Chapter 3.1 - A Single Choice

Alaric sat in the front row of the chapel, silently seething. On the surface, he looked calm and collected. He was excellent at looking calm and collected. Inside, though… inside he was a swirling ball of anger. The problem was, he couldn’t seem to figure out where he’d gone wrong. How had this happened? How was it that on this bright, clear day in fall, he was facing his worst nightmare?

How did it come to be that Alaric was watching Madeline marry Beckett? He just couldn’t understand it. She was supposed to choose him, and he couldn’t see why she didn’t. What could Beckett offer her? The two of them didn’t even seem to like each other anymore!

Alaric didn’t think he had ever been this angry. Usually, he had a relatively cool temperament. He prided himself on his ability to make decisions rationally, without emotions clouding his judgment. Even his admiration for Madeline had been based mostly on cold-blooded logical reasoning, although that reasoning was based in the slightly petty desire to take something that Beckett had. Even that desire was mostly rational, though. Alaric wanted to be the best. He couldn’t possibly be the best if everyone thought that his brother was better than him. But in the end, Madeline had become more to him than just a tool to one-up Beckett. She was the one he wanted at his side when he ruled the world. Unfortunately, it was difficult to have her at his side when she chose his brother over him.

As the happy couple kissed for the first time as husband and wife, Alaric clenched and unclenched his fist by his side. It had been all he could do not to jump out of his seat when the officiant asked if anyone had an objection. He had thought that would be the worst part, but it was easy compared to this. He clung to his anger, reminding himself that this was unjust and terrible. He knew that if he stopped being angry, even for a moment, he would give in to despair. That couldn’t happen. He was Alaric Doe, someday Leader of the Free World. He would not despair over anything, especially not a girl who thought Beckett was preferable to him.

When the ceremony was finally over, Alaric slipped out before anyone could notice him. He would go to the reception… eventually. He just needed a moment to collect himself first. He needed to regroup and come up with a new plan for… his whole life, really. He wondered, slightly bitterly, if Madeline realized exactly how much damage she had done.

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Madeline smiled at the crowd of well-wishers, hoping she looked like a happy new bride. Of course, she was a happy new bride. She just… wasn’t really feeling the happy part at the moment. The reception was long, and she was tired. Her dress, while gorgeous, wasn’t terribly comfortable, and going to the bathroom was such an ordeal that she hadn’t gone since before the ceremony. She’d been so nervous this morning that she’d only had a piece of toast for breakfast, and she hadn’t been allowed to eat since then. Her hair had been bobby pinned and hairsprayed within an inch of its life, and it had given her a headache. In short, she had plenty of reasons to not be happy… but she had a feeling none of them would have been bothering her if she hadn’t had reservations going into this.

She wanted to marry Beckett, she really did. It was just… something about the whole situation didn't feel right. She knew that she had made the right decision. Leaving her sweet, kind, loving, injured boyfriend for his slightly sinister and undeniably bad-intentioned brother could never have been a good decision. Besides, she hadn't wanted to hurt Beckett. That would make her the most evil sim Sunset Valley had ever seen, and having that sort of image in the eyes of the town would be her worst nightmare. And Beckett was sensitive. He would take it hard if she left him, and she didn't want to be responsible for anything he might do.

As for Alaric… well, Madeline quite honestly didn't think that she could hurt Alaric. She was absolutely sure that he didn't care about her enough for her to really hurt him. Yes, he looked at her with those intense eyes… and sometimes he seemed to bare his soul to her… and of course there had been that kiss. But surely he would be okay. They would never have worked anyway.

Most of the reason she was nervous was because she hadn't talked to Alaric since the day of the graduation party, when she'd kissed him around the side of his house and then told his brother that she'd marry him a few minutes later. To tell the truth, she'd been avoiding him. She didn't want to see him and talk herself out of everything. But now it was too late to call it all off, and she wanted to end things once and for all with Alaric. The only problem was, she couldn't find him. He'd been at the wedding. It had taken all her strength not to stare at him through most of the ceremony. But now, at the reception, he was nowhere to be found.

Madeline knew that her smile looked plastic, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be doing this. She wanted to talk to…

“May I cut in?”

“Alaric. Of course.” She led him to a spot that was a little out of the way, but still in view of the rest of the wedding party. She didn’t think she could trust herself if they weren’t in sight of the wedding-goers.

“Congratulations.”

Madeline stared at Alaric, not entirely sure how to respond. “I… thank you?”

“I hope you understand why this is goodbye.”

“What? Goodbye? Do you mean you don’t want to see me again? But… why not?”

Alaric gazed at her, eyes steady and dark, and she felt a pang of regret, remembering the time when his eyes were full of light when he looked at her. “You made your choice, Madeline. I told you that you couldn’t have both. You chose Beckett, so I’m saying goodbye.”

“I never agreed to that!”

“You don’t have a choice. I can’t stand to be around you anymore, so from now on… consider us polite strangers.”

Madeline felt a sick sort of rolling feeling. “I… I didn’t realize you would be this upset. Can’t we work something out?”

He stared at her, a flicker of incredulity surfacing in his usually unreadable eyes. “Don’t you understand? It’s too late for that.” He shook his head slowly. “I thought you were better than this, Madeline. But now… I’m beginning to think that I didn’t really lose anything after all.”

He turned to leave, and she stared after him, tears welling up in her eyes. Maybe you didn’t lose anything… but I certainly did.

Author's Note: First chapter of generation 3, and it's only two days after I said I would get it out!

I'm sorry about the full moon lighting, but I was trying to stick to the rule that says spares have to move out within 24 hours of aging up, and I didn't realize it was a full moon until I'd already scheduled the wedding party. I keep telling myself that I'm just going to turn the moon cycle off... and then I never do, so it ruins all my important plot pictures. I should probably just get a mod.

Madeline's hair is glitchy, but that's nothing new.

The giant walls of text are because of a combination of laziness, frustration that I had to close and reopen the game three times because I didn't have everything I needed downloaded, and not wanting to take a million close-up shots of subtly different facial expressions for sims who don't wear their feelings on their face anyway. I anticipate that last reason being my greatest challenge in this coming generation, so look forward to some text-heavy chapters until I work that out. Next time: Alaric has an eventful first day of work!