Something Seems to Be Missing
1.
There was no doubt in my mind that something was wrong here. As soon as I woke up I felt different, when I looked around my room it looked different. The walls that used to be white, only because my mother wouldn’t let me paint them any other color, was now an olive green. The furniture that had had duct tape fixings all over them, terrible looking scratched, and band stickers stuck to the sides now looked new. The wood of my dresser and bookshelf gleamed like it had just been polished, which it really wouldn’t surprise me if it had. Then when I looked up to the ceiling, where there had been a fan with lights, I saw a chandelier. It seemed that not only was I obviously not in my room, I had been transported to a place that I wasn’t used to. I knew there was no way I was home.
Slowly I stood up and walked over to the window that was covered in heavy looking drapes. When I pulled back the drapes I didn’t feel surprised when there was rolling hills outside instead of the loud highway I was used to.
Everything that I had seen since waking up was different then I was used to. I was confused and started to feel quite frustrated. When I went to my closet, I was actually quite surprised that I still had a closet, I didn’t see any clothes. What was I supposed to wear?
“Sir?” someone called from outside the door, knocking quietly.
I jumped into my bed and burrowed under the blankets. Whoever it was outside of my door did not need to see me in a pair of boxers.
“Uh,” I said clearing my throat. “Come in?”
The door slowly opened to reveal an older guy with gray, thinning hair adorned in a suit. The guys face looked sweet, like he smiled a lot. The fact that he had smile lines gave me a sort of reassurance that I hadn’t been captured or something but I was still a little terrified.
Looking at the man and noticing the cream colored dress in his arms and the same colored corset in his gloved hands didn’t help soothe the terror either.
“Sir, this isn’t yours!” he said with wide eyes after I looked at the dress with my own look of terror. “I have to take this to your sister. The king also told me to tell you he is sorry for the lack of your own clothing in your closet. It was taken downstairs to be cleaned.”
“The king doesn’t want to see me does he?” I asked, assuming the king was only my dad. The only problem with that though was that my parents were divorced and remarried, so did that mean the queen was my step-mother?
The guy nodded. “He would like to see you in his study before you go to breakfast.”
“What does he expect me to wear if all my clothes are being cleaned?”
“What you are in, I would expect Prince Benjamin.”
“Just my boxers?”
“He is your father so I wouldn’t expect you to have that big of a problem.”
“Uh,” I said slightly confused since even before this whole thing I had never walked around my dad in only my boxers. “Okay then. So how do I get to his study?”
He gave me an odd look. “Sir, you must be joking.”
“I’m not,” I said feeling heat rush to my cheeks.
“Take the stairs down to the landing, turn left, and it’s the last door on the right,” he paused there for a second. “You are feeling alright, aren’t you sir?”
“Yeah, of course, I was just, uh, testing you.”
“Then why, if you were just testing me, haven’t you called me by my name?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and sat down on my bed. Why couldn’t this guy just leave me and my forgetfulness alone?
“I kind of forgot.”
When I looked up, I could see hurt reflect in his eyes. When he saw me looking though, it changed to unreadable. I felt really bad but I had no clue what was going on and I don’t know if I can trust this guy.
“My name is Jameson, sir,” he said and pulled the dress up higher so it wasn’t touching the ground, and left.
After Jameson had walked out of the door, which it had surprised me that he hadn’t slammed the door, I figured I should probably head to my father’s study.
“Alright,” I said aloud, “I guess I should get whatever this is over with.”
Walking down just the hallway that lead from my room to the staircase, once I figured out which hallway lead to the staircase, was amazing. In the other life I had, none of the fancy pictures or sculptures were there. Both of my parents had started out with little money and had gotten even littler money once they got divorced because of the divorce that I was used to dents and holes in the walls or things that would make most people cringe, this place, with all the fancy stuff, was what really bothered me. The cream wallpaper that adorned the walls here was quite pristine looking compared to what I was used to. There I wore beat up Vans and ripped jeans, but here I got the feeling that I would be wearing pressed pants, button up shirts, and freshly shined shoes just from seeing what Jameson had been taking for my sister to wear.
After taking longer than it probably should have, I got to the door of my dad’s study. When James had said study I had imagined double oak doors with glazed over glass but this door was pretty much the same as all the other ones I had passed. It was a wooden door that was a cream color, I was guessing that was the main color here, and it had a brass doorknob that made the door sort of fit in with what my imagination had conjured up.
Slowly, I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Truthfully I was a little nervous to be meeting up with my dad. I had always been a lot closer to my mom than my dad and that had deepened when my parents had split. My dad was the kind of person who wanted everything to be perfect and on more occasions than one he had made it quite clear to me that I was well below what the perfect son would be.
“Benjamin?” I heard a voice say before I had opened the door all the way.
“Yes, what did you want to see me for sir?” I asked him, adding the sir just in case we weren’t close here either.
“Well, I had called for you to talk about your partnership ceremony this Saturday but that can wait,” my father said, suddenly giving me a curious look that I mistook for curiosity about my lack of clothing.
“Jameson said you weren’t acting normal. Are you feeling alright?”
Shit, I thought looking into his hazel eyes. I hadn’t even thought about James telling my dad about my memory loss but I guess it did make sense.
After a few minutes, without an answer from me, my dad got out of the desk chair he had been sitting in and straightened his suit coat.
“When Jameson said you were acting weird I figured it was just nerves for Saturday,” he paused and looked down at his littered desk. Taking a quick glance I noticed quite a few papers that said my name on them. “But then he said you didn’t remember where my study was or what his name was. Have you hit your head on something recently?”
I shook my head deciding even if he thought it was completely ridiculous, I was going to tell him what had happened. Or at least I was going to tell him what I remembered.
“I didn’t hit my head on anything; I just woke up this morning and didn’t remember any of this; the good looking furniture, the fancy clothes. All I can remember is a different life where my parents aren’t together, neither of them are doing well financially, and I wear beat up looking clothing.”
He looked at me with a look of pure terror. “What would make you forget reality and delve into a fantasy world?”
“Dad, I don’t know. All I know is everything happening here is different than what I know.”
“Okay Benjamin. The situation sort of scares me but let me be the one to tell your mother and your sister.”
Nodding, I realized what he had said. “Wait, so you and mom are still together?”
“Of course, it is strictly forbidden for a royal couple to separate. That’s why this Saturday is extremely important for you. If you pick someone and you don’t end up loving them later you still have to stay with them. Your future king has to be someone you are going to be able to stay with until you, or he, dies.”
“Future king?”
“Of course,” he said once again giving me an odd look. “We can’t force you to marry anyone that you don’t want to. Did you forget that you liked men Benjamin?”
“No, it’s just I figured with how perfect it is here I could be a closet case.”
My father put his extremely cold hand on my bare shoulder and smiled. “Even if you thought you were we would have known. Your mother and I have a very keen eye for those things.”
…
After a very fancy breakfast with my parents and sister, and I had gotten some clothes, I was sitting on my sisters bed while she tried on different dresses.
“You know Ben,” she started while standing in front of the full length mirror in a red strapless gown that laced up the back with black laces, “It’s almost unfair that you get to be king when you’re younger than I am and you like guys.”
