Matchmaker (a Brandon Flowers fanfic)

|chapter 6|

"Well, that was fun," Brandon sighed as we descended the spiraling staircase. Happily, I nodded in agreement. Dancing to such beautiful songs with him was definitely fun. Plus, the fact that he wouldn't let go of my hand made it that much better.

"Yeah," I replied, smiling.

"I wish our date could have been longer," he said.

"Yeah," I repeated. Then, I realized what he said: 'date'. He called it a date! I might have overreacted a little, but he considered that a date! It was hard work trying to keep the huge smile on my face concealed.

"Maybe later we can continue it?" he asked hopefully.

"Definitely," I confirmed, and just like that, a potential second date was set up. We reached the main floor and strolled to the door, where he stopped. I stopped also.

"Can you send out Ivory next?" he kindly asked, and a look of disgust most likely flashed across my face because he nodded. "I know. I'm just trying to get her date over with."

"Was she one of the ones you picked?" I whispered, careful to not be loud enough for someone to hear me through the thick wooden door.

"No, Orrey picked her. He thought she was 'so beautiful she gave rainbows their colors', and I couldn't change his mind," he explained. I didn't let a reaction show, even though he was totally right to try to change Orrey's mind. Suddenly, his expression turned dead serious. "Now, before you go, I just want to say something."

"What?" I inquired.

"Please don't hurt yourself again. You are too precious to lose," he replied. A sad smile crossed my face, and I threw my arms around his neck. He actually cared.

"I'll try not to," I murmured in his ear before letting him go and turning to the door. Time to face the others. Slowly, I twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. The first thing I noticed was Ivory's death stare. At least she wasn't going to be staying in there.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*

For the half an hour, all of the rest of the girls are taken out of the room to go on a 'date' with Brandon. The whole time that the dates went on,

I couldn't help but feel jealous. He and I created some kind of special bond when we danced, and I didn't want that to disappear. Renee ended up being the last one leaving the room, and the strange part was that when Brandon came back, Renee was no where to be seen.

"Renee decided to leave," Brandon announced after he walked through the door. She just left? "She said she wasn't been feeling well and wanted to go home and get some rest." Everyone seemed surprised except for Orrey, who nodded thoughtfully.

"It sure is that time of year," the old man commented, walking towards a swinging door on the other side of the room but on the same wall as the first door. I was curious about Renee. Did she really leave because she felt ill? I guess I wouldn't really find out unless I chased after her and asked her. "Now, if-" Brandon interrupted him by striding over to him and whispering something in his ear. Orrey nodded after a moment before turning to the other girls and I. "If you all would like to sit down, Brandon has decided that he would like to hurry the matchmaking party and take some time to decide." With that, Brandon and Orrey left the room through the swinging door. All of the girls kept glancing at each other nervously. We were all wondering who he would choose, if he chose any of us. Ivory sent many glares my way, which caused Tanner to keep an eye on her. Hanna nibbled on her fingernails, glancing between me and Tanner. None of us spoke for a while until Hanna decided to break the silence.

"So since I've never seen any of you before, where do all of you live?" she squeaked. All of us waited a moment before answering.

"I live in another county," Tanner said. "It took about an hour to get here."