Choose Wisely

Chapter Fifteen: A Choice To Be Chosen

A.NI was going to wait for the ten comments but Time has screwed me over once more and now, I will be uploading very regular installments nearly every few days or so because I am going to enter into the Watty Awards and my story needs to be entered by November 6. Think I can do it? 

Well, you can help me. Not with the writing part sadly (though that would be nice seeing as I'm only a little over halfway through this story) but actually with votes, comments and awesome motivational messages. This is going to be pretty difficult and as there is only twenty-seven days to go, I'm going to need every bit of help I can get. 

You are all amazing and comment below for a faster upload :)

West was here. The breath had been knocked out of me as soon as my eyes connected with his, as soon as I had seen the familiar cast of his face, the tell-tale way to how he held himself, the curve of his lips, the slant of his expression. I couldn't have forgotten them if I'd tried.

"Natalia?" Josh's confused voice washed by my ears and I snapped to attention, almost feeling guilty.

"Sorry," I apologised, though I didn't know what I was apologising for. Maybe for the strong sense of euphoria at West's appearance. Maybe the fact that I wanted to smile in a way I hadn't let myself for weeks. Josh was oblivious, his arm still holding me around the waist. But even as I had felt the sparks linger on my skin, now the embers felt like a searing burn- guilty shocks of fire.

I danced. I moved. I talked. And still, I could feel West's eyes on me. And still, every time I faced his direction, I couldn't help locking eyes with him, our gaze catching us both in its grasp. He looked well. His suit was well-cut- another reminder of his wealth I had never known about. I wondered again why he'd stayed in that apartment on the very edges of the near-slums.

The music trilled down to its final notes and Josh and I paused. He had continuing talking, not noticing the farther I drifted away from him and how my answers grew less and less, flakes breaking away from a rusting gate. His arms slipped from around me and I forced myself to turn my gaze to him, to smile and be polite.

Then, when I had stopped myself from being reeled in further, it was like West controlled the moment and struck. When I looked away from Josh, he was standing right next to him. Josh's eyes flickered to the movement then double-taked, his head whipping around fully. There they were. My two Choices standing next to the other.

Josh was the darker of the two with his hair that looked black in the chandelier's lighting and his jet-black tie. West was lighter, with his blue tie- the colour matching his eyes. Even as I looked, West was different. Tighter and more controlled, different from the easy-going boy I had met nine months ago.

"West," Josh was the first to speak. "You- you can't be here."Truth be told, I had been thinking of West appearing where I was every second he had been gone. To have him here felt normal, yet with the way he looked, different, at the same time.

"Josh," he uttered back, except his words were almost mocking. Each syllabyle was clipped and cut short, a different way to how West had spoken, letting it all flow. "I think you'll find I can."

"You weren't here when the fingerprint scans were conducted," Josh recovered, standing over West. It was almost as if the extra height didn't matter- because West made up for it fully by the look in his eyes. "No one's allowed to arrive late."

"I didn't arrive late,' he responded coolly. "I just didn't arrive the main way."

"I didn't think you'd come," I spoke up. His gaze swivelled to mine. His eyes were cool and appraising, something far different from how unguarded he had been before.