~Malia~
"Favorite food?"
"Easy, pizza. You?"
"Eh, its a tossup between dark chocolate or milk chocolate. Favorite color?"
"Blue. Yours?"
"Maroon. Why is your favorite color blue?" he asked me. I didn't necessarily know if I wanted him to know why that was my favorite color, but in the spirit of honesty, I answered him.
"It was the color of my mom's eyes. Anytime I see the color blue I'm reminded of her. Why is maroon your favorite color?" I asked him after spilling one of the secrets that I'd never even told anyone.
"It's the color of the family crest," he said, inching closer to me. I scooted farther down the kitchen island to escape his lust filled eyes, wanting to keep our attention locked on the game instead of why he was so freakishly obsessed with me, or so he made it seem.
"Favorite movie?"
"Dirty Dancing. Favorite song?"
"I will always love you, the Whitney Houston version," he replied and I almost died laughing.
"What?"
"Nothing," I lamented. "It just doesn't seem like the type of song that would be your favorite is all. No judgements here whatsoever, promise!"
He got a very sneaky and inquisitive look in his eye.
"Alright, then what is your favorite song?"
"Ooh, that is really hard. Probably Hurt by Christina Aguilera."
"Wow, that's a pretty emotional song, my little cousin used to sing it at the top of her lungs when she was going through her sad angry teenage phase. Mind me asking why that's your favorite?"
"Yes I do mind. Favorite animal?"
"Oh, now you're just dodging the question," he added, moving closer and closer to me as I kept sliding down the island.
"Keep sliding and you'll have no where to run to except for my arms."
"Ugh, are you always this insufferable? Can we just get back to the game, please?"
"Yes, and yes. Now I get to ask two questions. Question one: why are you avoiding answering questions about your past and question two: favorite flower?"
"I'll only dignify one of those with an answer, and wisteria is my favorite type of flower. Why does it always seem like you're pretending to be someone you're not?"
"How am I pretending to be someone I'm not?" he asked me, coming closer and closer and he was right: I had run out of room to escape him.
"One minute you're telling me that you know what my game is, that you know what I'm up to and that I should stay away from you basically threatening me, but then the very next day you're following me around like a lovesick puppy. I think you're just bored with this royal life so you're trying out different personas everyday to see which one works the best for you: the dark, brooding, mean bad boy prince who intimidates the new girl, or the sweet, charming prince who follows the damaged new girl around and tries to become her friend because no one else wants to. So which one is it, pick one. Because you can't be both."
He didn't show that he was surprised by my outburst. He didn't show any kind of emotion after what I said to him, really.
"Why can't I be both?"
"Well, I guess you can if you want to be labeled the Bipolar Prince, but I'm pretty sure the King and Queen wouldn't appreciate that, now would they?"
"No, you're right. So, you think I'm charming and sweet?"
The smile that grew across his slightly tanned features made me both want to punch that smile off of his face and then I wanted to..to...kiss him?
No no no, it was just the effect that his nearness brought upon me.
I most certainly did not want to kiss the Prince of England.
"Well, I think your words say you don't want to kiss me, but the fact that you're thinking of kissing me when that's not what we're even talking about proves to me that you definitely want to kiss me."
"W-what?!" I asked him, wondering if I had said that out loud.
"You said you most certainly did not want to kiss the Prince of England. I don't necessarily have to be the Prince right now, I'm very good at role playing..."
My cheeks burned in embarrassment. I couldn't believe I had actually just said that out loud to him! What was wrong with me?!
He came around the kitchen island and went to stand between my legs that were dangling over the counter, and since he was so tall we were eye level even with me sitting on the counter.
I could feel his body heat wanting to soak up into me, feel the need for him pulsating throughout my body. I wanted to kiss him, I really did, but that didn't mean that I was going to do it.
"And to answer your question, no I don't think you're charming and sweet, I think that was all a facade, a ruse that you put on as a mask over who you truly are as a person so you don't have to face reality and pretend that you don't care about anything when in reality, you're scared shitless of what's going to happen to you in the future."
"And just how do you know so much about me?"
"Because I know a good mask when I see one."
He squinted his eyes and something flashed beneath them. Vulnerability, maybe?
"Why, because you wear one too?"
He was getting closer and closer, starting to unravel the very fabric of who I was and what I was hiding behind, but I was getting even closer to him as well, finding out what made him tick and who he really was underneath his fake bullshit.
"Maybe, maybe not. It's up to you if you really want to find out. I don't just tell people my life story willingly, they have to prove that they are trustworthy and capable of keeping it a secret from everyone else."
"And why do you have secrets that need to be protected by trustworthy people, just how bad is your past?"
