The Luna Choosing Game

I was tired from a long day of acting and handling drama. So when I finally made my way back to my room, my feet were slow, my pace sluggish. I didn’t reach the hallway where the candidates‘ rooms were until well after the others had already gone.

Maybe this was why I found Mark standing alone outside of Susie’s door. The sight of his face gave me pause. He looked absolutely devastated. When my feet started working again, and I came closer, he noticed and immediately straightened.

He didn’t have to. We knew each other well enough that I considered us friends by now. Though I was certainly closer with Susic, Mark constantly put himself in danger for me and Elva. He’d well–carned my friendship.

So I stopped before I could pass him, and I asked him flat–out, “Are you okay?”

The hard edge he was trying so hard to keep in his face faded away, and sadness and worry contorted his features once more.

“Susie won’t see me,” he said. “I don’t know why. If I did something, she isn’t telling me.

I didn’t know what to tell him. I didn’t want to break Susie’s confidence, and I knew she hadn’t decided what to tell Mark. That she was sending him away without seeing him was a bad sign.

Mark could have broken down the door. That he wasn’t spoke to how much of a gentleman he was. He wanted to respect Susie, always.

I wished I had been more insistent that Mark was someone she could trust.

Then again, I knew how scary it was to be facing the world with a baby. You couldn’t think about just yourself anymore. And those tough decisions, the ones about keeping people close, were much harder to make.

I suspected Susie’s love of Mark was what really wanted her to keep him at a distance. A baby out of wedlock could ruin both their lives.

“I haven’t seen her since she fainted,” Mark said. His gaze dropped down to the ground. “I don’t know what to do, Piper.”

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“Just give her some time,” I said. “I’m sure she will be willing to talk to you soon. “Soon? But why not now? No one will tell me anything!” Mark pushed a hand through his hair. I’d never seen him like this before, so discombobulated. It was a little endearing. Was

this the side of him that he showed only to Susie? Only forSusie?

He reached into his inside jacket pocket and produced a letter. He held it out for me. Susie’s name was written in neat, tight scrawl across the front of the envelope.

“She won’t speak to me, but she may speak to you, Piper,” Mark said. “If you get in there. If you talk to her. Please… give her this.”

I accepted the letter from his hands, then moved for him to step aside. Once he did, I took his place at the door.

“Just wait here, okay?” I asked.

At his nod, I knocked on the door.

“Go away!” Susie shouted. Her voice was hoarse, like she had been crying. She’d probably been crying for several days.

“It’s Piper!” I called back.

Silence replied for several long moments, before Susie’s voice came through once more. You can come in. But only you, Piper!”

I glanced at Mark, then opened the door and stepped through it. I closed it behind me, locking Mark outside.

Susie was sitting at a small table near the fireplace. She doesn’t look much better than when she had been lying in bed. There are red rings under her eyes and her face is splotchy.

Even if I hadn’t surmised she’d been crying from her voice, the evidence is clear in her features. As well as the downward curve of her shoulders. She was slouched in her seat, with her head low, like she couldn’t be bothered to lift it. NôvelDrama.Org owns all © content.

I approached her, then sat beside her at the only other seat at the table.

“How are you feelings?” I asked, worried about her health and the baby.

“Physically, just drained,” she said. “But it’s probably from the crying…”

She pulled a tissue from the box on the table. Beneath her feet, a sea of used, crumpled–up tissues littered the floor.

I placed Mark’s letter on the table, then slid it across to Susie.

Susie laughed once, sourly, when she saw it. She continued sliding it across the table to where a pile were stacked.

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“She’s been sliding letters under my door every hour on the hour,” she said. Her voice cracked, emphasizing her misery. 2

“Maybe you should just speak to him,” I said, trying once more to convince her. “Mark is a good man. He won’t disappoint you.”

“I know,” she said, “Or at least, I think so. But you are right. He is a good man.” She looked at me, heartbreak in her eyes. “So how can I derail his life by telling him the truth? Shouldn’t I just leave him, leave everything, and go back home? Hide away and have my baby – my shame

in private?”

“Children are not always expected, but they are a blessing,” I said.

“It will ruin his life, Piper.”

“That’s what I thought too,” I said suddenly. I wouldn’t have Susie making the same mistakes I did, and suffer the same consequences.

She looked up at me, surprised.

“I thought leaving Nick behind was what was best. I couldn’t drag him down with me, especially not when I suddenly had a baby from nowhere. It would have totally derailed his life. And I hadn’t even known he was a prince back then. If I had, that would have only affirmed my decision.”

“So you did the right thing.”

“I made a choice I regretted every day after,” Piper said. “I took choice away from Nicholas without even asking him what he wanted. I never gave him a chance to do the right thing. And he would have. I thought I was saving him, but what I did was denying him a chance to help raise Elva.”

It was a deep regret of mine. I denied Nicholas the chance to raise Elva, just as I denied Elva the chance to have a father like Nicholas. If I would have asked him….

All I had to do was tell him the truth, and so many hurts could have been avoided.

“It’s far too late for me and Nick and Elva now, but it’s not for you, Susie. Give Mark a chance to be the kind of man who is worthy of your love and devotion. Do not make the choice for him.”

Susie was cracking. She kept glancing at the door.

“Any man who would write you that many letters at least deserves a face–to–face,” I added for good measure, nodding to the letter pile at the edge of the table. There were so many,

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they were starting to spill out onto the floor.

Suddenly, Susie rose from the chair. She crossed the room to the door. She looked back at me.

“What if he’s not out there?” she asked.

“He’s out there,” I said.

She took a steadying breath, then pulled open the door.

Mark was standing directly on the other side. 1

“Susie…”

“Mark, I’m pregnant.”