Elites of Eden: Yarrow Not Rowan

Chapter 24

I end my speech and the cheers from the crowd is deafening. My friends applaud me as I stand with them again, Flint takes the stage.

"That was an amazing speech," Lachlan whispers in my ear, slinging his arm around my waist.

"Thank you. I hope it can do some good," I sigh.

"It will...I think it already has." Lachlan gestures to the cheering crowd and hopeful faces. I let myself relax into his side as I look at my people. Then I look up at him.

"We should talk," I tell him quietly. He gives me a quizzical look, then nods. My friends are starting to disperse, wandering off into the crowd. Lachlan and I start to try to sulk out of sight but I'm stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hello, can you help me?" I whirl around and see Pearl beaten and bruised, but worst of all she's confused and empty.

"Pearl?" I ask.

"I think I need help. Do you know where I can find help?" She asks. She's so innocent and confused...what am I supposed to say to that?

"Umm...I can help you, or find you somebody who can," Ash says from behind me. I didn't even know he was still here. "My name is Ash."

"Thank you, Ash," She says with smile. Ash blushes. ;)

"What's your name?" He asks as they walk off together.

"I can't remember," I hear her say, and my heart shatters.

"I'm sorry about your...friend, Pearl," Lachlan says. I glare at him.

"The last time you saw us together I was trying to strangler her, I know how it looked. But I never wanted anything bad to happen to her," I say. I realize how contradicting those sentences sound together, but it's true. At least now it is.

"What did you want to talk about?" Lachlan asks as we walk behind an old building so we can be alone. Before either of us can say another word I pin him to the wall and kiss him passionately. When I pull away I'm out of breath.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in seven months!" Tears are in my eyes as I pull him close. We press our foreheads together. He keeps his hands in my hair. "I choose you, Lachlan."

"What?" He asks then pulls away. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I choose you for forever," I breath. "I'm going to love Lark for a very long time, and this decision is going to crush me, but I choose you. I want you."

"Why?" He breathes.

"Because I told Lark I wanted someone who complete me, and I meant that. We compliment each other, fix each other, heal each other in a way that Lark has never done for me. She doesn't understand me like you, she never did. Finding her was like finding my best friend, an ending to a story Ash had been telling me for years. But finding you was like finding family, and I'll never let you go. I also said I wanted somebody who chose me...and Lark did choose me, but not like you."

"How so?" Lachlan asks. He seems like he's not quite sure any of this is real.

"It all comes down to the last month. I wanted someone to choose me. Me, not anything else. But when I was Yarrow Lark was unaffected. She loved Yarrow too. Some people might think it's beautiful that she loves me without any conditions, but in this case that's not how I want to be loved. I want someone to love me. Lark chose to love a person, who happened to be me, and stuck to that person, even when I wasn't myself. Because she chose to love a person, and it happened to be me, but she didn't choose me. Does that make any sense?"

"Not really."

"Lark loves me, I have no doubt about that," I say. "But she didn't choose me. She chose a person. And when I was Yarrow, I was still that person, but not me. She could love me no matter who I am, because she chose the person I am. But you chose to love me, the real me inside of me, and nothing else. You couldn't love Yarrow because you didn't choose her. You chose me. You inspired me to be Rowan everyday, and everyday we became a little bit closer."