no matter what decision your heart makes, I will be waiting for you...

Part 58.

Tom's pov~

The air was stuffy, but the room was huge. It had nothing to do with the fact that hundreds of people were standing in the hall, talking and occasionally laughing. The air was good and the doors were wide open too, but the oxygen was escaping from my lungs with every breath I tried to take. The stress was really bearing down on me with all the stares I was getting.

Every second one stopping me and wishing me good luck. Some sincere, some fake. I still shook hands like the president and tried to keep a smile on my lips until the evening was over. Lord have mercy and let me win the election.

I wasn't one hundred percent sure I would win, but I had prepared a speech anyway and written it down on index cards like Spanish vocabulary in sixth grade.

But if I had learned them back then, I might have had a better Spanish grade. Instead, it was still the same with me and memorising. If it continued like this, I would have to improvise by the end of the evening.

So I fled to the men's bathroom to escape the stress and learn my lines in anticipation of winning. Whispered word after word to myself until they had to be burned into my brain.

From time to time people came in and did their business while I stood in front of the mirror and memorised the index cards, but we didn't disturb each other. They knew better than to disrupt me. Except for one of all.

"Put the cards down Holland. You won't have a chance of winning." his filthy voice spoke up, greasy and disgusting as if it had been dragged through dirt three times.

My eyes darted up from his cheap oxford shoes to his unironed trousers and rumpled shirt.
"Pretty pompous from someone who has the hem of his shirt stuck in his fly." I replied, a smug grin on my lips as horror crossed his face and he quickly adjusted his shirt.

"A mistake that happens even the best of us." He tried to stay composed, but I could see the sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"Of course." I replied, a sarcastic note in my voice before he quickly washed his hands and scurried out with fury in his steps. This man was beyond help and one thing was certain, if I were to win, he would be the first to be fired.

~

Two hours later, the time had come. My hands were shaking, nerves at the end as I stood in the crowd and lost myself. The noises began to arrive only muffled, the vision becoming more and more blurred until "Hey." Her voice sounded in my ears, made the blood in my veins flow again. "'You okay?" She asked when she saw how pale my face must be. Her eyes narrowed at the sight, triangling penetrating between her eyebrows as she scanned my body for more things to be odd.

One hard swallow managed to vanish the knot in my throat. "Yeah." I mumbled, but it didn't get rid of the goosebumps on my spine.

"You sure? Because your hands are in such tight fists, I don't think any blood can run through them." I stared down at my hands, noticing that they were indeed numb and contained imprints of fingernails in my palm. Perhaps I wasn't okay.
She interlocked our arms and pulled us out of the hall to a quieter place down the aisle. At any moment I would have to go backstage to prepare to go up and give my speech, but I took every second to stay in Y/N's presence as much as I could.

"Take a deep breath in and out." She told me, and I did. Then she continued, squeezing my hands while calming my nerves. "You will win this election and you will do great. Okay?" Another squeeze of her hands reassured me she fully believed in me. And of all the people who were there today, her opinion meant the most to me.

I nodded, a wry smile tugging at the corner of my lips as I started to gather my confidence back. Yet, there was one thing that made my stomach feel queasy. Something I had been thinking about for a long time in the last few months and still couldn't figure out a proper solution.