Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 8

Soren knew the arrival of the Romeros wasn’t good news for anyone. Since yesterday, all the parents had been hush-hush about the entire situation. Still, from what he had gathered, Ash was unhappy, Sebastian was annoyed, Olivia simply didn’t care, and Scar was happy as long as his wife was delighted. Alex and Nathaniel weren’t too glad that Roman had to stay with them, but they had said that he was a good house guest, whatever that meant, so they weren’t as fussed as they initially had been.

The day was nearing its end, and once again, he had done nothing but move from the living room to his bedroom when the house had slowly become livelier as everyone had started returning home from work. He knew he needed a hobby to help Ash and Sebastian with their work. He knew many of his cousins already knew what they wanted to do and were even working to help them improve, but there was nothing he liked. Nothing, he was sure, he was good at and could hone in on. He simply passed through the days like a ghost, waking up, watching television in the living room, then switching to his bedroom when everyone came home, and finally going to sleep when he was tired. The cycle continued.

He had tried reading; he knew Thea liked to keep reading and thought it would give them something else to bond over, but he could never concentrate long enough on a book; getting distracted by anything and everything was one of his main issues. Soren then tried to get into computing to match up with her and Ash, but there was too much technical information to learn, and he wasn't very good with technology. He was physically too weak to learn many fighting styles, though he was sure Bailey had enjoyed beating him up when he tried to find it.

Was there nothing he could do to spend his time but also be an asset to his family rather than a problem?

Soren sat up in bed, exhausted from where his mind had taken him, and he took a sip of his water, only to realise his water bottle was empty. He rolled his eyes as he stared at the sleeping Silas beside him and scowled. How often did he have to tell the man that he should fill the bottle up if he finished his water? It wasn’t that difficult. He tiptoed out of his bedroom, the bright lights hurting his already sore eyes, and so he paused his walk to slow down and rub them before making his way down the stairs. Just as he was about to enter, he heard his name.

He paused, squinting his eyes once more to rub them as he not so subtly also eavesdropped on the conversation he could quietly hear. He paused, rubbing them, when he heard Thea’s voice, which was oddly gentle for once.

“-it was him,” she said. “But he doesn’t remember.”

There was a short pause and a quiet wince. “Anything?” someone responded, their voice gravelly and cracked a few times.

“Nothing. To him, this is your first time meeting. Let’s keep it that way. You don’t want to give my fathers another reason to hate you.”

Soren cleared his throat as he pushed open the sliding door and walked in. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the warmly lit lounge room, and he squinted. From no light to bright white light, to dim yellow lighting, to the kitchen’s harsh white light, his eyes were so screwed up.

Thea frowned up at him. “Stop rubbing your eyes and go get your eyedrops,” she snapped, throwing the pillow at him.

Soren groaned, but he shook his head. “They sting.”

“Rubbing them isn’t going to make them sting any less.”

Soren sighed as he went into the kitchen, where he was right. The bright white light hurt even more. He filled a significant glass of cold water, drowned the entire thing before filling his water bottle and then splattered some cold water on his eyes. And after ransacking the medicinal cabinet, he found his eyedrops. He brought both his water bottle and eyedrops to Thea. She took the water bottle from his hand and locked eyes with him as she drank more than half its contents.

“Oh,” she said when she was finished, “That really was water.”

“You couldn’t tell by the first sip,” he replied drolly, snatching his water bottle back from her and handing her the eyedrops instead.

She rolled her eyes and pointed to the floor. “Sit down, head on my lap and look up.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Don’t be a big baby and do it, or I'm waking up Ash.”

“Rat,” Soren muttered as he did as his sister instructed. He looked up at the ceiling as she undid the cap of the eyedrops, and he thought back to what he had overheard. Surely, the one they had to be talking about was him, so he was right. He did know the man on the couch from somewhere. But where?

When the first drop hit his eye, his first instinct was to blink, but Thea, having known this would happen, forced his eyes open. “Move your eyeball around,” she deadpanned.

Soren sighed but looked right, and when he looked to the left, he saw the man on the couch was awake, though he did seem a little out of it. He was staring at him. “What?” Soren replied, much harsher than he had intended to. “Have you never seen anyone have eyedrops put in before?”

Thea whacked his head before proceeding to the second eye, and then they heard the sharp footsteps of someone rushing down the stairs in a hurry. The door slammed open. “Thea,” Silas said, a little out of breath. “Have you seen Soren? I woke up, and he wasn’t in bed.”

“I'm here,” he replied, raising his hand. From where he was, he knew Silas wouldn’t be able to see him. “I had to fill my water bottle because someone finished the water and didn’t fill it up, and now she’s putting eye drops in.”

“Right.”

Silas silently waited until Thea was finished, and while Soren went to the kitchen to refill his water, he walked behind the couch and sighed. “Goodnight, Thea. Bye, stabbed man.”

“Hey, please, babysit the stabbed man with me?” Thea called out.

Silas and Soren didn’t reply as they walked away, hearing her cussing out fade as they reached the second floor.

~*~