11 THE ONE WHERE SHE DREAMS

ROSABELLA'S POV

"You see the stars?"

I craned my neck and looked at the night sky. Stars lit the sky like snow-flakes in the night, yet appeared still, like an old photograph. I smiled, feeling the wind blow her hair into a tousled mane. The stars shone as sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the sun. The night sky was such a welcome sight, appearing like magic at each sunset, promising to return as she faded in dawn's first light. There were times in the daytime, under skies of blue, I would think of those faraway stars and how they'd return after the shadows blended into the dark.

"Yeah, Yeah I can. But they are so far away."

"Well, the star I love the most, isn't so far away."

I looked around the sky to find Sirius, or the dog star, but couldn't find it. Sirius was always his favorite.

"Where is it? I can't find it."

I let my head fall back on his shoulder because craning it for this long had begun to turn painful.

"It's right here."

I turned toward his face, and blushed almost immediately when I saw him looking at me. I grinned to suppress the fluster on my face, but it didn't work.

I then proceeded to hide my face in his warm chest, while he laughed out loud.

His chest rumbled while I enjoyed the sound of his heartbeat. It was loud and clear.

"Wait, don't hide your face, Rosa. I wanna see your red cheeks!"

I giggled and hugged his waist tighter.

The dates we did nothing but just stare into the night sky were my favorite.

His hand moved toward my waist and he squeezed. The redness had just left my face, when he brought it back.

Once second I was on top of him, and the next he flipped me under.

"Hale! There are people around!"

"So?"

I shook my head at him.

He nuzzled his face in my neck as his warm breath tickled me.

"For Daeg's sake, Rosa. You smell like Vanilla."

I smiled, remembering how I brought his favorite scented perfume and put it on tonight.

"Do I?"

"Mhm."

He kissed my neck once and I gasped slightly.

"Hal-"

He began to leave a trail of kisses all over my neck and my collarbone, as a small moan left my mouth. His warm kisses felt like they were setting me on fire.

I let my hand move towards his head and I held his hair.

My stomach was filled with butterflies, that i believed, would never stop fluttering.

I closed my legs, when I felt a pool of heat.

"Hal-, Oh God, Hale! We can't do this here!"

He kissed my jaw while I tried to form a sentence that would make him listen to me.

"Why" Another kiss, "not?"

I opened my eyes and saw him staring at me.

I trusted this boy with everything inside me.

"Hale, people are watching. And they talk. They talk loud. You know that."

He groaned and pulled away with one last kiss.

"Fine, your highness!"

I laughed at the irony.

"You know, you are the highness, Prince Hale. I am just a common girl here."

He shook his head and I knew I shouldn't have said that from the change of his demeanor.

"You know I don't want to be, Rosa. Plus, I too am a common boy. After all, there is still my brother."

I nodded as we fell back into those silences. The ones where we kept thinking about a future that felt so uncertain. But a future we still hoped we could live together.

"Hale?"

"Hmm?"

I closed my eyes, just to hear his heart beat and see nothing but us together in our future.

"I love you."

He smiled. I could feel that he did.

"I love you too, my Ros-"

"Your Majesty! You need to wake up soon, now. Your meeting with the Mortale King is today! And we can't be late. Lormeians can never be late!"

I opened my eyes and saw Mia staring at me as she huffed like she had just ran all throughout the castle.

"M-Mia! I am getting up. Just give me a minute or tw-"

"No, no your majesty! It is already too late. You need to be ready by now. We need to leave in two hours!"

I groaned and got out of the bed.

I tried to ignore and act like the dream I saw never happened.

But how long can I go on, pretending that it never happened?

How long can I lie to myself?

I still love him, but I hate how he doesn't even remember me.

But I guess, it's my fault.

After all, I did make him forget me.