Rêveuse

Chapter 11

We're gathered by the pool, and I stand next to Francesco even though something tells me that I'm making a huge mistake giving in to play this game. So what if Charles is trying to make me jealous? He's not succeeding, so why would I do something like this? It's stupid, and my feelings are confirmed when I see the smirk on Charlotte's face as she looks over at me.

They take a black board out where they have divided us into teams. Lo and behold, my name is on there, written right next to Charles' name. She's been taking her new role as cupid very seriously, I can tell.

Charles and I exchange a look before we walk over to stand next to each other as we're on the same team. Both our eyes widen when she pulls out a box, informing us that we will all have different challenges besides the challenges in the game. The first team has to wear blind folds the whole time. Arthur and Carla weren't allowed to speak. One team couldn't hear. In another team, only one person could use their hands. Charles and I, lord have mercy, widened our eyes when Charlotte walked over with handcuffs, telling us we had to be handcuffed to each other the whole time.

"Ragazzi, avete abbastanza esperienza con questi per gestirli, giusto?" You guys have enough experience with these to handle them, right? She smirks as she takes our hands and locks them together, meeting my eyes to leave me a wink. I reply with a sarcastic smile.

The first thing we do when she tells us to go to our stations, is that we walk in different directions, immediately slamming back into each other. We exchange a silent look before nodding in the direction of a station before walking over.

Oh boy.

Our first task is to get into a damn sack together and make it to the finish line first. Charles and I don't strategise much, sparing ourselves the problems we'd face. We just get straight to the point of getting into the bag, noticing just how our positions are really awkward whatever we try to do. Either my hand is in a place it shouldn't be, or he's going to press into me from behind everytime he tries to jump. We try to stand a bit more next to each other, but there isn't much space.

The race starts, and we fall behind pretty quickly. Even the blind pair is quicker than us towards the finish line. Charles, the sore loser he is, immediately starts cursing under his breath. We really try our best, but we finish third last.

Charles steps out of the bag, pissed, and forgets he's attached to me so I kind of fly with him and into him, hitting my cheek on his shoulder. I grunt and put my hand on my cheek, having his hand fly up with mine.

"Désolé," Sorry, he says, finally speaking. He uses his free hand to remove my hand and he looks at my cheek as if it was going to leave a mark.

I push his hand away, "C'est bon, tu n'es pas si vif," It's okay, you're not that sharp, I reply, starting to laugh at how it seemed like an insult. He chuckled as well. "Mais peut-être devrions-nous trouver un plan..." But maybe we should come up with a plan, I suggest, considering I wouldn't want to run into him again.

He looked at our arms locked together and then he laughed while he shook his head to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Laisse à Charlotte le soin de nous mettre dans cette situation," Leave it to Charlotte to put us in this situation, he laughed.

I laughed too, just as Charlotte yelled for us to keep up with the rest of the group. Charles and I walked up to the second station, which included a game of pictionary. We were paired with Arthur and Carla, who weren't allowed to speak. There was a box of words that relate to the couple, and we were supposed to draw them and guess them.

Arthur and Carla had to write the words when they guessed each other's words. Charles and I had to stay together, while he drew, my left arm kept following his movements, but when I drew, at least he could just stand there, though pretty close. He was screaming words into my ear until I had to turn to him and tell him to use his inside voice as if he was a child.