Emerald

Chapter Eight- Goodnight

I picked up the small letter. It was made of the same material as the other ones from Shawn and I was confused. Did he know that I would see it on the piano lid?

"Hey, guys!" I yelled to my friends and they came towards me with their full attention as I showed them the envelope. Rose gave me a confused look.

"Um...Em? Why are you showing us that? It has your name on it," she said. My eyes widened. I hadn't even read the name on the front of the envelope!

Sure enough, I turned it over and saw my name in Shawn's beautiful handwriting. I quickly, but gently opened the envelope. There was a small note card inside instead of a nice letter. I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

Why would he had given the others such nicely written notes and not me?

"What, you're not gonna read it?" sarcastically laughed Ari. I stuck out my tongue, let out a small chuckle and began to read the small notecard.

"My dear Emerald, I know that you all must be wondering how I got the money to pay for this room. Don't worry, you'll find out at the end of all this. Yes, I know that there is an end. I know that it's when you find me. Anyway, I have a little adventure for you to go one while you're staying at the lovely hotel. The clues will be written on some other notecards which will be found where you will be sleeping and will have your names on them. Good luck, love Shawn."

Well, we were all laughing after we finished. He assigned us rooms! After we calmed down a little bit, we walked around in the bedrooms to find where our note cards were placed.

"How about after we find them, we go back to the main room and then open them. Deal?" suggested Ari. We all nodded in agreement and proceeded to check the rooms. Rose and I went into the turquoise room to see if our notecards were in there. I looked in the drawer of the nightstand that was closest to the window. Sure enough, my name was on the card. I smiled. I got the room I wanted; the beautiful turquoise room...

Rose checked in the other nightstand. She opened it and immediately began to bust out in a fit of laughter.

"Why the heck are you laughing?" I asked. She took out the notecard and showed me the name that was on it. It was addressed to Matt. My face turned bright red. Why the heck would Shawn make me room with Matt?

I shook it off as Ari and Matt walked into the room. Matt's face was red, as well. I smiled at him as Ari led us all to the main room.

When we got there, we all sat on the couch and chairs. Of course, the girls made Matt sit with me.

"Alright, who's opening first?" I asked. They all just kept looking at me. "Ugh, fine! I'll open mine first!" I huffed. I looked down at the envelope. I had only just then noticed that it wasn't made of parchment like the others. It was made of beautiful deep blue paper. The beautiful calligraphy was in a stunning golden ink. I smiled slightly as I turned it over to open it. There was a fancy golden seal on the back. It was shining in the artificial light of the room because the sun had already set and the stars were shining. On the seal was engraved a single number "1".

"Hey, there's a number on the back of this. Maybe we're supposed to open them in a specific order." I suggested. They all immediately looked on the backside of their letters.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Em. I have "2"," said Rose.

"I've got "3"," continued Ari.

"4," continued Cam. I smiled. My theory had been proved correct, as usual. After that, I decided to open up my letter. I pulled out what looked like a normal piece of printer paper. Unfolding it I found a large caption that I read aloud.

"Locate three gems and put them in the box that Em's necklace and ring were in. Make sure her ring is in there, too. All the gems will be somewhere in the hotel."

Let's just say, we were all extremely confused. Then, Rose opened her letter.

"The first gem is a sapphire. It will be where the moon will glisten in roses...Interesting..." We giggled as Ari opened hers.

"The second gem is an amethyst. It will be where comfort is abundant and central...What the heck is that supposed to mean?!"

"Alright, my turn," began Matt. "The last gem is a ruby. It can be found where life reaches the heavens...Holy crap..." We were all so confused. Ari sighed and stood up.

"You know what? How about we get some well-deserved sleep and figure it all out in the morning, yeah?" she suggested. I gave a tired nod in response, Rose yawned, and Matt fell to the ground and pretended to snore. We all giggled at that. "I'll take that as a yes."

We all walked off to our rooms and proceeded to put our belongings in our drawers. Everyone was talking and laughing while we were doing this. Once everything was away, Rose and Matt decided that they were going to take showers. They took some of their pajamas and went into their designated bathrooms.

The second Matt left the room, I flopped down onto the fancy bed. Sinking into the mattress, I got out my phone and decided to check up on my mom. As the other line was ringing, I looked at the clock next to me. 10:53 p.m. She was definitely asleep, already.

When the line stopped ringing it led to her voicemail.

"Hey, mom. Decided I'd check in. I know you're asleep, but I wanted to let you know that I was alive," I giggled into my phone. "Okay, that's all I wanted to do. Bye, mom!" I hung up. I looked back to the door to see Rose walking back into her room, pajamas on and hair dripping. My eyebrows furrowed. Why was she out earlier than Matt?

I got off the nice, comfy bed, walked to our bathroom door and knocked on it.

"Jeez, hold on a second! Can't a guy get his pants on?!" he yelled. I burst out in a fit of laughter, but it stopped once he opened the door. His red curls were dripping, brown eyes were dry from the steam of the room, and his face still was dripping a bit. He was wearing some deep red sweatpants, but no shirt. He was a bit more muscular than I imagined; I had never seen him shirtless and I saw that he was holding his grey t-shirt in his hand. I looked up at his face and felt a blush creep its way onto my cheeks.

I smiled and ran back to the room to grab my clothes for the night. I passed Matt in the hall, with his shirt finally on, as I ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

After I showered I began to slip on all my clothes, but I heard a knocking on the door just as I was putting on my shirt.

"Jeez, Hold on a second! Can't a girl get her shirt on?!" I mocked. I heard everyone cracking up outside the door. I finished slipping on my white, long sleeved shirt and went to open the door. My hair was still dripping all over me so I put it in a quick messy bun on top of my head as I was opening the door. When I opened it, Matt's face was a bright pink. I cocked my head to the side until I realized what he was blushing at. I looked down and realized I was still in my underwear...my shorts were still in my hand.

My face was bright red as I quickly slipped on my black shorts and smiled. He smiled back as I turned out the light and went back to our room. As soon as we got in, I jumped onto my side of the bed and covered myself up. Rose and Ari were both already asleep so the only light was coming from the lamp on Matt's nightstand. Matt hopped into bed with me already having my eyes closed. I guess he thought I was already asleep because I heard him sigh as he turned off the light. Then he did something unexpected...

"Goodnight, Em. Love you," he whispered as he kissed my forehead. I smiled as sleep finally took me away.