~

After my weird morning encounter with Gray, I lock myself in my room for an hour. I had muttered a quick thank you and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Now, I was laying in bed wondering why I ran away like that. I shouldn't have run away. The normal me would have smirked and said I know.

"Ahhh!" I groan into my hands for the tenth time. I really need to go to the gym but, I refuse to go back down because I didn't want to run into Gray again, which by the way was highly impossible. We live together now.

The more time I spend in my room, the more my membership money is wasting. I am highly money conscious. You probably think someone who orders food all the time can't be money conscious right? Well, you're wrong. Although, it's not a wise idea to spend money on food all the time. I really couldn't help it. If I made food all the time, I might really end up killing myself. Yesterday was just sheer luck.

I gather up the courage and walk into my closet to change into my workout outfit. I grab a cap and cover half my face with it. Hopefully, he won't see me. I probably sound as dumb as an ostrich that sticks only it's head in the sand and thinks it's invisible.

I peep gently and notice the hallway is clear. I gently tiptoe downstairs to see Dad having breakfast. Shelia and her kids were nowhere to be found. I heave a sigh of relief and walk towards my Dad.

"Morning," I smile and kiss the top of his head lightly.

"Morning, baby. No gym today?" He asks, applying jam on his toast.

"Uh.. woke up late today," I lie, and grab his toast as soon as he was done applying jam and take a bite. He gave me a make your own toast look before he started applying jam to another one.

"Do you need me to drive you to the gym?" He asks, eyeing my outfit. I shrugged my head. I could walk, needed the exercise.

"Where's Shelia and her kids?"

"There are unpacking," he says and I nod. I turn in the direction of the door before he stops me. "Oh! Wait. Gray!!" Dad yells loudly and I widen my eyes, waving my hands at him to stop his antics.

"Why are you calling him?" I ask, through gritted teeth and clasp my hand over his mouth to prevent him from speaking.

He mumbled some words and I remove my hands from his lips. "The gym. I wanted to ask him to drive you," He furrows his brows in confusion.

"I can walk, Dad. No, I want to walk," I state firmly, my hands on my hips.

"Walk where?" I hear an all too familiar voice ask from behind me. Fuck! I sigh frustratedly and turn slowly to see Gray standing behind me. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and he looked exhausted probably from all the boxes he had to carry.

"She said not to worry. I wanted to ask you to drive her to the gym," Dad replies, taking a slow sip of his coffee. Why Dad? Just why?

"There's a gym around here?" Gray asks, confused. Of course, there's a gym around here. What a dumb question.

Dad nods. "Dove can take you there if you'd like?"

Really Dad? Why do you keep doing this to me? I'm your only daughter! Gray's eyes shift to me and I give him a small smile. "You seem busy. I'll show you some other time," I said, gesturing towards his ruffled clothes with my hands.

He shook his head and gave me a small smile. "No, I'll get ready now and we can go," he says in a teasing tone.

I internally sigh and shake my head. "No, no. I wouldn't like to bother you."

He shook his head again, a smile still on his lips. "I'm not bothered,"

"I'm just worried, people might talk if they see me walking around with a guy early in the morning. I'm pretty popular in this neighborhood," I bit my lips and hope he'd refuse to come. Yes, I was popular in this neighborhood but that wasn't the reason. I just wanted to stay away from him as much as I could.

"You can tell them you're siblings," Dad says, getting up from his chair.

"Eww"

"No way!" Gray says almost the same time as I did, and I eye him slightly. Dad chuckles softly at both of us.

"By the way, people aren't going to ask. They are just going to think about it and tell each other, which is exactly what I'm trying to prevent. Gossip," I turn to Dad, my hands on my hips.

He nods his head and turns to look at Gray. "I'll show you some other time."

I sigh and immediately head out the door to prevent further discussions. The gym is only a few miles from my house, so walking there is a problem for me. I place my headphones over my head and play an upbeat song from my workout playlist. I enjoy listening to fast music while jogging because I tend to jog at the pace of the music.

~~~~~~~~~~

"No, please Dad. Can't I just go with you?" I plead, my hands tugging at my hair. My Dad had come into my room on Sunday night to tell me that I would be going to school with Gray tomorrow.

According to him, it was more convenient for everyone. Pshhhh. It wasn't convenient for me at all. I didn't want to start to imagine the rumors that would be swirling around the school if people see me in Gray's car or worse see us walking in class together.

"I have a feeling you don't like this boy?" Dad frowns. He has a feeling? Well, if he had that feeling, why is he making me go to school with someone I didn't like?

I shrug and tug at my sheets. "It's not that."

"Did he do something bad to you in the past?" Dad asks, his brows furrowed in concern. Yes. Dad, he broke my heart. Was what I wanted to say but obviously, I lie again.

"I'm Dove Kelch. What could he possibly do wrong to me?" I laugh, sticking my nose in the air.

"Then why won't you feel comfortable riding to school with him?"

I sigh and shake my head. I guess I sound selfish for rejecting the offer without a good reason. "Fine, I'll ride with him."

"Are you sure? If something's bothering you, tell me," He says and squeezes my hands tightly in a soft manner.

I look at him and realize I might have taken my hatred for Gray too far. It was affecting my Dad. "I'm sure, Dad. I just didn't want him to make me late," I smile and pat his hands softly. "Really, I'm fine," I add when he kept on staring at me.

He nods and gets up from my bed. "Thank you," he says with a small smile before he leaves.

