Choices {divergent / a.i. au} | ON HOLD

{ vi }

{choices x six}

Right now, if there's one thing that I remember from countless afternoons of Science tutoring with Luke, it's that whenever a person is placed in a threatening or exciting situation, the hypothalamus in their brain give out signals to the adrenal glands and tells them that it's time to release the adrenaline that binds with a number of receptors throughout the different organs of their body, causing their heart rate and respiration to increase significantly... and obviously, jumping off that stupid ledge triggered these stupid signals.

When my feet leave the safety of the solid structure, gravity pulls me down quickly and the wind beneath me rushes by, making me hear sounds similar to when a car on the road zooms past you. I feel my heart beat as though there are galloping horses in a race within my chest and I try to (but couldn't, as I felt my chest tightening and restricting my proper breathing) scream as I feel myself falling briskly. My eyes remain closed as I continue going down, then suddenly, I feel myself hit something, causing them to open wide and me to let out a huge breath. I look around me and I see that my body is weirdly splayed (thankfully without any unusual twists in my bones and joints) on a giant black net, confirming what Michael had said to me just a few minutes prior to my jump. I chuckle with exhilaration when I realise that I just jumped off a multiple-storey building into a hole on the roof of another.

The net shakes abruptly and I jolt to the side. My body rolls over to the edge, but just before I fall off, an arm catches me and helps me get down. I turn around to see a tall guy dressed in - surprise, surprise - all black. He has tan skin, dark brown hair, and intimidating brown eyes.

"A transfer from Amity... Hmm, that's interesting," he says with a look on his face that I couldn't really analyse. "What's your name?"

I look at him confusedly, my heart still beating fast and my breaths still jagged. "What's so interesting about an Amity transfer?" I ask instead of straight-up telling him what my name is.

He ignores my query and asks what my name is once again, emphasising each word, and making it evident that all he wants to know is my freaking name.

"My name's Liana, now can you please tell me why you think I'm interesting?" I say with confidence.

"Second jumper, Liana!" he announces, ignoring my question once again. If that's how he wants it to be, then go ahead, he can be my guest.

A series of cheers follows his announcement, and I finally realise that there is a crowd within the darkness. The guy who helped me off the net gestures for me to move towards where the Abnegation girl who jumped off the roof first is standing. I roll my eyes at him and unwillingly followed what he told me.

Just as I get closer to the girl, somebody yanks me to a more secluded and empty area of the room and engulfs me in a hug. I squirm and try to escape the person's grasp, but his (it's a guy, the biceps make it evident) arms are too strong and tight around me.

"Let me go!" I cry. The guy finally lets go of me. I look up to get a good view of his face and immediately regret my decision.

There are times when you're in a situation and, somehow, that situation manages to make everything around you seem to move slowly. It's as if the world is a slow-motion film and every single thing and person in the room is out of focus except for that one person standing in front of you. It's like that person just invades your entire brain and makes you forget what you were saying or doing. That's what I'm feeling like at this very moment... because standing right in front of me is the one and only Ashton Irwin.

I see his mouth moving and I know that he's trying to talk to me, but everything I'm hearing is fuzzy and my ears feel like they're blocked. I know that I had and have no right to hate him for doing what he did - because that's what I did, and it would be extremely hypocritical if I actually continued to despise his entire existence - but for some reason, my body has developed a defence mechanism because it knows that for the past two years of my life, I needed my best friend but he wasn't there for me. It's kinda like my body doesn't want to listen to him because part of me knows that he's going to start blabbing about some pathetic excuse as to why he broke his promise two years ago.