Sorry I was going to post this yesterday but I got whisked away to the beach for my birthday and came back home to ice cream and the Pokemon movie with my room mates. Yes, I'm 19 years old and still up for watching the Pokemon movie. ;) Ultimate nerd here. Anyway, here is your update. I'm going back to the beach tomorrow so I won't be able to update until Friday or Saturday at the earliest (though Sunday may be more realistic. I promise to try my absolute hardest!)
America's POV
Every moment since Maxon had told me to stay away from Scott had seemed to drag on longer than the next. If he had betrayed Maxon, if he was a Southern Rebel or helping them, that meant that he had to be using me in some way too. This thought fueled me with anger and I wanted to confront him. I wanted to know the truth—I deserved to know the truth. I watched from the window as he was brought back, shielded by some guards to hide the fact that his hands were shackled, keeping him from being able to escape without arising too many suspicions. Maxon had asked me to stay in my room until questioning was over and as much as it angered me, I had to agree. I didn't think he had ever been so close to blowing up again the way that he did at August the night he was told he would have to choose me if he wanted an alliance—or the someone else who had turned out to be Kriss. I picked up my violin and tried to play to pass the time but it didn't seem to be working. I had thought my feelings for him were starting to develop and I feared that my time had been wasted in trying to get over Maxon. When did I get so stupid? I should have known that there was something off about him, he came to me at a time that was all too perfect. I put the violin down. Practicing wasn't going to happen.
The hours dragged on slower than the minutes but then there was finally a knock at my door. 'Maxon, it must be Maxon.' I rushed to the door eager to know what news he had to tell me. I needed to know the truth almost as much as he did and whether or not I needed to continue to feel like an idiot. Yet, standing in front of me when I opened the door, there stood Scott looking nervously down at me. If he was here, that meant that he had been ruled out as a Southern Rebel. But why would he have had that key otherwise? I moved out of the doorway to let him in and he slowly inched his body inside before shutting the door behind him. He gestured to sit on the sofa but I refused, standing my ground. I wanted answers and I wasn't going to go back to the comfort of our last peaceful memory together.
"I want answers."
"Of course I know you want answers, America." He whispered back, choosing to lean on the desk. "I just wish you would stop glaring daggers at me, I already got enough of that from Maxon and once you hear my story you won't think they are as necessary."
"I'll be the judge of that, Scott. Clearly Maxon didn't know you had that key and it's enough reason to raise an alarm." I shot back, standing my ground. I wasn't going to relax until I knew exactly what was going on. "You have five minutes." I hadn't ever been so quick to jump to conclusions about someone—except maybe with Maxon and the time that I had ended up assaulting the crown prince because I thought he was trying to make an advance on me. Yet, this time I felt like there was more fire to it, more anger behind the fact that he had clearly betrayed Maxon somehow to get this key. He didn't need a betrayal after everything that he had been going through, all the stress and work he was doing to end the Caste System just because some Five told him about the nights she had gone hungry.
"I'm a Northern Rebel," he replied soundly, the first time he didn't seem to be walking on glass since he had come to my room. I looked at him and wasn't really surprised at that announcement. When Kriss had told me that she was a Northern Rebel—or at least when I discovered it—I had been surprised. Out of all the girls who had joined the Selection, she had always seemed the least rebellious and acted like she would always follow the rules no matter what. The fact that she had joined the Northern Rebels and came to the palace for the purpose was a shell shocker. She didn't have a spine like that. And when she said that she was only a supporter for the cause, things started to make a little bit more sense. She would always be a follower rather than a leader. There just wasn't that spark within her.
Yet when I looked at Scott, I could see that there was some ambition inside of him. As a Two, he had chosen a life that people are only drafted for and stay in because they can't pay their way out of it. He wasn't going to University to be an officer, he was simply sticking as a palace guard. There had always been a question in my mind about why he didn't shoot for a higher rank but this revelation made sense. If he was a Northern Rebel, he would be doing what he was told and staying were he wouldn't have people constantly around him to make sure that he was keeping in line. As an officer, he wouldn't be able to get away with being a Northern Rebel too. One way or another, he would have been discovered and reported by someone. I sat down in a chair in front of him, rubbing my temple. This all made sense. "Continue," I whispered wanting to know how he had made this decision.
My heart ached as he told me about his half-sister and his father. I didn't know what it was about Twos and Ones but they seemed to have the worst home lives—or at least the men that I had met. "I don't blame you for doing that for your sister." I replied after a moment of silence. I found myself actually admiring his strength. It had been an easy decision for me to stay a part of the Selection for my family because I knew that they needed the money. I also didn't have any disastrous consequences for staying and doing what they needed. Scott could have been put to death or handed over to his father for what he had been doing. I couldn't help but admire him the same way that I did Maxon for taking all the physical abuse he had endured. I was right when I had said that the best people all had some type of scar.