~~~~~~~~~~

I wake up the next morning to the smell of bacon and eggs. My eyes widen in fear, was Dad cooking again? I was about to jump out of bed when my brain finally woke up and remembered we had a new family.

I patted my head gently. "Get used to it, baby," I say to myself, getting up from my bed. I stretch and smile with satisfaction after hearing my bones crack. "Good morning to you too, buddy."

I have my bath and get dressed as quickly as I could. I wear a very casual outfit, my Tommy Hilfiger white crop top with blue jeans paired with my Nike Air Force 1. I brush my curly hair and let it fall over my shoulders after applying light makeup to my face.

On getting downstairs, Dad is eating breakfast with Shelia, Chloe, and Harry. Gray, of course, is nowhere to be found.

"Morning," Shelia smiles, as soon as she sees me. I smile back and grab a plate and help myself to bacon and eggs.

"Where's Gray?" I ask, grabbing a slice of bread.

"Upstairs, he'll probably be ready in a minute or so," Harry says, nudging towards the stairs.

"I hope so," I muttered and sat down to eat. The food was delicious, not just because it was bacon and eggs but because I was having it with a group of people. I know that sounds cheesy, but all my life, I've always had meals with only my Dad. Sometimes, alone whenever Dad leaves super early for work or comes home really late.

Shelia and her kids had a lot of stories to tell us about themselves. Apparently, Gray never wakes up himself. Shelia says she has to wake him up every morning or he'd never make it to school on time. Harry is 13 and also the smartest among her kids. Shelia couldn't stop bragging about him and his abilities. He once won a state spelling bee competition when he was 7 and most of the contestants were twice his age. He is also really good at mathematics and can speak 4 different languages.

I was impressed to hear him speak, Spanish, French, and Chinese. Dad was the most impressed, actually. He couldn't stop saying wow and clapping at every foreign word Harry said.

While Chloe is 8, she's also a young beauty queen. In her words "that's what I was born to do." She has won multiple pageants, and Shelia says she's looking for more pageants to enter her in, now that they are back in America. Chloe has to be the cutest and funniest young kid I know. Actually, she is the only young kid I know.

Gray's only talent was playing football. Shelia's words. Not mine. But I would definitely say the same thing though. But Shelia said it first. Gray hardly paid any attention in school, all he cared about was football. Good thing, he's great at it.

We spent about thirty minutes talking and I didn't realize how much time had gone. Gray still wasn't downstairs so, Harry decided to go check what was taking him so long.

Harry came back down in a minute, chuckling. "He was in bed when I got there. He said he thought you waking him up was a dream," he says, pointing to his mum.

You have got to be fucking kidding me. I storm upstairs, fuming. Yes. Fuming. If this were a cartoon, I'd probably have steam coming out of my ears. I barge into his room, ready to let him have him but... I lose all my senses as soon as I walk in. He was naked, with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Holy cow," I muttered, staring at his ripped body. My eyes glued to the outline of his abs, leading down to his torso.

He cocked his head to the side, a small smile playing on his lips. "Want to take a picture, Kelch," he says in a deep, raspy voice. God! why does his morning voice sound so sexy?

I shift my eyes back to his face, my face hot and embarrassed from being caught. "Umm.. wanted to tell you to be quick. You're driving me to school," I stammer and quickly head out the door before things got more awkward.

I lean on the door and exhale before walking downstairs briskly and taking a seat on the sofa without saying a word. Thankful, no one asked me anything and after they got done with their meals. Dad and Shelia say goodbye and leave with Chloe and Harry.

I tap my legs impatiently on the floor as I waited for Gray. Almost, twenty minutes later and he still hasn't shown up. I most definitely wasn't going back up there. I'd rather be late than see him half-naked again. Uh-huh.

He shows up a few minutes later and fills the living room with his scent, which was a mix of lemon soap and his cologne. He smelled really good. I refuse to meet his eye and get up from the sofa, grabbing my bag.

"Are you ready?" I ask, staring straight ahead at his chest, which was at my eye level.

"Are you undressing me now, Kelch," he teases and I roll my eyes and raise my head up to look at him.

"Fuck you, Gray," I snap and walk past him.

"Is that an insult or a to-do list?" He grins, tilting his head to the side, and turns me to face him.

My face heats up for the second time today and I fight the urge not to blush. Gosh! I hate him.

"Shut up and just drive me to school," I snap.

His eyes twinkling as he leaned in so he was eye level with me. "Say please," he says.

"What?"

"From what I heard, you don't have a driver's license yet, and you need me to get to school," He shrugs, crossing his arms.

I roll my eyes at his childishness. "Please," I say, nonchalantly, and he raises his brow, surprised. I bet he wasn't expecting me to tell him, please.

He sniffed and shoved his hands into his back pocket. "I wasn't expecting that?" He admits.

I roll my eyes. "I know. That's why I said it."

He nods his head and grabs his keys from the key holder. "Makes sense. Let's go," he finally says and heads out the door with me following suit.

I only had one problem. Due to our lateness, I have to mentally prepare myself for the stares from everyone when we walk into class together.

Isn't life beautiful?

Note the sarcasm.

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