I had to agree with her there. I had always assumed that the oldest would be the next in line for the throne but it was different here. Here the oldest male got the throne and sexual orientation wasn’t questioned. On that alone I would stay here forever.
“I know Bex,” I said managing to duck right as the red gown sailed over my head.
One of the things I had noticed here was everyone called me Benjamin. I understood that I was the prince and everything so people would want to use my full name but I had never really liked the name Benjamin. Back where I wasn’t a prince, everyone had called me Ben and I looked that. Before I had gotten a chance to talk to my sister I had wondered if she would call me Ben or Benjamin since she had never liked the name Benjamin either.
When she had called me Ben right in front of our parents I had been quite relieved. Not only did it show me that we were as close here as we were in the other life I remembered, it also showed that I called her Bex instead of Rebecca.
“So why are you going to this thing on Saturday anyway?” I asked my sister.
She shrugged and pulled a green gown that had a lace collar and lace long sleeves over her head. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll find someone there for myself. Guaranteed not all the men there will fancy other men, some of them will probably be there because they just want to be king,” she paused for a second and looked over at me. “Selfish bastards.”
With a laugh, I stood up and began lacing her dress up. “I don’t doubt that you’ll find someone.”
Before Ben could answer, there was a knock at the door and Jameson walked in.
“Sir,” he said after straightening up from a deep bow, “Your mother and father would like to see you in the nook.”
“Sounds like they have more to talk to you about Saturday,” Bex said.
I followed Jameson out the door, seeing as I didn’t know where the nook was.
Truthfully, I was already getting quite tired of hearing about what was happening Saturday. I had thought at breakfast my father was going to talk with my mother about what was going on in my head but no. The only subject had been the “ceremony”. We talked about people that were coming, food that needed to get gotten, what I was to wear, what everyone else was to wear, what the men coming would wear, when the men would get here, everything that I didn’t really care about. I really didn’t even understand why they were calling it a ceremony when, by what they had described, the whole thing seemed more like a party than anything.
“Here you are sir,” Jameson said while sweeping his arm toward a large wooden set of doors.
“Thank you,” I replied. “Oh, and I’m sorry about the whole memory loss thing.”
He nodded but still looked extremely upset. The sparkle I had noticed in his eye this morning was no longer there. For him to be that upset, we must have been fairly close.
“Ah, Benjamin, there you are,” my father said with a large smile on his face.
Looking around, I had to say this was definitely the most fancy of all the rooms I had been in thus far.
All of the cream colored walls were close to covered by portraits of every size and shape. There were numerous couches placed around the room, some clustered around tables. Directly across the room, making it the first thing someone would see when they walked into the room was a giant fireplace that did surprisingly have a fire going inside it. Above the fireplace, quite a bit above the ground, was what seemed to be a family crest.
“Oh Benjamin!” my mother, a lanky blonde woman dressed in a gold gown that had multiple lacey layers on the skirt, cried suddenly wrapping her thin arms tightly around my neck. “Is what your father told me true? You don’t remember any of this?” she said pulling away from me to look into my face as she asked.
I shook my head and she buried her head in my shoulder, crying.
Looking over at my father with a look of horror, he gently put his hands on my mother’s shoulders and steered her sobbing form over to the couch that was to the side of the fire.
“Benjamin,” he said sitting next to my mother, “Please sit over here.”
At my father’s command I sat down on the couch that sat in front of the one my parents sat on.
“Now son, we must discuss who you may choose on Saturday.”
“I thought it was up to me?”
“For the most part yes, but your mother and I feel the need to lend you some advice seeing as not all of the men who will turn up will be looking for your best interest. Many of them will not come because they would like to have the chance to get to know you and many of them will not be attracted to men. The majority of the suitors who will be looking for your hand will only show up because if they get you as their own, they will become king.”
“I know.”
“Okay then, if you already know we will just give you the list of men your mother and I have come up with that, from extensive background checks we have performed, look to be good for you.”
I took the piece of parchment out of my father’s hand and looked through the names. None of the ones I read even sounded familiar, but I felt like I was looking for a certain name. I got the feeling that if I saw it I would know it, but I couldn’t tell anyone the name right off the bat. Really, I didn’t even know how I could be looking for someone’s name if I couldn’t remember any of this anyway.
“So,” my father started as I looked up from the list, “Do any of those men sound like good prospects?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who any of these men are.”
My father sighed and my mother, who had seemed to have calmed down some, started to sob loudly once again.
“I guess then, you’ll just have to learn about these men at the ceremony,” my father said.
For a while after that we discussed more at length what my life was like here, who my friends were, what I liked to do with my spare time, things like that. I knew that this discussion was mainly so I would know what to say when people were talking to me.
My mother seemed to come to terms with the fact that I really didn’t remember anything about this life after a while, and she began talking with my father and I. It was quite nice to have her talking instead of bawling.
“Benjamin,” she called out as I was walking out the door, “Do forgive me for all my crying. You’re my baby boy and it just pains me to think that you don’t remember this life.”
The next few days were quite busy. I had people coming in for last minute suit sittings, different people coming in and out of the palace with flowers and food, and to my surprise, there were suitors showing up days before they needed to be here. Even more surprising than the amount of suitors showing up early was the amount of regular citizens showing up at the palace quotes.
“Looks like another suitor,” Bex called from the window as she watched another carriage come through the gates on Saturday morning.
I sighed, trying to keep my movement to a minimum as one of our servants did one last check on my suit.
“You don’t seem to excited about this thing Ben,” Bex said, turning to face me.
“I guess not,” I replied, wondering if I should tell her about the boy I had begun dreaming about, “It’s just that I feel like I already have someone.”
Bex moved from her seat at the window to stand in front of me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, with the whole forgetting this life my brain seemed to have given me a different life. In that life there was a boy and, even though I can’t remember him, I know I loved him. Since you, mum and dad, some of the suitors I’ve seen come in, and even some of the workers here were in that other life, I figured why couldn’t he be in this one?”
“No offense Ben,” Bex started, taking a nonchalant attitude, “But what you just told me makes you sound pretty close to insane.”
“That’s what I figured you would say but seriously, that’s how I feel. I don’t want to go to this thing and meet these guys when I already know who I want.”
“And what if he’s at this thing?” she said standing back at the window but looking at me worriedly.
“Well, no matter what I have to go so if he is there I shouldn’t be able to miss him.”
“Ben, maybe you should tell dad about this and he can send everyone home.”
I shook my head as Jameson yelled, “Sir! Your gentlemen are starting to appear in the hall! You must get down there and start greeting them!” through the door.
“I cant. And besides,” I said walking out the door, “All these guys wouldn’t be able to just leave in the first place. I’m not crazy Bex, don’t worry.”
“Ah, Benjamin, there you are,” my father said when I got down to the Great Hall. “Where have you been all day?”
“Uh, I was with Bex most of the day and then they just did a last minute suit fitting. Why did they do that anyway since I already had my suit ready?” I said pulling on the collar of my gray suit.
My father waved his hand in a dismissive gesture like this question didn’t matter. “Measuring for future suits. Now you need to get over to that door and start greeting your guests.”
