I wasn't surprised that no one came up to check on me. It was now 10 p.m. and the food had long since arrived, but no one seemed to have noticed that I wasn't there. Maybe they had enough to do with Damian? Dad always talked about how he would have liked to have had another son with whom he could do 'guy things'. Well, now he had Damian and he had forgotten about me.

Of course, I knew that I had completely overreacted and that I shouldn't have run away from Damian. After all, I couldn't do that every time and besides, he wasn't like Mike. Or so I hoped. Maybe he was actually quite nice.

I decided to go to sleep early; I was tired of thinking. I picked a pair of shorts (no one could see me in them) and a shirt from one of the moving boxes and went into the bathroom next door. I quickly took off my baggy sweatpants and baggy sweater and threw them on the toilet seat since we didn't have a laundry basket here yet. I grabbed my toothbrush from the toiletry bag, smeared toothpaste on the bristles and started brushing, while with my other hand I tried - hopping wildly - to somehow put on my shorts, avoiding any glance at my hideous reflection in the mirror.

Suddenly the door opened and I froze. Damian stood at the door, handle in hand, staring down at me. I slowly realized that I was only covered in underwear and shorts hanging at my knees and released myself from the paralysis. The toothbrush landed on the floor and I quickly grabbed a towel and covered my stomach and bra with it, but of course he had seen everything.

"Get out of here!" I shouted as he was still standing at the door, his lips pressed together, probably to keep from laughing at the sight of me. I was pretty sure I wasn't red right now, but rather cheese white.

But instead of leaving, he took a step forward and I reflexively pulled my towel tighter around me.

"Then I'll just take a shower downstairs," Damian said and grabbed a towel next to me and then finally disappeared.

Shocked by what had just happened, I sat down on the toilet seat. Oh god, Damian had almost seen me naked. Please let me just dream this...

I could never lay eyes on him again. He was definitely disgusted with me and would laugh at me. Well, I can't blame him; If I were him, I would do the same, given my fat body.

Then again, what did it matter? There's only one more person who would be disgusted with me, so what's the point? Right, I couldn't care less what he thought of me.

Convinced, I gathered my toothbrush and toothpaste, got fully dressed and left the bathroom. From below you could now hear the gentle running of water and Sally and Dad talking.

"Night," I shouted and slammed the door. I put my glasses on the dresser, grabbed my phone instead and threw myself on the bed.

Leah was online on WhatsApp and had written me a message. Since I had almost no contacts at all, she was usually the only one.

Hey everything OK with you? x , wrote Leah.

Why did you say that? I asked instead.

You have to be more precise. I said a lot of things I shouldn't have said.

I helped her realize that I would think it would be great if Damian moved in . Which is not true.

It took a while for her to write back. He is hot.

So Leah thinks he's hot? I tried to remember his appearance: he had brown hair that was tousled and probably something every boy would want, but I honestly had no idea about that. And his eyes... they were really completely blue. His nose is not too big and not too small. I didn't pay attention to his mouth... except when he pinched them together to keep from laughing. And he also had a good physique... was tall and slim. I believed that Damian was the type of boy that Mira and her friends would describe as 'hot' and 'hot'. So the total opposite of me, which only made me look even uglier next to Damian. Why was everyone lucky enough to look perfect but not me? Now even my future 'brother'.

Aria, are you still there? , wrote Leah.

He saw me floundering around the bathroom half-naked today.

No shit now?! What did he say?

Nothing at all, what was he supposed to say?!

He was probably just speechless.

I laughed hollowly. Pfff, sure. Speechless because he couldn't understand how fat a person could be.

Don't make yourself any smaller than you already are, Aria. You `re not fat.

You're my girlfriend, you have to say something like that. Anyway, how did it go with your mom?

Leah told me that her mother had decided to pay more attention to what she was doing and whether she was actually going to school, but she only gave her two weeks at most before she would stop caring. After what felt like hours, I went offline and finally - fortunately and despite my stomach growling - quickly fell asleep.

***

"Good morning, Sparrow," my dad greeted me that morning as I padded down the stairs just before nine o'clock. I had put on a different pair of pants just in case Damian was awake so early.

Which apparently he wasn't, since he wasn't sitting in the living room or the kitchen.

"Morning," I hummed back, reaching for the cereal box that was sitting on the kitchen counter.

"I'm going to go to the furniture warehouse with Sally now. We wanted to look at a few coffee tables; it's Sunday shopping. Are you okay here?" he asked me while putting on his jacket.

“Sure,” I mumbled and pulled a few cornflakes out of the packet.

Sally left the small bathroom and joined us in the kitchen. "Morning, Aria," she smiled. "Damian is still sleeping and probably won't leave his bed until twelve o'clock." All the better .

"Okay, well then, see you later, my sparrow," Dad smiled and placed a kiss on my hair before he left the house with Sally.

I tied my street-choice blonde thin hair into a messy braid and walked into the living room with the cereal box and threw myself on the couch where Dad's iPod was. I grabbed it and plugged the headphones into my ears. A few seconds later I was quietly singing along to the songs. As long as no one noticed, I really liked singing, although it was really bad, but that didn't matter.

"So c-come on, you got it wrong. To prove I'm right, I put it a song. I don't know why, you're being shy and turn away when I look into your e-e-eyes."

And so it went on until suddenly the phone was pulled out of my ears. Startled, I looked up and saw Damian in front of me, dressed in boxer shorts and an undershirt, his hair sticking up in all directions, grinning stupidly. "Don't tell me you like this band too."

I picked myself up. "Who else?" I asked interestedly, but avoided looking at him.

"99.9 percent of girls in boarding school listen to this nonsense day and night." He grimaced. "But it looks like it's haunting me."

"Well, I like the music," I replied gruffly, wrapping the headphones around the iPod before heading back to the kitchen. Damian followed me.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked, plopping down on one of the chairs.

"Nothing."

"What, no all-inclusive breakfast?" He acted indignant and shook his head.

"Probably not, but you can have an all-inclusive apple. It's already rotten, though," I remarked, pointing to the fruit bowl by the sink.

“That sounds tempting, but I’d rather have the cornflakes,” he decided and grabbed the box of cornflakes that was back on the counter.

I just shrugged and started to go upstairs when Damian called me back.

"Hey, I wanted to go into town right away, but I don't know much about the place. Could you maybe show me where everything is and stuff?" he asked and took a carton of milk out of the fridge, which he then drank from while he was waiting for an answer from me

He asked me of all people ? Should I go? I didn't want him to think I was uncomfortable with his presence after what had happened yesterday, which was true.

“Sure, why not,” I replied and then finally left the kitchen to get ready.