Ch. 16
MAXON'S POV
I'm walking down the halls looking for her. Where could she be? I need to find her...I couldn't be the whole reason why she left could I?
As I'm becoming somber from not finding her a see a flash of red run down a hall, that has to be her. As I chase wherever it was closely behind, I see infact it was her. Now she's slowed to walking. I look her up and down and see she's wearing a pair of light-wash skinny jeans and a white sweater matched with a teal scarf. And out fit shed never be aloud to wear in the palace at Illea. I also see she has on a pair of what seem to be almost girly combat boots. Her hair is down and lightly curled, swaying with her as she walks.
I see she's not taking off Again anytime soon so I take my chances to talk to her before she's gone again.
I take a deep breath and call out to her
"America!"
When she spins she looks both upset and surprised, but when she sees me the color drains from her face completely.
"W-what?" She gets out looking astonished. What do I say?
"Hey" I whisper.
She just looks at me, and I notice almost a look of hurt on her face.
"I want to talk to you." I say
"I-I don't t-think I can d-do that" she says making my heart drop. Of course not i hurt her, and she left. Now she's with some other guy.
"Please?" I ask.
"U-uh" she says looking extremely nervous. I give her a look of what must have been pure hurt cause she gives in "ok, m-maybe just a m-minute"
"Great! Thank you dear" I say.
"Just because I'm gone doesn't mean you can call me dear" she hisses at me. Ugh there is defintally tension here. I don't say anything wanting to go somewhere private.
"Are you going to say anything?" She asks.
"Oh yes, can we go somewhere a little more private?" I ask scared what her reaction will be.
"I guess" she says urging me to go.
I lead her out into the gardens. We don't go too far out, just far enough we're out of ear shot.
"So" I say
"So" she says back, I can hear the hurt in her voice. It's slight, she's hiding it well, but I can still hear it.
"What happened?" I ask deciding to cut right to the chase.
"Why don't you tell me?" She argues back.
"Why'd you leave America?" I ask. "I know we had a fight but why?"
"Why wouldn't I?" She says "you've made your choices so I had to make mine" she finishes her eyes distant. What does that mean?
"What do you mean? I've made my choices?"
"You know what I mean" she says sighing heavily.
"No I don't, the only choice I've ever made was you" I answer honestly.
"Yea, I can't listen to this" she says standing.
"Why not?" I yell, surprised by the way I just exploded. She gives me a harsh glare not making eye contact and says.
"Because" now she makes eye contact. "I can't listen to you say you loved me, when you already had your mind made up!" She screams the last part
'ya! On you!' I scream back, that for some reason brings a tear into her eyes.
"America," I say now wondering what's up. "What's wrong?" I finishes grabbing her shoulders.
"Y-you never l-loved me." She says tears falling down her cheeks.
"America I always loved you." I say trying to figure out a way I could show her.
"No, you didn't." She breaths.
"Yes I did" I say pulling her into a hug.
"Well, it's too late now" she says, tugging at my heart.
We stand there hugging each other for a while, I hold her tight as she cries into my chest.
"I should've just purposed to you anyways" I whisper wondering why I had just said that. She laughs into my shoulder and pulls away, looking at me with her blue eyes shining like diamonds.
"I should've let you"
Each word hurt me, but brought me new hope. I look down at her and see how sad and hurt she looked but at the same time hopeful.
With out thinking I reach down and kiss her. At first she's startled but eventually kisses back.
It mustn't have been seconds before she pulled away. Her face is pure shock but I just pull her back in for another kiss, I have to convince her to come back-somehow.
I feel her pushing away but then kissing me back then pulling, like she's fighting with herself. Suddenly I feel a sharp pain where the sun don't shine. I pull away and fall to my knees.
"What the hel-" I scream but are cut off by America!
"MAXON!" She shrieks.
Well I got the wrong message...
AMERICA'S POV
"MAXON!" I shriek! How could he? When he's engaged to be married to someone else!
"What?" He asks quivering on the ground.
Ok...maybe kneeing his thigh was going a little to far, but I had to make him stop.
"HOW COULD YOU!" I scream!
"What?" He asks again. My god men are stupid.
"KISS ME WHEN YOUR ENGAGED TO SOMEBODY ELSE!" I nearly feel the ground shake from yelling so loud and fiercely
"WHAT?!" He yells looking shocked.
"Come on Maxon! Don't play stupid!" I yell
"Engaged? What the hell America!" He yells
"Yes! That's what I said!" I yell "I know about it! She told me!"
"I'M NOT ENGAGED" he yells.
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE HONEST!" I scream angry "SHE SHOWED ME THE RING!"
"WHAT RING?" He spits.
"THE ONE YOU GAVE HER!" I scream.
"I never gave anyone a ring!" He said trying to calm down, but failing.
"Yea, sure" I say "you can stop lying now"
"IM NOT LYING!" He screams, how could he not be? I saw the ring...she told me...
"so I'm not supposed to believe a girl in the same competition as me, with just as good as a chance, she snook kisses with you, and who knows when and how much you two saw each other! And the ring! That ring, no three would be ever able to buy a ring like that!" I says defeated.