As soon as my father turned away, I heaved a big sigh. This was really the last thing I wanted to be doing.
After half an hour of greeting men in, Bex came and told me I could quit.
“Thank you!” I said in an exaggerated exasperated voice.
Bex grinned at me like she knew something I didn’t. Of course, given the circumstances, she knew a lot of things that I didn’t, but I got the feeling that the thing she wasn’t telling me was not going to make me a happy camper.
“So Ben,” she started with that grin still plastered to her face, “Who are you going to dance with first?”
“Dance with?” I exclaimed. I sort of wished I had had something to drink then so I could’ve done a spit take. Even though the palace was packed making in inevitable that I would have spit on someone, it would have been awesome.
“Of course Ben,” she replied while her grin somehow seemed to get larger. “How else did you think you were going to get to know these men?”
I seriously could have killed someone. I had been around the palace, hearing about the details for this thing, for five days and yet no one seemed to have thought it of any importance to tell me that I would have to dance. It would have been nice to know, seeing as I know I can’t dance to save my life. If I had maybe been able to get some tips from someone that could dance I probably wouldn’t have been this mad.
“Why didn’t anyone think to tell me about this unfortunate detail?”
“I guess everyone just figured you would know. I get the whole memory loss, I only remember some other life thing messed up most of the details but if you think about it, it’s sort of known, no matter what life you remember, that dancing is something people do at formal get-togethers,” Bex explained as we walked through the crowd of patiently waiting men to where our parents stood, waiting for our arrival.
Right before we were in our parents’ field of vision, I threw Bex a look that plainly said I was annoyed. “Thank you so very much Rebecca,” I said and, knowing how much my sister hated being addressed by her full name, walked quite a bit faster so she wouldn’t hit me.
“Benjamin! Rebecca!” my mom said with a sweet smile before hugging us both. “Now that you two are here we can get this started.”
After a speech from my dad about how this night would be important in me finding the person who I was going to spend the rest of my life with and him explaining some of the duties that my chosen husband would inherit, he got the band to start playing and I was thrust into the large gathering of men.
Most of the men that my parents had invited were men of royalty, most were not princes although there were a few that were princes but wouldn’t inherit the throne. All of the men, even though they were all the same level in royalty, were dressed pretty much the same. Everyone was in some sort of suit, the colors differed some but everyone wore a suit, and they also wore nice, obviously recently shined, shoes. Their hair seemed perfect, or nearly perfect, without a single hair out of place and even with the guys’ hair that looked messy you would tell that they had purposefully done it that way.
After a few hours of dancing, I felt like I had danced with almost every guy in the place. It probably wasn’t true, since from watching them show up I knew that there were a lot of men here, but it still felt like it. After all that time and all the guys I had talked with, I knew I hadn’t found him. Not one guy I had talked to had made any real impression, they had all been too similar for any one of them to have been special.
“So, have you found some choices?” my father asked, coming up behind me while I stood trying to cool down.
I sighed and ran my hand through my sweaty hair; I wished someone would open the doors or something. “:No, there isn’t one guy I have talked to so fat that made me even think there was a possibility we could stay together for the rest of our lives.”
“That isn’t very good to hear Benjamin,” he said releasing a sigh of his own.
“I know dad.”
“Maybe you’re being too picky. Why don’t you take a break outside, get some fresh air? I’ll tell the gentlemen that you’ll be right back and then you can come back in when you’re ready.”
Nodding, I made my way to the door that would eventually get me outside while my father got the men’s attention and told them I would be back. I was glad he hadn’t told them where I was going; if he had I knew some of them would have followed me and tried to force me into choosing them. That’s just not something I plan on doing.
Once I got outside I was glad my father had suggested it. This week had been so crazy that I hadn’t been able to just sit around and think, not I could.
The weather seemed to be perfect. The now dark shy was littered with stars and the moon was shining brightly, bathing everything on the grounds in might. There weren’t even wisps of cloud in the sky, making the night perfectly clear.
The light that the moon and starts were giving off gave me a chance to look around the grounds, even though it was dark.
Off in the distance, in the direction of the gates, I could hear the faint sounds of horses eating. When the men had showed up in their stagecoaches, my father had had them stop at different parts near the gates so if someone wanted to leave early they would be close to the gates but the horses would be far enough away from the palace so they wouldn’t get spooked and no one inside would get annoyed . I guessed it was a good idea, I just didn’t see how anyone would get annoyed since the horses were way over there and the noises they made would be drowned out by the talking and the music inside.
Just when I was starting to get carried away with my thoughts I heard rustling coming from the buses that were planted on the side of the stairs.
“Hello?” I called out, slowly making my way down the stairs and over to the front bust.
The only answer I got was more rustling.
“Who’s there?” I called while I tried to bring my heartbeat back to normal.
As I was convincing myself, or at least trying to, that the noise was probably coming from the wind or a small animal, a man stepped out from behind the buses.
I screamed.
“Prince Benjamin!” he said eyes wide and hands up. “I’m so sorry for scaring you!”
Taking deep breaths, I nodded and said, “It’s alright.”
Once my breathing was back to normal, I took a chance to give this guy a good once over. He was actually the only guy I had really found attractive all night. The guy had short, ginger colored hair and beard, blue eyes, pale skin that wasn’t too pale that he looked like a vampire but pale enough to look good. He had on shined, black leather shoes, gray dress pants like mine, a while, long-sleeved, button up shirt, and a gray vest. Slung over his arm was a gray jacket.
“What’s your name?” I asked him, noticing his face go red.
“Daniel Worsnop.”
“Oh,” I said thinking that for some reason that name sounded familiar. “You didn’t come out here hoping to make me like you, did you?”
“No, of course not, I came out here because I am leaving.”
Tilting my head to the side, I asked, “Why are you leaving?”
Daniel smiled shyly at me and I swear I almost fell to the ground. “Uh, I didn’t think the prince would like me compared to all of those other rich gentlemen,” he said softly, making me have to strain to hear him.
“Why wouldn’t I like you?”
“All those men in there are rich and handsome. They can give you things that I cannot.”
“What do you mean?”
“Benjamin, I really don’t know how I got an invitation. I own the bakery in town and that’s it. I don’t have a lot of money, this suit cost me four months’ pay. I knew I would only wear it once but I had to see you. Those men in there can buy you all sorts of fancy things that I cannot.”
“Daniel,” I said since it seemed we were on a first name basis, which I kind of liked, “I don’t know how you got an invitation either. I’m not supposed to tell anyone this but for the past few days I have been trying to play catch up because I don’t remember anything about this life. My parents told me that I have met most of the men inside but I don’t remember every seeing them before. Before whatever happened I probably would have been able to pick a guy by name and be done with this but I can’t so I’ve had to go back through and meet these guys all over again. You’re the first one I’ve met all night that didn’t act like he knew he was the one I would pick,” I put my hand on Daniel’s shoulder gently. “I like how real you’ve treated me so far.”
Daniel blushed. “I like you,” he said, smiling sadly.
Knowing that now I had met Daniel and liked him better than anyone else inside, I sat down on the stairs and motioned for him to do the same.
“So,” I said thinking about Bex’s and my father’s warning, “Do you actually like men or do you just want to become king?”
