Trapped

"It's not my fault"

After everyone finish eating dinner and Zane and I helped Greyson clean up the kitchen, I made sure to make a bowl of Ramen to put away for Danny, Blayke, and even Eli, since none of them were here for dinner. Zane eyed me curiously, noticing that there were 3 different bowls and realized what I was doing. I looked back at him and shrugged. I know he's wondering why I'm saving food for Eli when he seems to hate me, but unless he asks, I'm just going to keep the answer to myself. After I wrapped up and placed the 3 bowls in the fridge, I noticed Zane was Still looking at me, but he looked away the moment my eyes met his, and I could see the slightest twitch of his mouth before he turned and walked away. Tara came over to me and grabbed my arm, "I have a surprise for you!" She exclaimed excitedly. She pulled me as I followed up the stairs and down the hall in the opposite direction of the room I woke up in. We made our way down the new hall, passing a few doors here and there until we reached one particular door near the end of the hall. "This is your new room!" She said, still filled with excitement, "and I got you a few things from town today to make you feel a little more settled and at home." She continued as she opened the door. I gasped from the sight of the beautiful room. There was a queen sized bed in this room instead of a twin, and it was covered with a huge thick fluffy grey blanket and a smaller light pink throw blanket with a lacey gold trim and a matching light pink pillow, and the bed itself was pushed up towards the wall on the right side of room and had a soft pink translucent canopy with gold glitter throughout the fabric that all flowed from the roof all the way to ground around the upper part of the bed and was tied back with silk ribbons. The room had a long six drawer dresser and a beautiful vanity that both matched the bed. The dresser was filled with different clothes, and the vanity drawers had multiple different types of makeup and hair accessories. Looking around the room I seen there was a large window with a beautiful view to the snow covered outside world, though it was dark outside now so the only light came from the full moon above shining off the white snow. There's also a small closet and, best of all, a full sized bathroom with a large bath tub. The room was fully put together and looked stunning. "I love it, Tara, it's gorgeous!" I say back, unable to hide my excitement. She suddenly reached over and hugged me tightly. I wasn't quite sure how to react, so I just hugged her back, figuring that's what she wanted. "Is this all really for me?" I ask her in disbelief. She released from the hug and smiled, "Of course! I'm not sure how long you'll be here with us, but I thought a different room with its own bathroom and getting you things you need for every day life and trying to make everything a little more home like might make you feel a little more comfortable while you're here with us." She explained happily. I smiled back at her and said,"Thank you, I really love it all." She nodded, feeling proud of her choice of items, and glad she chose to surprise me. "Next time, I will take you with me to town and we can both shop for a few things." She stated. I nodded in agreement as I continued to look at the clothes in the drawers. Tara and I seemed to have a very similar taste and style, so I loved everything she chose. "And all of our rooms are on this side of the house, so if you ever need anything, we're all just right down the hall." She added, and with that, she told me she was going to go shower and get ready for bed and left me to enjoy my new room. I grabbed some of my new clothes and found a few towels in the bathroom, and placed everything down on the counter near the sink. The bathroom was also filled with everything I needed, so I turned on the water and stripped off my clothes. Stepping into the warm water felt like pure heaven as the water cascaded down my body. After probably an hour in the shower, I finally got out and changed into the pajamas I brought in with me and then layed down on the bed. Taking in all the soft blankets and comfort they offered. Before I knew it, I started to drift off to sleep.

