"Hey! Leave room for the Holy Spirit!" Ben entered the kitchen with who I supposed was his girlfriend right behind him.

"You're one to talk." I muttered.

"Huh?" He frowned at me.

"I didn't speak." I shrugged innocently at him. Cara rolled her eyes after looking at me, trying to stifle a laugh.

Ben grabbed a soda and handed another to his girlfriend, getting out of the kitchen without saying a word. When I thought we were finally alone, another person came in.

"Oh, hey." That voice. I turned around. It was her dad. He looked a little more composed, his hair combed back and his beard shaved, but he still looked unhealthily thin. "I don't think we've met." He told me, extending his hand. Mhm, yes, we did? "I'm Bogdasha." I think I'd stick to Mr. Belinsky.

"Nice to meet you, sir." I said, trying to muffle the confusion in my voice. "I'm Nico."

He patted my back and walked towards the fridge. Cara and I watched as he scanned it for a minute. "Where's the beer in this damn house?"

"It's already outside, dad." Cara informed.

Bogdasha smiled wide, showing a gold molar. "Good." He gave her daughter a side hug, squeezing her tight. I was pretty sure by Cara's face, she wasn't used to that burst of affection. "You're the best daughter I have." He kissed her cheek and left the kitchen.

"And I hope I'm the only one." Cara chuckled as she shook her head. "Don't mind him, he was really drunk the other day, he probably doesn't remember you." She added after a moment, her eyes turning a little sad.

"Are your mom and dad okay? I mean-" I frowned.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." She shrugged. "They sleep in the same bed, that's all I know. They argue a lot."

"Why doesn't she... has she thought of divorcing him?"

"I don't..." she glanced down with a frown. "I don't know." Cara looked up and was fast to change her mood. "Are you hungry? Let's go outside."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sandro was two years old today. His dad bought him an electric police car so Sandro could drive it. Brandon realized right after that he should've bought it with a remote control since the kid was too young to understand how it went. I knew those cars were expensive and he got all mad until Cara tried to convince him that he could use it without it being turned on. Sandro seemed to love it and everyone was happy all again.

I had my suspicions already, but I realized that everyone relied too much on Cara. When something happened, Cara was there to fix it. When the kids asked for something, they asked Cara, not their mom. I couldn't hide it but I was getting a little mad observing it all.

Ash's fiancée appeared and she was like fifteen months pregnant. Thank god Cara said they were moving out, I couldn't imagine another kid in that house. She was nice, even if she couldn't properly move, she helped a lot. The men did nothing apart from watching the grill and drinking beer. I wasn't used to this sexist environment, and even if I wasn't a very organized person myself, I still helped.

I spent the night eating, since Cara's mom thought I was too skinny and kept putting food onto my plate. I chatted a little with Emmett, played with the twins and even talked with Ash. He was the nicest one, that was for sure. Eleanor was the kind of person that didn't listen when you were talking, so I limited myself to nod and smile at everything she told me.

All I could conclude was that her family was the complete opposite as mine.

When everyone was finally done eating, they all sat at the table except for the kids, and had some drinks. Bogdasha was really quiet, apart from one or two very loud jokes that he would tell, he limited himself to drink. He sometimes laughed, and I swore he was laughing to himself. Cara sat beside me, the first time she did it in all the time I was there.

She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Are you cold?"

"Yeah." She chuckled. "You would think I'm used to the cold, but nope."

"Want my jacket?" I asked as I began to take it off.

"I'll just-" she pointed behind her with her thumb. "I'll just grab something from my room."

Of course, you dumb shit. You're at her house.

I nodded as I licked my lips, glancing down a little embarrassed, not gonna lie.

"Do you... do you wanna come?" She asked biting the corner of her mouth, never looking at me in the eyes.

I nodded and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Brandon asked as quickly as I made a step.

"I'm just gonna show him my room." Cara told him from the porch.

"Door open." He pointed at her with his index finger, eyebrows raised.

Cara rolled her eyes and I followed her inside. Before I went through the door, I heard Bogdasha speak.

"She's a whore." He laughed as he coughed. "Just like her mother."

The pitiful thing was, no one said anything.

I didn't know if they just ignored him, they agreed with him or if it was because they were scared of him in some kind of way, but it was really sad watching Cara's face as she tried to hide the fact that yes, she had heard it.

"This is my room." A medium sized bedroom appeared before my eyes. It was L shaped and the first thing you saw was a bunk bed. I remembered then she shared it with the twins.

They had a bedside table just under the window and a desk right beside the door, in front of the beds. It a weird distribution but it seemed like none of them used the desk much. There was also a built-in closet that seemed too small for the three of them.

Cara kept walking until she turned the corner of the L to the right. "That is my bed." It was cute the difference between the two parts of the bedroom. They seemed like two separate ones. Cara's was smaller but it was kind of cool. She had a window to the left, her bed sticked to the right wall, where lots of posters, pictures and medals were hung. It was obviously all related to figure skating. You could see it was her pation. There was a little shelf full of golden and silver trophies.

"Wow. What are you, like the Serena Williams of figure skating?" I chuckled.

She smiled. "Pretty much."

"Are you famous?" I asked studying the pictures.

"In my world, yes." She said from behind me. I turned around with a big frown. I really wasn't expecting that. "I know what you're thinking. It doesn't pay well." She shrugged, her green eyes wandering over her wall. "It is a sport that requires a lot of investment. It's really expensive. I train for the Olympics, so that's typically what I do, train. I sometimes enroll on other competitions so I can earn some money."

