Feather After // Chapter 41 // Equally We Stand Tall

Aria's POV

Flashes, silver lights and bright white light of such strong intensity was being flashed on my face, that I felt that even I tried my best to keep my eyes open and look as elegant as I could I would fail. I shut my eyes in hope that it could end soon. I stood in between two large Royal staircases on a platform which had a board of the Royal society behind it. Ballare was written on it, with such elegant strokes that it could even make a billionaire feel like a peasant. It was written in a pink color with a hint of blue here and there. The whole board was white and a golden crown was engraved on the back of it.

The Royal Meet 2017.

Where Princess Becomes Queen,

And

Prince Becomes King.

What they had failed to realize was that the princess could become kings too. Who said we couldn't, I mean if it was goals for men to know how to cook, then women could earn money as well. I wish the slogan of the Royal meet was something like that.

The Royal Meet 2017

Where Men And Women Are Equal,

And

Both Can Become Anything They Want.

I put my hand on my waist and lifted my chin a little bit higher. Maybe I was giving the resting bitch face. That's what was expected of me. If I had done any other face, my mother would have killed me. She would have stopped right there and then and would have scolded me in front of the fifty-sixty cameramen, representing various tabloids, gossip magazines, television news and newspapers, all around America. I remember my mother saying "if you make that duck face, or that goat face, I'll personally come there, and you so don't want to get embarrassed."

When my mother nodded, I walked towards the right of the mini stage and someone else came on to the stage. I took a deep breathe and grabbed some of the gown on my right hand, so that I wouldn't trip while ascending the stairs. The stairs where so beautiful, the newel and the hand rails where covered in trails of white and red flowers. The riser and the tread were covered with red carpet and the stair stirrings were covered with white LED's making it look nothing but mesmerizing. The two stair cases met at the entrance on the first floor. The door of the first floor was decorated the same way. The white and the red flowers made everything look so great. It looked like all the flowers of the Seattle where plucked out and were used here. My mother looked at me, nodded and taking it as a signal I started walking towards the stairs.

"Are you ready," someone whispered in my ear and I nearly jumped. I looked at the person and it was no one but Zachariah, himself. He was wearing a black tux with a black tie along with a fleece jacket and a white rose in his pocket.

"What the hell? Did you j-"

"I was looking at you for the last fifteen minutes, you were too enchanted to look at me," he told me.

"Oh please, I look so great, that you can't take your bloody eyes off me," I flipped my hair and looked at him. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and smirked.

"Oh please, I would rather have my eyes eaten out by a mouse," he took a deep breath and continued, "now hold my damn hand. I don't want you to fall and bring our God damn name down with you."

I stomped on his foot and look his hand, "are you this bright everyday, or today is just special?" I smiled at him sweetly while he tried not to wince.

"What is wrong with you woman- oh I'm sorry, I forgot you're a man," he rolled his eyes. To be honest, I never thought Zachariah could be this sassy. I mean I had met him twice or thrice before and most of the time, he wouldn't even open his mouth. Words had to be prized out of his mouth like stones from the ground.

"I have a bigger dick than you at least," I mumbled and smiled at him. I liked this side of Zachariah more. He was insulting me and I was insulting him. The insult was mutual and so was the respect.

"You don't have a dick."

"That's the whole point," I looked at my mother and she was throwing daggers at me. Maybe we had just lost it. I started walking towards the stairs while I faked the best smile I could. Last thing I wanted to do was to pretend but I had no bloody options. Zachariah looked down at me. He opened his mouth to say something but then he closed it, "that's right, I leave people speechless."

"Concentrate!" He commanded and climbed on the stairs so fast as if King Kong was running after him. He dragged me and I don't know how I didn't fall.

We reached the top of the stairs and I wanted to leap in to the air. I had done such a good job. I was proud of myself. I let go of the piece of gown I was holding on to, like my life depended on it. I wanted to pat my back as say, 'good job, baby girl'. I left Zachariah's hand and as we walked towards the door I heard some soft music playing.

God, it was really one of the very formal dances. I saw a lot of people in there, smiling at each other. Some were leaning on to their loved ones, some just seeking attention and others just drinking champagne off their goblets while trying not to make it quite evident that they could potentially be drunk.

