Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke #1)

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I kicked the grey, dusted stone along the barley visible concrete road as I let out a breath of fresh air. After a rather long week filled with a whirlwind of emotions and unforgettable moments, Abby organised for a group of us to meet up at a park in Williamstown seeing as many of us were feeling the pressure with everything that was going on in our lives. Slipping my hands in the pockets of my white coat and admiring the bright blue rays of the moonlight, I scanned my surroundings as I could feel a kind of warmth spread through my body.

It was a pleasant feeling to know that whilst we were busy with our own lives, we all managed to find time to hang out with each other and most defiantly, tonight was no exception.

Sitting on the black leather material of the swing, I pushed myself forwards slowly, watching the smiling couple in front of me sit on top of a tire in each others embrace. I smiled whilst looking across at Jordan and Vanessa who were both looking at one another as if they had just known that they had fallen in love. As the pair chatted and laughed between each other, I couldn't help but feel a fuzzy feeling inside. Just seeing the way they looked at each other was enough to make anyones day and I was thankful that they had both found each other and that they both had what many people nowadays could only dream of having half of what their happiness is.

Still beaming with happiness as I witnessed the pair share a heartwarming kiss, I looked over at Shane and Tom who was both muckering around with a football. I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. I get that football was a sport that resonated with all of us, but tonight the moonlight was out in full shine and the weather was beautiful; why should a red ball stop them from enjoying this moment?

"Aren't you two getting board of that thing?" I yelled out to the boys who stopped and looked over at us like I was the crazy one.

"How could you even think of thing to say Scarlett dear?" Shane yelled back teasingly as Tom just shook his head in shame as I just rolled my eyes once more.

"Okay guys I get the damn message, my god." I shouted as the two boys just looked at each other and snickered, before going back to handballing the red sherrin back to each other. Guess some soulmates are just never meant to be understood. Shuffling back a little in the swing seat, I looked over at Caleb who was just on his phone as he lent on a tree and stared back at his phones' screen, as if his eyes were completely stuck on the glass. I took a sigh and looked at my watch. It was only 10:30 and thankfully I had a free day tomorrow so I was free to do whatever it was that I pleased.

Thinking back to the past week, I was completely petrified about the whole mission set up by Charlotte the other day. The league was a massive organisation and to be investigating an alleged drug case was enough for anyone to wonder what type of person they'd come out to be at the end of the investigation. The most nervewracking thing was what the public's opinion is going to be if we were to discover anything controversial. I already had enough problems from when I first published Marcus' interview and those were just minor things, what more could I possibly take from the end of treacherous journey through a world that was now alleged to a have a dark side that many won't be expected for us to face. But that wasn't the only thing I was concerned about. Even though I had a history with the huge pressures surrounding the media, seeing as this was going to be one of the biggest things in Australian history made me wonder how this was going to affect the other four members of Charlotte's teams. Out of all of us, I was the only one who really had been impacted greatly by the target audience of the sporting world, I wasn't entirely sure how Daniel, Bella, Olivia or even Kyle was going to take in everything; physically and mentally.

I pulled my phone out knowing that it would be best to take my mind off the whole work thing seeing as tomorrow especially was going to be a pretty big event. Looking at my lock screen, I smiled looking at the photo of Marcus and me, which was taken after the VFL match Marcus had taken me for our first date. I bit my lip as I began to wonder about the last several months we had spent together as a couple. My heart raced quickly as the realisation had hit me that I had been dating Marcus for almost six months now which in many ways had my thoughts in a flutter. During the week I had been thinking hard about how I could surprise him and show him that whilst we faced a whole heap of setbacks, I was willing and committed to him for as long as I possibly could. I wanted to show him that I would be happy to do whatever it took to keep that beautiful smile on his beautiful face.