Chapter 5

Ethan frowned, his gaze hardening."You know what you said earlier? What do you care about your space? Well, let me tell you something: we all need space, and someone here cares more about being left alone than you do. Get out of that room, thank you,"he said, slamming the door in her face.

Elara felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her. The kindness and understanding that Celeste had promised her were nonexistent in this house.

Curiosity drove her to continue exploring, despite the tension that had settled in the air.

He went downstairs and headed toward the other rooms. Finally, he found the gym.

She thought Ethan had been joking, but no, the room was huge, full of machines and weights.

A piece of paper taped to the wall caught his eye."I know everyone else follows the rules and puts away the dumbbells and weights, so I'm addressing the one idiot who never does: put that damn barbell down,"the computer-typed note read.

Elara smiled, a strange feeling passing through her. She looked around the room and saw the barbell on the floor, next to several scattered weight plates.

He walked over to a bench and sat down, feeling the tension in the air.

"That damn bar. Again..."Ethan muttered, entering the room and closing the door behind him. He still hadn't put his shirt back on, and Elara felt uneasy.

She quickly stood up and looked at him, pretending that nothing had happened.

"Was it my father?"she asked with a fake smile, trying to break the ice.

Ethan looked at her with a wry smile."Do you think your father would be able to lift that weight?"

Elara felt her face flush."I didn't think you wanted to train. I was just looking around. If you want, I'll leave,"she said, feeling defensiveness rise in her voice."But what on earth is wrong with me?"

He felt out of place, like a fish out of water, in this house that wasn't his.

The tension between them was palpable, an invisible battlefield where every word was a weapon.

How could she find her place in this world? How could she live with this boy who looked at her with such contempt? Could she ever feel like she belonged here?

Elara stared at Ethan's closed door, feeling that every encounter with him was a brief flash of discomfort."I wasn't going to work out. I'm looking for something,"she thought as she wandered around the room. Suddenly, her eyes fell on a familiar object."This is what happened to my Apple Watch!"she exclaimed, slipping it onto her wrist before Ethan left her alone again.

Perhaps it was better this way. Their conversations always seemed to last only a minute or two, giving her the opportunity to keep her distance."I've no intention of being the good little sister,"she told herself, feeling the pressure of the situation suffocating her.

Now that she was alone, she decided to build up her confidence. She headed to the gym and found a pair of 1.5-kilo dumbbells. She'd seen an exercise on Tik Tok that looked easy, and after all, she had to kill time somehow, right?

"What exactly are you trying to do?"her father asked, suddenly appearing and almost making her drop the dumbbells to the floor.

"God, Dad! Don't you know how to play?"he retorted sharply, feeling a blush creep up his face.

"It's not your room, there's no need to knock. Why don't you ask Ethan to help you? You're a mess and I'm sure you won't go unnoticed. Your posture, the way you're holding the dumbbells, your breathing... Everything's wrong,"he said bluntly, and frustration grew inside Elara like a volcano about to erupt.

"I can do it myself. I don't need them and I don't need you. You can find a tutorial for everything online these days, didn't you know? I don't need Celeste's son to be my personal trainer!"she retorted, putting the dumbbells back in place and sitting down on the bench, her nostrils flaring like a raging bull.

"You know what, Elara? Maybe it's right for me to leave you here alone. Let your anger out, darling, because it seems you really need to,"her father said, slamming the door shut. Elara stood there, cursing her life and feeling like the world was crashing down on her.

He decided to abandon any attempt at training and left the gym, his fists closed at his sides and his teeth clenched.

As she walked down the hallway, a boy crossed her path, heading purposefully for the stairs. He had jet-black hair, with the ends curling slightly at the nape of his neck, and wore a plain black T-shirt and matching sweatpants. Elara squinted, watching his every move."Is he a friend of Ethan's? Do people come into this house like they're in a supermarket?"she wondered.

She followed him silently, and when she reached the top of the stairs, she saw him enter the room that had been locked until recently."What if he's not Ethan's friend? Celeste only has one child, and I was sure of that. Sort of. God, I hope it's not the pet whose name I can't even remember. I'd assumed it was a dog."

After staring at that door for at least five minutes, she decided it was time to investigate."A really bad idea. Truly terrible,"she thought, but curiosity compelled her to turn the doorknob. Just as she was about to step inside, someone threw a ball at the door, startling her, and it slammed shut with a sudden click.

on the other hand, he heard a roar:"How many fucking times have I told you not to enter my room without asking permission first?"

I stand still, staring at the white wood with my mouth open, when suddenly the door opens and I slowly raise my head to look at the boy in front of me.

Clearly, he wasn't expecting to find a girl in front of him, because, furious, he adds:

"And who the hell are you? If I got you, then keep the memory and don't go near my dick again."

I thought Ethan was the nastiest, but this guy has simply surpassed him and taken the top spot on the list of the nastiest people in the world.

I don't think any boy has ever spoken to me like that in my entire life. It's repulsive, but also incredibly beautiful.

He has that kind of deadly beauty that makes you question his existence: is he real or just a figment of my imagination? Maybe I should stop reading novels and getting scared by male characters who silently promise to burn the world down for the protagonist, because he seems like one of those imaginary types and the reader in me is getting scared.

She has sage-green eyes, cold and mesmerizing at the same time. Her eyebrows are dark, and her long, thick eyelashes further accentuate the magnetism of her eyes.

She has a sharp jaw, high cheekbones, and full lips. I gaze at the small scar on her forehead and frown.

I'm taking the x-ray without even the slightest bit of shame, and it seems to bother him a lot.

"Are you by any chance deaf?"he asks, leaning forward with his torso to get a better look at my face while his hand tightens around the door frame.

When I finally regain my senses, I take a step back and blink, confused.

"No, but you're definitely an idiot,"I blurt out and run. Literally. I lock myself in my room, amid the commotion. Her expression screamed,"If you don't disappear, I'll make you disappear."

He doesn't live here, does he?

Elara stayed in her room, feeling the weight of sadness crushing her. The image of Ethan, with his contemptuous gaze, and her father's sarcastic words echoed in her mind.

"Perhaps Celeste forgot to share a small detail with us,"she thought, a lump forming in her throat. A detail she definitely wouldn't forget anytime soon.

She always thought there were two personalities inside her: one weak and sensitive, and the other brave and unflappable. As she grew up, she learned that it was only the emotions she hadn't yet processed that made her that way, and the different defense mechanisms her brain adopted to protect her.

But now, the dominant version was the weak one. She didn't have the courage to leave her room after what happened yesterday. An extrovert would call her dramatic, but an introvert like herself would understand how she felt. Having a conversation, or worse, an argument, wasn't something she was looking forward to. She felt drained. Her social energy had been depleted since she arrived here, and she didn't think she could recharge it.

Celeste brought her dinner last night. She wasn't too happy to see her eating alone, but thankfully she didn't pressure her. She wished she hadn't noticed the little things so easily, but she knew for sure that behind Celeste's gesture lay a desire to exchange a few words with her, to get to know her better and make her feel more at ease in this house.

He simply mumbled a"thank you"between several yawns and then closed the door.