Last Kiss in Paris

Chapter 12 - A Lil' Chance

Suggested Song: Girls Like You by Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B

'Cause girls like you
Run around with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah

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When they arrived back at the hotel, Amrisha found her friends standing outside room 418, chattering excitedly. "I've got clearance from Johnson," Buvhi said. "Saige and I - you know how we're the only ones who haven't gotten in trouble from him - asked just then. He seemed more than happy, and said the only condition is for us to bring him back an autograph."

"Lil Chan fans are everywhere," remarked Alexander. "Hey Amrisha, are you ok now?"

"Gurl, you had us so concerned when you freaked out like that," Luc said.

Amrisha sighed. "Yeah, I'm good now," which was actually quite true. She could feel the pain of Ben's betrayal had dulling significantly after that afternoon with Pierre. She looked around and saw Alek lingering in the shadows, still ashen faced.

"Yeah, Alek is our issue now," Sadipoh said, watching Amrisha. "Like c'mon dude, it's just some girl. You'll get over her soon," he continued.

"Aren't boys supposed to take these relationship problems lightly and shrug them off easily, unlike us girls?" Sophie questioned.

"Sometimes," Luc said. "But remember how his last relationship went? I bet this is giving him PTSD." Alek started to mumble something they couldn't quite catch, but then they were interrupted by a loud commotion from the other end of the hall. Mel, Emanda, Ashton, Jazz, Aliza, Davis, Aiden and a few other kids burst out of the elevator and started heading down the hall towards them. They were chattering loudly and blasting kpop out of Aiden's expensive waterproof speakers, barely noticing the others as they piled into the room next door. The door slammed shut, drowning out the noise, but Mel was hanging back.

"Hey guys," she said, beaming. Amrisha saw a few of the boys' expressions turn sour, but she and Sophie managed to smile. "We ready for Lil Chan?" Mel had seemed to have adopted an uncomfortably presumptuous demeanour which contrasted greatly with her usual casual one, ever since having joined the Underscore Software clique. She stood a lot straighter, and had her hand on her hip, which showed off the new manicure she had probably gotten in the previous few days. Amrisha also noticed that she had dyed her hair brown and was wearing tighter and more revealing clothes that differed significantly from her usual tastes, as well as a lot of makeup. She knew that the old Mel would have been extremely self conscious about wearing such skimpy clothes in front of many people she knew.

"Don't you have to go to some party tonight with those kids?" Alexander jutted his head in the direction of the room next door.

"Nah," Mel said, a bit too cheerily. "I wouldn't miss Lil Chan for anything, especially if it's with my besties!"

"Right," Amrisha heard Sophie muttering underneath her breath.

"Whoa guys," Sadipoh interrupted suddenly, inspecting the card Lil Chan had given to them. "Have any of you read this properly? It says, Lil Chan is giving out free VIP Paris tour passes to the 8th and 16th - those are her lucky numbers - group of fans she encounters while in the city, to thank them." Sadipoh paused for breath - he seemed to sound more and more excited with every word. "Us, being the 8th group, entitles us up to 10 tickets, while 16th is 5 tickets." He looked up and quickly did a head count. "That means all of us can go - as well as Amrisha!" Everyone cheered at this news.