Okay, bear with me guys, this is only my second story! Again, I do not own The Selection by Kiera Cass.
"Ah, Lady Kriss, Maxon has been waiting for you," one of the guards said as I moved into Maxon's bedroom.
I had wanted to find him, but didn't know where until a maid found me and told me that Maxon was looking for me. I walked in to find Maxon, half his body basically in a cast, looking over some papers.
"You called for me, Maxon?" I bowed deeply.
"Hey, Kriss," he said, smiling. He called to the staff, "Please close the doors. I need to talk to Kriss in private."
Maybe he'd propose now. Maybe that's why he sent for me, not America, wherever the heck she is? I mean, how could she? She got to close to winning? And Maxon was going to marry her? I mean, I loved her and everyone thought it was going to be her that was going to win, but it was nice that Maxon and I would live out the rest of our days and King and Queen.
"I'm sorry about your parents," I said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Maxon nodded. I held his hand. "Everything's going to be okay once we're married."
He hesitated.
"Look, Kriss," he said, moving the papers away so that I could sit farther up on the bed, "I made a mistake. I made a big one. I care for you very deeply, I do, but it's always been America. You've had to have realized that. I told her last night that it was going to be her."
"But she broke your heart!" I interjected, feeling my own heartbreak.
"Yes, she has broken it over a thousand times, and none more than this morning. But, I've known for a long time that it would be America. I told her that I was going to propose at Halloween until I chickened out, and if she said she loved me, the rest of the Elite would already by gone. It's always been her. Yes, I was going to propose to her to today, and then once I found out what she had done, the ring was going to you, but I can't have you believe that I'm going to marry you when I've had no intention to marry you in the first place. It's always been America Singer."
I sighed, tears coming down my cheeks in frustration. I got up off the bed and walked to the front.
"Asshole!" I yelled. "You are such an asshole! You think you can get whatever you want because you're the Prince, well, I guess King, now. You can't just change your mind on a girl, it's unfair! You were going to send her home this morning because of that guard! You were going to propose to me."
"In all seriousness, I walked out of her room last night and was walking to tell you it was over. Whatever this was—" he gestured between the two of us "—was done. You were going home first, you realize that."
I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration. As much as I liked America, I didn't want her to win. Of course, when I first came here, I had my own motives. Hers were to her family, and mine were to my family.
"I can't live without her. I love her too much. You don't want a husband who can only give you half promises while his heart is aching for another, right? You want a husband who can love you wholeheartedly." He had come to the front of the bed now, gasping in pain.
"You are a selfish pig, you know that? Keeping all of us here when you only wanted to get one girl's feelings. Then this would have all been over months ago! I wouldn't have fallen in love with you, none of us would have! Marlee wouldn't have gotten caned."
"I am selfish, I'll admit," he said calmly. I'm trying to have a fight with him, and he's calm! "But that does not mean I didn't have a hard time decided who to keep and who to let go. America would always stay. I would always make sure of that. But while she had a permanent spot here, the rest of you had to fight to see who would take that place if she decided that she did not love me. That she would go back to her ex-boyfriend back in Carolina."
I couldn't see anything now. He was blurry, my hands were blurry, the whole room was blurry from the tears that were in my eyes that had not yet fallen.
"I guess everyone knew it was going to be her," I told him truthfully. Everyone knew she was his favorite, whether the polls showed it or not. "You saw her and broke more rules for her than any other of the girls in the Selection over the last few months. I think we were all fighting for second if you didn't pick her. We wanted to be your second choice."
"And you were, which is more than I can say for many of the other girls," Maxon admitted. "I was trying to find a reasonable second if she did not feel the same way. Then you, who I'd barely seen, came out and made me a card. That was a grand thing to do. It was a very hard decision between America and a second. Once I realized that the second would be you, I dreaded telling you, because you loved me."
I nodded.
"I still do," I said, "I still do, and if you want me at the wedding then I'll be there. All the others—most of the others—will be there."
I had almost forgotten about Celeste. Celeste, who had finally opened up to us the past few weeks. Celeste, a beautiful model who was soft under that bitchy exterior. I knew that all of us would miss her dearly.
"I'm sure both of us would be happy to have you at the wedding." Maxon slid back up his bed and rested against the pillows.
"I, uh, guess I should go and pack, and make sure my family knows," I said, standing up to leave. Maxon nodded and I curtsied. "Goodbye for now, Your Majesty."
I walked through the doors, sobs wracking my body as I went to pack my things and tell my parents that no, I had not won. No, that Maxon wasn't as in love with me as I was with him.
America had always had him.
And she always will.