Prince's Lies

Prince tucked in the drowsy Aria and her unstuffed hormones in a warm blanket inside her bedroom. He's already tired, but he managed to bring her upstairs. A lot of things ran inside his mind, and to think that Aria left him with no choice… it's sickening. At the same time, pity rushed through him.

He never promised someone unless it was his father.

Prince lied about loving Avery, casting his truest and grim shadows the day the Marriage Proposal is out. No one can actually know the truth in his eyes, because it was always a lie. Prince wondered how long gone his steps back on the path he desired to have for.

"Why are the results not the way I see it at first?"

Is it because he's pretending? That's why the real ones seemed unreal. That's why he thought everything he does is real, and it'd let him fit the puzzle he's trying to solve the first time he had the chance?

Aria slept peacefully. Like the first meeting, she looked the same. Gracefully, but exhausted in some places, like her hair automatically shone through, and her skin was flawless enough to hold in. Avery's spitting image was inside a mansion he brought himself… just for the sake of hiding her twin sister.

In a short amount of time, Prince visualized her death, getting stabbed by the dagger in his hand, and bleeding too much. But right now, he couldn't see it anymore. Whenever he imagined the scene out of his mind, Prince wanted to retract it and pierced the dagger in his abdomen.

He let the two women suffer in his hands, with the reason that his father needed a justice through revenge. Prince would admit he loathed Avery and her existence as a brilliant lawyer, but with Aria, it was different. Whenever he looked at her, Prince found her a beautiful flower waiting for the season to finally bloom.

She's still alive, no matter how the circumstances come in their way… the flower remained intact underneath the ground, growing its roots.

Aria was like a rose with its protruding but benign thorns. Prince held it like a poison, but she's mistaken to be one. He was the real venom, not Aria.

Aria shifted in her place, adjusting her head to the side, and cleared her throat, still sleeping, not minding the person beside her bed. Prince gawked at her features underneath the lamp light, and got entranced. His eyebrows arched together, and his fists knuckled involuntarily.

That second, his heart thumped louder, too.

Even the sound of his breathing, Bryce can hear it. He stayed away from any suspicion that might throw him aback. Justin and Rob wouldn't notice, but Bryce and Bea have keen eyes. Right now, they must be listening to the words he'd going to say.

He closed his eyes, turning his heel around, exhaling a large amount of air, and bit his bottom lip.

"I should go to my room. This isn't getting good," Prince complained.

He was about to come forward when suddenly, a hand grabbed him back, and its cold touch instantly freeze him to the floor. Stunned as it may, the only person who'd done it at sleep was Aria. She had a habit of grabbing someone—even a stranger—to her side, just to cling to them while she's having dreams. Or worst, nightmares.

Prince heard it from the maid downstairs, when Aria was taking a nap, she did it, too.

"Bryce…" she mumbled. Her face formed the sadness she stalled when she's sober. She fell asleep, but her mind run through Bryce even after the trauma. Aria wouldn't forget the child in her womb, and the one who brought the bliss in her life that'd last forever.

Prince wasn't the first, and would entirely not be the last.

"Bryce, don't… hit me…"

Her tone was full of annihilation. For sure, after Bryce heard it, he'd lose everything and run to her, to the mansion. The only thing that he can do for now… was to hold her hand. Prince slid his fingers down to her wrist, adjusting it to place, entwining it. The warmth radiated to the coldness, and it seemed to relax her a bit.

Aria turned at another side, mumbling indecipherable things, and didn't mind the hand holding her firm. Prince stared at their fingers linked, smiled faintly, and stared at Aria's jaw, asking, "Why did you have to say that to me? Why do I… found myself regretting to say no?"

…

Prince answered Bryce's call at exactly 12 midnight. He was washing up after calming Aria to sleep. Prince doesn't know the reason he phoned, but Bryce wouldn't settle an answer before going to bed if it wasn't about Aria. He frequently talked to him now, unlike the other times.

Prince asked, "Why? Did you hear what happened to both of us?"

Bryce tapped the earphones in his hand, rolling it through his finger, knotting it, but careful not to wreck the two apart. He sighed, staring across the wall where the vase of daffodils had been placed. Bryce planned to give it to Aria, but she's refuting to have a proper talk with him.

So it's not a good time to reconcile. It might take time to heal those broken and gratified wounds.

"I heard what she said. To tell you, I was beyond shitting to pieces, Prince. Aria must have fallen for you and your lies."

Prince turned off the faucet, looking at the phone, and gawked at the speaker mode. He wagged his hands to dry, reflecting if his moves were even alright in the first place. Prince turned on his mirror image, and stared at it for a long time.

"You know, it's more likely she believes it. She wouldn't say that to you if she doesn't mean it. Aria is a strong woman, Prince, but whenever a lie and a truth have the same face, she tended to pick the former."

Prince retrieved his cell phone from the sink's edge, tilted his head to one side, and wondered if it was the same thing going on inside his mind. What if he halted those lies? What if he said the truth? What would be their relationship be?

"What if I stop lying to her?" Prince asked. Bryce raised his eyebrows.

He contemplated for a while, starting to doubt whether he had the right to continue it.

"What if you said the truth to her? Would you even know carry the circumstances you brought to yourself?"