𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄, damiano david

━━𝟎𝟔.𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲

A strange noise woke me from my sleep. Before I really knew where I was, I opened my eyes. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the bright light, then I recognised the inside of the hotel's lift.

I looked up and recognised Damiano, who was carrying me effortlessly in his arms. We were alone.

"What are you doing?", I asked sleepily.
"Taking you to your room, sleepyhead," he seemed amused by the sight of me.
"Ah," I said, trying to collect myself, "Why?"

Damiano laughed briefly, "You fell asleep in Vic's room. The others have all gone and Vic and I thought it best to take you to your own room."
"Thank you," I said, "You can put me down by the way, I'm awake."
"You're light as a feather anyway, besides I'm afraid you'll faint if I put you down, you've had quite a lot to drink."

I didn't protest, but enjoyed lying in his arms a little longer.The lift came to a halt with a soft ding and the doors opened.

"How do you even know where my room is?", I asked Damiano as he came to a stop in front of my door.
"Sophia told me."
"And I thought you were stalking me", I giggled and he took the keycard out of his pocket, "You got me", he said ironically and carried me to my bed. There he put me down carefully.

"It was very nice today," I said as he stood up again.
In the darkness of the room, I could only barely recognise him.
"Almost like before, huh?" I felt his hand running through my hair.

"Yes, like before," my mouth was dry. It was shocking what an effect he still had on me.He lingered against my cheek, I could see his brown eyes shining in the darkness.
"You should sleep now, we have to get up early tomorrow," he then whispered and I could already feel the tiredness coming over me again.
"Good night, Damiano," I murmured, "Sleep well, Coraline," I heard him say, and then the tiredness came over me again.

The next morning came far too early. My phone woke me up with one of my favourite songs, but I couldn't enjoy the familiar sounds, instead I frantically turned over in bed and put the pillow over my head.

As I had set myself an alarm every five minutes, I gave up trying to resist getting up after a while.
I sat up in bed and looked out through the wide window at Rotterdam. The sun was already shining and the birds were chirping beautiful melodies.

Sophie picked me up just twenty minutes later for breakfast, I was already wearing the outfit my stylist had picked out for me for the first interview. In the lift we met Vic and Thomas, who looked at least as tired as we did, "I don't understand why we have to have the interviews so early, noon would be perfectly fine," Vic complained and I could only agree with her.

My stomach growled when I saw the buffet, but Elle waved Sophia and me wildly over. "Good morning, night owls," she greeted us and we both put on pained smiles, "You get on well with the Italians, don't you?", Elle then asked and I nodded curtly.
"We know them from before," Sophia blurted out and I rolled my eyes, now Elle would ask us a thousand questions.

"You know her from before?" she had widened her eyes, "And you didn't happen to consider telling me about it?"
"It's not like it would change anything," I said.
"Oh yes, it does change things. Do you know how much good press we can get? Old friends reunited," she was already musing about headlines.
"But I don't want that," I said, "It's not like that at all."

"What's it like then?" asked Elle quickly, she pushed a cup of coffee over to me and I gratefully took a sip.
"When Sophia and I lived in Italy we knew them, I played music with them for a while and we were pretty good friends, but after we moved to England we lost touch", that was quite an understatement, but I didn't want to upset Elle unnecessarily.