Love Me Never

21| Poet

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

Poet

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

Chapter 21: Poet (Ava's POV)

"Stop freaking out," Ashton mumbled. 

"Stop freaking out? I have a literal tiara on my head, Ashton. I'm wearing a crown." 

"You're a princess, of course, you're wearing a crown." 

"Does that sound right to you? Me being a princess?" 

"Oh, it's crooked," he chuckled fixing it. 

I smacked his arm. "Ashton!" 

"What?" He laughed at me. "Look, everyone left already, we're leaving now too. I'll see you later, okay? Bye." He gave me a quick side hug before waving at Rhys, who was dismissing all of tonight's staff. 

"Ashton," I mumbled. 

"Hmm?" 

"Please call me if you speak to Brooke. And tell her to call me too, I want to talk to her." 

He nodded before catching up to my parents and leaving with them. 

Rhys walked over to me after all the staff left and fixed my crown like he did the night we got married. "The crown looks good on you," he nodded, smiling softly. 

"Does it?" I asked softly, staring up at him. I wanted nothing more than to cave in tonight and it took every little square inch of me not to. I wanted to tell him he was forgiven and I didn't care at all about what went down between us because when I'm with him, all I want to do is kiss him and let things go back to how they were between us. But I held back. And it completely drained me tonight. I don't know how I'm going to get through the night without giving in to my desires but I know I can't give in so easily, especially not now, when he's still unwilling to tell me the truth. 

"It does," he answered. "Should we head upstairs now? Call it a night?" 

I nodded silently. 

He hesitated but grabbed my hand and led the way. I followed him out the door and upstairs to our room where he shut the door behind me while I sat on the edge of the bed, letting out an exhausted sigh. I kicked off my heels but before I could pick them up and tuck them back into the closet, he swooped down and picked them up, putting them where they belonged. I watched him while I grabbed the crown from my head and pulled it off, looking at the diamonds shining in it. 

They made me take an oath before crowning me. To be a righteous princess, to serve my kingdom, to put my citizens first, and to stand by the prince's side. To love my kingdom as much as I love my husband. I'm not sure if that was part of every princess's oath or just mine, but I was simply following orders tonight. 

I walked to the vanity and put the crown down before taking my earrings off, placing them in the drawer. It's draining. It's really, genuinely draining to keep hating the boy I once loved. There was a time where we would have done anything for each other, no questions asked. And now, we'd do anything for each other only because it's part of our duties. I was just standing there, zoned out when Rhys crept up behind me. I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts, my eyes meeting his through the mirror.