"Maxon's angered with it but there's not much that he can do about it. Kriss stepped in and told him that she's a Northern Rebel too and I think he's more focused on her now than me."
My ears prickled up at that revelation. So Maxon knew. And I was fully aware of his attitude towards people keeping things from him. After all, it was my secret about Aspen that had kept us from getting engaged. What was he going to do now that he knew his fiancée had been August's second choice and that he had helped her get into the Selection in the first place? "How did he take that?"
"He's angry, told her to go back to finish her trip at home because he didn't want to see her right now. He left where they had been holding me and she followed him crying and almost screaming his name." He replied, his knuckles clenching softly. "She's a good person, she doesn't deserve this." He muttered, almost inaudible.
"Did you know her before?"
"Yes, she helped my sister find me. Somehow they became friends and then they joined together. Then Kriss came to me one time when the Royal Family was on tour and I went with them to complete my guard training." He finished. "She was always a very special person to me, she deserves the very best treatment. He's just so incapable of anything. I had such high hopes for him as king but he just results back to the same anger that I saw in Clarkson all the time."
"Don't say that about him, Scott," I said getting up from my seat, pressing my pointer finger into the center of his chest. "He's doing his best, you can't possibly blame him for not wanting to feel like he's been betrayed time and time again. She came here as Northern Rebel and she didn't tell him. He doesn't care that's what she is, he cares that she wasn't honest."
"Well that's only because you made him that way."
My finger removed from his chest and found its way across the side of his face. While I knew that it was true, he had no right to say something like that to me. We had never discussed Aspen or my reasons for failing to tell Maxon the truth. He knew that Aspen was my ex-boyfriend but that wasn't as important right now. I felt my body still swelling with the anger as he lightly rubbed his cheek from the sting. "That was out of line."
"I'm sorry Ames." He whispered back, looking up at the ceiling as if he was holding back a chuckle. "August was right when he told me that I should try to date you. He said we had the same kind of fiery passion and that we would complement each other well."
I stood back, dumbfounded. So this must have been what Maxon had felt like when August had told him that he had to marry me or guess right on the other person. It was frustrating and heartbreaking altogether. I hadn't been picked just because he wanted to date me himself—he had been geared towards me. The Northern Rebels obviously felt like they needed to keep one foot in the door towards me and that the only way to do that was to pair me up with one of their own. The cards had been stacked against me and I didn't really have a true say in what I decided. No matter how much I had begun to care for him, I couldn't be anymore hurt that he didn't just start to like me for the person that I was. At least Aspen and Maxon had done that, they hadn't had to have been geared towards me for some type of political or alliance advantage.
"August told you to date me?"
"He said you'd be good for me, yes. At first I thought you were too free spirited but then I got to know you and I realized he was right. You have the same passion to help the lower castes that I do and so I figured we would pair together well," he finished. "Ames, don't take it as me using you or something. I really do care about you."
"But you were using me. Just like Kriss was using Maxon. All to please August and the other Northern Rebels."
"Yes, it started out that way but can't you see I do have some feelings for you that are more than just doing what I was ordered," he said, grabbing my hand and using it to pull me into his arms. My instincts got the better of me once again and I pulled out of his grip just as he lowered his lips onto mine. There was passion there, I couldn't deny it. But I couldn't help but to feel the same hurt that I imagined Maxon was going through. In that moment, all I wanted to do was crawl into his arms and let the raw emotions go. I knew that he would need the same type of release but I doubted that he would want to see me.
"Please leave." I said, pointing to the door without looking at him. The sound of the door opening and closing alongside a heavy sigh confirmed for me that he had left. I went and sat on the edge of my bed, thinking if I was just overreacting and wondering what thoughts Maxon must be feeling towards Kriss right now. I knew that she loved him deeply, even if her reasoning for coming hadn't been purely for him. Mine had been to get over Aspen and Maxon had accepted that. A small part of me hoped that Kriss would be extended the same invitation because I didn't want Maxon to feel the additional pressure of having to end his engagement before the entire kingdom. At least if I was done dating Scott, there wouldn't be some grand announcement to millions of people.
There was a small knock at my door and I figured that it was Scott once again, probably wondering if my temper had cooled down any. "Go away, Scott," I ordered, laying back on my bed. Yet, the door opened anyway.
"I'm not Scott," Maxon replied quietly as he stood in the door-frame. "May I come in? I could use a friend, America. Please, can we talk?"
Well, there was your Americott for all you fans of that ship. Next up, Maxerica and then Aspen's wedding!
