Thank you guys sooooo much for the favs, the follows, and the reviews! I love how you guys encourage me to continue writing! So enjoy the wonderful 3RD chapter!

DiSCLAiMER: I do not own the characters of The Selection. All rights go to Kiera Cass.

Chapter 3

Walking back up to my room, I could feel the tears coming to my eyes. I told myself not to cry until I could make it to my room. Stumbling up the stairs, I finally made it to my door. I grasped the cold handle. Cold like that robber's heart. Why was I acting like this? I was being so mean. Making worthless assumptions about a guy I just met. I didn't even believe in love at first sight so I definitely knew that I wasn't in love with a stranger. Sobbing into my pillow, I heard a knock at the door; I got up not even trying to clean up my puffy red eyes. I knew who it was. When I opened the door all I saw was a dark figure but in an instant the dark figure had picked me up and twirled me around.

"Bennett put me down!" I giggled as he started twirling me around even faster. I started to make fake barfing sounds so he would put me down. When he did, he gave me a smile.

"Hey missy! What's with the tears?" A concerned look on his face appeared as he said those words. He had always been the type of person who would comfort me in a situation. He was my best friend, so like all best friends he would come whenever he knew I was in a sad mood. I didn't even know how he knew when I was sad. He just seemed to always be there.

"No it's nothing. I just am so happy." I played it off as tears of joy. I knew it was definitely not tears of joy. He probably didn't believe me, but his face seemed to believe me. I kept pretending and I laughed.

"What makes you so happy, Bel?" I couldn't help but smile when he said my nickname. He always had that nickname for me. I could never come up with a nickname for him. He was always a plain and quiet type of guy, nothing was out of the ordinary about him. He had stormy gray eyes and sandy blond hair. He was always just Bennett, except he became my main guard. During his junior training, I had always been lonely so I would watch their sessions and when I spotted a boy who almost tripped and fell into the lake behind the castle I knew we would be best friends. I was a kooky person according to Bennett. He said I was like his match, but we're just friends. I always thought of him as a brother not a boyfriend. I may have had feelings for him when I was younger, but I grew up and realized that me and him were just not meant to be.

"Well you know how I was going completely crazy about how I was so gonna get married to some wannabe jerk of a prince?" He nodded. "Well I was thinking, and I asked my dad if I could have my own Selection. He said yes!" I yelled. Bennett's eyes perked up. He grinned.

"Well Miss Princess, then we have to celebrate don't we?" When we were smaller, me and him would always sneak into the kitchen when no one was there and steal the entire ice cream stock in the freezer. We usually got shipments in each day so it didn't matter but we still had fun!

"Ice cream?" He questioned.

"Ice cream." I said in reply. He picked me up and carried me over his shoulder. He then shushed me to be quiet even though I hadn't said a word and quickly tip-toed out of my room and into the hallway. He went down the stairwell and into the passage that lead to the kitchen. He set me down and motioned me toward the big freezer. I put in my fingerprint on a pad and a cool breeze struck my body as the door opened. I shivered and smiled. I felt a rush that I was familiar too.

"Now come on crazy. There's no need to wait to get ice cream, let's dig in!" Bennett was smiling from ear to ear. We hadn't even found the ice cream yet. They had probably changed the place where they put it from last time. He wandered into the cold darkness before me.

"Bennett, you idiot. You forgot to turn on the light. What's the point if you can't see! You're probably going to be attacked by monsters or maybe even worse, GHOSTS." I laughed when I tried to get out the words. When Bennett and I were younger, he used to be only terrified of one thing. That one thing was ghosts. I used to always brag about how I was a big kid and ghosts weren't real. To him though, ghosts were the most real thing ever and he was proud to say he was afraid too. During my 12 year birthday week, I had decided to have our annual hide-and-seek game which we do only once a year, where I would try and find him while he was trying to find me. Which when I think about it now, it seems stupid, but we were young so it doesn't matter. Anyways, I had decided to put on a white sheet and chase him around when he wasn't looking during the game. After he finally noticed me, he screamed and peed his pants. Now, I always use that against him.

"Bennett?" I called out. He still hadn't answered. I repeated myself again and again for a good minute until finally I just turned on the light. I thought by turning it on I would see him, but I didn't so I decided to look for him. The freezer wasn't that big so it wouldn't be hard. I walked in slowly not wanting to trip and fall over something. I rounded the metal table that was in center when out of the corner of my eye I saw something. When looked again, nothing appeared. As I turned around though, I was suddenly grabbed. I screamed into the person's hand that was on my mouth. Then I started to hear laughter.

"Oh my goodness, princess. That was the funniest thing I have seen. Your face was so scared and when my hand grabbed you, you freaked out." Bennett could not stop laughing and imitating my face. I could feel my cheeks turn red. I was embarrassed. I never really was embarrassed when things happened, I just felt uncomfortable. In this case though, I was also mad.

"Bennett, you can't just go and scare someone like that!" I exclaimed.

"And it was perfectly okay for you to do it to me when I was younger? I just feel like I was getting even." He could not stop smiling.

"Whatever let's just go get ice cream." I said. I was still kind of embarrassed but mostly annoyed. He looked at me with his mouth formed into a frown. I couldn't help but laugh. He was pain but he knew how to make me feel better.