Feather After // Chapter 61 // Banned Members and Hot Dogs

Aria's POV

I don't know what I was supposed to think of the whole situation. I sat in front of Zachariah while I shoved the delicious waffle in my mouth. I was on a diet and I was quite aware of it. But when I laid my eyes on the waffles with the chocolate syrup and the chocolate ice cream on top of it, let's just say I'll start my diet again from tomorrow, again.

I wanted to really ask him what was going on or why was he behaving and acting the way he was but I didn't have the guts to. As I ate the waffles quietly he looked at me and smiled. I wanted to smile back and I couldn't.

"Thank you for this, I really needed this," I told him honestly while he nodded and then he leaned towards me. No, I couldn't kiss him again. The first time was a mistake and I couldn't do it again, I knew it was wrong. The whole situation was messed up, I yelled at Ignatius and got angry at him for being the way he was and I couldn't be like that.

I instinctively moved back, hell I was not going to kiss him again. He put his hand forward and then I realized what he was going, he was trying to wipe my face. I put my hand on my face and grabbed a tissue from the table; I smiled at him and confirmed, "I am good, thank you."

"Let's go, I have so much to show you, I'm pretty sure you don't want to go back there," he said and got up. Seeing him I stood up too and grabbed two-three more tissues in case I had to wipe something else in the future.

"Now that my stomach is full, I can think properly again. I-"

"So you're one of those people who are ruled by your tummy," he asked me, I ignored that he had rudely interrupted him but I ignored him anyway.

"Yes, you can say that I mean, it is kind of true. But as I was saying, I just kind of lost it when you know she didn't tell me that she hasn't called any of our relatives, I mean I need grandma and grandpa to be there. I'll never go through the plan without them."

He looked at me and nodded, if I was being honest, it was hard keeping conversation with him when we were not insulting each other. When I was with Ignatius conversations just happened, it just flowed. I mean it's not Zachariah's fault it was the way it was but everything felt much lighter with Ignatius.

I didn't want to sound weird up when I was with Ignatius, I felt protected, I felt happy. It wasn't like I didn't feel happy with Zachariah but it was very different from him.

"I get your point; it's nice to see you putting up with your family up like that. I mean not everyone does that," we started walking on the streets, I didn't know where we were going and I was okay with it.

"I think everyone would do that, it's nothing big about."

"You don't know the real world Aria. Be happy that you haven't seen that side of the world, be happy you haven't seen people bad," I could hear the sadness in his voice.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him and looked almost doubtful.

"Well," he said and paused as if he was trying to think and speak things he should speak without giving too many details.

"Well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but if you do choose to tell me I want you to know that your secrets are safe with me," I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.

It wasn't about me and Ignatius anymore it was about him as well and I could clearly see that he was in distress and if I could do something to help me, I wanted to do that.

He nodded but opened his mouth to speak but then shut up again, and I just shrugged it off, I wanted him to tell what he wanted to tell me without me having to force things out of him.

"The thing is the world we live in is very shitty, although we live in the twenty-first century nothing has changed, people are the same. Earlier the soldiers were sacrificed but now the people who are poor are sacrificed, nothing has changed," I looked at him and I could see the pain in his eyes.

He was telling me the truth but at the same time, he wasn't even telling me the whole truth. I somewhere felt that the truth was going to have an impact on me too. Somewhere he was playing the riddle game and I wasn't sure if he was being clever or naive.

"Well I do agree with what you to said but I'll tell you one thing too, we're nothing more than commoners too, and back then the soldiers fought for their country or kingdom till their last breath and we are fighting too but for ourselves."

He looked at me and smiled, with his long coat, collars up and covering his neck, he looked attractive; he was one hundred percent a hot guy but he wasn't for me. I was in love with someone else and I couldn't help that.

"Thank you, you have no idea-"

"Oh come on, chill man! Let's have some hot dogs," I told him and I walked towards the street corner. I didn't know what he was thinking but I liked it. Being happy was easy; all you had to do was to block the negative out.

"Come on mate, my treat," I turned around to look at him to see if he was following me or not but he was following me, thank god otherwise it would have been really-really embarrassing.

He nodded and smiled; he shoved his hands in his coat pockets and stood next me to. I asked the guy to give us two hot dogs and he squeezed the tomato and the mustard sauce on them. I gave the first one to Zachariah and paid the guy the money before taking the other hot dog.

