Mistakes mean it's Real

Chapter 2

"What do I do now?" He asked

"I'm not sure. You can't end the Selection just yet." I said and rested my head on his shoulder "Your dad would be furious."

"I'm not sure he could be any madder than he is right now, America." He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to him

"Not true. If he found out that you were planning to marry me..." I trailed off

"I'm not passing up on my future to please him. I've already sacrificed so much. This is one thing that he will not control. I won't let him keep you from me. I need you in my life, America. I refuse to let him take away the one person I truly care about."

"Okay. Just be careful, Maxon. You might refuse to let him take me away, but I refuse to let you get hurt again because of me. If I need to leave to prevent that, then that's what I need to do."

"America Singer." He abruptly sat up, wincing as he did, and looked at me. I slowly lifted my gaze to meet his "Don't do that. Don't give into what he is doing. If you leave because of what he did, then he wins."

"Maxon, this isn't a game anymore. There is no winning or losing, there are broken hearts and healing scars.
I can live with leaving if it means saving you." I willed that to be true

"You are okay with leaving me if it means he won't hurt me anymore?"

"I love you way too much to let you continue to be treated this way by the hands of me."

"It's not at the hands of you,"

"It sure feels like it. If it wasn't for me then we wouldn't be here, with you all bandaged up right now."

"Yeah but think about it, if you didn't do what you did, we never would've crashed into one another, we wouldn't have said we love each other. We would still be pretending that we weren't as in love as I know we have been for a while. I felt the shift. Of your feelings I mean. I know when you started loving me and I was just waiting for you to finally say it."

"I didn't want to be vulnerable," I explained.

"I understand that. I just wish you would've trusted me more. But I'm glad you said it now."

We shifted, sliding so I was on the floor and Maxon was above me. He ran his nose along my jawline, down my neck, across my shoulder, and kissed the same path back to my lips. I kept running my fingers through his hair. It was so soft, it almost tickled my palms. After a while we pulled out the blankets and built a makeshift bed. He held me for the longest time, looking into my eyes. We could have spent years doing this if not for me.Once Maxon's shirt was dry, he put it on, covering the dried stains with his coat, and curled up next to me again. When we both got tired, we started talking. I didn't want to sleep through a second of this, and I sensed he didn't either. I closed my eyes, I couldn't believe that all this was happening because of a stupid book. I gasped, and my eyes shot open. A book!

"Maxon, what if the Northern rebels are looking for the diaries?" He shifted, still not quite alert.

"What do you mean?"

"When I was chased that day in the gardens, I saw them as they passed me. A girl dropped a bag full of books. The guy with her had bunches, too. They're stealing books. What if they're looking for a specific one?" Maxon opened his eyes, squinting in thought.

"America ... what exactly was in that diary?"

"A lot. About how Gregory basically stole the country, how he forced the castes on People. It was awful, Maxon."

"But the Report was cut off," he insisted. "Even if that is what they're looking for, there's no way they could know that was it or what's inside it. Trust me, after that little display, my father is making sure those things are even more protected than usual."