Ireland Twelve Points

Did I hear that right? Did Ireland just say Australia? Twelve Points to Australia, to us?

I didn’t know how to react. I hate to imagine the reaction the cameras captured on my face. Thank God I wasn’t drinking; otherwise, I would have spat it straight out. No doubt I would see that on the Solstice Geddit sometime later as a meme reaction.

I turned to the others. They looked equally shocked, well, except for Luca, who never seemed surprised.

Well, that was Ireland; surely that was a fluke, right? I mean, I had to be realistic here. There was no way I would get twelve points from everyone. I thought to myself.

“Hey,” Luca whispered to me.

“What is it?”

“Can you pass the party pies?”

“How can you eat in this situation?” I asked.

“I’m hungry.”

“Aren’t you nervous?”

“No, I’m confident in us,” he said this so affirmatively there was no doubt at all.

I admired his strength because I was a mess. I handed him the tray of party pies.

“Now to the second country. We are crossing to Moldova.”

So next was Moldova, Budor’s home country. As our biggest rival, this could make or break us. He was sitting on ten points. Since countries cannot vote for themselves, he couldn’t get any points and overtake us here, but they may tactically vote to keep us from getting any points.

“Good evening Europe, and good morning Australia,” their spokeswoman announced.

Great, we would be hearing that a lot today.

“Here is how Moldova voted.”

Their score flashed up. 10 points to Romania; I’m sure Sofia is ecstatic with that. But we had no score on the board.

Well, that’s it for us, I guess.

“Moldova’s twelve points go to Australia.”

I didn’t learn. I was so convinced that we weren’t going to get the points that I took a sip of water. I spat it out in front of me the moment they called it.

Wonderful. I was trending on Geddit earlier for my relationship, and now I would forever be cemented by the spit reaction.

“I can’t believe it. Can you?” Noah asked.

I could only shake my head in response. It turns out it was easy to shake your head when your entire body was already shaking from the shock.

“Next, we cross to Greece,” The hosts were already moving on.

Could we get three in a row?

“Hello, and happy Solstice to you. Thank you to all of Belgium for the wonderful performance you have hosted.”

Get on with it, please! Another twelve points, please! I thought.

“We have enjoyed every moment of this year’s contest. Greece’s twelve points go to…”

The repetitive pause had become sickening.

Please say us.

“Cyprus!” The crowd yelled out at the exact same time as the announcer.

Ok, well, no surprises there.

I hadn’t looked at the scoreboard closely enough. We collected some lower points from Greece, but it wasn’t a big loss. We were still just ahead, and hey, we got some points.

I looked at the totals board. Several countries had already picked up points, but there were still plenty that hadn’t. Out of my closest Solstice friends, Josh was the only person who had not picked up any points yet. I felt bad because he was such a nice guy, and I loved his song. Hopefully, some points will flow his way soon.

Marco rejoined us. He snuck off back to his booth once the voting had begun, but everyone was now mixing with each other. If that was the case, he may as well join us. It was probably a nightmare for the producers, though.

Sorry, I sent a mental apology.

They moved on to the next country. But I couldn’t focus on what they were saying because Marco gripped my hand. It was like time had frozen around me. The only thing that mattered was Marco and I.

Maybe that was my anxiety talking.

“You must be happy,” He commented as he took up a seat next to me.

“Of course.”

“Three douze points, you are crushing it.”

“Three?”

I looked up. In the time I was holding his hand, Switzerland had given us another twelve.

“Distracted are we?” He asked, laughing.

“Maybe.”

“Well maybe, you should focus on this. You may win.”

San Marino announced their twelve points. It was to Italy.

“You’reWith a result like that, you could just as easily win,” I retorted.

“That’s fair, so may the best person win,” he replied, holding out his hand.

I waited until the cameras weren’t watching before I rejected his handshake.

“No, I want to win.”

“That’s my point,” he replied, sticking his tongue out.

I turned to face him.

“But you are the best,” I replied, staring into his eyes.

He quickly turned his head, but I could see the slight red tinge on his ears.

Everyone around us began cheering again. I looked at the scoreboard to see that Iceland had given us another twelve points. I mouthed a thank you to the camera and then focused back on Marco, who was still a little red.

Fuck, maybe Marco was right. Maybe I needed to actually pay attention.

I turned back to finish my conversation with Marco. I prayed we wouldn’t be interrupted by any more twelve points.

Wait, no fuck that. I will happily take a twelve point.

“Marco.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for calming my nerves and reminding me to enjoy Solstice.” I bowed my head as I thanked him.

He scratched the back of his neck.

“I don’t think I did anything in particular, but I’m glad you got something from it.”

“Good luck Marco.”

“You too Blake.”

We leaned in and kissed.

Right at that exact moment, Italy had given us twelve points and the cameras cut to us. I felt my cheeks burn, and Marco couldn’t hide his embarrassment either. The rest of the delegation looked ecstatic about the photo op this would provide.

I wish I could say that the remainder of the Jury votes were all twelve points to us; alas, they were dispersed across several countries. We kept eating up points. We weren’t the only ones, Marco won several. But we were just taking more and more points.

This continued until the end of the jury’s votes. We were in first place.

─── ༻ ☼ ༺ ───

End of Chapter 41