"I didn't know that." I said surprised.

"Well, now you know." She chuckled. "I got a good sponsorship this year, so I hope that helps."

"Wait, wait." I shook my head and closed my eyes for a moment. "Did you say you train for the olympics?"

"Yeah."

"Have you been at the olympics?"

"I'm a silver medalist." She said, twisting her mouth, as if it was something to be ashamed of.

"Oh, wow." I opened my eyes wide and sat on the bed almost unconsciously. For some reason, I started seeing her differently right away. This was Cara, the girl who drove an old truck that wouldn't close, the girl who didn't even have sixty bucks to give me back. Cara, so complicated and so innocent at the same time. A twenty one year old who held almost completely, the weight of her big family. The girl who was as closed as a vault. "That can't... is it really that expensive?"

She nodded. "Plus..."

"What?" I asked softly. She sat on the window ledge and crossed one leg over the other.

"Medical bills are expensive, too." She rubbed her lips with her fingers and frowned, looking down at my feet. "Uhm..." At that moment I got really scared. Who needed that much money for the hospital? Was she sick? Was someone of her family sick? I thought of little Justin. Maybe he was. My heart started beating faster. "My dad is sick. He..." she shook her head and looked up at me. "It's fine, he's gonna be fine. I don't-"

"Cara, you can tell me." I said softly.

"I know. I just don't wanna talk about it. I'm gonna grab that hoodie. Can you..." she smiled at me. "Get up? My clothes are under the bed."

"Oh, sure." I got up with difficulty and walked over the window, sitting down on the ledge as I watched Cara lift up the mattress. I realized then it was a storage bed, with all her clothes inside. "There's little space in this house, you gotta make the most of it." She chuckled.

She grabbed a big dark green hoodie and put it on. I watched as she delicately got her hair out of it, then let it fall to the side before tucking it behind her ear. Cara sat on the bed, arms behind her and bounced her legs. As I walked over and sat down beside her, I couldn't stop looking at the blonde girl. She was beautiful and sometimes I found it really hard to contain myself. With any other girl, I would have already slept with her, and somehow with Cara, it seemed like it was the most difficult thing I had ever tried to do. On the other hand, I felt like I didn't wanna rush it.

Her cheeks flushed, she looked away. "What?"

"I really like your hair down." I said softly.

She bit her lips and ran a hand through it, as if she really despised it.

"Why don't you like it?"

"Kids at school used to make fun of me. I was the dumb one in class, you know? I couldn't read, I wrote letters upside down. Dyslexia is hard when you're a kid. They... they called me dumb blonde. They said I was dumb because I got blonde hair. It's stupid, I know. But at five and six years old, you believe everything. I used to cry myself to sleep, I would plead my mom to dye my hair. My mom loved it, so of course she didn't. That stereotype followed me until high school. Since I was already really into sports and stuff, I was a cheerleader and that only made things worse. I... I don't know. People can really create insecurities in others."

"That's..."

"It's dumb, I know. I'm dumb for still letting it bother me."

"You're not dumb." She seemed to say that about herself a lot. I slowly slid my hand on the bed and let my fingers brush hers. She glanced at our hands but didn't pull away. Although I noticed she became really nervous. Her breathing unsteady. "You're not dumb in any kind of way."

Cara nodded, glancing up at me.

"Okay?"

"Okay." She gave me a little smile.

"And you're beautiful." I told her softly, glancing down at her lips.

She did something she rarely did, she stared at me straight in the eyes. I knew she could see the real me. Not today, but one day. I knew she could understand what was happening inside of me, because she could feel it too. But something dark covered her look, like a shield. Like a door that had been closed a long time ago and hadn't been opened since then.

Cara pulled her hand away and kept them inside the front pocket of her hoodie, swinging her legs back and forth, her neck, ears and cheeks becoming red. "You said you brought something for me."

"I did." I smirked. "But you have to tell me why we can't see each other."

She breathed out. "You won't let it slide, huh?" I shook my head. "I told you already, I'm... too busy. I train most of the day, I have to take care of the kids, I... you would just be a distraction. I don't have time to have friends, the only people I talk to is the skating team and my brothers."

"And I don't believe you." I began. "If you really want to see someone you make time for them. I'm sure you have days off, I'm sure you can grab something to eat with me from time to time." I frowned and glanced down at her lips. "If the reason is that you don't wanna hang out with me, just tell me."

Her brows knitted together. "It's not that."

"Oli and Oscar said your mom doesn't like that you talk to boys."

"That's not the reason." She huffed. "That's just stupid, she thinks I'll get pregnant because she did too, when she was way younger than me."

I stayed quiet for a moment. Only our breathing and the voices outside could be heard.

"Then what is it?" I cut the silence. "I won't get mad, I promise. I just don't want you to lie to me, it's not-"

"I'm scared."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys! In case you missed it, I'm doing a Q&A in one of my next chapters about all three of my books. You can leave your questions here 😊

Little disclaimer here. This is fiction. I know nothing about figure skating. I just love watching it and I love ice skating, but if something's not accurate, don't come to me 😂

I'm sorry I don't think I'll be able to post again this week, I'm really gonna try but I've been struggling with anxiety and it's been kind of hard to write. I'll probably write someday about it, it's a subject that affects a lot of people and I think there are a lot of stigmas and misunderstandings and I'd like to give another vision to it.

So yeah, that's the chapter for today! Hope you liked it! Thoughts about it??

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and let me know what you think in the comments ❤️