He really didn't want to know...
"We all have a past, some of us are just more fucked up than others. We can either choose to be a product of the shitty hand that life has dealt us or we can choose to learn from it and become a better person because of it. I, myself, have chosen not to wallow in self pity and depression because of the hand I was dealt, while many other people would have chosen differently. How did you choose?"
I could tell my questions were beginning to unnerve him, the severity of the words that I was saying making him more and more uncomfortable, but he still answered me nonetheless.
"I guess I chose to hide. You're right, I do wear a mask, but it's not because I'm scared of what will happen, it's because I know what's coming and I'm dreading it. I see the pressure it's putting on my father, my mother. And in turn I see what it will do to me when I am in his position. No, I'm not scared, I'm just doomed. Doomed to repeat their past mistakes and become caught up in the work and the monotony of it and push away and hurt everyone that I love. It's an endless cycle for us royals. We can never be happy."
"That's not true. You choose whether or not you are happy in this life."
"That's a load of bullshit if I ever heard any."
"No, listen to me. It's a rainy day, you decide to sit in and work, when you could take someone you love outside and go puddle jumping in your rain boots for fun. It's a sunny beautiful day, you either spend it working the entire day and going home miserable and alone, or you take half the day off and your family on a boat ride to watch the sun set. It's not how much workload you have or how little time you have for the important people in your life, its the things that you do with them in your small amounts of free time that define your relationships. If you look at the world like the glass is half empty, then you will always be half empty, but if you look at it as the glass is half full, then you will be more fulfilled in life than a lot of people are right in this moment."
"How did you learn to look at things like that?"
"Let's just say I've had to deal with a lot of death in my life, and I had to learn how to cherish the good memories and only concentrate on the joy they brought into my life, not on how much pain I was in because I lost them. Does that make sense?"
He nodded his head in confirmation.
"Yeah, it really does."
"Good."
"Good."
"So I still have one more question."
"Shoot," I told him, wondering what else could be on his mind after the existential talk we just had, the fact that he was still in between my legs was not wasted on me.
"What are you running from?"
I almost started choking.
"What are you talking about?"
"Now Lady Spencer, do not take me for a fool. I am an observant man. You got incredibly jumpy at school when anyone would even come near you, you practically came unglued when you heard someone's name at lunchtime, and the fact that you credited an ex boyfriend so flippantly after that outburst makes me wonder if you were even telling the truth about that. I know when someone is lying to me, Miss Spencer. I don't like being lied to."
His mouth was dangerously close to mine, so I turned my head to the side, trying to decide how I should speak next.
It turned out to be an even worse idea because then his lips were close to my ear and I could feel his hot breath fanning the side of my neck and my hormones went into overdrive. Why couldn't I be scared that he was trying to unravel all of my carefully wrapped secrets like any other girl would have been in this situation?!
No, they wouldn't have been scared, they would have jumped at the chance to be so close to an actual prince that they would have done just about anything, and they wouldn't have ruined it by lying yet again to the sovereign prince of their own country!
"I'm not running from anything, Louis. I was living with a legal guardian back home after my mom died until I got into a car accident. My family over here somehow was notified through old records and they came to take me back here. So, I had a bad ex boyfriend who puts my nerves on edge, he was a really bad guy. Like I said, I've had a shitty past."
The fact that I was simply attributing my pain to a 'bad ex boyfriend' made my skin crawl, but it had to be done to keep Louis off of my back.
He didn't seem placated by what I'd told him, but he nodded his head a bit and kept scrutinizing me with those deep blue eyes of his, and the way that he kept studying me told me how suspicious he still was of me.
Not only did that terrify me, but it also attracted me even more to him. He showed me different layers of his personality, and he wasn't doing it just to get my attention either. He was being real with me, and that showed more depth and insight into who a person was even better than by going on an actual date with them.
Not like I was saying I wanted to go on a date with him or...oh who was I kidding. Louis was drop dead gorgeous and I'd be a fool to not want to go out with him, kiss him, be his princess...
Okay, now that fantasy might have gone a little too far, but still.
I was about to tell him to get out from between my legs before someone saw us but something beat me to the punch.
The sound of an audible gasp, and then a high pitched squeal, and then I turned around to face the music.
Mar had just caught me basically straddling the Prince of England. Well...this wouldn't go down too well...
A/N
What did you think?!
What do you think of the depth Louis showed?
Do you think he cares for Malia, or do you think he's just trying to play her?
What do you think will happen next?
What do you want to happen next?
As always, thank you for reading! Until next time,
-Kristen :)
P.S. Sorry to keep you waiting, I have a new project coming out soon! Hint* 'Blood in the Water'!!!!!!!