen seconds.
That’s why I had to step in.
“And, I didn’t know that criminals were invited to this coronation,” I shot at Alice, while at the same time, I made sure to take the plate from Soph’s hands, just to be on the safe side.
Alice’s face looked like it was about to explode. But, before she could say anything, nosh and Will had reached us.
“Hi, peasant,” Will grinned at Sophia and hugged her. Soph giggled. Giggled.
I had to blink twice, thrice to make sure that I was not dreaming. Will? Grinning? Hugging? And Soph? Giggling? The world was coming to an end, for sure…
“Next I know, they will be indulging in PDA- holding hands, making out and blah blah,” Noah said beside me.
Soph and Will ignored us, or should I say that they were so lost in looking into each others’ eyes that they didn’t even realize that they were surrounded by people.
“So let the games begin!”
Caleb’s loud cheer brought our attentions towards the stage.
“I would like to call a few from among you all on the stage for our first round. We have made pairs, so, please come and take your position here on the stage accordingly. First one up is Mia and Liam!”
Oh crap…
“…second is Anna and Tristan.”
Double crap…
“Whoever made these pairs is up to something,” I muttered. Quinn winked in my direction, letting me know who was after this mismatch.
“Then, there’s our power couple Noah and Chloe! And, also, Will and…” Caleb paused dramatically here.
Seeing that she had lost her chance with Noah, Alice grabbed Will’s bicep. Oh, the nerve!
“Will and Sophia!” Caleb finally finished, causing Alice to scowl and Sophia to smirk.
“I would like to request the rest of you to split up in pairs too, and participate in the fun events that are about to follow,” Caleb continued, “Our first round consists of paper dance! So, to all the people assembled tonight, let’s begin!”
All my friends started taking their positions. I turned around to look at Noah, but…he was nowhere in sight.
“Aw, poor Chloe,” Alice mocked in an annoyingly high pitched voice. “Did Noah already abandon you?” then, she cackled like a witch.
I chose not to reply. Instead, I turned my attention to my friends, swallowing the lump forming in my throat.
Where did Noah go?
My attention was caught by Anna, who was gazing at Liam longingly while her arms were around Tristan; by Liam, who was trying his best to avoid eye contact with both Anna and Mia, while he wrapped his hand around Mia’s waist; by Mia, who looked like she was trying her best not to squirm and lastly by Tristan, who looked utterly amused by the whole situation and was trying his best not to start rolling on the floor, laughing.
Wow, Tristan was so me. I decided that I liked him already.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to come face to face with…Charlie. Ew.
“I see you are alone, care to join me?” Charlie extended his hand towards me with a sneer.
My eyes zeroed in on the cup of steaming hot tea in someone’s hand. Without thinking, I snatched that cup and poured it over Charlie’s extended, before he could register anything.
And before he could let out an ear splitting scream, I stuffed a rolled up tissue in his mouth, and walked off throwing an “enjoy!” in his direction.
“That’s the tea, sis,” Caleb grinned, appearing in front of me. He pulled me into a hug, and started wiping fake tears from his eyes. “I am so proud of you, Chloe. You are getting so good at ticking off these villains. You are a true queen.”
I rolled my eyes at his theatrics and pulled away to look at him. “What is Charlie still doing here? I don’t understand…shouldn’t he be in jail?”
Caleb sighed. “Of course, who do you think is still sheltering him?”
The queen…
“Oh God, what is her problem?” I couldn’t help seething. “Why the hell can she not-”
I was cut off by a tap on my shoulder, again. I turned around and was ready to slap Charlie across the face, this time. But, to my relief and surprise, it was Noah.
He grabbed my hand. “Come, we can still compete. They are about to start.”
Oh, you are the one to say, I wanted to reply but kept my words to myself.
I let him pull me to the dance floor. After we had taken our spot, and the music started, I shot my question at him.
“Where were you?”
He didn’t reply, as expected. Instead, he pulled me closer and leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on my lips. My knees almost gave up. It took me a few moments to even out my breathing.
