The Royals

Chapter 6 A CONFRONTATION

It's been a month since I ran into, and then ran away from, Caspian on campus. Ever since then I have been very cautious to not see him again. Avalon has also been staying at my place, I felt so bad about her having to wear my clothes the whole time I offered to take her back to her place so she could grab whatever she needed. After a few days of me insisting she finally caved, we went when she knew Blake wouldn’t be home because she didn’t want to run into him.

I let her know that she is always welcome at my place, the only difficult thing being her emotions have been all over the place, even more since moving in. We were relaxing in the living room watching netflix enjoying the time that we’ve had without being bothered by our families when Avalons phone started ringing. She turned it off, and threw it to the side and went back to watching the movie. A few minutes passed and then my phone started going off.

“Don’t answer it.” She said,

“It’s probably just my mom.” I laughed.

I grabbed my phone from the kitchen counter, an unknown number displayed on the screen.

“Who is this?” I answered.

“You are… very intriguing Miss Evans.” That smooth deep voice spoke from the other end.

“How the f**k did you get this number?”

“Told you.” Avalon mumbled from the living room.

“Now Miss Evans, a lady should never speak to a man that way.” He breathed.

“You’re an ass.” I spat back.

“Miss Evans if you continue to use that language with me, I'm going to have to punish you.”

“Go f**k yourself!” I hung up on him before he could say anything back.

“You probably shouldn’t have done that.” Avalon laughed as I sat back down next to her.

If only I had taken her seriously.

*********

I didn’t know we had fallen asleep until a noise woke me. It was the soft click of my deadbolt turning. I shot up from the couch and ran to the kitchen, with knife in hand I quickly tiptoed to the front door. All the lights were off so I was able to hide in the dark space next to the door as it opened and a tall dark figure stepped inside. I lunged forward with the knife, the intruder was fast though, but not fast enough. They jumped to the side but the blade still caught them in the arm.

“s**t!” Blake hissed in the dark.

I flipped on the light to see Black standing in my open doorway holding his bloody arm with Caspian lagging behind.

“What the hell are you two doing here? And how did you get a key?”

“I have my ways, Miss Evans.” Caspian pushed past Blake and sauntered into my apartment.

“ I’ll take this,” he grabbed the knife from my hands. “Before you hurt yourself.”

“Where’s Avalon?” It was more of a demand coming from Blake.

“Asleep, and not wanting to see or talk to you at all.”

“Stay out of things you know nothing about. This is between me and my wife.” Blake spat in my face.

“I know exactly what’s going on.” I retorted. “Even about little Miss Daisy tattoo.”

Blake froze and his eyes went wide with shock with my words. A wave of regret, guilt, and self hatred emanated from him as he turned away. I felt sorry for him a little, and there was obviously something more to what happened.

“Hey,” He stopped and looked at me. “ Give her some time and space, she’ll eventually come looking for answers. Pushing for things will only make it worse in the end.”

Blake gave me a weak half smile and followed after Caspian to the living room.

I made my way in behind them and saw Caspian sitting on the couch next to Avalon who was now awake.

“So we have a problem.” Avalon yawned. “My parents want to have dinner to properly meet you.”

My face soured at the thought of sitting through a dinner with Caspian and his parents. I don’t even want to marry him, I barely know him and he already annoys and pisses me off.

“Look, I know how you feel.” Avalon came to stand next to me. “ My marriage was arranged too, there’s no way of getting out of it. My parents are very persistent and they always get their way no matter what. So the best option is to just accept that it's happening. Caspian really isn’t that bad once you get to know him, I know he’s an ass but you should at least give him a chance.”

I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest slightly pouting, because in a sense she was right. Caspian and I really haven’t spent any time together to get to know one another and I know that is my fault.

“Fine.” I sighed in defeat.

Avalon squealed while holding my hands, and from behind her I swear I saw Caspian smile a little.

“Under one condition,” I smirked at Avalon. “ You have to go too.”

********

The Van Doren’s work was quick. Avalon and I woke up this morning and received a text on her phone from Caspian telling us to be ready by 7PM. We spent the whole day getting ready for some reason, by 6:30 we were dressed to the nines. Hair, make up, nails, Avalon wore a dark red knee length pin skirt dress with long sleeves and I wore a silver blue cocktail dress that stopped mid thigh.

“You ready?” I grabbed my keys and headed for the door.

“I think the guys are coming to pick us up.'' She was slipping on a pair of strappy red stilettos that matched her outfit.

“Why would they do that?” I steadied myself against the door as I slipped into my shoes.

“Something to do with showing they’re in control I guess.” She shrugged.

“Even more of a reason to leave now.” I gave Avalon my devious smile and held the door open for her.

We arrived a little past 7PM, and when Mrs. Van Doren came to greet us in the front room she did not look happy.

“Caspian called. Why have you two arrived unescorted?”

Avalon opened her mouth to try to say something but froze and I could feel her shame.

“It’s my fault Mrs. Van Doren.” I spoke. “We were already ready and I insisted we leave early, I wanted to get here early to see if it was possible to have a few minutes alone with you before dinner.”

Mrs. Van Doren eyed me suspiciously, not buying my story completely.

“And why would that be?”

“Well, first off I wanted to apologize about how I acted when we first met. I was just feeling a little overwhelmed. And I also wanted to do something special for Caspian as a surprise since I didn’t quite give a very good impression.”

I watched as Mrs. Van Doren’s face softened. I could tell she was buying it, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she gestured for me to follow her.