Watching the Petals Fall

"If only I said... sorry..."

**Watching the Petals Fall** is a 5-star card from the *Deal of the Devils Cards* event. It is centered around Celeste from first-generation group Royal Flush.

The card art features Celeste (Royal Flush).

The card story features Kieu Duyên Nguyen, Sadiya Malik, and Aishwarya Waghmare (all from Royal Flush).

## Card Story

*Tuesday 25th July - 8pm*

…

“Hey Celeste!”

Duyen shouted as Celeste walked into the casino, looking up from the table of sheet music in front of them. Celeste gave them a slight smile and hung her coat up.

“So what are we working on today?” Aishwarya asked the group, mostly looking up at Sadiya.

“How about deal with the devil?” Celeste asked, met with blank stares. Each member looked at her like she spoke a different language. Duyen rolled their eyes and looked back at Aishwarya. The group carried on like Celeste hadn’t said anything.

“Lower?” Sadiya asked, met with a few nods and interested mumbles from the group.

“Ehhh a bit boring don’t you think? Let's do something fun like Nude!”
Duyen replied back, leaning back in the chair they were sitting in.

“What about-” Celeste was cut off, abruptly.

“No, actually let's do blackjack!” Duyen shouted with a smirk growing across their face. Celeste shot them a disgruntled look, and their eyes met. Duyen let out a slight giggle, they enjoyed seeing Celeste wound up.

The group carried on their rehearsal, tensions still high. The music just didn’t flow like it usually did. Something was seriously wrong and everyone could sense it. Once they had finished practising they all sat at one of the many empty poker tables to discuss some things about their debut tour. Laid out in front of them were a few scattered poker chips and page upon pages of ideas for music, outfit designs and venue ideas.

Duyen slumped back in their chair, arm outstretched onto Aishwarya's arm rest. The group exchanged blank stares with each other, waiting for one of them to say something.

Celeste picked up her martini from infront of her, “So about these costumes, I don’t think they go with what we want as a gro-”

Duyen lifted their hand from Aishwarya's side, to cut off Celeste. “Well we’ve already decided on these costumes, no need to argue about it, is there Celeste?”

Sadiya and Aishwarya gave each other worried looks and each gave a slightly positive mumble as to agree with Duyen. Celeste saw red. Her cheeks became flustered with burning hot rage. She slammed down her drink causing it to douse the papers strewn across the table. She pushed her chair away with force and slammed her palms down on the now damp table.

“What is your problem?” Celeste shouted, staring Duyen directly in the eyes, her lip quivering with pure anger.

Duyen gave a nervous laugh, “Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, this isn’t like you Celeste-y”

Aishwarya looked away, her whole body cringing at the confrontation happening in front of her. She gave a knowing look to Sadiya, “Do something!”, she whispered.

Sadiya looked back at her and slowly shook her head. She knew not to mess with Celeste when she was in a state like this. Duyen had whatever was about to happen to them coming.

Celeste and Duyen still had their eyes locked in each other's gaze. No sane person would dare intervene. Celeste bowed her head down slightly and just tried to breathe her anger away.

“See? I knew you’d be alright. Now we can get back to your awful suggestions.” Duyen chuckled.

Wrong move.

Celeste lifted her head again and briskly paced over to where Duyen was standing, at the opposite side of the table. Duyen gave her a small smile as she walked over, not expecting what was about to happen next.

“How’s this for an awful suggestion?” Celeste said as she brought her hand up and slapped Duyen square across the side of their face.

Duyen took a step back in shock, Sadiya and Aishwarya now stood up and rushed over to the scene. Celeste grabbed her purse and pushed past Aishu and Sadiya, strutting towards the doors.

“You crazy bitch!!” Duyen shouted as Celeste opened the doors to let herself out. Celeste replied with a smile and her middle finger pointed at all three of them. Celeste slammed the door behind her, Sadiya trailing just behind.

