Autumn Meadows used to live a mediocre life with her little brother and her mother in a big town. They were Six's, but never went without. Everything changed after Autumn's cousin, James, convinced her to join the Selection and she was chosen.
Autu...
"So is anyone else even on this island?" I ask as we step off the plane into the beautiful scenery.
"Not unless I call them here. So nobody else is right now." Will says with a soft smile and walks away from the plane and brings me with him. Soon, the plane makes a loud noise and starts into the air. "This is a very small island by the way. Like very small but I'm the only one ever here so it's not a problem."
"Wait you mean this is just your island? Like not your family's?" I ask in awe.
"Yeah. Caroline got one on the Atlantic Ocean. It has a bungalow." He comments nonchalantly. I laugh and look around. We were mostly surrounded my trees until we step into a clearing with sand filling the space. A bright blue crystal like ocean stretches in front of us and I gape in awe.
"I've never seen the ocean before." I whisper. I can see Will give me a questioning look before I slip of my shoes and feel the sand between my toes. The closest thing I had felt to this sand was the dust like dirt on the roads back home.
"There's a first time for everything." He says and interlaces our fingers.
"Let's go." I say excitedly and pull him to the edge of the ocean. I could see the edges of coral reefs and the bright fish living beneath the surface. "It's beautiful." I whisper.
"You can touch the water. It isn't going to kill you." Will laughs. I hold onto his hand as I dip my bare foot into the blue water and smile excitedly.
"It's so cold." I grin and look down at my feet. Somehow Will seemed to be enjoying this more than I was. He was laughing with the edges of his eyes squinting with happiness. "Are you laughing at me having a weakness?" I say simultaneously with laughs.
"No I'm laughing at your excitement." Will says with a grin showing off perfectly white, straight teeth. He must've had very special care being the prince and all. I couldn't exactly say the same. Yes, I had Okay teeth, but they didn't meet up perfectly. Some were barely overlapping or just crooked. My father always thought it was cute.
"Show me around." I say to him. "I wanna see the rest of it." Will seemed confused by my sudden change in behavior and quite honestly I was too.
"Sure." He takes my hand and leads me up the beach a bit and I notice the small beach house for the first time.
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The porch was long and flat and had plenty of couches for one person. The entire beach house was just one story and rather small.
"It's beautiful here." I whisper and walk to my own pace feeling the sand beneath me.
"Yeah." Will replies.
"There is a fitness center where I live and I took Colton to the pool there once to teach him to swim." I say and laugh at the thought of it.
"How'd that go?" Will asks.
"I didn't take him off the floaties." I admit. Will starts to laugh but I cut him off. "For one, he almost still couldn't swim with the floaties. Two, they looked like little fishies and he was really cute."
"Do you miss him?" Will asks.
"More than anything." I give a sad smile. "I can't wait to see him again."
"Well I plan on narrowing down the girls to The Elite soon." Will says. Just like always he refuses to look away and maintains strict eye contact.
"You are sending girls home very quickly. Are you not afraid of making mistakes?" I ask curiously. The first elimination he sent fifteen girls home. But, to be fair, he didn't send any home for the first week. Two girls decided to leave of their own free will so now there were eighteen.
"I'm not. I've got a pretty good idea of how further eliminations will go." That scared me. What if one of those eliminations included me leaving? "I'm not going to narrow down The Elite for a while. There's a lot more planned after it's just the Elite."
"That'll be smart." I shrug but I honestly had no idea what any of it meant. I may not even be there.
"I hope so. I've tried getting advice from my father but he just tells me 'you'll know what to do' or 'you'll make the best decision' and I never have any idea what to do. He was just a lot better than me at this." Will looks down and breaks eye contact, out of character.
"Well that's how he found your mother. Maybe he didn't trust himself then either but was glad he did." I shrug. I felt uncomfortable knowing that he may be here with me still thinking of the other girl he wanted to marry.
"Maybe. The thing is I know what I want it's just scary." He mutters. Will wasn't the kind to mutter things. Why was he acting so odd?
"Don't be afraid to fall in love. It's going to happen whether you want it to or not so don't hesitate. You're probably scaring her to death." And by the way this conversation was going I had a feeling he didn't love me. Not like I did anyway.
"You think?" Will laughs.
"I'm sure. Unless she just doesn't like you then I can't help you there." I say trying to laugh off the gut wrenching feeling forming in my stomach.
"How do I know if she likes me then?" Will had returned to her usual self and was acting in his typical teasing manner.
"She'll tell you." I look up at him and hold his gaze. Unless it was me. I don't believe I'd ever be able to tell him how I really felt because if today did anything it convinced me I had been brought here out of friendship and nothing more.
"What if she doesn't?" Now he seemed to be getting more nervous.
"Give her time." I say and stop in my step. "Because every part of this experience is so demanding and so different than anybody's everyday life and it's so scary."
"I guess so."
"Is there a bathroom somewhere?" I ask suddenly. Will seems a bit caught off guard too.
"Yeah sure." He says and turns toward the beach house. He pushes open the door and points to the direction of the bathroom.
"Thanks." I say quickly and make my way there quickly. I stand with my hands on the sink and look at myself in the mirror. I looked different than I did when I was back home. Too many things had already happened and everything seemed different.
"Get yourself together Autumn." I mutter and dab water on my face. My foundation was barely coming off and my freckles were becoming visible but I didn't care anymore. He's already seen me at my worse.
I use the bathroom and step back into the main part of the beach house.
"Sorry." I apologize.
"No need." Will shakes his head and stands up.
"Let's go back outside while at still warm. I absolutely love the sand." I say with a grin.
"Deal. I ordered some lunch from a caterer and he'll bring it in through plane." So that's what being the prince was like. He leads me out and we sit on the sand and wait for the caterer.
It was like when I was with him I felt that nothing else mattered but when I wasn't with him I could think of everything that could've went wrong.