“Well Benjamin, I was going to leave because I figured you wouldn’t like me compared to everyone else in there, so what do you think?”
I felt a blush creep up onto my cheeks. “Uh, I’m guessing you actually like men.”
“Nah, I just wanted to be kind,” he said making me whip my head in his direction.
By the grin on his face I could tell he was just joking.
“Oh, okay,” I replied, making my voice sound sad.
“No, no, no, no, no! I wasn’t being serious! I was just joking.”
I turned to him with a grin on my face. “I know.”
“Oh,” he said, visibly relaxing, “I thought you thought I was being serious.”
“Nope, I saw you grinning and knew you were joking.”
Daniel blushed again, making me think that he was gorgeous when he blushed. Not that he wasn’t gorgeous when his face was blush-free; it was just that the red tint of embarrassment seemed to add the look of innocence.
After a while of talking with Daniel, I knew I had found my future king. Actually, I had known it when we had first started talking, but then it had been more of an ‘okay, he seems like a good guy’ thing and now it was more of an ‘I could definitely spend the rest of my life with this guy’ feeling. Daniel was nice, funny, he wasn’t overly cocky, although he had his moments, and he didn’t seem to expect me to be utterly perfect.
“Daniel,” I said starting to pick at my pants, “I don’t want to ruin this, but I have to.”
When I said that, Daniel’s eyes went huge.
“No, not that way. I mean, when I came out here, it was to get away from the men inside. Every single one I had talked to acted as if I was his property, as if he had already been crowned king. I was getting frustrated and tired of this whole thing. None of those guys had acted like they cared about one thing I had said. Just by talking to them for a couple of minutes each I had known they only cared about themselves and what they would gain. I had started to think that I wasn’t going to find one guy that I thought would be king material, then I met you. You don’t act like nothing is important except for what you have to say. You treat me like a human being and you are the first that I’ve met that hasn’t acted like I was a prize to be won. I love listening to you talk, I find what you have to say interesting and important. When you blush you look gorgeous and I love it when you smile,” I paused, looking for the best way to say what was needed. “Daniel, I want you to be my king.”
Even though there was suddenly a lot more light illuminating us than there had been before, Daniel took my hands in his and looked me dead in the eyes. “I would be glad to be your king Benjamin.”
“Well that’s good,” my father said behind us, making Daniel drop my hands quickly and both of us to snap our heads in his direction. “By the way it was looking while you were inside I figured we would have to plan another one of these. Now come in boys.”
Daniel stood up first, making it a point to help me up to hold my hand.
He smiled at me. “I like the way your hand feels in mine,” he whispered.
Thankfully, my father didn’t hear that. I really didn’t know how my father was going to react with this. Would he act all protective and put limits on the amount of time Daniel and I spent together and what we did in that time? Or would he hide how he felt about me marrying Daniel so that there would be a king?
As these questions were swarming through my head, my father led Daniel and I, with our hands holding the others tightly, through the crowd of angry looking men. As we passed the guys that were standing closest to where we were walking, they would notice our hands, their faces would turn angry, they would quickly turn around to tell the men behind them, and the pattern kept on. Looking at them it seemed like they were playing a big game of telephone but I didn’t figure that the angry faces were part of the game.
“They don’t look to happy,” Daniel said as we walked through the men. How they kept splitting for us to walk through was pretty sweet even if the glares kind of took away the effect.
“Whatever,” I said shrugging my shoulders, “Most of them probably just came because they wanted to be king anyway. They deserve a little disappointment.”
Daniel chuckled and we kept walking silently until my father stopped and turned around.
My father grabbed a glass and a spoon and started hitting them together to get everyone’s attention. Very slowly the room got quiet, it happened much faster after the band was silenced, and he started talking.
“Thank all you gentlemen for coming, you were all very good suitors, but my son has found his king,” he turned around and grabbed my arm, pulling Daniel and I to stand next to him. “My son, Benjamin Bruce, has picked Daniel Worsnop for his king. Let’s wish them good fortune for the many, many years they have to come with each other.”
Once my father had finished talking he wished us good luck and disappeared into the crowd.
“Oh Benjamin, you two look so adorable together!” my mother exclaimed, coming over to Daniel and I and hugged us both tightly.
“Good luck big brother,” Bex said as she too walked over to us. “Now you two have to dance.”
I swear I died a little when she said that and, by the look on his face, I thought Daniel had too.
“What do you mean, dance?” Daniel asked.
Bex busted out in laughter, probably taking in the looks of horror she was getting from the two of us. “As a new, royal couple, you have to dance together.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”
“Same reason we didn’t tell you that you’d have to dance with everyone else.”
Rolling my eyes I said, “Well thanks!”
“Oh calm down and get out there. A lot of people are leaving already anyway, they are too disappointment by their loss to want to watch you two dance.”
Bex and my mother walked away after that, leaving Daniel and I by ourselves.
Daniel looked at me with a glint in his eye and a smile on his face that was contagious enough to make me smile back. “May I have this dance?” he said holding his hand out to me.
Even though I really didn’t want to dance, I took his hand anyway and walked out to the dance area with him.
“You have gorgeous eyes,” he told me after both of us got used to dancing with the other.
I blushed. “Thank you,” I managed to say even though I had my chin almost on my chest. I knew I wasn’t a good dancer and I was actually a little embarrassed to show him how bad of a dance I was so early in our relationship.
“Benjamin,” he said removing his hand from my hip to hook two fingers under my chin to pull my face up, “You are a wonderful dancer.”
I just smiled softly.
After a few more minutes, and his putting his hand back on my hip, he put his hand on the back of my neck and smiled at me. I knew what he wanted, I had actually thought of doing the same but had become too embarrassed to do so, and leaned my face close enough to his so that our lips were almost touching, but not quite.
We were so close that every breath he pushed out blew a soft gust of warm air onto my awaiting lips. I didn’t want to be the one to start the kiss but his breath was driving me crazy.
Suddenly, instead of his breath, I felt his soft, warm lips pressed lovingly against mine. The kiss was passionate, it was loving, and it was everything I had expected it to be and more. The kiss, just like everything Daniel did, took my breath away.
After a few moments, both of us pulled away with big grins plastered to our faces. I was staring at Daniel’s eyes when black spots started invading my vision. I didn’t understand what was going on or why it was happening but after a few minutes everything went completely black. The last thing I heard before blacking out was Daniel saying, “Goodnight Ben, I love you.”
…
I woke up with a start, throwing an arm off of my stomach, and looking around quickly. There was no chandelier above my bed, just a regular fan. Next to my beat up desk was my pair of beat up Cans and my beat up jeans were laying on the back of the chair in the corner.
Lying next to me, looing to be sound asleep still despite the fact that his arm had just been jerked up, was Daniel, or as I knew to call him, Danny. All the fancy stuff had been a dream, a pretty good one, but a dream all the same. Part of me was glad it had been a dream but another part of me wasn’t, sure I would have been king and everyone called me Benjamin, but my parents had still been together.
“Ben?” Danny said beside me, rubbing his eyes. “Are you okay?”
I laid back down and cuddled into Danny’s side, loving everything about him from his tattoos and facial hair down to the way he smelled like beer and soap. “I just had a dream.”
