❝ 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑎 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑎 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟. ❞
In a life-changing night in Rome, Coraline left Damiano. Four years later she meets him again in Rott...
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When we woke up the next morning, I hadn't really realised what day it was. Damiano's body was against mine, his arms were holding me and I didn't even know where we were, let alone when.
We might as well have been lying in a bed in Italy, only the sound of the cars on the road outside the hotel managed to remind me where I was.
Today was the day, the final of the ESC would take place and I was definitely not ready for it. I squeezed my eyes shut to go back to sleep and delay the evening a little more, but I was already far too nervous for that.
I buried my head against Damiano's neck, then pressed my lips against the tender skin. Damiano made a soft sound as if he were sighing.
"Cora?" he asked in a raspy morning voice and I looked up, his brown eyes squinting against the bright light. "Hi," I murmured and rested my forehead against his, he smiled, "Hi."
"I think we have to get up soon," I whispered, "If I'm not in my own room by eight, Elle will freak out because she thinks I've run away.
"What time is it then?", Damiano asked. "Half past seven," I answered.
Damiano grumbled, closed his eyes again and pulled me to him. I stroked my fingers through his hair and tried to enjoy the last few minutes we had alone before the final.
Elle was all excited when she knocked on my room to call me for breakfast. She wore her dark hair in a high bun and when she saw me she grinned, "Ready, superstar?" she asked me and I shook my head laughing, "I don't think I've ever been less ready for anything," I said honestly.
"You can do it, we all believe in you," I think she meant the whole delegation. "Thank you, Elle," I sighed and walked out of the room after her, heading for the lift.
The breakfast and the subsequent drive to the arena felt like I wasn't living through it myself, but watching it like a film.
My excitement increased as we entered our room in the backstage area of the Ahoy Arena. Sophia sat down on the small sofa and grinned at me, she was also excited, but because she only had to watch and not perform, it was more like joyful excitement and not nervousness. My phone display lit up and I realised that Vic had sent a message to the group chat where we were all in it together.
It was a photo of Ethan sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed and she had written 'Ethan is meditating to calm down'.
Sophia laughed, I grinned too and my tension eased a little. What I wouldn't have done for not to have to stand alone on stage later, but to play together with the others. 'Maybe I should try that too', I answered.
My stylists were buzzing around me like workers' bees around their queen, putting my hair in curlers and putting on a first layer of make-up while chattering excitedly. Sophia had turned on some music in the background, she was sitting on a chair next to me getting her make-up done too, something she had been looking forward to all along.
