Are You The One? •

eight - the ceremony

   Everyone took their respective places on the ceremony stage. The guys sat in their chairs while the girls stood on the platform.

  "Hello again, guys.", Ryan greeted. Everyone happily greeted him back. "So, tonight, is your first chance to get closer to your winnings of $1,000,000. Everyone has to choose correctly. Each beam of light is a correct match. But it will not reveal who those matches are. If you don't light up all ten beams, you'll head back to the house to try again. But if you get a blackout, meaning there are 0 correct matches, you will lose a quarter of a million dollars. Tonight, we start with the girls. First up for the ladies, Brooke."

  Brooke walked up as the rest of the girls cheered her on. "Good evening, Ryan."

  "Good evening. Brooke, who's your match?", he asked.

  "My match is Prosper."

  "Ooh, okay. Prosper, come on down." Prosper stood and thrust a fist in the air. "Lock in." The two pressed their hands to the tablets in front of them, then released, causing the 'LOCKED' symbol to pop up.

  "Next, Jamey." Jamey walked to the podium. "Who is your match?"

  "My match tonight is Alex." Alex grinned and took his place next to Jamey. They locked in as instructed then went back to Alex's seat together.

  "Alright, Fallon." Fallon now stood in front of the tablets. "Your perfect match?"

  "My perfect match is Miles.", she stated confidently. Hadley's eyes widened and everyone else's turned to look at her.

  "Really, now?", Ryan gasped. "Now you've been spending a lot of time with Logan. What happened there?"

  Fallon rolled her eyes. "Well, Logan kissed Andy on the same night he said he wanted me to sleep with him. Not like sexually but just like sleep. Then he's now kissing Summer. So, I thought maybe he wasn't my match after all."

"And Miles, how do you feel? Were you expecting this?", Ryan inquired.

Miles huffed. "Um, I definitely wasn't expecting it but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing? I mean, we do have other connections but we did connect the first week, the first day even, so I think it's fair."

  "Alright, well, the two of you may lock in.", he responded. Once they locked in, Ryan called, "Tessa. Come on down." Tessa stepped down to stand next to Ryan. "Tessa, your match is?"

  Tessa paused, looking at the available guys. "My match is Thatcher, Ryan." Jett looked surprised then nodded calmly, masking what he was really feeling inside.

  "Hm, alright. Lock it in.", Ryan instructed when Thatcher was standing with them.

  "Okay, Hadley. You're up."

   She walked slowly to the podium, all eyes on her.

  Hadley: "I had been spending time with Prosper and Miles but I intended to pick Miles for the matchup. But then they were both picked!", she said with an incredulous expression.

  "Hello, Hadley.", Ryan greeted her.

  Hadley nodded, emotionlessly. "Hi, Ryan."