"You seems happy," Zachariah told me and I nodded.

"I don't get to do these things a lot, I mean my parents keep me off the streets," I said and started walking back in the direction we were coming from. I took a bite and looked at him, "tell me you like it, it's so amazing! It feels like New York!"

"You're a bipolar person you know that?" He munched along and walked with me. If I wasn't looking in the romantic terms, Zachariah wasn't that a bad person, he was actually a really good company.

"So you'll be joining our school soon right?" I knew he was supposed to join our school as soon as the senior year started but things were not going as planned so you never know.

"Yeah I'll be joining your school soon, and it's going to be fun."

I wish I could say the same, but I knew it was going to be very difficult with my almost new husband and ex around all at the same time. "Why don't you join some other school? I mean I don't want to be offensive or anything but why Maple High?"

He took another bite of the hot dog and said, "Well because it's a nice school and I like it," he said and gulped what he was eating.

I raised my eyebrow at him, was he actually thinking that I would believe that? No way in hell, I would believe that. "Tell me the god damn truth Zachariah, I want the truth, nothing less, nothing more. I thought you businessmen are very manipulative and get what you want."

He looked at me and bit on his lower lip, "you have a really wrong image of us, businessmen. Secondly, I'm joining the school because Mr. Maple was one of the founding members of the Royal Society. So I'll have to attend that school."

I didn't know Mr. Maple was the part of the Royal Society, I mean that was news to me. I wanted to know more information so I continued firing questions at him, "so you're saying that it's compulsory for the members of the Royal Society to send their children to Maple High?"

"Well, all the members and the non-members have to send their children Maple High if you live in Seattle because it's a Seattle organization. The Royal Society has rules of brotherhood that have to be followed and maintained strictly."

"Wait what the hell is a non-member?" I asked him again, I knew he was started to get irritated but I couldn't help it. Imagine being a part of something and not knowing that you're a part of it.

"Well a non member of the Royal Society is anyone who has been banished from the society for doing something that was against the rule of the brotherhood, so anyone who did things against the rules of the brotherhood got suspended and they couldn't be a part of the society until they current members thought it was time to get them back."

"But then why do the children of the band members have to go to Maple High, they could go anywhere!"

"You sure do have loads of questions but as you know I said before, banned do not mean kicked out. It just means they'll not be a part of the regular meetings that take place. But somewhere they are still the member slash part of the society."

"Can you tell me the name of some people who are in Maple High and banned, but if you ask me, which you're not but anyway, banned does not even mean being the part of the society," we were on the way to the hotel from which I had stormed out. My heels felt okay but I wasn't very comfortable with them.

"Well, I can't remember any because there are more than fifteen families, but I know this girl, I don't know her real name but she goes by the name Misty. Yeah her family was banned like two-three years ago with some other family too."

"Wow, I never knew misty was the part of Royal Society," that was a shocker for me. My family was a part of the Royal Society and so was she. We all were the part of the same thing but the only difference was she was banned and I wasn't, but anyways I continued," What the hell did she do?"

"I have a feeling you know her, she did pretty nasty stuff, the simple point is Aria, you don't get banned from the Royal Society for doing something small like if you or maybe I, pee on the road," I made a disgusting face when he said that, he could have given any other example but he had to say that. What facial expression I made did not stop him and he continued, completely ignoring me, "you get banned from the Royal Society for going something big like murdering someone or some deep shit like that."

"This Royal Society is very complicated, I don't understand half of the time what is going on, to be honest. This is so crazy. Why would anyone want to be a part of the Royal Society?"

"Well, I'll give you one suggestion, if you're not directly involved in the Royal Society do not get yourself involved, it is like a pit only a never-ending pit, you can never come back on the surface and anyone wants to be a part of Royal Society because of its prestige. It's in the nature of humans, to get attracted to things which only a few can have. Being in the Royal Society is like standing on the tip of a dagger, your oath to get hurt either way."

I wasn't sure if I liked what he was saying but we both knew that it was the truth. I could feel that he wasn't lying at all when he had said what he did; it was crazy how people wanted to be in the Royal Society. It wasn't supposed to be like that but it was. I nodded and looked at Zachariah. "Why did Misty's family got banned?"

"She got pregnant when she was 15."

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Thank you for the beautiful cover, @photogrph_X! It's so amazing.