“And step two three, waltz two three…” Madame clapped her hands to the waltz beat, watching Caleb and I practice the pas de deux. I had not yet had the time to speak to him. Nor Monday, nor Tuesday. I am hoping today would be different. When I turned up to practice, fifteen minutes early as I usually do, he was not here. He arrived in the nick of time, leaving no room for conversation. He was probably avoiding me, and I was sure that was what he was doing. Our duet felt so robotic, no emotions attached. He dared not look at my face and I felt bad, truly bad.

This was all my fault.

I knew how much he loved his photography and for me to go and insult it like that must have really hurt him. I really needed to apologize.

We danced to the waltz, the other girls surrounding around us in a circle as it came to the group part of the dance. It seems that Madame had always had the dance choreographed, and only needed the dancers. In only two weeks with nonstop lessons, she taught us her choreography. It was lovely.

“Caleb?” I whispered through the dance, preparing to do a dip. As he dipped me, his eyes met with mine.

“What?” he whispered almost nastily, but I shook it off.

“I’m really sorry,” I told with all honestly, my body pulled up again. Our chests were touching, his one arm around my waist. He cast me a sad smile, pushing me into a pirouette.

“It’s in the past,” he responded, placing me down onto my pointes before assisting me into a penché.

“Really? Are you sure?” I replied back as I came up, preparing for a lift. He smiled at me with what I hope was sincerity.

“Absolutely,” he lifted me into the air, which in itself was a frightening thing. I had to place all my trust in him. Throwing me into the sky, he caught me swiftly as I came down and placed me back on my feet. I twirled around his body before coming to a stop right in front of him. I took a hold of his hands, staring straight into his eyes. They say the eyes show the gateway into the soul, but I was not very good at following the path. Eyes could be deceiving.

We finished the dance with unpolished grace, our technique lacking but given time the group could be splendid. Or at least, that was Madame’s hope of us.

After a few more run-throughs of the dance, everyone was dead tired by the time we were finished with the class. Madame has been treating us like slaves to her work of art; her fiction come to life. And my muscles did not like it.

“Let’s go,” Caleb told me at the end, which came as a surprise because I would not have thought that he would want to spent time with me. Nevertheless, I did not complain. The ride to his place showed that it was almost as if nothing had changed. We joked, we laughed, and we had fun. Nothing revealed to me that he was upset, even if I felt like he should be. It was a bit strange.

Inside I was sceptical. It could not have been that easy, could it? But at the same time I really did not care. Caleb was the one for me, so of course we would be able to make up so quickly. We understood each other. He knew I was upset and I knew he was upset and we just went a little too far.

♕♥ ♕♥ ♕

On the way to his house we had stopped at a market where he got a few groceries. I have no idea what he got since he came back with everything in bags but frankly, I was overjoyed. I was so worried that I would lose Caleb. He was the biggest support in my life and I would not be able to bear it without him.

I was rather comfortable on his couch, scrolling through some forums on my phone. He was busy in the kitchen, doing who knows what. I heard a blender and I heard chopping, but if I knew anything about Caleb it was the fact that he could not cook to save his life. It made me slightly concerned. Two years ago, he had set the stove on fire. Is he going to burn the house down this time?

He did not, but instead what he did was something that warmed my heart. He tiptoed over to me and pushed a glass in front of my face. Inside was some sort of pink substance. A few glances between him and the glass took place before I took it into my hands.

“What is it?” I questioned with curiosity, but he responded with nothing with a sly smile.

“Try it,” I was sceptical, but lifted the glass to my lips nonetheless. It wasn’t all that good, but I immediately recognized the taste.

“No way. Did you try to make a rose smoothie?” my jaw was slacked I was so shocked. He shrugged, blushing slightly as he did. In one swift movement, I put down the glass and hugged him around the neck. I could feel his muscles tense up but slowly, he calmed himself and hugged me back. We stood there in each other’s embrace for quite a while, the only sound of our mingled breaths. Unexpectedly, he broke the calm atmosphere by squeezing me tighter.

“I love you,” he whispered into thin air before pulling out of the hug, instead moving to plant his lips on mine. I could taste the rose on his lips, probably from a taste tester. The kiss was a little tense at the beginning, but as we continued it got smoother.

And from there on, it became rough.

I began to panic.

Even though we have been together for years, he knew I was uncomfortable with being… sexual. I was still seventeen and I did not want to have to force myself. I wanted it to be natural and with Caleb, but when I felt ready.

Gently, I pushed at his chest until he got the memo. Embarrassed, he pulled away and buried his face into my neck.

“I’m sorry,” I shook my head and hugged him again. So many emotions were swirling in my mind, but in reality everything happened only seconds from each other.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him, my voice croaking a little.

♕♥ ♕♥ ♕

“This is a bad idea, like… a really bad idea,” Cornelius told his brother and Andrew, concern evident on his face. Previously he had thought that the idea was good, genius even! But now? The ends did not exactly outweigh the means and if they were caught? Cornelius was absolutely terrified of his mother, and for good reason.