“Okay, are we going back to sleep now?” he said, sounding very tired still but happy.
“Yeah, we are.”
“Okay. Goodnight Ben, I love you.”
With a smile on my face, I snuggled deeper into Danny’s side. “Goodnight Danny,” I said knowing he was already asleep. “I love you too.”
Slowly I stood up and walked over to the window that was covered in heavy looking drapes. When I pulled back the drapes I didn’t feel surprised when there was rolling hills outside instead of the loud highway I was used to.
Everything that I had seen since waking up was different then I was used to. I was confused and started to feel quite frustrated. When I went to my closet, I was actually quite surprised that I still had a closet, I didn’t see any clothes. What was I supposed to wear?
“Sir?” someone called from outside the door, knocking quietly.
I jumped into my bed and burrowed under the blankets. Whoever it was outside of my door did not need to see me in a pair of boxers.
“Uh,” I said clearing my throat. “Come in?”
The door slowly opened to reveal an older guy with gray, thinning hair adorned in a suit. The guys face looked sweet, like he smiled a lot. The fact that he had smile lines gave me a sort of reassurance that I hadn’t been captured or something but I was still a little terrified.
Looking at the man and noticing the cream colored dress in his arms and the same colored corset in his gloved hands didn’t help soothe the terror either.
“Sir, this isn’t yours!” he said with wide eyes after I looked at the dress with my own look of terror. “I have to take this to your sister. The king also told me to tell you he is sorry for the lack of your own clothing in your closet. It was taken downstairs to be cleaned.”
“The king doesn’t want to see me does he?” I asked, assuming the king was only my dad. The only problem with that though was that my parents were divorced and remarried, so did that mean the queen was my step-mother?
The guy nodded. “He would like to see you in his study before you go to breakfast.”
“What does he expect me to wear if all my clothes are being cleaned?”
“What you are in, I would expect Prince Benjamin.”
“Just my boxers?”
“He is your father so I wouldn’t expect you to have that big of a problem.”
“Uh,” I said slightly confused since even before this whole thing I had never walked around my dad in only my boxers. “Okay then. So how do I get to his study?”
He gave me an odd look. “Sir, you must be joking.”
“I’m not,” I said feeling heat rush to my cheeks.
“Take the stairs down to the landing, turn left, and it’s the last door on the right,” he paused there for a second. “You are feeling alright, aren’t you sir?”
“Yeah, of course, I was just, uh, testing you.”
“Then why, if you were just testing me, haven’t you called me by my name?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and sat down on my bed. Why couldn’t this guy just leave me and my forgetfulness alone?
“I kind of forgot.”
When I looked up, I could see hurt reflect in his eyes. When he saw me looking though, it changed to unreadable. I felt really bad but I had no clue what was going on and I don’t know if I can trust this guy.
“My name is Jameson, sir,” he said and pulled the dress up higher so it wasn’t touching the ground, and left.
After Jameson had walked out of the door, which it had surprised me that he hadn’t slammed the door, I figured I should probably head to my father’s study.
“Alright,” I said aloud, “I guess I should get whatever this is over with.”
Walking down just the hallway that lead from my room to the staircase, once I figured out which hallway lead to the staircase, was amazing. In the other life I had, none of the fancy pictures or sculptures were there. Both of my parents had started out with little money and had gotten even littler money once they got divorced because of the divorce that I was used to dents and holes in the walls or things that would make most people cringe, this place, with all the fancy stuff, was what really bothered me. The cream wallpaper that adorned the walls here was quite pristine looking compared to what I was used to. There I wore beat up Vans and ripped jeans, but here I got the feeling that I would be wearing pressed pants, button up shirts, and freshly shined shoes just from seeing what Jameson had been taking for my sister to wear.
After taking longer than it probably should have, I got to the door of my dad’s study. When James had said study I had imagined double oak doors with glazed over glass but this door was pretty much the same as all the other ones I had passed. It was a wooden door that was a cream color, I was guessing that was the main color here, and it had a brass doorknob that made the door sort of fit in with what my imagination had conjured up.
Slowly, I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Truthfully I was a little nervous to be meeting up with my dad. I had always been a lot closer to my mom than my dad and that had deepened when my parents had split. My dad was the kind of person who wanted everything to be perfect and on more occasions than one he had made it quite clear to me that I was well below what the perfect son would be.
“Benjamin?” I heard a voice say before I had opened the door all the way.
“Yes, what did you want to see me for sir?” I asked him, adding the sir just in case we weren’t close here either.
“Well, I had called for you to talk about your partnership ceremony this Saturday but that can wait,” my father said, suddenly giving me a curious look that I mistook for curiosity about my lack of clothing.
“Jameson said you weren’t acting normal. Are you feeling alright?”
Shit, I thought looking into his hazel eyes. I hadn’t even thought about James telling my dad about my memory loss but I guess it did make sense.
After a few minutes, without an answer from me, my dad got out of the desk chair he had been sitting in and straightened his suit coat.
“When Jameson said you were acting weird I figured it was just nerves for Saturday,” he paused and looked down at his littered desk. Taking a quick glance I noticed quite a few papers that said my name on them. “But then he said you didn’t remember where my study was or what his name was. Have you hit your head on something recently?”
I shook my head deciding even if he thought it was completely ridiculous, I was going to tell him what had happened. Or at least I was going to tell him what I remembered.
“I didn’t hit my head on anything; I just woke up this morning and didn’t remember any of this; the good looking furniture, the fancy clothes. All I can remember is a different life where my parents aren’t together, neither of them are doing well financially, and I wear beat up looking clothing.”
He looked at me with a look of pure terror. “What would make you forget reality and delve into a fantasy world?”
“Dad, I don’t know. All I know is everything happening here is different than what I know.”
“Okay Benjamin. The situation sort of scares me but let me be the one to tell your mother and your sister.”
Nodding, I realized what he had said. “Wait, so you and mom are still together?”
“Of course, it is strictly forbidden for a royal couple to separate. That’s why this Saturday is extremely important for you. If you pick someone and you don’t end up loving them later you still have to stay with them. Your future king has to be someone you are going to be able to stay with until you, or he, dies.”
“Future king?”
“Of course,” he said once again giving me an odd look. “We can’t force you to marry anyone that you don’t want to. Did you forget that you liked men Benjamin?”
“No, it’s just I figured with how perfect it is here I could be a closet case.”
My father put his extremely cold hand on my bare shoulder and smiled. “Even if you thought you were we would have known. Your mother and I have a very keen eye for those things.”
…
After a very fancy breakfast with my parents and sister, and I had gotten some clothes, I was sitting on my sisters bed while she tried on different dresses.
“You know Ben,” she started while standing in front of the full length mirror in a red strapless gown that laced up the back with black laces, “It’s almost unfair that you get to be king when you’re younger than I am and you like guys.”
I had to agree with her there. I had always assumed that the oldest would be the next in line for the throne but it was different here. Here the oldest male got the throne and sexual orientation wasn’t questioned. On that alone I would stay here forever.
“I know Bex,” I said managing to duck right as the red gown sailed over my head.
