7 Nights

Day 1, Part 1

It was her first night on a cruise on the Pacific Dawn as Ella walked into HQ for the first time.

Immediately her eyes darted towards a cute blonde boy sitting on the sofa of the kid's club. At that moment, she knew in the bottom of her heart that he would be the love of her life. She prepared to walk up to him to say hi and smoothed out her shirt, but when she looked up, he was already on his feet, confidently striding towards her with that gorgeous dimpled smile spread wide across his face.

His gleaming dark blue eyes glued onto Ella's grey ones, shining under the dim fluorescent light of the room. He ran a hand nervously across his golden hair slicked back with too much gel, readying himself to meet his beloved Ella. His chest was puffed out and he was grinning from ear to ear as he walked right up to her and said, "Hi, I'm Harley." What a beautiful name, just like the person, Ella thought. The loud shouts of people playing air hockey and table tennis in the kid's club suddenly dropped to a dull roar, as Ella opened her mouth to reply. But just as she did so, a hockey puck, aimed by a tall skinny girl named Sophie, knocked her in the head, making her fall to the ground. Harley immediately dropped down on his knees, and asked frantically, "Are you ok?"

The concern on his face gave Ella a magical sense of love and euphoria as his blue, blue eyes fixated on her own, shining like precious jewels on that Saturday night. "I - I'm fine. Actually, I'm so happy - I've never been this close to a boy," Ella whispered excitedly.

"Yeh cool, so like can I have you number now?" Ella recoiled, slightly taken aback at this, as her dreamlike state of mind snapped awake. She pondered whether she will give him her number so soon. After all, it was only day one on the cruise, and they had spent what - 5 hours on the boat?

"I - I don't remember it but er, I could give you m-my insta in-instead?" She stammered, blushing, as he stretched out a hand to help her up.

"Sure." He smiled with a smile that she knew could complete her day no matter what, as her skin started to tingle from touching his hand.

"Wow," Ella blurted out. She continued before she could stop herself. "You've just made my day. You know, I think I'm falling for you, like legit I just fell when I saw you."

"Right, thanq very much," said Harley, looking towards the door. "I do often get the chicks. Anyway, let's go for a walk alone together."

"Uh, ok," Ella said, blushing like crazy. As soon as they got out the door the strong wind started whipping their hair around. It was cold, much colder than in Brisbane. Ella shivered a little. Harley noticed and stopped her. He pulled off his jacket and said, "Here, put this on," with a hint of pink in his cheeks as well.

"Oh, um thanks," said Ella nervously. "Actually, you can have it back if you want," she added as she noticed his teeth chattering.

"Let's go to the nightclub," he said, ignoring her previous statement and winking at her.

"Ooh, I've got the moves too," said Ella.

"Can you do the Worm?" Harley asked.

"Sure can," Ella responded. "Let's do a competition." So right there and then, on the top of deck 14 in front of the Big Screen for seemingly no reason, the couple was seen doing the Worm and other Fortnite dances. Sophie, on her way to get a glass of water, walked past and thought, wtf at least me and my ex Josh weren't this weird.

"Wanna join?" Harley asked Sophie with a wink. Ella tried to push down a twinge of jealousy.

"Yah sure, but not here in the open" she replied. They headed into the Dome together, Sophie chatting her head off with Harley. Secretly, Ella was fuming. Sophie seemed nice enough, but this was supposed to be her moment. "Oh and by the way, I'm Sophie," she said.

"I know," Harley replied. "I met you when we were checking in remember?" Ella tried to calm her breathing. So the two had already been alone together had they? She thought about ways to ditch Sophie as they entered the noisy nightclub. But luckily, she didn't need to wait for long. "Ooh," Sophie said, spotting a cute guy their age standing in the corner. "Catchyas soon," she said to Harley and Ella as she breezed towards the unknowing boy. Now, Ella was along with Harley, unless you counted all the adults who surrounded them, kissing and drinking vodka.

Harley went to get drinks while Ella tried to hold back her tears as she remembered Harley and Sophie together. She didn't want Harley to see, so she took off his jacket and placed it where she was sitting, before walking out of the night club.

Ella walked to the lifts and decided to go back to her room. "Hurry up," she muttered as she jammed her finger on the down button. The lifts were taking forever to come up.

"There you are," a voice behind her said. It was Harley, walking toward her. The lift door opened and Ella quickly slipped inside, but not before he rushed in after her, and handed her a Diet Coke. "Why did you leave without telling me?" he asked.

"I-" but she was cut off by someone else entering the lift just as the doors closed. A medium height, tanned asian girl about their age stood awkwardly next to them as the lift descended. "Where are you going?" Harley asked Ella in his regular loud voice, completely ignoring the stranger looking at them strangely.

"My room," Ella muttered.

"I'm coming with you," he declared. The other girl stared at them even more and said, just as the lifts opened at level 12, "Er, you two have fun."

The girl walked out the doors closed. "Why did you leave?" Harley asked again with a concerned expression on his face.

"I - it's my curfew?" She replied, but more like questioned herself at her answer.

"Ella, it's only 7:30pm. Do you not wanna hang out? Is everything ok?" he says.

"Um..." And just to save her the lifts opened on deck 11. Ella decided there and then to get out and take a flight of steps down to her level.

As soon as she took one step in Sophie came from the opposite direction, kicked her back into the lift and closed the doors from the outside to send them off back together before heading down the corridors to the cute boy's room. It looked like she wasn't escaping Harley anytime soon. But maybe it was for the better...