Chapter 24: CHAPTER 20.0: The Festival

I frowned. “You can always drink water; I want to enjoy the festival. Would it be weird if we just stayed together?”

Lexus looked around. “It’s not like we planned this, if anyone asks, we’ll just tell them what happened.

They’ll assume I’m just being nice since you have no other choices.” I was more excited to be with Lexus at the festival than Calvin.

“Oh, how selfless of you,” I said sarcastically. We started walking. “Do you really see me as your friend?”

“Yeah, I do,” Lexus answered while looking over the crowd. Knowing that he saw me as a friend made me feel like we really were getting close. “That’s the main reason I asked Cade to help us earlier. We didn’t need the extra help. I thought you could spend a little time with your brother.”

I blushed. “That was nice of you.” I stared at his hand but knew I couldn’t hold it. I saw Arma with her family and she looked like she was forcing herself to look happy.

We went to sit down to watch a dancing performance. Since I was with the prince security made sure we got seats up front. It was traditional and tasteful. “Why didn’t you go with Calvin and Sadia?” I whispered halfway through the performance.

“It’s not like they needed me. I doubt Ruben wants to see me helping his pack, it’ll just make him resent me more,” He explained. “I also wasn’t sure if you’d be okay being left alone like that.”

I thought it was sweet until I saw him staring at a girl five minutes later. “What’re you doing that for?”

Lexus looked at me and chuckled. “You’re jealous? It’s cute but you don’t really get to be jealous.”

“Do you care about Sadia at all?”

Lexus glared at me. “Of course I do, but me and Sadia haven’t been together for long. We didn’t even date or anything.” We went straight into engagement and we were just friends before.” Then what changed so quickly? “I honestly don’t think she expects me to be monogamous, at least not until we’re officially mated. The only reason I’m sneaking around is out of respect for her. You don’t need to be jealous of random girls who you’re more attractive than anyways.”

I didn’t speak for the rest of the performance. “If you weren’t engaged would we..?” I asked while I stood up and clapped.

Lexus stood up. “Be together?” Lexus looked down at me to the side of his eyes. “Probably not since you’re the holder, our status conflicts with one another.”

Sadia wasn’t our only obstacle. “And you’re okay with that?” We walked away from the crowd.

Lexus didn’t answer my question; instead, he stopped in a line for the Ferris wheel. It was the only ride they had. Again, we didn’t have to actually wait in line, we were let right on. “What was your human family like?”

We started moving up and I held onto Lexus as we rocked. We were in the type of Ferris wheels with a door. None on the ground would be able to see us. “I told you about my parents so there’s not much to say about them I loved my siblings.” I pulled out my phone and started showing him pictures. As I swiped a picture of me, and ex showed up and I deleted it.

“Is that the guy who broke up with you because you’re too submissive?” I never told Lexus that, so I wasn’t expecting him to bring it up.

My face was deep red. “Oh yeah… how do you know about that?”

“Sadia told me. He’s an idiot.” He laid back as we rocked.

I laid back and he put his arm around me. It felt romantic especially because the stars were out, and the festival lights were even more eliminated. “Lie to me.” I closed my eyes.

“Okay.” He held me closer. “If I weren’t with Sadia then we would be together. I wouldn’t let tradition, or my parents stop us.”

“You’d be the first one.”

“The first one to do what exactly?” He asked for clarification.

“To love me and stay…” My eyes started to water as I thought about all the rejection I’ve been through.

“I will then, I’ll break off my engagement.”

I chuckled. “No you won’t.”

“I’m serious Aqua, I’m going to break it off so we could be together, that’s all I want.” He played in my long kinky curly hair. “You’re everything I want for my future. So much that I’d even give up my being King for you.”

“You can’t just leave Sadia.”

We were at the top now “I don’t love her; I feel more for you.”

I started crying because I knew it was all lying, I loved hearing them, but it wasn’t real. “You can stop…

I don’t want you to lie anymore.” I opened my eyes. We started to go back down.

Lexus sat up and wiped my tears away. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. I don’t want to hurt you Aqua.”

“I know….”

He kissed me at my most vulnerable and I kissed him back. The tears didn’t stop. He wiped the rest of my tears away before we got to the very bottom. We got off and went to eat. We got food from a food truck and sat down at a table. It tasted so much better than anything I ate in the human world. “Wow this is so good.” It took my mind off all the emotions I was feeling. I rocked back and forth in joy.

Lexus stared at me the whole time, even when we weren’t speaking. “It’s a meal only served on special occasions. They say the recipe calls for a little bit of pixie dust as a spice.”

I wasn’t sure how pixie dust tasted but if that’s what made it so good then it was maybe the best ingredient ever. Participating in dragon shifter culture pleased my dragon self and the rest of myself too.