"Wait, who's she anyways?" He asks
"Kriss" I spit. "You should know that, since you two are engaged" I finish looking down.
"Kriss?' He says.
"Yes" I whisper.
"I never purposed to her..." He said
"What?" I ask not believing a word he said.
"I never purposed to her. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with that monster. And that ring...that ring is a present from her Mom's ex-husband, who used to be a 2" he says.
"How do you know that?" I ask
"Because she showed me the ring and told me about it at the ball" he says "wait is that the reason you left?"
"Part of it, it was the last straw." I answer honestly.
"That bitch" he whispers under his breath.
Suddenly it hits me. Maxon never purposed...I left because of a lie. She tricked me and got exactly what she wanted. I left my possibly only true love because of her.
"Maxon," I say but are cut off by the sweet voice of Josh.
"America! Oh there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere." Josh says
"Oh hi" I say placing a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry I was just clearing things up with Maxon."
"Oh that's good" josh says "hello Maxon"
"Hi" Maxon says now annoyed.
"Well America" josh says ignoring Maxon's tone. "They want you to go do a sound check for tomorrow night, is that ok?"
"Oh yea of course" I say
"Your performing?" Maxon asks
"Yea, we think it might help out with my new album." I answer.
"Oh they said it doesn't have to be the song for tomorrow since you want it to be a surprise.." Josh interrupts.
"That's good" I say. "Why don't we go then?" I ask
"Yea that might be wise" Josh answers grabbing my hand. "Good day Maxon"
"Bye" I whisper beginning to pull away.
"Bye" he spits storming out further into the gardens. Yes, I felt bad, but how many times has he accused me of lying and breaking our loyalties and trust. How many times has he back-stabbed me?
As we walk towards the palace Josh whispers into my ear
"Are you okay?"
"Yea I'm fine" I say knowing I'm not only lying to him, but also myself.
"Good and by the way you look absolutely breath-taking" he says causing a blush to burn my cheeks.
"Thanks" I giggle out.
When we reach the ball room they have a huge stage setup.
"Oh" I say out of no where.
Josh just chuckles as a lady walks up to us.
"Ok America, correct?" She says But before I can answer she continues "I'm Effie"
Effie hmmm she must be the same as Sylvia.
"Hi" I say as she shakes my hand.
"Anyways you'll be performing tomorrow whenever you'd like, and right now we'd like to get you on stage for sound check. Go ahead and sing whatever you'd like, oh and -" we're cut off by a loud bang.
We look over and see a group of men have just set down a giant table at one end of the room.
"Phew. I thought something was wrong" I say only to hear Effie scream moments later
"CAREFUL THAT IS MAHOGANY!"
"Oh my" I whisper.
"Anyways" Effie says turning to me "I forgot what I was saying, so just go" she finishes pushing me towards the stage.
Ok. This will be easy. What song should I sing? Hmmmm.
"So what song?" The band asks.
"Uh" hmm. What song, tomorrow I'm singing something happy because its Christmas. So lets see... "How About ' White Horse' ?" I say thinking of a song I wrote recently but they all know.
"Oh yea I like that one" he says before the band begins playing. I walk over to the microphone and see Josh, Effie, and some of the other staff are standing around waiting to watch me perform. I smile to myself as the intro comes to an end and I start singing.
"Say you're sorry, that face of an angel
Comes out just when you need it to
As I paced back and forth all this time
Cause I honestly believed in you
Holding on, the days drag on
Stupid girl, I should have known
I should have known
I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you and your white horse, to come around
Baby I was naive, got lost in your eyes
And never really had a chance
My mistake, I didn't know to be in love
You had to fight to have the upper hand
I had so many dreams about you and me
Happy endings, now I know
I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you and your white horse, to come around
And there you are on your knees
Begging for forgiveness, begging for me
Just like I always wanted but I'm so sorry
Cause I'm not your princess, this ain't a fairytale
I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well
This is a big world, that was a small town
There in my rearview mirror disappearing now
And it's too late for you and your white horse
Now it's too late for you and your white horse, to catch me now
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa
Try and catch me now
Oh, it's too late to catch me now"
I sing the whole song and didn't look up once. When I finally do i notice a little crowd has formed and there all applauding for me.
I smile to myself again, but it disappears when I see a certain someone on the far end of the room, leaning against a wall, looking at me.
I sigh to myself seeing its Maxon, and knowing he just heard my whole song. I see him walk out fast, but subtle. I feel my heart sink. I feel awful, especially knowing he hasn't chosen anyone yet.
I look at the door he just ran out and wondered if I should make it right.
I never do get the chance to, if I wanted too, because my whole world suddenly went black, and I fell to the floor in a pit of darkness.
Never knowing who the attacker was.
A/n
A tiny cliff hanger but I hope you enjoyed.
Not much to say except for please review and keep reading!
Thanks loves
~bye~
DISCLAIMER:all rights go to Kiera Cass for writing and owning the selection trilogy and to Taylor Swift for the songs/quotes I use! Also to Veronica Roth I use a character of hers and some quotes.