Fighter

We were in first.

Eh?! How the hell were we winning?

I turned to the others. They all looked pale and were shaking. I was shaking. Stephanie even had the jitters. Luca ate another party pie.

The Jury vote was over, and we were in the lead. That shouldn’t happen. Not that I was complaining, but how were we winning?

Anyway, it would be amazing if we could end here, but unfortunately, the Jury vote only accounted for half the vote. Now, we were on to the public vote. This was where we would likely drop. Australia never did well with the public vote. Even when we do well in the semifinals, we still don’t perform well in the grand final.

Thankfully, the public vote wasn’t as slow and tedious as the Jury vote. We wouldn’t be going from country to country. We would start at the bottom of the scoring country—in this case, the UK, Josh, currently sitting on zero—and make their way up to the top of the leaderboard, which was currently us. All up, twenty-six countries, one after the other. We would know within the next few minutes if we won.

“First up, we will reveal the results of the UK,” the host echoed. “The UK, from the public, received…”

Fuck, they were reading the results this slowly. Well, I hope Josh does alright, at the very least.

“I’m sorry, zero points,” they sighed.

Zero? Nada? Fuck the public, fuck the Jury. Josh deserved better. He put in so much effort. He was so kind. His song was an absolute bop. I have never felt so outraged before. He didn’t deserve a flat zero.

I didn’t even need a moment to think; I stood up and gave applause. I wasn’t the only one; the entire band applauded, as did every other contestant. After the shock wore off, the audience, too, joined in applauding him. Josh stood up and gave a bow. This was his moment.

He wasn’t far from us, so I walked over and gave him a hug as soon as the cameras were off him. I wasn’t going to steal his spotlight.

Luckily for everybody else, there were no more zeros, and everyone else scored some points. The other acts all moved about. Some had disappointing results, and others had much better outcomes. However, nothing significant occurred to shake up the scoreboard. Most importantly, no one passed our jury score, meaning we still lead the board.

“Sweden, received from the public, one hundred and fifty-three points.” The host called. I tried to do some mental maths. I wasn’t quick enough. Sweden updated on the scoreboard and surpassed us. They were in first.

The anxiety that had been slowly building twisted into despair.

I could feel Marco’s hand tighten slightly. It may have been because his score was coming up, or it may have been to comfort me. Either way, it certainly calmed my nerves.

Next up was Marco. I tightened my grip on his hand. I slowly leaned in and whispered.

“Good luck,”

He seemed distracted, so I gave him a small kiss on the cheek, which certainly snapped him back to reality. I’m not sure if it was the kiss itself or the reaction it garnered. The squeals filled the entire arena.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to do it at that moment, but it just felt right at the time.

“Italy, from the public you received, Three hundred and thirteen points,” the hosts revealed.

Holy shit! Marco let out a gasp. Three hundred was a massive score. It easily shot him into first place. I was sad about being surpassed, yet at the same time, if I couldn’t win, I wanted Marco to.

“We are down to the top five countries. One of these countries will be the winner of the Solstice song contest for this year.” I figured they needed some extra time and were simply padding it out as long as they could.

“Will it be Romania, Italy, Australia, Finland or Moldova?” That’s right, in my distracted state, I completely forgot that the other countries were mostly people who were close to us.

I looked across the green room to Finland, who were being called next.

“Finland, from the public, you received one hundred and sixteen points.”

That was a decent score. It put them above Sweden but below Marco. It bsically gaurenteed they both would finish in the top five regardless.

It seemed like Aina and Jakko were happy with this result.

“Now we cross to Romania,” the host announced.

I turned my attention to Sofia, who was nestled up against Ruby. It looked like she was about to have a breakdown. I would make a joke about it, but I was doing the same to Marco right now.

“Romania, received from the public, one hundred and one points.”

Another great score, although it meant she would finish just below Finland. Marco was still in the lead.

We were down to three. If Moldova failed to score a high enough score, it would be between Marco and us. The romantic battle that would be studied for centuries to come.

Forget romeo and julliet, it would be Marco and Blake. wait? Why am I the Julliet in this situation? Anyway, I didn’t have time to worry about that. They were announcing Moldova’s results.

“Moldova received from the public, two hundred and sixty-eight points,” the host called.

Damn it. There goes our romantic tale. However, it wasn’t quite as large as Marco’s Public vote, but it still meant Moldova shot to the top of the leaderboard. Although it was deserving, and while we could still win, the despair was hitting and most of all, Marco couldn’t win, he would be second at best, third at worst.

“Are you alright Marco?”

“It would be a lie to say I was.”

I gave him a hug.

"You did amazing. You were the winner in my eyes."

"Thanks, I hope you win."

"I hope so too."

It was between us and Moldova.

While we were a rock group with a grandiose performance, Budor Tumbac was a solo artist with a beautiful ballad with no staging. We couldn’t be any more different.

“Australia, from the public you receive”

─── ༻ ☼ ༺ ───

End of Chapter 42