C3 Three

I slapped my hand up to my mouth as mom gave me a deathly glare. However, the woman at the door shrugged it off and smiled even wider, seeing it as humorous.

"I'm Katherine, and this is Clara and Caleb," she said, talking to Kylie and I as she signalled to her two children. "And this is my husband Mike."

Kylie and I awkwardly smiled at the family, not knowing what to do next. Although, Katherine did seem genuinely nice, and only now was I regretting that the first word to come out of my mouth to her was a curse word.

"Welcome everyone," Mom replied, wiping her hands on her turquoise coloured apron. "Why don't you two show our guests around," she signalled to us, to which I fake smiled and looked over at an obviously smirking Caleb.

"And you and Mike can help me in the kitchen," my mom finished before pulling the two along with her to where the kitchen was. 'Be nice' my mother mouthed as I looked over at Kylie and Clara who had already began talking.

I nodded hesitantly as Kylie led Clara into the living room, leaving only Caleb and I in the hallway. Despite looking into his eyes earlier, I kept my eyes trained on the floor, not wanting to look at him again. I was frozen in place, not wanting to say the first thing to him, not wanting to talk to him at all.

"Nice to see you again," His voice finally rang in my ears. Of all people, why was it him that was here? It may seem like I was judging too quickly, but I had a bad feeling about him, and I trusted my gut more than I trusted him.

Instead of continuing to grace him with my annoyance, I followed where Kylie and Clara had gone and sat down on a sofa beside them. They were too preoccupied with their phones to notice me sitting down.

However, as I did, the weight next to me plummeted, and Caleb was sitting comfortably beside me with his stupid smirk still playing at his lips. Did he not have any other facial expression?

"Who you texting?" He asked, leaning over to look at my phone. I pulled it away from him, not wanting him to know that I was furiously typing a long text to Flora about how she should stay away from him.

"Can you leave me alone?" Faking politeness, I smiled back to my phone as I was about to finish the text, but the phone was snatched out of my hand before I could press send.

"You're going to have to talk to me because otherwise, your mom loses one of her dear friends," I sighed. Out all things to threaten me with, he had to choose that one. Even though, I wasn't sure how he would do it, I knew he probably would, and I didn't want to find out how.

"Fine, what do you want to talk about," I asked with irritation laced within my voice. He did me a once over, having the cheek to look me up and down before his eyes settled on mine again.

He grinned like a child, "I want to know more about Flora King," I tensed upon hearing her name from his mouth. No way would I be letting him get a hold of Flora. The same unsettling feeling was still present in my gut when I looked at him.

The car soon pulled up beside a huge, mansion-like house with modernised windows plastered around the exterior of the building. It was pretty obvious that this house belonged to a family that had a lot of money. I swallowed deeply of the thought of living here.

Obviously I was incredibly grateful, but with the though of my father on the back of my mind, and that fact I would be living with Caleb, I wasn't sure I was going enjoy myself here.

Moms slight sniffling brought me back to reality as we walked to the front door and knocked lightly, not wanting to wake the entire family.

The door soon opened to reveal Katherine, wearing some pyjamas with a sad and empathetic smile spread across her face. "Come in," she whispered as she hugged my mom tightly. Mom hugged her just as tight as Kylie and I stood behind her.

"I'll look after them, don't worry."

"Thank you so much Katherine," My mom felt reassured as she rubbed at her already puffy eyes. Katherine left us alone for a second so that we could say goodbye.

"Are you sure you're alright to be driving mom?" I questioned as she didn't look fit enough to do so. She smiled half-heartedly and held both Kylie and I's faces in her palms.

"I'm getting a taxi from the house, don't worry." She assured me.

"I'll be back in a few weeks, I love you both," she brought me and Kylie into a hug as a small tear escaped my eye, feeling her kiss the top of mine and Kylie's heads. I genuinely felt like I had literally been thrown into this mess at one hundred miles per hour.

Soon after mom left, Katherine led Kylie and I upstairs.

"Kylie, you'll be rooming with Clara," she pointed to a room where the light was turned on, meaning that Clara was probably awake to greet her, "and Gabriella, your room is down the hall, to the left," I smiled as a thank you.

At this point, I was too tired to care about where I was sleeping, I just needed to hit my head onto a pillow and drift into unconsciousness.

"Thank you," I said to her as I walked into the dark room. Luckily, I was able to find the bed and climb into it. Like I'd thought, my head hit the pillow and I was gone. • • •

Before I could even open my eyes and stretch out to the bright light suddenly shining through a window, I felt a large pillow come crashing down on my face, not being as soft as it should've been. "Ouch!" I shouted as I woke up, despite it not hurting that much.

Unfortunately, when I opened my eyes, it was no longer the pillow, but it was Caleb glaring down at me from above. "What are you doing in my room?" I shouted once again as I tried to cover up my indecency.

Of course, this was the time I had chosen to wear a small shirt and some extremely short shorts to bed. "Mom told me to wake you up," he said as I stared up at him, not knowing what I should reply, "so wake up," he shouted back, making me more annoyed than before.