Chapter Twenty-Three Noah #2
Noah’s stress levels were through the roof. Pretty girls would be my downfall, he thought. And an overzealous wannabe.
Carlos stepped up to choose next. He wrapped his arms around his head in a gesture of distress as he looked at Shirin and
Tiana, like he was having a nervous breakdown.
“Okay,” he said. “Full disclosure, I was someone’s crush, so I didn’t come into this show with a crush of my own. So I have to choose between you two on the spot, saving one while possibly eliminating the other. This is the worst day of my life.”
“That guy is weird,” Violet whispered to Noah. “But in a good way. He’s funny.”
Noah nodded in agreement. “You should have seen him when he got eliminated on Day One,” he whispered back, grateful for this
small moment of humor. It was a nice break, and hope fluttered in Noah’s chest. If only he could just freely hang out with
Violet without having to worry about Kyle. Or Celine and Mia.
Carlos let out a noise of frustration. “Okay, I hate to be doing this, but it’s better than eeny, meeny, miney, mo. Pick a
number between one and twenty.”
“Ten,” Shirin said almost immediately.
From beside her, Tiana grinned. “You would pick ten.”
“It’s the halfway point,” Shirin replied with a shrug. “What do you pick?”
Tiana looked at Carlos and said, “I’ll go with eight. My favorite number.”
Carlos glanced from Tiana to Shirin, and then back again. “It was seven.”
Tiana and Carlos linked arms, and Shirin said, “Goodbye, world, I guess.”
She sounded casual enough, but there was an edge to her voice that made Noah cock his head. To add to the intrigue, from behind the cameras, Mia bit her lip, like she did whenever she was worried. What was going on?
Out of all the girls in the game, Shirin was the most mysterious to him. For some reason, she seemed to not like him almost
right off the bat. Which was fine, but Noah couldn’t figure out her role in the show at all. The girl had mostly only cuffed
with or talked to her friends. Noah wasn’t sure if she was even here to date.
“Okay!” Mia said loudly, making Noah jump. “There we have it. Our three new cuffles for the day. Shirin, feel free to tag
along with the crew for now. Everyone else, have fun but keep safe, since there might be wild animals in the woods. And remember,
whatever you do today will affect the viewers’ opinions of you. During our live streamed finale at four p.m. Pacfic Time on
the twenty-third, the winning cuffle of The Cuffing Game will be determined through audience voting.”
“No pressure,” Violet said.
“I don’t know which I’m more terrified of, the wild animals or the live stream,” Noah deadpanned.
Violet giggled, a bright bell-like sound that made him smile.
Alex came by to hand out walkie-talkies to the other crew members. “I’ll be staying behind at the lodge to edit, so at least one person will have cell service at all times,” they announced. “So if there’s an emergency, please find one of the other crew members and we’ll call for help.”
Everyone nodded. Noah was glad that, as always, the crew seemed to know what they were doing.
Mia, who was still refusing to acknowledge Noah’s existence, expertly led them through the woods. As he stared at the back of her pink puffer
jacket, Noah was reminded of the late-night conversation they had earlier this week.
Maybe she’d been location scouting that night but didn’t want to tell me, Noah thought.
Her dedication continued to amaze him.
The sunlight streaming down through the branches warmed Noah’s face. Feeling hot, he unbuttoned his coat and caught sight
of Mia glancing in his direction. When he met her gaze, she quickly looked away.
They soon came to a clearing with some trails leading deeper into the woods. An untouched layer of snow covered the ground,
and Noah overheard Carlos say to Tiana, “This is perfect snowman-building snow, right here!”
“Yes, build that snowman!” Mia exclaimed. “Have a snowball fight. You can do whatever you guys want. I’ll be here, behind
the cameras, if anyone needs me.”
With that, she walked to the back of the clearing, giving all the contestants some space.
Carlos and Tiana started rolling snow into a ball, and before Noah could see where Celine and Kyle went, Violet pointed at
one of the paved trails and said, “Hey, do you want to go for a walk over there?”
“Sure.” Noah followed Violet, searching for Celine and Kyle as they went. The other cuffle was nowhere in sight.
“You know, as a kid, I thought snow was reindeer poop,” Violet suddenly said.
“Wait, what?” Noah snapped to attention to see that Kallie was currently recording both him and Violet. From behind the camera,
Kallie gave him a look that said What are you doing?
Noah winced. Right. The date. With a smile, he looked back at Violet. “And why did you think that?”
Violet smiled back, but there was the faintest bit of hurt in her eyes. She’d noticed he’d been distracted. Guilt crawled
up inside of him, and Noah turned his body to give her his undivided attention.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she continued. “This was when I was young. Like, not even five. My older brother convinced me that snow
was whatever fell on the ground whenever Santa and his reindeer were flying overhead. In my defense, it always snows around
Christmas where I’m from, so it made sense to my four-year-old brain.”
“That’s adorable,” Noah replied.
Part of him wished he could stay here like this, listening to Violet’s stories about her childhood and just having a peaceful
day with her. But the knowledge that Kyle was out there, somewhere in the woods with Celine, pressed down on his shoulders
like a heavy weight.
I have to find them, quick, Noah thought, so I can give Violet my full attention after I’ve dealt with Kyle.
“I felt so stupid when I found out my brother was lying to me this entire time,” Violet went on. “But now, I think it’s cute too. Because of that, whenever I see snow . . .”
There. Past Violet’s head, at the far edge of the clearing, Noah spotted Celine and Kyle walking down the trail that led deeper
into the woods. And after Mia explicitly told them to stay close too. Not even five minutes in, and Kyle was already breaking
the rules.
“Sorry,” Noah said. “I’ll be right back. I just need to take care of something first.”
Before Violet could even reply, he took off running after Celine and Kyle.