006

Camille:

“You have such a nice apartment,” the girl said when she was done eating her sandwich.

“Thank you,” Daniel said with a cheeky grin.

“It’s not his apartment,” I said, unable to stop myself.

“Cam,” Lucia reprimanded. “That wasn’t necessary.”

“I’m sorry. Who are you again?” The girl asked, looking at me like I was the unwelcome guest instead of her.

“Camille,” I said firmly. “Lucia and I share this apartment.”

“Okay, I don’t care,” she said after studying me for a moment. “I didn’t know you had a sister, Dan. Sorry for keeping you up all night, Lucia,” she said with a proud chuckle.

Good thing I had put on noise canceling headphones. I couldn’t imagine having to put up with whatever shenanigans Daniel and this girl had gone on during the night.

“It’s no big deal,” Lucia said with a nervous laugh. “I just got back this morning anyway.”

I glared at my roommate, but she didn’t look at me. When did she become so…not uptight.

“Oh. Then who was knocking on our walls and yelling at us last night?” The girl asked.

I froze and at that moment, Daniel turned to me with a sly smile.

“There’s only one person in this house that loathes seeing people happy so badly, Mia, and it’s not my sister,” he said.

“I didn’t…” I murmured, but Lucia interrupted me.

“You guys must have really stressed her up last night. She only sleep walks when she goes to sleep really exhausted,” Lucia said and all three of them began to laugh.

My eyelids twitched as I stared at Lucia in surprise. How could she just embarrass me like that?

“I can’t believe you’re unbearable even in your sleep,” the girl whose name I just found out was Mia said while laughing. “You’re such a creep.”

Before I wasn’t comfortable around her, but now I realized I didn’t like her.

I was so angry, I wanted to stand up and walk away, but I knew that would only give them another reason to make fun of me. So instead, I ignored them and took another gulp from my glass of water.

“Be careful with the glass, Cam,” Daniel said. “It’s more fragile than the walls of this house you tried to break down last night.”

Lucia spat out her water as she laughed, and Mia joined in. I looked at the three of them. Sure I was the one being made fun of, but none of the things they were saying was funny.

“Aww. I know sexual frustration when I see it and girl, you’re reeking of it right now. Maybe try and get laid so you won’t have to be so lonely and creepy anymore,” Mia continued, mocking me.

It was obvious they weren’t going to stop. I wish I had just walked away.

“I know you’re so eager to believe that whatever you did last night shook this house so much that I tried to stop you even in my sleep, but news flash, I slept off with my headphones on so I didn’t hear anything, dumbass,” I snapped at her. “It was probably one of your wasted friends from your stupid party that was banging on your walls and not me.”

The table went silent and all eyes turned to me.

“And maybe I reek of ‘sexual frustration’ like you said, but right now you reek of booze and puke and cum which is way worse,” I continued before gulping the last of my water.

“That was uncalled for, Cam,” Lucia said in disapproval. “It was just a harmless joke.”

I scoffed. “It wasn’t uncalled for when you casually announced I sleep walk, was it? I don’t know what’s going on with you Lucia, but I really hope you don’t plan to keep acting like this until your dumb brother leaves. Ugh. I wish I had gone to school!”

Before anyone else could say a word, I stormed out of the dining and went into my room, locking the door shut after me. I didn’t want to hear anything they would say after, so I put on my headphones and started to listen to rock music in the highest volume.

I was still really hungry, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave my room and make some cereal for myself. I couldn’t remember the last time Lucia and I ever had a fight, and I wasn’t ready for the awkwardness that would definitely follow after.

Several minutes later, I tossed the headphones away because they were only increasing my headache. I listened carefully, but heard no sound from outside. At least that meant they were no longer talking to me.

Daniel had been here for less than a day and things were already turning out badly for me. How was I even supposed to cope for an entire month when Lucia just seemed to change for the worse because of him?

What on earth was even wrong with me? I was too old to be locking myself up in my room and starving simply because someone had said something hurtful to me over breakfast.

Sighing, I unlocked my door and tiptoed toward the kitchen, heaving a sigh of relief when I didn’t run into anyone. Lucia was probably asleep after her night shift and Daniel, well, I didn’t care what Daniel and his bimbo were up to, as long as they weren’t disturbing me.

I poured the milk and cereal in the bowl silently, so as not to attract any attention to myself. Mia looked like she liked trouble and I wasn’t ready to play ‘cheerleader bullies nerdy girl’ with her.

Did I seriously just refer to myself as ‘nerdy girl?’

When I was done preparing my second breakfast, I turned to take it back to my room. I almost dropped the bowl when I saw Daniel, leaning by the door frame with his hands in his pockets.

“Thirty minutes,” he said, after glancing up at the clock in the dining room. “That’s how long it took you to come back, grinch.”

My eyes widened when I realized what he just called me. All my hopes of thinking we could bury what happened last night disappeared. If he remembered to call me that, then that meant he remembered everything that had happened by the kitchen counter, where I was currently leaning on.