*Wednesday 26th July - 10am*

Celeste slowly opened her eyes, her face felt puffy and swollen. She sat up and everything from last night came rushing back to her. The rehearsal, the talk with Sadiya, slapping Duyen?! She rubbed her eyes and slipped out of her silk bed sheets, making her way over to her vanity. She looked up at the bright red circle on her calendar, marking today as a big poker tournament that could make or break Celeste's career as a professional poker player. She got ready and prepared herself the best she could for the tournament, hoping for the best.

*Wednesday 26th July - 7pm*

Celeste stepped out of her uber and walked up to the casino doors, patting her skirt down as she got out of the car. The doorman gave her a nod and allowed her in. She walked up to the front desk, her hands slightly trembling.

“Ah, welcome! Miss…” The receptionist stuttered, trying to put a name to Celeste's face.

“It’s Celeste, just Celeste.” Celeste replied back, not making much eye contact.

“Ahh! Miss Celeste of course, your table is just around the corner to the left, good luck!” The receptionist chirped back.

Celeste gave a small smile back and looked down at the receptionist's name tag, “Thank you, Makoto.”

Celeste walked to her table and sat down, she was surrounded by some big names in the business but she couldn’t let that shake her. Not now, after everything she’s worked for. A spry young person bounced over to Celeste.

“Hi! I’m Dawn, I’m here to help you in today's tournament!” The person brightly announced, startling Celeste in the process.

“Uhh, no thanks. I work alone.” Celeste replied, taking a sip of the Cosmo beside her.

“Oh… well I’ll be back for the next round just in case!” Dawn replied sheepishly, backing away from the table.

Celeste sat back in her chair and took a deep breath, she could do it on her own, right?

*Wednesday 26th July - 8pm*

The first round had just ended and things were not looking good for celeste. Her stubborn ways had gotten the best of her once again and she was in deep trouble. Luckily for her the first round was more of a practice than anything official so she still had a chance to redeem herself in the second round. At the end of the round she stood up from the table and left to find somewhere quieter to relax before the second round started. She found her way to an empty table, adorned by a vase of flowers and decaying petals scattered across the table. She sat down and put her head in her hands.

*Bzz Bzz*

She looked down at her phone, it was Duyen.

‘Shit.’

“Hey Celeste! I think we need to talk.” The message said, brightly glowing on her phone. Celeste put her phone back down and looked up at the flowers in front of her.

“If only I said… sorry…” She whispered to herself as a tear streamed down her cheek. Before she could fall into full blown hysterics Dawn approached her table.

“Hey, Celeste is it? Are you sure you don’t want any help or advice for this next round?”

Celeste looked up and smiled, wiping the tears brimming in her eyes. She nodded and got up to walk with Dawn back to the poker table.

*Wednesday 26th July - 9pm*

It was getting to the end of the second and final round, there were only two competitors left. Celeste and one other, everyone else had folded long ago. They both looked over their cards once again.

“Alright, I fold.” The other competitor mumbled out of defeat.

Celeste's face lit up. She had finally won, after everything she had put herself through to get to this moment it was all worth it. And now she had won she knew what else she had to do.

*Thursday 27th July - 6pm*

Duyen was busy setting up the group's rehearsal space when Celeste walked through the doors. Duyen kept their head down and carried on setting up. Celeste walked over and handed them a bouquet of white petunias. Duyens eyes widened as they looked up at Celeste.

“I saw these at the casino last night, I thought you would like them.”

“Oh.. thank you.” Duyen replied as they set the bouquet down and carried on setting up. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

“Duyen… I’m sorry.” Celeste's voice quivered as she spoke, her eyes becoming damp once again.

Duyen grabbed Celeste in a big hug, “I know and I’m sorry too, I just didn’t realise what I was doing wrong.” They let go of Celeste. “Promise to go back to normal?”

“I promise.” Celeste laughed as she wiped her tears.