·Katie·

My brother can boast about having the best room because he gets to see the sunrise in the mornings and the bigger closet. But he can keep all of that. He may have the sun shining through his window, but I have a view of none other than Tobias Richmond.

"That's Tobias Richmond," I utter. Our starstruck eyes are glued to his shirtless torso. He is lifting weights as if they were feather-light, his abs protruding every time his arms go up.

"Is he single?" she asks, going on her knees in front of the window frame to hide from his vision.

I end up next to her, our knees on the floor, hands overlapped on the window frame, admiring my neighbor's abs—not that I haven't done this before.

"Mmm, he's never single. If you know what I mean," I chuckle, handing her my binoculars.

"He is so hot." She smiles widely.

"Yeah, but he's kind of trouble." I click my tongue. "But one can watch, right? It's a free country."

"Well, trouble is my middle name." She grins. But still, she hasn't actually laughed.

"And he only dates cheerleaders. He's been on and off with Quinn...but you know, he's kind of immature."

"One girl won't stop me, Katherine. Not even the whole cheerleading squad will stop me." Her eyes are lost somewhere in Tobias. I hate people calling me Katherine.

"Look at that," she utters in amazement, her hand pointing at him. "Do all boys look like that when they are sixteen?" she asks.

Both our heads tilt as we examine his looks. He is doing hunches now. The drops of sweat slide down his torso, coating his skin with a shiny gleam.

"I think he had to retake a primary school year or something like that," I explain to her as I grab the binoculars to have a look myself.

"He's hot. Too hot to be true. He couldn't be smart too, that would have been unfair," she comments.

"I never even tried to make a pass on him, though. He is not my type, and he's surrounded by a very toxic environment. My parents would freak out." I laugh, handing the binoculars back to her.

"Mmm. So you like nerds?"

"No, I like...polite, respectful, cute guys. If they are hot, that's all the better." I elbow her, and she laughs for the first time, but it's a very small burst of laughter and it's gone before I know it.

"Sounds boring." She shrugs her shoulders.

"Sounds self-caring to me," I state. Trust me. I've been in toxic relationships before and I don't want that for me again.

"Self-caring? Non-sense." She hushes me as her eyes remain trained on Tobias, her mouth hanging slightly open.

"What's your type anyway?" I'm stupid enough to ask.

"Duh?" She arches her left eyebrow. "Trouble. That's my type."

"Well, Tobias is trouble. That's for sure. I'd be careful, Cassie," I warn her. "My family hates the Richmonds. Tobias once did graffiti on our backyard fence. My dad, not to mention Ulysses, would kill me if I ever dated him. And all of his friends're jerks."

"I'm neither his daughter nor his sister, so I'll be fine." She dismisses my warning with her attention stuck on Tobias.

I shouldn't be telling her what follows, but I will because I can already smell the drama, so she needs to know the backstory—at least, what I know from it. "He used to be a good kid. He was Ulysses' best friend, but all of a sudden they just stopped seeing each other." This happened after a specific party I went to, but I never returned being quite the same.

Someone knocks on the bathroom door.

"Come in," I speak quietly so that Tobias doesn't realize we are stalking him. "Why do you guys knock?" I ask Jon as he nears us. "You never knocked before."

"We have guests now, silly." Jon smiles at me, closing the door behind him. "And I heard the newbie was here." His index finger points at Cassandra. Then he looks through the window to see what we are looking at. "Mmm, is he giving us another show?" he asks, squeezing himself in between us and snatching the binoculars from Cassie's hands. Then, he extends his hand to her, with his eyes trained on Tobias.

"Nice meeting you. No matter what they told you, I'm the coolest brother."

They shake hands, his eyes still trained on Tobias.

"I'm Jonathan, but you can call me Jon."

"Cassandra," she returns. 

"What do they call you?" he asks, turning his head to her.

"They call me Cassandra."

"Nop, your name begs for a nickname. I'll find you one," he declares.

She smiles. No actual laughter yet.

The bathroom door bursts open. "For the bazillion time, dinner is ready," Ulysses barks.

"Dude, you have to knock before coming in!" I demand, infuriated.

He rolls his eyes at me. His hand shoots up to grab the lock of the curtain, and the white material rolls down, blocking my view from Tobias. 

"Hey!" Cassandra exclaims madly.

I glare at him. "What the actual-"

"Dinner is ready," he repeats every word stoically.

Cassandra stands up, coming at eye-level with him. "I'm not hungry, thank you." She walks past him.

"Just come, Cassie. They ordered food for you, they never do that." Jon is standing next to her now.

"I can't." She crosses her arms.

"Why not?" I ask as I watch how Ulysses and Cassandra hold each other's gaze as if a silent conversation were taking place right there.

"Just get dressed, find something in your suitcase," Ulysses suggests, pointing at her luggage.

"I can't. It's locked and I lost the key," she informs us.

My eyes flicker between them as I fill in the gaps of the missing information.

"I could lend you some clothes," I offer, understanding that there is some issue with her clothes and she can't remove her coat.

"Thanks, but I don't think we are the same size." She looks down, avoiding my gaze.

"Well. Just try..." Does she think I'm fat?

"I don't want to! I just want to open my damn suitcase!" she shouts, bringing us all to shock.

We all look at her dumbfounded. Who is this chick? What happened to her? I mean, aside from her sister dying.

"Guys!" Dad knocks on my bedroom door. "Dinner is ready! Come on." His voice sounds muffled through the door.

Tom scratches up the back of his head. "Why is it so important to open your suitcas-"

"We are coming!" Ulysses interjects, startling me when he replies to my dad.

"Give us a few minutes!" I add, trying to buy us some time.

"Ok. So we are gonna unlock this baby in what? Five minutes?" Jon asks, his hands examining the heavy, red leather suitcase.

"Maybe less," Ulysses adds, grunting as he lifts it swiftly.

I think Cassandra wants to smile really bad right now, but she just purses her lips.