Perfect Promise

Charlie

“Noah said they’ll be a while, but they’re coming,” I informed everyone around me.

“Why don’t we wait until tomorrow to find out who won?” Amber suggested.

"The winner and two of their friends are supposed to come tomorrow, and it would be ideal to know who's coming and what their song is," Quinn replied.

"Guess we'll just have to wait until the two love birds get back," Maia concluded.

“Call me when they arrive,” our agent said as he hung up.

Everybody dispersed, except for Rudy and I. I was sitting on his lap on a bean bag chair. We at together, looking at each other for a moment. It was evident that we liked each other. We liked each other so much, we never knew what to say around each other. Instead of talking, I rested my head on his firm chest.

"Do you want to do anything?" Rudy asked me.

"Whatever you'd like to do is fine with me," I shrugged.

For a moment, we looked into each other’s eyes. It was obvious what he wanted to do was kiss me. I leaned in, accepting this. Kissing Rudy was one of the most magical things I had experienced thus far.

“Charlie! Rudy!” Jordan came crashing in, “Come play pool with us!”

“Sure,” Rudy chuckled.

Rudy gave me a peck on the nose before wrapping his arms around my waist to pick me up. Instead of carrying me the way I thought he would- bridal style or something close to it, Rudy threw me over his shoulder. I couldn’t help but squeal. Jordan egged him on, loving every moment of this. Rudy carried me all the way to the games room like this. Maia and Amber, who were waiting for us to play, also enjoyed the sight.

Pool was still a hard game to play. Sure, I was getting better at it, but it was still hard. Thankfully, because we were five people playing, I didn't have to play every single round, so I spent my time taking pictures of some of my favourite people instead.

A poke in my side jolted me. I turned around to see it was Noah, smiling wide, waving with one hand, her other wrapped in Gavyn’s. It was tough seeing those two move so fast. I only knew how to describe what I was feeling as jealousy, but that didn’t make much sense. Maybe it was because Rudy and I weren’t going at the same speed as them. I continuously tried to shake it off, as I did in that moment, and plastered a smile on my face instead.

“Noah!” I exclaimed.

“Charlie!” Noah yelled back to me.

“Gavyn!” Gavyn exclaimed to no one in particular.

“You’re back! Let’s get the others,” Amber said.

As if on cue, Hakim, Quinn, and Erys strolled in.

“Oh great, we’re all here,” Erys stated.

“Let’s call our agent, it’s getting late,” Quinn said.

Jordan pulled her phone out to call him and put him on speaker phone. He answered on the first ring.

"Is everybody there?" he asked.

We all said that we were.

"In that case, the winner is a young girl named Blaire. I sent you an email with her picture and her song a little over an hour ago," he said.

Of course, no one had thought to check their emails. Now that we knew that our agent had sent us this, we all felt a little silly for not thinking to check. We could have known the entire time, instead of waiting around just to feel foolish later.

Quinn took out his laptop, laying conveniently on the couch, and opened up the email. We all read Blaire’s song over his shoulder. Everything about her- her name, the way she wrote, seemed familiar. Quinn scrolled down when we were all finished reading to reveal her picture, which is when it clicked.

“Noah! Amber!” I exclaimed, “It’s our fan from the plane!”

“It is!” Noah confirmed.

“That’s so cool,” Amber said.

Since everyone else was confused, I took it upon myself to explain how I met Blaire on the plane ride over. I told them what I thought of her thus far- that she was a really bubbly and sweet girl.

"You three should be the ones to greet her and her two friends tomorrow," Maia suggested.

“Yes, there won’t be too much of a crowd if we don’t all show up,” Quinn pointed out.

“Perfect, I’ll drive,” Hakim said.

It was settled. Hakim passed by the mansion the next morning to pick up Amber, Noah, and myself. We ate breakfast, made courtesy of Erys and Maia, who seemed to be getting a lot closer. I made a mental note to ask Maia about it as we scrambled to eat our eggs.

Of course, we were running late. Amber wanted to pick the perfect outfit to pick up our guests. She wanted to be seen. Hakim, on the other hand, was preoccupied with how to disguise himself so people wouldn’t recognize and bombard him. Noah was far more concerned about getting there incredibly early to care about that. I simply wasn’t a morning person. All in all, it was tough, but the four of us made it into Hakim’s car only fifteen minutes after we were supposed to leave.