Another week flew by quickly as I studied and trained each day a different subject with a different member of the house. Mainly consisting of fighting techniques and training with Zane, everything there is to know about the different creatures out there with Danny, how to write up the proper paper work and about the different laws behind what they all do and all the behind the scenes jobs with Tara, working on the different machines to make sure everything is working properly and learning how to use them with Blayke, and weapon usage with Greyson and Ty. They all taught me so much in the past week, and it's honestly been a lot of fun to learn everything. It's like reading a great book with an amazing world you wish you could be a part of, but actually getting to be a part of it. Eli has kept his distance, besides an occasional passing where he does nothing but glares at me the whole time. Today, Noah is supposed to come back to the house, though, and Eli seems to be in a slightly better mood, at least. This week we also have been working on my backstory, which we've figured out to be that I work a telecommunications job from home, I moved in with all my friends because I thought it would be fun to have all my friends as roommates, and Danny, Zane, and I decided that my last name should be different incase it comes up, that way it lessens the chance that Michael might find me. So far, only Danny and Zane know about Michael. They decided to keep that information to themselves for now since it wasn't something I wanted to get out in the first place. The bruises on my neck have completely faded away now, thankfully, and the ones on my arms only have a few spots that still aren't completely faded but should be gone within the next couple of days. After I woke up and got dressed, I came downstairs and decided to make some breakfast for everyone. As I walk downstairs, I don't see anyone around, and the house seems almost deathly quiet. '6:17' the clock on the stove read. "I must be the first one awake today," I thought to myself. This was a first, but normally, I wake up by 8 in the morning, and everyone is already awake by then, so they'll probably be awake soon enough. "French toast and scrambled eggs with bacon. That'll be perfect!." I say out loud as I put all the ingredients on the island counter. "Just because you make everyone food doesn't mean everyone is going to like you." A deeper voice said, startling me from the sudden break in silent. I look up to see Eli walking down the stairs and towards one of the bar stools on the opposite side of the counter. My eyebrows momentarily pulled together to show that the comment annoyed me. "Who said I was doing it to get anyone to like me?" I asked. I got a bowl down from one of the cupboards and started cracking eggs into it. "Well, it's pretty obvious. I mean, why else would you save food for me when I'm not here for dinner and make sure to make enough food so that I have some when you help make dinner? Seems to me like you're just trying to get everyone to like you. " He said in a cocky tone, almost as if he thought he hit the hammer on the nail and caught me in the act or something. "Did you ever think that maybe I don't care in the slightest whether you do or don't like me, and that maybe I'm just nice and believe that you still deserve to eat even if I don't like you?" I replied calmly, never once even glancing back up at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the cocky look on his face is now replaced with a look that says he hadn't thought if it that way. "Just like you might hate me but are keeping it secret that I'm here living with you all, I can still think you deserve to have a meal to eat just like everyone else in the house, even if you are a jerk." I continued on calmly, my eyes still fixated on the task at hand. "Well, when Noah gets here today, I doubt he's even going to be as nice as I've been so far. I don't like you, but Noah can't stand you already." He said in more of a warning tone. I stop what I'm doing and place both hands on the counter, leaning my weight on them heavily. "See, that's the thing though, neither one of you knows me enough to dislike me. I've gotten to see that you're a total jerk, and I should dislike you based on what you have shown me, but you haven't said a word to me since the first day we met. You've hardly even been around, and Noah has been gone entirely. I appreciate that you both have kept quiet about me being here, despite the fact that you wanted to tell the board or whoever from the start, but what happened was not my fault and you know it... It's not my fault that I seen what I seen that day but here we are and it is what it is, so do me a favor and either continue to keep yourself far far away from me and not talk to me, or just get over it already and move on, because I don't care if you like me or not, but I'm not going to hate you and you treat you badly just because you're acting like a jerk and think it's okay to treat me that way." I said bluntly and then continued making the food. He stayed quiet and seemed a bit stunned. Maybe he didn't expect my reaction, or maybe he thought I would just submit to his words and confess that it was all my fault or something, but his words struck a nerve and he had already annoyed me to my core. He stood up without another word and headed back up the stairs at the same time Tara was walking down them. She glanced back up to look at Eli walking up the stairs grumpily and then rolled her eyes as she walked over to me. "Are you okay? What happened?" She asked, concerned. The look of being annoyed was hard to shake this morning for some reason. He just got under my skin so much. I should be used to it, but hiding my emotions hasn't always been my strong suit if I'm being honest. It took a moment for my brain to fully process that she asked me a question and what it was she asked. "What?" I started to say, but then her question finished processing, so I just continued on to answer, "Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it." She gave me a weird look but decided to drop it, realizing I wasn't in the mood to talk about it and probably knowing how frustrating and annoying Eli can be since she's known him her whole life. "Do you want some help?" She decided to ask instead. "Sure, that would be great." I replied with a forced smile.

Once we were almost done making all the food, Tara's phone started to ring. "Hello?" She picked up and answered without looking at the caller ID. "Oh, yeah, I will come open it right now. Just give me a second." She continued to say and then hung up. I looked at her a little confused and curious, and she said, "it's Noah, he's here. We had to take his key so that we didn't risk anyone else having access to it." She explained as she did a half walk half skip type of step to go open the door. I felt my nerves acting up some, making my stomach feel like it was learning gymnastics or something as I thought back to how Eli first reacted to seeing me and how Ty had to physically hold him back. No one else is up yet besides Tara and Eli, and Eli obviously would be no help at all. So it's just me and Tara. "I hope the guys get up soon," I thought to myself as I heard two pairs of footsteps making their way back towards my direction.