“What do you do for fun Riley?” I ask surprising myself with the question.
“For fun...?” He asks pondering my question. “I would like to dance with a beautiful girl, which seems like fun.”
“Dancing? Interesting, I would have never guessed.” I whisper, mostly to myself.
“Yeah.”, He says gazing at the moonlight, his eyes reflect the moonlight casting a silver hue in them. He whispers something underneath his breath and my favorite song begins to play. Frank Sinatra belts out Fly Me to the Moon and I feel like me and Riley are sent to another wonderful time where troubles don't exist. The fireflies dance and spin rhythmically to the music. He stands up and holds his hand out to me. “Would you care to dance with me, enchanting princess?”
I stand up and take his hand. He grabs me and spins me gracefully in circles, and then we dance completely in tune to each other. We can't take our eyes off each other and the way he moves his body and takes the lead makes me want to fall to my knees. I follow his steps and we keep getting closer and closer our noses are touching now and I can see his eyes full of hope and longing. I feel his hot breath against my cheek and the way his hands wrap tightly and securely around me making me feel safe. The next moment we are kissing and holding each other in a heated fashion. I don't want to let go because it's everything I had hoped it would be. He kisses with such intensity that I feel like I might black out from lack of oxygen but then I feel that if he leaves me I'll crumble to pieces falling to the ground. The song ends and he pulls away from me. He looks down at my neck and scoffs.
“What's wrong?” I ask.
“Who gave you that?” he asks in a strong powerful voice.
“Theo.”, I whisper.
“Of course he did. Well you're supposed to be mine, Ali. I'm supposed to be your soul mate he's just playing tricks with you.” He says looking down at his feet glumly.
He looks up at the moon, gazes up at the stars thoughtfully, and then walks back inside leaving me alone and confused. What just happened? One minute Riley wanted to be friends and the next minute he's playing my favorite song and we're kissing. Why does everything have to be so complicated? I walk back inside dazed; most of the crowd is leaving and my brother spots me and he looks furious. I try to dodge his gaze and walk back to my room without seeing Theo or Riley but they're both standing next to each other arms crossed and angry scowls on their faces arguing about something. I decide to get closer to hear what they're arguing about even though I can already guess.
“Listen Riley, Ali is mine. You're a wolf and you can't just come to the Elven kingdom on a whim. You can't say that you're her soul mate because I found her first.” Theo whispers angrily. They're trying to stay quiet so they don't draw too much attention.
“I am half-elf and I can come here whenever I feel like it Theo. The princess and I had a connection and she is my soul mate.” He whispers furiously back. I walk up to them with my longest strides possible and grab them by the collars to bring them somewhere more private.
“Listen. If one more person calls me their soul mate, I will literally check myself into an insanity ward. I am not your soul mate Riley and I am not your girl Theo. I'm tired of this and you two need to just leave me alone.” I shout, and angrily storm down the hall, leaving their begging and protesting far behind me. I can't wait to escape all this chaos and be wrapped up in my down feather covers. I angrily find my room which is a miracle because the doors all look so similar. I decide that I'm going to make a sign so that I'll never get lost and I can always find my serene bedroom. I open the windows letting the moonlight come in and the cool breeze from the outside blows my curtains. I turn on the light switch next to the door and open up my laptop which had been placed on my vanity. I open up word and begin making my sign. Alison's Bedroom it reads in large block letter and a dark purple font. I hit print and a printer turns on making a loud, creaky, ancient noise. I'm thankful that someone found my computer and installed a printer so that I could have something to focus on other than the two crazy attractive boys fighting for my affection. I leave the sign on my vanity and strode to my closet. I have so many choices that I'm not sure what to wear to bed so I grab a white lacy teddy with matching shorts. I quickly change and then I hear them arguing outside my door, I am becoming infuriated with these two. I open the door wide and let them see me in my see through pajamas. They both fall silent and Riley whistles.
“Leave now, or I will have you both beheaded.” I shout frustrated.
“Oh, I like a feisty woman.” Riley mocks.
“You look stunning.”, coos Theo.
“Shut it, Riley. Thank you Theo.” I say, my temper rising again because of Riley's remark.
“You have to pick one of us to stand guard for you tonight.” Theo says.
“I have to what?” I ask, angry because I can't even get peace in my own bedroom. “I'm not choosing one of you to stand here all night. I need some peace and quiet so both of you do me a favor and leave.” I shout slamming the door to prove a point, and locking my door for safe measure. Really, when it will end, I think to myself.
“Probably never”, Theo answers.
“Get the hell out of my head Theo”, I command in my most authoritative mind voice.
“Sorry, we're in to close proximity to each other.” he says behind the door.
“Fine then go far enough away to where you can't read my thoughts and take wolf-boy with you.” I answer.
It becomes silent outside and in my head, after a few moments, so I jump into my bed and start to remove the dozens of covers piled high. I finally find the end and crawl beneath it but then I realize there are too many pillows so I have to throw a few across the room, although placing them next to me would have probably got the job done but I have to let my frustration out somehow. After a few minutes my eyelids become heavy and I fall fast asleep in a deep peaceful sleep. I dream about the knight again. He's riding a big black horse and wearing silver armor; His face is covered and I can't see who it is. I can see myself tied to a table and a man laughing manically above me but I can't see anything else and then the dream ends. I wake up and look around, but it's still dark out so I close my eyes again forcing myself to go back to sleep listening to the relaxing sounds of the bubbling stream and the croaking toads.