One of the things I had noticed here was everyone called me Benjamin. I understood that I was the prince and everything so people would want to use my full name but I had never really liked the name Benjamin. Back where I wasn’t a prince, everyone had called me Ben and I looked that. Before I had gotten a chance to talk to my sister I had wondered if she would call me Ben or Benjamin since she had never liked the name Benjamin either.
When she had called me Ben right in front of our parents I had been quite relieved. Not only did it show me that we were as close here as we were in the other life I remembered, it also showed that I called her Bex instead of Rebecca.
“So why are you going to this thing on Saturday anyway?” I asked my sister.
She shrugged and pulled a green gown that had a lace collar and lace long sleeves over her head. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll find someone there for myself. Guaranteed not all the men there will fancy other men, some of them will probably be there because they just want to be king,” she paused for a second and looked over at me. “Selfish bastards.”
With a laugh, I stood up and began lacing her dress up. “I don’t doubt that you’ll find someone.”
Before Ben could answer, there was a knock at the door and Jameson walked in.
“Sir,” he said after straightening up from a deep bow, “Your mother and father would like to see you in the nook.”
“Sounds like they have more to talk to you about Saturday,” Bex said.
I followed Jameson out the door, seeing as I didn’t know where the nook was.
Truthfully, I was already getting quite tired of hearing about what was happening Saturday. I had thought at breakfast my father was going to talk with my mother about what was going on in my head but no. The only subject had been the “ceremony”. We talked about people that were coming, food that needed to get gotten, what I was to wear, what everyone else was to wear, what the men coming would wear, when the men would get here, everything that I didn’t really care about. I really didn’t even understand why they were calling it a ceremony when, by what they had described, the whole thing seemed more like a party than anything.
“Here you are sir,” Jameson said while sweeping his arm toward a large wooden set of doors.
“Thank you,” I replied. “Oh, and I’m sorry about the whole memory loss thing.”
He nodded but still looked extremely upset. The sparkle I had noticed in his eye this morning was no longer there. For him to be that upset, we must have been fairly close.
“Ah, Benjamin, there you are,” my father said with a large smile on his face.
Looking around, I had to say this was definitely the most fancy of all the rooms I had been in thus far.
All of the cream colored walls were close to covered by portraits of every size and shape. There were numerous couches placed around the room, some clustered around tables. Directly across the room, making it the first thing someone would see when they walked into the room was a giant fireplace that did surprisingly have a fire going inside it. Above the fireplace, quite a bit above the ground, was what seemed to be a family crest.
“Oh Benjamin!” my mother, a lanky blonde woman dressed in a gold gown that had multiple lacey layers on the skirt, cried suddenly wrapping her thin arms tightly around my neck. “Is what your father told me true? You don’t remember any of this?” she said pulling away from me to look into my face as she asked.
I shook my head and she buried her head in my shoulder, crying.
Looking over at my father with a look of horror, he gently put his hands on my mother’s shoulders and steered her sobbing form over to the couch that was to the side of the fire.
“Benjamin,” he said sitting next to my mother, “Please sit over here.”
At my father’s command I sat down on the couch that sat in front of the one my parents sat on.
“Now son, we must discuss who you may choose on Saturday.”
“I thought it was up to me?”
“For the most part yes, but your mother and I feel the need to lend you some advice seeing as not all of the men who will turn up will be looking for your best interest. Many of them will not come because they would like to have the chance to get to know you and many of them will not be attracted to men. The majority of the suitors who will be looking for your hand will only show up because if they get you as their own, they will become king.”
“I know.”
“Okay then, if you already know we will just give you the list of men your mother and I have come up with that, from extensive background checks we have performed, look to be good for you.”
I took the piece of parchment out of my father’s hand and looked through the names. None of the ones I read even sounded familiar, but I felt like I was looking for a certain name. I got the feeling that if I saw it I would know it, but I couldn’t tell anyone the name right off the bat. Really, I didn’t even know how I could be looking for someone’s name if I couldn’t remember any of this anyway.
“So,” my father started as I looked up from the list, “Do any of those men sound like good prospects?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who any of these men are.”
My father sighed and my mother, who had seemed to have calmed down some, started to sob loudly once again.
“I guess then, you’ll just have to learn about these men at the ceremony,” my father said.
For a while after that we discussed more at length what my life was like here, who my friends were, what I liked to do with my spare time, things like that. I knew that this discussion was mainly so I would know what to say when people were talking to me.
My mother seemed to come to terms with the fact that I really didn’t remember anything about this life after a while, and she began talking with my father and I. It was quite nice to have her talking instead of bawling.
“Benjamin,” she called out as I was walking out the door, “Do forgive me for all my crying. You’re my baby boy and it just pains me to think that you don’t remember this life.”
The next few days were quite busy. I had people coming in for last minute suit sittings, different people coming in and out of the palace with flowers and food, and to my surprise, there were suitors showing up days before they needed to be here. Even more surprising than the amount of suitors showing up early was the amount of regular citizens showing up at the palace quotes.
“Looks like another suitor,” Bex called from the window as she watched another carriage come through the gates on Saturday morning.
I sighed, trying to keep my movement to a minimum as one of our servants did one last check on my suit.
“You don’t seem to excited about this thing Ben,” Bex said, turning to face me.
“I guess not,” I replied, wondering if I should tell her about the boy I had begun dreaming about, “It’s just that I feel like I already have someone.”
Bex moved from her seat at the window to stand in front of me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, with the whole forgetting this life my brain seemed to have given me a different life. In that life there was a boy and, even though I can’t remember him, I know I loved him. Since you, mum and dad, some of the suitors I’ve seen come in, and even some of the workers here were in that other life, I figured why couldn’t he be in this one?”
“No offense Ben,” Bex started, taking a nonchalant attitude, “But what you just told me makes you sound pretty close to insane.”
“That’s what I figured you would say but seriously, that’s how I feel. I don’t want to go to this thing and meet these guys when I already know who I want.”
“And what if he’s at this thing?” she said standing back at the window but looking at me worriedly.
“Well, no matter what I have to go so if he is there I shouldn’t be able to miss him.”
“Ben, maybe you should tell dad about this and he can send everyone home.”
I shook my head as Jameson yelled, “Sir! Your gentlemen are starting to appear in the hall! You must get down there and start greeting them!” through the door.
“I cant. And besides,” I said walking out the door, “All these guys wouldn’t be able to just leave in the first place. I’m not crazy Bex, don’t worry.”
“Ah, Benjamin, there you are,” my father said when I got down to the Great Hall. “Where have you been all day?”
“Uh, I was with Bex most of the day and then they just did a last minute suit fitting. Why did they do that anyway since I already had my suit ready?” I said pulling on the collar of my gray suit.
My father waved his hand in a dismissive gesture like this question didn’t matter. “Measuring for future suits. Now you need to get over to that door and start greeting your guests.”
As soon as my father turned away, I heaved a big sigh. This was really the last thing I wanted to be doing.
After half an hour of greeting men in, Bex came and told me I could quit.
“Thank you!” I said in an exaggerated exasperated voice.
Bex grinned at me like she knew something I didn’t. Of course, given the circumstances, she knew a lot of things that I didn’t, but I got the feeling that the thing she wasn’t telling me was not going to make me a happy camper.
