BXBX NOVEL Chapter 15 - Alternative
Once Samuel had managed to get away from Lena after she forced him to keep learning the waltz with, he managed to retreat to his room where he could take time to rest his sore feet. He wasn\'t sure how long he stuck in that miniature ballroom with her, but it had been long enough that his feet had gotten a fair amount of abuse. Lena seemed to think that the best way for him to learn the steps at a quicker pace would be for her to step on his feet each time he messed up or tried to shift from being in the role of the woman to leading the dance.
He couldn\'t deny the fact that she was a good dancer, but her attitude and temper made it less impressive to him as the thought of having to dance with her in the future made him wary.
Samuel shifted on the bed in such a way that it allowed for him to keep his feet resting at a slight elevation with the help of his pillows while he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to text his parents.
He knew that they were probably starting to worry about him again as he hadn\'t had a chance to text them since he had woken up in the morning. He found himself fumbling as he tried to compose a believable text for his parents. He hated lying to them about his situation, but he had only been there for a day and while him and Lena were not getting a long well and he was having a hard time believing that everything would work out between them, he didn\'t want to crush that hope for his parents yet.
So instead of focusing the text on his relationship with the little queen on how that was going, he focused on talking about the house and the surrounding property and how impressive that was. He hoped that if he talked about it in such a positive light, they might believe that everything was going well so far and that would by him some extra time to try and figure out how he was supposed to navigate the relationship between him and Lena.
Then one positive thing that he tired to remind himself of was that there was a possibility soon that he might be able to ride and motorcycle. That would be one thing that he could mark off his bucket list of items that he wanted to do. How was he supposed to know though if Lena felt that he had been behaving well enough for him to be allowed near her motorcycle.
Samuel had hardly been in his room texting his parents for ten minutes when he heard a knock on the door that made him tense slightly.
"Mind if I come in?" He immediately relaxed however when he recognized the voice on the other end of the door to belong to Leo and the princess as he was concerned.
"Sure." Samuel replied as he shifted from laying back to sitting up, he winced slightly as he moved his feet from how sore they were. Hopefully tomorrow wouldn\'t be another day filled with dance lessons.
"I just came to see how you feel after those dancing lessons?" Leo told the other as he came into the room. Samuel didn\'t get a chance to reply as Leo began to laugh at the look on his face "Lena has never been one for delicacy."
"Has she always been like this growing up?" The older boy asked as Leo closed the door behind him and made his way over to the bed.
"Always is a strong word to use. I would say that she has been like this for quite a while now, but I do remember that when were much younger that she used to be a much brighter more cheerful girl. Much less intimidating as well." Leo mused as he sat down at the bottom of the bed. "Finding her difficult to handle already?"
"I don\'t know. I haven\'t been here that long yet, but I would sooner rather than later like to find the right way to interact with her in order to determine if we can make this work or not." Samuel replied with a sigh as he ran his hand through his hair. "Plus, I don\'t think my feet will survive much more torture if I am going to be expected to continue attending those dance classes with her and she maintains that the best way to correct my form is continually step on my feet until I get the dance steps right."
"Lena will be Lena. I think even if you two do manage to work things out and the marriage goes through, that that part of her personality is something that won\'t be changing even over time. Instead, you will just either have to practice on your own more or figure out a way to learn things at a quicker pace." Leo replied with a laugh and shrug.
"I appreciate your honesty, but that wasn\'t quite the answer I was hoping to hear. But since you are her brother, you do know her far better than I do to be making these kinds of assertions." Leo didn\'t reply after the other finished speaking, instead he just stared at him with a rather thoughtful look on his face. Samuel didn\'t mind this at first as he was sure that the other had a lot on his mind but as the seconds dragged on he began to become rather uncomfortable by it and was about to ask what was wrong when Leo finally spoke.
"Well you do know, as the younger sibling, I am the more gentle and patient one out of the two of us. "Leo commented as a small smile ghosted onto his face. "You don\'t know that if you can\'t work it out with Lena, I am sure that I could speak with father and he could sort something out so that the marriage could be between us. At this point, I don\'t even think Lena would care one way or another."
"What?" Samuel asked after a few seconds of pausing as his mind tried its best to process what he just heard the other boy say. Leo tilted his head slightly as he shifted further up on the bed but not by too much as he didn\'t want to make the other boy uncomfortable.
"I thought I just explained myself clearly." Leo replied to let the other know that he wasn\'t mistaken in what he heard. "Of course, I don\'t know anything about your sexual orientation or interests. Personally, I am more interested in personality and intellect versus gender. I just met you, but so far, I have found you to have an adorable, charming personality."
"I don\'t mean to be rude considering your standing within this family and all, but I don\'t think I swing that way." Samuel replied, trying to keep the flustered feeling out of his voice as he replied. Leo just nodded his head slightly.
"I thought that you would say that, but from what I understand seeing as you haven\'t been in a relationship yet due to this arranged marriage, I think that perhaps you\'re haven\'t had time to develop your preferences and perhaps I could help with that." When Leo suddenly put his hand on the top of Samuel\'s knee, other reflectively pulled away, his eyes wide and his breathing short and shallow and he looked at the other as though he didn\'t know what to expect from him.
"You don\'t have to be so nervous. I already told you that I am not like my sister, so you don\'t have to worry about me being mean to you or pushing you into anything that you don\'t like. I am just allowing you to explore an alternative option in case things don\'t work out with my sister and your family cannot afford to pay back the money that they owe." Leo assured the other as moved further onto bed, moving in such a way that he was almost leaning over the other as the smile remained on his face and Samuel looked very much like a deer in headlight as he was trying to figure out what to do without upsetting the younger brother and risk making the current situation worse for him.