The music changed and our papers were folded in half, meaning I was standing even closer to Noah. And, going by the way he was staring intensely in my eyes, he had every plan to…distract me.
“Noah, don’t dodge my question,” I said quietly, “where were you?” and why are you behaving so strangely?
“Let’s not focus on that,” he breathed in my ear, making me shiver. “Can we instead talk about how beautiful and mesmerizing you look tonight? I had never thought that the girl who texted me at a creepy hour of night, would one day come to mean so much to me. You know what I thought when I first got your text?”
“W-what?”
“I thought that you were some girl, who was looking for fun, and who had obtained my number somehow from the school records. And, man, I had every plan of having fun with you.”
My eyes went wide with mortification. “What do you mean?”
Noah chuckled, as of sensing my thoughts. “I mean, fun as in scaring you away, teaching you a lesson to never text someone at a creepy hour again, to flirt with you then, roast you, to piss you off with werewolf and mate jokes, to take digs at you…to be a royal pain in the texts…you know, the usual.” He finished with a wink.
I tried to glare at him, but, my lips betrayed me and stretched in a smile. “So, what changed?”
The music came to an end, and our papers were folded again. Now, we had discarded our footwears now, and I was standing on top of Noah’s feet. We were so close that our breaths were mingling now.
“What changed is that,” Noah began, “you are not the type of girl I could have fun with.”
I made a face at him.
“You are the type of girl that I could only fall in love with,” he almost whispered, “the fun followed,” he grinned.
I think my heart just skipped a beat, and I think Noah totally felt it because of our proximity…
“Those mate jokes backfired on me,” Noah continued, totally aware of the effect his words were having on me, “because, those jokes transformed into reality. Though, the werewolf part is still debatable.”
I couldn’t help the loud chuckle that escaped my throat. Everyone turned to look at us, while the music changed again. The papers were folded again, and this time, Noah had to lift me up bridal style so that we were within the range of the paper. I was so lost in the moment, so lost in…Noah, that I didn’t even turn my eyes to look at who had been disqualified up till now.
“I love you, Chloe awesome Scott,” Noah leaned down to whisper in my ear, while his intense gaze rendered me defenseless against all his charms.
I tightened my hold around his neck, and forced my voice to remain steady when I said my next words. “I love you too, you annoying SOB.” I had to hide my face in his shirt after uttering those words, because I couldn’t bear to face that charismatic smile on his lips without kissing him.
“You are not crying, are you?” I heard Noah’s amused voice. “Because this is not the shirt you can wipe your snot on.”
Oh God.
I smacked him in the arm, when the music came to a final stop and he gently placed me back on the floor. “Don’t think that you have been successful in distracting me. Where were you before the dance?”
Noah sighed, and then smiled. “Of course, you are not letting this go.”
“You wouldn’t too if you were in my place. Now, tell me.”
“I…” he looked over my head, his expression changing. “I was setting some things right…for a better future of this nation, for the people living here, the people living in palace, for my siblings, for your friends and for you.”
What did this mean…?
“Noah,” I started cautiously, “Where are you, in this future and where are the both of us? Why not our future? Why only my future?”
Noah kept his eyes on whatever was behind me, and something twisted in my gut. Suddenly, my ears stopped registering all the noise and commotion around me, and my vision started turning blurry. My heart started aching, so bad that I thought it might burst out of my chest.
“They will never let us have a future. There’s place for only one of us in this, and I have made my choice.” were Noah’s last words before he leaped into action, turned me around and shoved me the ground.
And, that’s when I heard the gunshot.
A/N: This chapter is unedited (actually all of them are lmao) so pardon my mistakes. Uh…I probably shouldn’t say anything about the chapter except that did you notice that this was LONG one? I wrote it over the course of three to four days, during which I procrastinated, a lot. I had back to back five presentations this week and man, my anxiety chose all the wrong timings to make an appearance. Like, I was going so smoothly one minute, then, the next I am all, “um” and “uh” and stumbling upon my words. I hate public speaking. FML.