Chapter 47: The Unexpected Invitation

Astrid

I didn’t answer right away. I hadn’t expected anyone to ask me anything, let alone this.

Ivy stood nearby, practically holding her breath. I glanced toward Reed and Xander, both of them close enough to have heard the whole thing. Xander’s expression had gone strangely unreadable. Reed simply watched, saying nothing.

I turned back to the boy in front of me. "I... don’t know."

He smiled, a little awkward, entirely sincere. "That’s okay. You don’t have to answer right now."

He introduced himself properly, someone from another class I vaguely recognized from the competition sidelines. "I’ve seen you during the competitions," he said. "You seemed different."

"Different?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"In a good way." He held my gaze a moment longer, then added that he hoped I’d consider it, before turning and walking off with a wave.

The second he was gone, Ivy grabbed my arm. "Someone just asked you to the ball."

"I noticed."

"And you didn’t say yes!"

"Because I don’t know him."

"That’s the whole point of going to a ball," she said. "You meet people."

"Or embarrass myself in front of hundreds of people."

"Exactly," she said, delighted.

I laughed despite myself.

"Do you think he’s cute?" she asked.

"A little," I admitted reluctantly.

"A little?"

"Fine. He’s attractive."

She celebrated like I’d just announced an engagement.

Xander approached a few minutes later, his usual grin present but somehow slightly off. "So."

"So?" I asked.

"That was interesting."

"Someone asking me to a ball?"

"Yes."

"You considering it?" he asked, trying for casual.

"Maybe."

A tiny pause followed before he glanced toward where the boy had disappeared. "What’s his name?"

I told him.

"Do you know him?"

"No."

He nodded. "Good."

"Why is that good?" I asked.

He smiled quickly. "Because if I knew him, I’d have to pretend to like him."

I laughed, though something in his reaction lingered longer than the joke warranted.

"You could do worse," he added.

"That’s a glowing endorsement."

"I’m basically giving you permission."

"I don’t need your permission," I said, laughing.

His smile faltered for half a second. "I know."

He changed the subject almost immediately after that, and I noticed the shift without fully understanding why it mattered.

I found myself alone with Reed later that afternoon, the two of us walking back from class in comfortable silence.

"Are you going to the ball?" he asked.

"Maybe."

"Because of the invitation?"

I nodded. He didn’t react right away. "You should go with whoever you want," he said finally.

I studied him. "That’s all?"

"What else should I say?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. A quiet moment stretched between us before I asked, "Would you go?"

"The ball?"

"Yes."

"I’m expected to."

That wasn’t the question I’d asked. "Would you want to?"

He looked ahead, not at me. "I’m not sure." That answer bothered me more than it had any right to.

I thought about that conversation for the rest of the day, unable to fully understand why his hesitation had landed so heavily. It shouldn’t matter who he attended with. He had his own life, his own responsibilities as an heir. Of course he’d probably show up with someone else eventually.

Would Xander ask me? The thought slipped in uninvited, and I dismissed it immediately.

They were my friends. That was all this was.

The boy found me again later that day, less nervous than before. He asked if I’d had time to think.

I admitted I had.

"You don’t have to promise me anything," he said gently. "It’s just one night."

That made the decision easier somehow. I found myself actually wanting to experience something ordinary for once, a dress, music, dancing, laughing with Ivy, maybe even enjoying the company of someone who was genuinely interested in me without any complicated history attached.

"Okay," I said.

His face lit up. "Really?"

"Really."

He thanked me and left, and I stood there for a moment, oddly pleased with myself.

Xander found out fast. "You said yes?" he asked, his voice dissatisfied.

"Yes."

He forced a grin. "Good."

"You don’t sound happy," I said, watching him closely.

"I’m thrilled."

"You’re terrible at lying."

Something real flickered across his face for a second before he covered it with humor. "I’m just worried he’ll step on your feet."

"I’ve survived worse," I said, laughing.

"Yeah," he said, quieter now. "You have."

The line carried more weight than the joke should have allowed.

Reed heard about it not long after. His reaction, or lack of one, was almost worse. "You accepted?" he asked.

"Yes."

"All right."

I waited. Nothing else came.

"That’s it?" I asked.

"What did you expect?" he said.

I didn’t know. That was exactly the problem. I realized, standing there, that I’d wanted some kind of reaction from him, and I couldn’t explain why that mattered so much.

"Nothing," I said finally.

"Then nothing," he said, and walked away.

I watched him go, my chest tight in a way I couldn’t quite name.

The next academy announcement interrupted whatever tension had been building all day. The Headmaster confirmed the formal opening ceremony for the ball, and because Reed and Xander were senior royal students, they’d both been selected to participate in the opening dance.

Whispers spread through the hallway instantly.

Ivy glanced at me. "Oh."

I looked toward the twins. Several students had already crowded around Xander, and Reed was speaking with an academy official near the front. I found myself picturing them both dressed formally, dancing, with someone who wasn’t me.

The thought bothered me far more than it should have.

Across the crowd, Xander glanced up and caught me staring. For a moment neither of us looked away. Then his gaze dropped, almost imperceptibly, toward the direction the boy had gone earlier, the invitation I’d already accepted.

Something shifted in his expression.

Reed noticed the exchange, his own eyes moving toward me a beat later.

Three of us, three separate thoughts, none of them spoken aloud.

I looked away first, telling myself I’d made the right choice.

After all, it was just a ball.

But somehow, standing there in that hallway, it didn’t feel like just anything anymore.