005

Camille:

“Awesome,” he said and removed his hand from mine. I watched him swallow the pills and gulp down after. It was when he raised his brows at me that I realized I had been staring.

“How was your flight?” Lucia asked him, sitting beside me.

He shrugged. “It was cool actually since I flew first class.”

“How are mom and dad?”

He frowned. “Still the same old whiny little b*tches they’ve always been.”

Oh, so he was one of those people who cursed all the time. I had assumed it was because he was drunk. How on earth was Lucia the black sheep? I couldn’t imagine talking about my parents like that.

“That bad, huh,” Lucia said, looking down at her hands.

“Hey, it’s fine,” he said in the softest tone I had ever heard him use. “Forget about them. They’re not worth being sad over. I’m here and that’s all that should matter.”

She nodded and sniffled.

“Come here,” he said, standing up and she did the same with a giggle. “I haven’t seen you in years. This is huge.”

I poured myself another glass of water and drank it while they hugged and spoke about things only both of them could understand.

“I’m really hungry,” he said after a while.

“Cam is the one that does the cooking around here. I can’t cook to save my life but her dad is a chef and I think it flows in their blood because she’s really good,” Lucia said, turning to me.

I gave her a look. That intro had been completely unnecessary. I was adopted and therefore shared no blood connection with my father, so her theory made no sense.

It was only the two of them, yet for some reason, I felt nervous, like I had been thrown into the spotlight.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, but in case you’ve forgotten, I have a fever after everything I had to endure last night,” I said and glanced at Daniel from the corner of my eye. He did not look impressed.

“What do you have available? I’ll make us something,” he said, standing up and going to open our fridge.

There was some leftover bread which he toasted and mixed everything else he found in our fridge to make a sandwich. Strangely enough, it tasted good.

“I had my doubts but this tastes great,” Lucia said, licking her fingers. I wanted to tell her she was overreacting, but decided against it. It was just a sandwich. It wasn’t like he invented something new.

Ugh. Why was I so pressed about everything?

He smiled. “Thanks. It’s a little trick I learned from Rhea that…”

He stopped talking and froze, while Lucia pursed her lips and placed a hand over his, being sympathetic. I looked at both of them. Was this a sibling thing? If it was, then I was thankful to be an only child because this was weird.

“Who’s Rhea?” I asked, wanting the weird moment to end.

“His ex-fiancé,” Lucia told me.

“Oof,” I said, shaking my head.

Daniel glared at me and faced his sister. “You told her?”

“No, I just. I mean, yes, but not everything…” she explained but he just raised his hand to stop her.

“It’s fine. It’s not a big deal,” he said and smiled even though it didn’t reach his eyes.

There was an extra sandwich still remaining, so I stretched my hand to collect it since I was still a bit hungry.

Daniel held my wrist just before I could touch it. My eyes widened as I looked down at my wrist, where our hands were connected. He stared at me for what felt like ages, where all I could think of was how warm his hand felt on mine.

“This isn’t for you,” he said and dropped my hand like it was trash.

Okay, rude.

For someone who claimed not to remember me, he gave off the vibe that he didn’t like me. Or maybe I was just reading too much meaning into every action of his. I wondered why.

“I feel like I deserve it more than you do after what you put me through last night,” I said, deciding not to let it go.

Lucia turned to me. “Put you through last night? What do you mean by that?”

“The party? My headache?” I said, wondering why she was being dramatic over something I had already explained to her.

Daniel started to laugh, a deep sound that erupted from him and did something to my stomach.

“Lucia thinks we f*cked last night,” he explained with a chuckle.

“What?”

Why did he have to be so crude?

“Sorry. It was just the way you said it,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “Just give her the sandwich,” she told her brother.

“I’ve already told her it’s not for her,” he said.

“Then who is it for?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Her,” he said, pointing toward the passage Lucia and I were backing.

Lucia and I turned back to see a girl walking toward the dining. She was wearing an oversized shirt and from the way her breasts bounced with every step, it was obvious she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. I looked at Daniel in disgust. She wasn’t even the same girl I had seen him with in the kitchen yesterday.

I looked down at my hands, bracing myself for one of Lucia’s infamous outbursts. There were several things she didn’t accept in the house and even I wasn’t exempt from her rules. Some things made her tick and start to yell like a mother raising several kids and this was one of them.

I understood that she had cut her brother some slack after the party he threw the night before because he just got there, but I knew she would definitely draw the line at him letting some random girl sleep in our apartment.

“Hi,” Lucia said and I whipped my head up wondering if I had heard right. Did she just greet the strange girl?

“Could you be a darling and get me a glass of water?” The girl asked, placing her hand on her head.

“Sure,” Lucia said with a smile and stood up to get the girl what she asked. “You can sit there.”

I stared open-mouthed as my roommate disappeared into the kitchen while the stranger who Daniel had spent the night with sat down beside me.

“This is for you,” Daniel said, pushing the sandwich plate toward the girl.

“Oh, thank you,” she said, gobbling the food right away. “I really needed this after last night.”

I rolled my eyes and turned to the kitchen, feeling uncomfortable and strangely angry. Why was Lucia acting weirdly nice when she would have been losing her sh*t under normal circumstances? Why had he spent the night with some girl in our house like this was a frat house?

But most of all, why was I so angry that he had spent the night with the girl?

“That’s your sister, right? The one getting me the water,” the girl asked Daniel, taking another bite of her sandwich. He nodded and she turned to me. “Then who’s the chick?”

Daniel smirked at me and turned back to the girl and I knew right away that whatever answer he would give was going to be something stupid.

“Here’s your water,” Lucia said, thankfully choosing that particular moment to appear and prevent Daniel from saying whatever he was going to say.

I wouldn’t deny it though. I was really curious to know what the sober part of him thought of me.