𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 by A.P.Mary

8.

"Pass me the fairy lights," I muffled with a tape roll between my teeth. We are almost done with decorating the entrance to the festival, hiding the cameras in between the high arch. The space is pretty large, but still not too large, so movement can be monitored.

  I have a bad feeling about this.

Two hundred tickets got sold in less time than we expected, to which Blaise and some of his colleagues started to analyze the background of those who decided to come. For a small town like this one, it's actually a surprising number, perfect for a contained mass mission. I'm going to be the bait tonight, and I hope those who plan against me actually show up. I could say that this whole festival is dedicated to them; it would be a shame if they ghosted us, wouldn't it?

"Are you feeling alright?" Nisha comes near me, passing a fist full of lights. She's more worried than I am; I can see the drops of sweat on her forehead even though the current cool wind is just right to make me shiver. She was always and still is the protective and caring type that, in even just simple moments, would make hundreds of scenarios just to be prepared for the worst; she didn't have just a plan B; she had plan b's for the plan B, because, as she says 'better be safe than sorry' .

Her hair is a mess, she has dark eye bags, and her big lips were all bruised from her habit of biting them when she's nervous; the situation was not in her favor.

"I should be the one asking you this question, are you?" She sighs, rolling her eyes, annoyed

"Stop making this about me; I'm not the one they're currently looking for. I feel so sick, I could throw up at any time." She's still guilt tripping herself for letting me win that conversation and making me take the bait. Her posture was firm, but her eyes were just pleading with me to just change my mind and not show up .

"I'm not, and to answer your question, I'm fine. It might be a bad idea, but at least I'm dying knowing I tried " She punches me on my hip as she couldn't reach me from the stair I was on.

"You're not dying unless I'm the one murdering you; shut up and stop jinxing shit." I laugh, and her face clears a bit, making space for an ironic frown. "By the way, what's the deal with you and that tattooed Flynn Rider of yours?" Oh, of course she would bring him up. I laugh and move myself to the next tree, Nisha following me as I do.

"Noisy, aren't you? Currently nothing, not that I'm planning something to happen" a smug look makes its way on her face, looking at me from the side as I adjust the lights on the tree. "We hung out and talked, and without looking at his appearance, he's a nice guy overall." I sting myself with the wood, making me almost fall from the stair I was on.Must be a sign to not speak too soon

"Maybe after the last two relationships, you redeem yourself at 24. Oh sh*t, I forgot to ask, how old is he?" The light isn't sticking to the tree, the tape and my patience are almost over, and my finger is still hurting, getting redder and redder as the time passes. I punch the tape, but it just makes it worse, covering itself with dirt and erasing the possibility of it sticking up ever again.

"Twenty-seven in about three months," I remember him telling me at the beach. I still think about how shocked I was, as he looked at least six years younger, clearly not as a man of almost 30. He laughed at me a lot that day.

*

"I almost forgot, how old are you?" I got up from the sand when I saw him walking in another direction. His eyes were fixed on his phone; he was busy texting with someone.

"Twenty-seven on October 6, you?" eyes still fixed on his phone, his tone absent as his concentration was somewhere else. Wait, hold on, twenty-what? This guy is almost thirty. and he's a fucking Libra?