Truly Selected (Book One of The Next Selection Series)

Chapter 33

The entire room was silent as Matthew and Daniel scanned their list; then the crowd, looking for the Selected that they were about to announce were staying.

Matthew's eyes found mine and he winked. I blushed, and saw that Daniel noticed. He shut his eyes and shook his head a few times before focusing on what he was going to do. Slowly, he lifted his microphone closer to his lips and the light from the enormous chandelier glistened off of his golden crown.

"The first girl staying in the competition is," Daniel paused and scanned the crowd before smiling. But, he wasn't smiling at me. He was smiling at...

"Lady Darling."

The sea of people parted and a spotlight shined down on Darling. Her face was in total shock, eventually shifting to a wide, opened-mouthed, smile. Lifting her skirts up, Darling walked toward the staircase. As she reached the middle of it, Matthew began to speak.

"The second girl staying in this competition is," he said and scanned the crowd in a similar way that Daniel had. This time, however, I was met with a handsome smile.

"Lady Sol."

Just as it had for Darling, a spotlight shown down on me and the crowd of people turned to face me and began applauding. Willow squeezed my hand once before dropping it and applauding with the rest of the crowd.

I could feel my heated cheeks cool as I followed Darling's lead and picked up my skirts. The sound of applause followed me all the way to the stairs. As I started ascending them, I heard the end of Daniel announcing the next name.

" Lady Blake."

I cheered loudly for her, and if I had been on the floor instead of the stairs, people might have heard me and turned to me to give me odd looks; looks that plagued the question, who is this lunatic? But it didn't matter, the crowd wasn't looking at me anymore.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I found two people looking at me. Not risking a glance at either of them yet, I looked toward the far side of the balcony, only to see Shane with a big smile and two thumbs up. He was doing a little happy dance. It made me giggle, and then I finally looked at Matthew and Daniel.

In Daniel's eyes, I saw, for the first time, an emotion close to intense liking. Maybe more; adoration. He liked me, he really did. And being me, I haven't given him much of a chance, seeing as I was always arguing with Matthew over something or locking myself in my room. That, and the fact that him and Presley had been glued to each other's side this past week; and the fact that he was sick.

Daniel caught me looking at him and smiled, his pearly white teeth gleaming like his crown. His smile faltered into a neutral state and he winked before mouthing, "Meet me tonight. Midnight."

I nodded once and shifted my eyes to Matthew. Now, I read what his eyes displayed, the windows to his soul. And what I saw was something similar to what was portrayed in Daniel's eyes, yet so different all at once. In Matthew's eyes, yes, I saw adoration and the basic liking. But it went much deeper than that. In his eyes, I could see our relationship. Something gentle and carefree, something so... likable. No, lovable. I blinked my eyes a few times. Matthew and I were not in love with each other. We were just a little more than friends.

'Stop lying to yourself,' my mind instructed as I dropped Matthew's gaze and continued walking closer to Darling. 'You like him as way more than a friend. You two are definitely not just friends anymore.'

That was when it hit me, truly hit me; as I stood beside Darling, her hand clasped tightly with mine, and the butler behind me placing one of the fifteen small silver tiaras on top of my head. I didn't want to be here for the food, or the treatment, or the clothes. I didn't care for the etiquette classes or the dance lessons; let alone being a nervous wreck for the Reports. I wanted to be here solely for him. Well, not entirely for him; Daniel as well. Correction, I wanted to be here for them. However I didn't know how deeply I cared about him. I felt that I hadn't had enough... time.