"This is your room," My aunt declares smiley.

It's a modest yet dainty room with a bed, a petite dresser and a desk. My former room was a lot spacious but I presume it's one more thing I have to just live with from now on.

My aunt's house was the best alternative. My parents passed away and I can't afford to live at our old house all by myself. My aunt was the one that volunteered to keep me safe and sound and was the perfect candidate for the Social Service. And just like this, I ended up here, in her lovely house in California.

I nod at her and place my luggage beside the mattress.

"Do you like it?" She asks anxiously. "I know it's a lot humbler but I hope you like it,"

I smile to reassure her. It's nice, nothing special although it's friendly enough.

"Mum," I hear a boy's voice call from downstairs. I suspect it's one of her sons.

"I'm upstairs," She shouts and after a few seconds a curled brown boy arrives. I notice his appearance but what catches my attention is his charming smile as he beams when he eyes land on me.

"This is my son, Noah."

He gives me his hand and I greet him back as I shake his hand.

"Nice to meet you," he tells and I nod smiling as if I'm saying 'it's nice to meet you too'.

"So, Amelia will be staying with us and I show her around." She explains to her son.

"If you're going to live in this room, we need to fix the TV." he murmurs and walks to the small TV opposite the bed.

"It doesn't work?" she questions.

"No, but I'll call him," Noah states calmly and gives me a small grin that I happily return.

"Anyway, we should leave you settle in. If you need anything, let me know. I'll be downstairs cooking."

Once I'm alone, I lay in bed and close my eyes.

There are so many things that have changed in the last days. Before five days, I was carefree and my only concern was the biology test that was coming up. If only I knew...

I only wish I didn't need to discover all that now, at the beginning of my senior year. I'm still so young.

I head downstairs but I freeze in my tracks.

"Had they been drinking?" Noah asks.

"No, the autopsy showed that he had a few drinks but it was under the proper limit. It wasn't his fault. The other car came out nowhere. Indeed, the other driver was drunk and drugged when it happened." My father's sister reasons gloomily. I can only assume that this is difficult for her too but right now, I can't think about that.

"Poor girl," I hear Noah's whisper. "She lost both of her parents and now she has to stay with us. People she doesn't even know,"

"Yeah, and this is exactly why I want you to be gentle and careful with her. Especially, Jacob,"

"Why doesn't she talk?" Noah questions what everybody asks.

"If I understood accurately, it's a reaction from the trauma she has experienced. It's her way of coping with it. "She explains but I can't listen anymore.

My cheeks are stained with tears, my eyes full of new ones, and that constant stomachache that has been haunted me the last five days has resurfaced again.

I head back upstairs and run to the bathroom. I turn on the tap and let the cold water take my tears and my pain away. Far away from me.

Fortunately, despite my spontaneous action to enter the shower with my clothes on, I manage to find a tower to cover my wet body.

I walk to my room with the tower wrapped around my body and shut the door. I open my bag in order to find something to wear when I hear a noise. I turn around and view the door fly open before a boy enters my room.

He doesn't notice me, standing there wrapped in a towel.

What is he doing?

He moves to the TV and then I observe that he holds two wires in his right hand. He tries to attach them somewhere behind it.

"Fuck," he mumbles and I flinch.

Then, his head leans up and his eyes find mine.

Oh...