I'd Sell My Soul

Chapter 29: The Founder's Ball

Allison Monroe's POV

We walked into a very full and crowded town hall. Sophie immediately found some of the girls from the cheer squad and wandered off to one of the corners with them. I'd already warned her in the car to not leave the town hall and stay nearby to which she assured me she would do as she was told.

"I'm gonna go get us some drinks." Katie tells me before disappearing into the crowd. I start to wander about the room.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is that Allison Marie Monroe?" A familiar woman's voice says behind me. I spin around and a woman with blue eyes, brown hair and a matching blue dress stands there, holding a flute of champagne.

"Jenny Colt!" I marvel. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Surprising my big brother and his former fiancée." She winks before pulling me into a hug.

"Well how the heck have you been?" I ask.

"Good. Married. Kicking ass as a lawyer." She shrugs casually before taking a sip of her champagne.

"That's what Levi said. Good for you." I nod with a smile. Jenny's face falls a bit and she looks like she's thinking something over, pausing before she speaks again.

"Look Ali, I owe you an apology." She starts.

"For what?" I shake my head, confused.

"For not coming to Farrah's funeral." She lowers her voice.

"Water under the bridge, I honestly don't remember much of it." I say with a wave of a hand.

"I just couldn't bring myself to book the flight home. God Farrah was..." Jenny trails off. I look down at the floor for reprieve from the wave of depression crashing over me.

"I understand Jenny. Everyone handles grief differently. There's no hard feelings." I drag my eyes back up to hers.

"I saw this young girl a minute ago. I did a double take...I swore she was Farrah...I'm guessing that's Sophia." A smile twitches at the corners of Jenny's mouth.

"That would be Sophia Allison Monroe." I nod with a chuckle.

"God she's a bombshell. Just like her mother and her aunt." Jenny laughs before continuing to sip her champagne. "Mmm. Look who's decided to join us." Jenny looks past me. I turn around to see Levi, in a suit, and it freezes me in place. He stops walking towards us for a second and stares at me. I'm the first to break the awkward silence.

"Hey you." I smile at him, fidgeting with the ring on my middle finger on my left hand.

"You look beautiful Ali." Levi nods.

"Thanks. You clean up good yourself." I nod. The awkward silence resumes again for a beat as the song changes.

"Oh I love this song! Levi, ask Allison to dance, I'm gonna go find Katie Aberdeen." Jenny interjects before almost running away from us.

"Well, may I have this dance?" Levi gestures for me to give him my hand to which I obliged. We step out onto the dance floor together. I drape my arms around his neck and he puts his hands on my waist. Our eyes meet and I smile at him.
"Did Sophie do your hair? She was practicing all week on Katie while Katie quizzed her for that science test." Levi breaks the silence.

"Yes she did. I'm quite proud of her." I nod with a laugh.

"Me too. She's really matured over the last few months." He agrees.

"Well trauma will do that to you." I shrug. Levi snorts and I stifle a laugh. "Sorry that was really bleak."

"But you're not wrong." Levi's eyes find mine.

"Remember what I said the last time we danced together at a founder's ball?" I ask him.

"No." He shakes his head and knits his brows together. He's wondering where I'm going with this, as am I. I can't believe the words that follow next.

"I told you nothing would ever happen to change the fact that I love you...I was right. I still love you all the same." I confessed. My heart is slamming in my chest, waiting for his reaction. We stop dancing and Levi's face becomes unreadable. "I know we said too much has happened...but I don't want to just throw in the towel and put my hands up, Levi. I love you as much as I did back then. And I know you said you feel like you don't entirely know the new me but I still feel like you know my soul like no one else does. And maybe I'm screwing up the friendship that just started again but if I've learned anything from my sister, it's that life is short. Too short to stay quiet." I continue. Levi just stares at me, lips parted but unmoving. He looks around the room and then takes my hand leading me outside. Once we're outside and away from the building he takes off his suit jacket and puts it on my shoulders.

"I feel like this town has gotten enough entertainment from us. I just wanted you alone." He says finally, his breath coming out in visible clouds of air in the cold night.

"Yeah that's fair. Okay just give it to me straight, I'm a big girl I can take a little rejection." I laugh dryly and bracing myself for impact of crashing down after riding the high of adrenaline from confessing my feelings.

"Ali...I feel like everyone in this town knows, I never got over you. You were it for me. But you broke my heart and gave me no reason." He shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks.

"But you know now why I did that." I point out.

"Right and honestly? It's the best thing that ever happened to me because it set into motion the events that made me into the man I am now. I would never have joined the army, married Rebecca, or took over Dawson's." He explains. "But I don't know that I went through all that to go back to the beginning."

"I don't deny we are both completely different people now, we're supposed to be different people now. But the way I feel about you isn't different than back then and a big part of me thinks you feel the same way." I press. "And us being different people now, we're going to have a different ending than we did before. This time we get our happy ever after."

"Ali, you don't know that. It's so different this time, this much more on the line if we screw this up." Levi sighs.

"What do you mean?" I shake my head.

"Sophie. Ali, she wants this more than I think even we do. If we break up and can't handle being in the same room together..." Levi starts pacing.

"Then we'll cross that bridge if we get there but I'm telling you we won't." I pull the jacket tighter around my arms as the late November chill sets in.

"What will Katie do? She'll be completely divided." Levi thinks aloud.

"Levi." I grab his arm and he stops pacing and looks at me. "Levi, I love you." I say quietly. His eyes search my face for a moment before he pulls me into him and his lips crash down onto mine. I put my hands on his face and deepen the kiss. It's like being struck by lightning; electrifying and powerful. Kissing him is the final piece falling into place in the puzzle.

"Allison!" I hear Katie cry. Levi and I pull away and turn to see Katie looking terrified.

"Katie, what happened?" I start walking over to her.

"Sophie's gone!" She cries. I stop in my tracks and as nausea rises in my throat and a cold sweat breaks out on my forehead.