“Come on! You cannot back out now! We’ve come too far,” Bartholomew hissed at his twin, trying to keep his voice low as to not draw any attention. What they were doing wasn’t necessarily… legal. Practical jokes weren’t going to work on their parents, so their plan involved something big. Something which the eldest twin did not want to be a part of now.

“This is crazy. You’ve gone ballistic,” Cornelius kept shaking his head, dreading ever having anything to do with the plan. He moved away from the fence, not wanting to even be close to the scene of the crime. Andrew was there, crouched low as he used a large wire cutter to make an opening through the fence. “The both of you!” Cornelius hissed. Annoyed, Bartholomew stood up from his crouched position and walked to his twin, firmly planting his hands on his brother’s shoulders.

“Listen. We cannot do it without you. We need the manpower to carry the load,” he spoke sternly, trying to convince his brother to change the mind. If anything, it made him change his mind even more.

“You’re bloody mad!” Cornelius shouted at his brother before slapping away his hands. Turning, he quickly made a quick getaway and ran from the scene, leaving his brother and friend to debate amongst themselves.

“What do we do?” Andrew questioned the remaining prince, but he only got a grunt in reply.

“We can’t stop now,” nodding, Andrew continued to cut until they could both crawl through the hole and bring the load with them. Sneakily, they made their way around the base, moving where they knew the blind spots were. The only reason they knew where the blind spots were was because of the fact that Bartholomew had been here before, dragged around by his father to gain experience in these types of matters. Because of this, he had gotten to see the security room and knew where the cameras were pointed at.

Or at least, he thought he did.

The nightshift security guard was also a little old for his job, so the boys were depending on him sleeping. Either way, it best if they hurried up.

They were clothed in black hoodies and masks to keep their identities hidden. After what they’re about to pull, if they were caught then they would be lucky if they could walk away with their lives. The wrath of the King was not something to mess with.

“I found the target,” Andrew announced, pointing towards it as they crouched low through the hanger.

“Perfect,” they quickly headed over and got to work. They took the spray cans from their bags and began to graffiti that which was once regarded as an art work. According to Bartholomew, this was going to be an improvement.

It took them ten minutes before they were satisfied with their mural and quickly left without a second though. As quick as they were in, they were out. Their little figures assisted in being as sly as they were and they thought they were absolutely scot-free.

How wrong they were.

♕♥ ♕♥ ♕

Sarina was at the gym in her leotard, her eyes trained on her phone as she scrolled through the interesting news of the day. The headline was everywhere, not a single person in the United Kingdom was unaware of what had happened late last night. It was that shocking, and some took it further than what it truly was. The headline read:

King Vincent’s Private Jet Vandalised

And it was a serious issue, because it meant that someone had managed to break into the hanger and still have time to plant blasphemies on the jet without getting caught. Because of this, the media took it up on other matters that might come from the situation:

Security Guard: To Fire or Not To Fire?

Potential Terrorists

Motive: Shaming of the King?

Analysis of Vandalism

Which, in itself, was the funniest thing Sarina had ever seen. That which was vandalised onto the jet, wasn’t just any random thing but instead they were untold secrets and opinions of the King. Some of the vandalism read: ‘admits tax faults’, ‘says tattoos/piercings/coloured hair is taboo’, ‘believes in Darwinism’, ‘victim to own wife’, ‘dictator to his family’, ‘admits slipups’ and many more which made Sarina chuckle. Someone of those might be true, some might not but according to the media, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Therefore, naturally, a large press conference was going to be held to get the truth from the crowned man himself.

Hopefully everything was false, because otherwise the King might just loose his respect with the people and that might be more troubling than anything else.

“Sarina!” Molly called, rushing over to her friend as she put away her phone. “I bring news!” Sarina sighed at her friend.

“If it’s about the jet, then I’m sorry to tell you but I’m pretty sure half of the world knows by now,” she retorted, whipping her hair into a very messy ponytail. She was not in the mood to struggle with her locks today.

“No listen! I was working Tuesday and I saw this couple come in and the guy looked familiar but I don’t know from where but then I just remembered when I scrolled through my photos and saw that other one I took! Like, oh my gosh,” Molly was frantic, clearly something disturbed her. That or she was excited, it was hard to tell with her. Sarina placed her hands firmly on Molly’s shoulders, trying to get her to calm down.

“Molly! What guy?” Molly took a few deep breaths before answering.

“The guy, right? It’s the same one your ballerina was with!” Sarina frowned at the revelation.

“Alice’s boyfriend? What about him?” if Molly could just be straightforward, that would be wonderful.

“He was with another girl. Oh my gosh! This could be your chance to swoop in!” Molly was excited, seeing that Sarina could intervene now but said girl took it up another way. She could see how much Alice liked that boy, after all she was so devastated when he just left her. If he truly and honestly was cheating on her, then this could be bad. She would be devastated.

“Who was the girl?” she pressed, wanting to get as much information out of her friend as possible. Molly frowned and shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know, I don’t look at girls like you do. I think she was Chinese? Something like that. Anyway, you can be your ballerina’s knight in shining armour now!” but Molly didn’t understand the severity of this reveal.

Alice is going to break.