The Elite (Selection)

Maxon opened his eyes, he saw me.
    As Celeste drew pictures in kisses up and down his neck, Maxon and I merely stared at each other. His smile now gone, Maxon had suddenly turned to stone. The shock in his eyes willed me finally to move. Celeste didn’t notice, so I backed away quietly, not even stirring a breath.
    Once I was out of earshot, I broke into a run, blazing past all the guards and butlers working late into the night. The tears started coming before I made it up the main stairway.
    I pulled myself up and moved quickly to my room. I pushed past the concerned guard and through the doorway, sitting on my bed facing the balcony. In the quiet stillness of my room, I felt my heart ache. So stupid, America. So stupid .
    I’d go home. I’d forget this ever happened. And I’d marry Aspen.
    Aspen was the only person I could count on.
    It wasn’t long before there was a knock on my door, and Maxon came in without waiting for an answer. He stormed across the room, looking about as angry as I was.
    Before he could say a word, I confronted him.
    “You lied to me.”
    “What? When?”
    “When haven’t you been? How could the same person who talked about proposing to me want to be caught dead in a hallway with someone like her?”
    “What I do with her has absolutely nothing to do with how I feel about you.”
    “You’re joking, right? Or because you’re the next king, I suppose it’s acceptable for you to have half-naked girls draped across you whenever you like?”
    Maxon looked stricken. “No. That’s not what I think at all.”
    “Why her?” I asked, looking to the ceiling. “Why, of anyone on the planet, would you want her?”
    When I looked to Maxon for an answer, he was shaking his head and looking around the room.
    “Maxon, she’s an actress, a fake. You have to be able to see that under all that makeup, and the push-up bra is nothing but a girl who wants to manipulate you to get what she wants.”
    Maxon huffed out a laugh. “Actually, I do.”
    I was taken aback by his calm. “Then why—”
    But I already had my answer.
    He knew. Of course he knew. He’d been raised here. Gregory’s diaries were probably his bedtime stories. I didn’t know why I’d expected otherwise.
    How naive had I been? When I kept thinking that there was a better option than me for his princess, I’d been imagining Kriss. She was lovely and patient and a million things that I wasn’t. But I’d been seeing her next to a different Maxon. For the man he would have to be to follow in Gregory Illéa’s footsteps, the only girl here for him was Celeste. No one else would be so content to keep a country under her thumb.
    “That’s it,” I said, wiping my hands in front of me. “You wanted a decision, and here it is: I am done with this. I’m done with the Selection, I’m done with all the lies, and I am especially done with you. God, I can’t believe how stupid I was.”
    “You’re not done, America,” he contradicted me quickly, his stance saying as much as his words. “You’re done when I say you are. You’re upset right now, but you aren’t done.”
    I gripped my hair, feeling like I was seconds away from pulling it all out by the roots. “What is wrong with you? Are you delusional? What makes you think that I will ever be okay with what I just saw? I hate that girl. And you were kissing her. I want nothing to do with you.”
    “Good God, woman, you never let me get a word in edgewise!”
    “What could you possibly say that could explain that away? Just send me home. I don’t want to be here anymore.”
    Our conversation had been going back and forth so quickly that his silence was startling.
    “No.”
    I was enraged. Wasn’t this exactly what he’d been asking for? “Maxon Schreave, you are nothing but a child who has his hands on a toy that he doesn’t want but can’t stand for someone else to have.”
    Quietly, Maxon spoke. “I understand that you’re angry, but—”
    I shoved him. “I’m beyond angry!”
    Maxon remained calm. “America, do not call me a child. And do not push me.”
    I shoved him again. “What are you going to do about it?”
    Maxon grabbed my wrists, pinning my arms behind my back, and I saw the anger in his eyes. I was glad it was there. I wanted him to provoke me. I wanted a reason to hurt him. I could tear him to bits right now.
    But there was no rage in him. Instead I felt the warm buzz of electricity that had been missing for a long time. Maxon’s face