“So Ben,” she started with that grin still plastered to her face, “Who are you going to dance with first?”
“Dance with?” I exclaimed. I sort of wished I had had something to drink then so I could’ve done a spit take. Even though the palace was packed making in inevitable that I would have spit on someone, it would have been awesome.
“Of course Ben,” she replied while her grin somehow seemed to get larger. “How else did you think you were going to get to know these men?”
I seriously could have killed someone. I had been around the palace, hearing about the details for this thing, for five days and yet no one seemed to have thought it of any importance to tell me that I would have to dance. It would have been nice to know, seeing as I know I can’t dance to save my life. If I had maybe been able to get some tips from someone that could dance I probably wouldn’t have been this mad.
“Why didn’t anyone think to tell me about this unfortunate detail?”
“I guess everyone just figured you would know. I get the whole memory loss, I only remember some other life thing messed up most of the details but if you think about it, it’s sort of known, no matter what life you remember, that dancing is something people do at formal get-togethers,” Bex explained as we walked through the crowd of patiently waiting men to where our parents stood, waiting for our arrival.
Right before we were in our parents’ field of vision, I threw Bex a look that plainly said I was annoyed. “Thank you so very much Rebecca,” I said and, knowing how much my sister hated being addressed by her full name, walked quite a bit faster so she wouldn’t hit me.
“Benjamin! Rebecca!” my mom said with a sweet smile before hugging us both. “Now that you two are here we can get this started.”
After a speech from my dad about how this night would be important in me finding the person who I was going to spend the rest of my life with and him explaining some of the duties that my chosen husband would inherit, he got the band to start playing and I was thrust into the large gathering of men.
Most of the men that my parents had invited were men of royalty, most were not princes although there were a few that were princes but wouldn’t inherit the throne. All of the men, even though they were all the same level in royalty, were dressed pretty much the same. Everyone was in some sort of suit, the colors differed some but everyone wore a suit, and they also wore nice, obviously recently shined, shoes. Their hair seemed perfect, or nearly perfect, without a single hair out of place and even with the guys’ hair that looked messy you would tell that they had purposefully done it that way.
After a few hours of dancing, I felt like I had danced with almost every guy in the place. It probably wasn’t true, since from watching them show up I knew that there were a lot of men here, but it still felt like it. After all that time and all the guys I had talked with, I knew I hadn’t found him. Not one guy I had talked to had made any real impression, they had all been too similar for any one of them to have been special.
“So, have you found some choices?” my father asked, coming up behind me while I stood trying to cool down.
I sighed and ran my hand through my sweaty hair; I wished someone would open the doors or something. “:No, there isn’t one guy I have talked to so fat that made me even think there was a possibility we could stay together for the rest of our lives.”
“That isn’t very good to hear Benjamin,” he said releasing a sigh of his own.
“I know dad.”
“Maybe you’re being too picky. Why don’t you take a break outside, get some fresh air? I’ll tell the gentlemen that you’ll be right back and then you can come back in when you’re ready.”
Nodding, I made my way to the door that would eventually get me outside while my father got the men’s attention and told them I would be back. I was glad he hadn’t told them where I was going; if he had I knew some of them would have followed me and tried to force me into choosing them. That’s just not something I plan on doing.
Once I got outside I was glad my father had suggested it. This week had been so crazy that I hadn’t been able to just sit around and think, not I could.
The weather seemed to be perfect. The now dark shy was littered with stars and the moon was shining brightly, bathing everything on the grounds in might. There weren’t even wisps of cloud in the sky, making the night perfectly clear.
The light that the moon and starts were giving off gave me a chance to look around the grounds, even though it was dark.
Off in the distance, in the direction of the gates, I could hear the faint sounds of horses eating. When the men had showed up in their stagecoaches, my father had had them stop at different parts near the gates so if someone wanted to leave early they would be close to the gates but the horses would be far enough away from the palace so they wouldn’t get spooked and no one inside would get annoyed . I guessed it was a good idea, I just didn’t see how anyone would get annoyed since the horses were way over there and the noises they made would be drowned out by the talking and the music inside.
Just when I was starting to get carried away with my thoughts I heard rustling coming from the buses that were planted on the side of the stairs.
“Hello?” I called out, slowly making my way down the stairs and over to the front bust.
The only answer I got was more rustling.
“Who’s there?” I called while I tried to bring my heartbeat back to normal.
As I was convincing myself, or at least trying to, that the noise was probably coming from the wind or a small animal, a man stepped out from behind the buses.
I screamed.
“Prince Benjamin!” he said eyes wide and hands up. “I’m so sorry for scaring you!”
Taking deep breaths, I nodded and said, “It’s alright.”
Once my breathing was back to normal, I took a chance to give this guy a good once over. He was actually the only guy I had really found attractive all night. The guy had short, ginger colored hair and beard, blue eyes, pale skin that wasn’t too pale that he looked like a vampire but pale enough to look good. He had on shined, black leather shoes, gray dress pants like mine, a while, long-sleeved, button up shirt, and a gray vest. Slung over his arm was a gray jacket.
“What’s your name?” I asked him, noticing his face go red.
“Daniel Worsnop.”
“Oh,” I said thinking that for some reason that name sounded familiar. “You didn’t come out here hoping to make me like you, did you?”
“No, of course not, I came out here because I am leaving.”
Tilting my head to the side, I asked, “Why are you leaving?”
Daniel smiled shyly at me and I swear I almost fell to the ground. “Uh, I didn’t think the prince would like me compared to all of those other rich gentlemen,” he said softly, making me have to strain to hear him.
“Why wouldn’t I like you?”
“All those men in there are rich and handsome. They can give you things that I cannot.”
“What do you mean?”
“Benjamin, I really don’t know how I got an invitation. I own the bakery in town and that’s it. I don’t have a lot of money, this suit cost me four months’ pay. I knew I would only wear it once but I had to see you. Those men in there can buy you all sorts of fancy things that I cannot.”
“Daniel,” I said since it seemed we were on a first name basis, which I kind of liked, “I don’t know how you got an invitation either. I’m not supposed to tell anyone this but for the past few days I have been trying to play catch up because I don’t remember anything about this life. My parents told me that I have met most of the men inside but I don’t remember every seeing them before. Before whatever happened I probably would have been able to pick a guy by name and be done with this but I can’t so I’ve had to go back through and meet these guys all over again. You’re the first one I’ve met all night that didn’t act like he knew he was the one I would pick,” I put my hand on Daniel’s shoulder gently. “I like how real you’ve treated me so far.”
Daniel blushed. “I like you,” he said, smiling sadly.
Knowing that now I had met Daniel and liked him better than anyone else inside, I sat down on the stairs and motioned for him to do the same.
“So,” I said thinking about Bex’s and my father’s warning, “Do you actually like men or do you just want to become king?”
“Well Benjamin, I was going to leave because I figured you wouldn’t like me compared to everyone else in there, so what do you think?”
I felt a blush creep up onto my cheeks. “Uh, I’m guessing you actually like men.”
“Nah, I just wanted to be kind,” he said making me whip my head in his direction.
By the grin on his face I could tell he was just joking.