"Did the cat got your tongue, why are you so quite?" Zachariah asked me and we smiled at people. He shook hands with people and I just looked here and there. The interior of the place was on another level. There was a big chandelier hanging from the roof of the Middle of the dance floor. Yellow lights made everything look pretty, there were more that two thousands candle lit on the chandelier. The candles were the only source of light in the room. I'm afraid to say that the whole arrangement was very royal.

I wondered how much money they had put in to make it all look like the way it did. It was beautiful. There was no argument that could make it look less Royal than it already was.

But somewhere in my mind, I wanted to know how much money it took to make everything look that the way it did, I wanted to know about the money spent in everything. And I wanted to ask the owner that if they had used half of the money in feeding the poor and the people who were not born the way we're, how many blessing they would have gotten.

"Aria, darling," I heard someone say and I was soon engulfed in a big hug. She rubbed my back and then pulled me back. She then kissed both my cheeks and hugged me again. "You look just like your mother! So very pretty!" And she hugged me again.

"Mom, I think we have already established that she is pretty," someone said. And when I heard the voice I knew it was Ignatius. I could just feel it. What the hell was he going here?

Soon, my eyes fell on that one guy who I didn't want to see at all. The guy who gave me mixed reactions and the guy whom I literally slapped me after kissing my cheek. Ignatius was the guy who had very proudly and cleverly asked me to share him with Misty because he thought I was interested in some last minute booty calls.

Maybe it had taken me some time for me to realize but I wasn't interested in booty calls. I would rather be a nun than being with him for some fucks. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself, this is my son, and my wife will be somewhere around."

Ignatius was looking handsome. With his well carved jawline and his hair styled, I could easily, very easily, think that he was going for the GQ photo shoot. He wore a light grey tuxedo and black tie. The first two buttons of the white shirt were undone, revealing his chest tattoos. He looked great, very hot. But I just pretended I didn't see him, I pretended that I didn't think he was hot. I pretended that his presence did not affect me and that he didn't make my heart flutter.

"Where is your mom, I have not seen her for a very long time, it has been ages!" She said and smiled at me, she was wearing a blue gown and she was glowing. She looked young. Almost too young to look like the shithole's mum. Her hair was tied back in a very stylish ponytail and her presence oozed elegance.

"Isn't this dress, one of your mum's design? She was always good at this. You know she and I went to the same schoool," she smiled. She was very chatty. She was bubbly and she was real. When Ignatius rolled his eyes, she nudged him and didn't hesitate to shoot a glare at him.

"Yes, it is. I mean she told me it's not yet been released, the new collection I mean," I said and locked my arm around Zachariah's arm. Ignatius's presence was making me nervous. I didn't like the way, his presence affected me. I mean it was crazy and it was beyond my understanding capabilities. Loving him was like loving a cyclotron. He was unpredictable yet addicting.

"It was a pleasure meeting you ma'am, and I'll let my mom know, you were asking about her," I told her and smiled at her. Her smile widened.

"It was a pleasure meeting you too darling I hope my wife could meet you too. The night is just getting started maybe you'll meet her later on," she squeezed my hand and looked at Ignatius, "look where your siblings are."

"Sometimes I think, you just adopted me to look after your kids," he mumbled.

"You came in our lives before them, now go," she shushed him away and soon followed after him. Zachariah was standing right beside me but he didn't say anything. Why the hell was he so quite?

"Do you know them?" I asked and looked around. I saw Ignatius carrying Veronica around while her mouth was moving, she was eating something and soon she was forcing Ignatius to eat it too. When he did not open his mouth she made a face at him and squeezed her eyes shut. I guess, she was pretending that she as crying, as soon as Ignatius opened his mouth, she popped a piece of candy in his mouth and smiled.

"Yeah, I do. They are the Hudson's. They were banned from the Royal society years ago. Killian Hudson was one of the founders of this society and was against her daughter's marriage to a girl, they ran away and things happened. But now they are back." He said.

"That's crazy, why would they ban her? I mean Killian's daughter?"

"Because she was a woman and she wanted to marry a woman," he said. I took a sip of the champagne he was drinking and huffed, "this is going to be one long night."

I hope you liked that update, I mean, yes, Ignatius has two moms instead of a mom and a dad, I did this because I see a lot of people struggling with this idea. I mean in our society it is hard, being the way you're. Like you know being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender is not exactly accepted. You know I'm a believer of equal right, and if we can't do anything we can at least support them.

MTTBB Is ranked #2 in Teen Fiction today.