“Oh, okay,” I replied, making my voice sound sad.
“No, no, no, no, no! I wasn’t being serious! I was just joking.”
I turned to him with a grin on my face. “I know.”
“Oh,” he said, visibly relaxing, “I thought you thought I was being serious.”
“Nope, I saw you grinning and knew you were joking.”
Daniel blushed again, making me think that he was gorgeous when he blushed. Not that he wasn’t gorgeous when his face was blush-free; it was just that the red tint of embarrassment seemed to add the look of innocence.
After a while of talking with Daniel, I knew I had found my future king. Actually, I had known it when we had first started talking, but then it had been more of an ‘okay, he seems like a good guy’ thing and now it was more of an ‘I could definitely spend the rest of my life with this guy’ feeling. Daniel was nice, funny, he wasn’t overly cocky, although he had his moments, and he didn’t seem to expect me to be utterly perfect.
“Daniel,” I said starting to pick at my pants, “I don’t want to ruin this, but I have to.”
When I said that, Daniel’s eyes went huge.
“No, not that way. I mean, when I came out here, it was to get away from the men inside. Every single one I had talked to acted as if I was his property, as if he had already been crowned king. I was getting frustrated and tired of this whole thing. None of those guys had acted like they cared about one thing I had said. Just by talking to them for a couple of minutes each I had known they only cared about themselves and what they would gain. I had started to think that I wasn’t going to find one guy that I thought would be king material, then I met you. You don’t act like nothing is important except for what you have to say. You treat me like a human being and you are the first that I’ve met that hasn’t acted like I was a prize to be won. I love listening to you talk, I find what you have to say interesting and important. When you blush you look gorgeous and I love it when you smile,” I paused, looking for the best way to say what was needed. “Daniel, I want you to be my king.”
Even though there was suddenly a lot more light illuminating us than there had been before, Daniel took my hands in his and looked me dead in the eyes. “I would be glad to be your king Benjamin.”
“Well that’s good,” my father said behind us, making Daniel drop my hands quickly and both of us to snap our heads in his direction. “By the way it was looking while you were inside I figured we would have to plan another one of these. Now come in boys.”
Daniel stood up first, making it a point to help me up to hold my hand.
He smiled at me. “I like the way your hand feels in mine,” he whispered.
Thankfully, my father didn’t hear that. I really didn’t know how my father was going to react with this. Would he act all protective and put limits on the amount of time Daniel and I spent together and what we did in that time? Or would he hide how he felt about me marrying Daniel so that there would be a king?
As these questions were swarming through my head, my father led Daniel and I, with our hands holding the others tightly, through the crowd of angry looking men. As we passed the guys that were standing closest to where we were walking, they would notice our hands, their faces would turn angry, they would quickly turn around to tell the men behind them, and the pattern kept on. Looking at them it seemed like they were playing a big game of telephone but I didn’t figure that the angry faces were part of the game.
“They don’t look to happy,” Daniel said as we walked through the men. How they kept splitting for us to walk through was pretty sweet even if the glares kind of took away the effect.
“Whatever,” I said shrugging my shoulders, “Most of them probably just came because they wanted to be king anyway. They deserve a little disappointment.”
Daniel chuckled and we kept walking silently until my father stopped and turned around.
My father grabbed a glass and a spoon and started hitting them together to get everyone’s attention. Very slowly the room got quiet, it happened much faster after the band was silenced, and he started talking.
“Thank all you gentlemen for coming, you were all very good suitors, but my son has found his king,” he turned around and grabbed my arm, pulling Daniel and I to stand next to him. “My son, Benjamin Bruce, has picked Daniel Worsnop for his king. Let’s wish them good fortune for the many, many years they have to come with each other.”
Once my father had finished talking he wished us good luck and disappeared into the crowd.
“Oh Benjamin, you two look so adorable together!” my mother exclaimed, coming over to Daniel and I and hugged us both tightly.
“Good luck big brother,” Bex said as she too walked over to us. “Now you two have to dance.”
I swear I died a little when she said that and, by the look on his face, I thought Daniel had too.
“What do you mean, dance?” Daniel asked.
Bex busted out in laughter, probably taking in the looks of horror she was getting from the two of us. “As a new, royal couple, you have to dance together.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”
“Same reason we didn’t tell you that you’d have to dance with everyone else.”
Rolling my eyes I said, “Well thanks!”
“Oh calm down and get out there. A lot of people are leaving already anyway, they are too disappointment by their loss to want to watch you two dance.”
Bex and my mother walked away after that, leaving Daniel and I by ourselves.
Daniel looked at me with a glint in his eye and a smile on his face that was contagious enough to make me smile back. “May I have this dance?” he said holding his hand out to me.
Even though I really didn’t want to dance, I took his hand anyway and walked out to the dance area with him.
“You have gorgeous eyes,” he told me after both of us got used to dancing with the other.
I blushed. “Thank you,” I managed to say even though I had my chin almost on my chest. I knew I wasn’t a good dancer and I was actually a little embarrassed to show him how bad of a dance I was so early in our relationship.
“Benjamin,” he said removing his hand from my hip to hook two fingers under my chin to pull my face up, “You are a wonderful dancer.”
I just smiled softly.
After a few more minutes, and his putting his hand back on my hip, he put his hand on the back of my neck and smiled at me. I knew what he wanted, I had actually thought of doing the same but had become too embarrassed to do so, and leaned my face close enough to his so that our lips were almost touching, but not quite.
We were so close that every breath he pushed out blew a soft gust of warm air onto my awaiting lips. I didn’t want to be the one to start the kiss but his breath was driving me crazy.
Suddenly, instead of his breath, I felt his soft, warm lips pressed lovingly against mine. The kiss was passionate, it was loving, and it was everything I had expected it to be and more. The kiss, just like everything Daniel did, took my breath away.
After a few moments, both of us pulled away with big grins plastered to our faces. I was staring at Daniel’s eyes when black spots started invading my vision. I didn’t understand what was going on or why it was happening but after a few minutes everything went completely black. The last thing I heard before blacking out was Daniel saying, “Goodnight Ben, I love you.”
…
I woke up with a start, throwing an arm off of my stomach, and looking around quickly. There was no chandelier above my bed, just a regular fan. Next to my beat up desk was my pair of beat up Cans and my beat up jeans were laying on the back of the chair in the corner.
Lying next to me, looing to be sound asleep still despite the fact that his arm had just been jerked up, was Daniel, or as I knew to call him, Danny. All the fancy stuff had been a dream, a pretty good one, but a dream all the same. Part of me was glad it had been a dream but another part of me wasn’t, sure I would have been king and everyone called me Benjamin, but my parents had still been together.
“Ben?” Danny said beside me, rubbing his eyes. “Are you okay?”
I laid back down and cuddled into Danny’s side, loving everything about him from his tattoos and facial hair down to the way he smelled like beer and soap. “I just had a dream.”
“Okay, are we going back to sleep now?” he said, sounding very tired still but happy.
“Yeah, we are.”
“Okay. Goodnight Ben, I love you.”
With a smile on my face, I snuggled deeper into Danny’s side. “Goodnight Danny,” I said knowing he was already asleep. “I love you too.”