riddle me this. ― ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴᴜʙɪꜱ

six.

"you all heard that right?" joy questioned, wondering if she had just imagined it. the others nodded, confirming their suspicions ― jerome was concerned?

༻✦༺

bella looked up from her book as a knock sounded at the door. "come in." she called out, not expecting jerome's head to peep through. he chuckled at the sight of her in her pyjamas, all cosy in bed with her book. "clarke," she greeted the boy, bookmarking her page before setting it aside. "what brings you into my humble abode?" she did her best fake british accent which made jerome laugh as he shook his head at the girl.

"never do that again." he advised, stood by her bed. she patted the space next to her, feeling awkward looking up at him. he gratefully took a seat on the bed, wondering how he was going to say his next words. bella stared at him expectantly, waiting for anything to come out of his mouth as she wondered why he was even here. "how are you feeling?" he finally asked, taking the girl by surprise as she wasn't expecting him to ask such a question. 

"oh? i'm fine." she answered, a little confused. 

"amber told us," he explained, noticing her confusion. 

"ah." the girl nodded, realising that her little white lie had accidentally caused concern between the anubis house residents. 

"i know it can be scary moving into a new place." he began, piquing bella's curiosity.

"really? you've had to move across the world too?" she questioned, as jerome bit his tongue, realising that his experience of moving away from home to anubis house was nothing in comparison to bella. especially since in his situation, he wanted to leave and escape home more than anything else in the world.

"okay, so maybe my experience isn't a good example." jerome mumbled, seeming deep in thought. "okay, look at karate kid―" bella sent the boy a pointed look, warning him not to finish his sentence. "maybe let's just change the subject." he finished, scrunching his nose.

"nice save, gerbil." bella teased, taking poppy's nickname for the boy and using it against him. he sighed, shaking his head. 

"okay, i'll give you that one since i just dug myself a deep hole." he agreed, knowing that he deserved it. "but honestly bella, from a friend to another friend," bella rolled her eyes at the boy, knowing that she would never hear the end of that word that jerome enjoyed using against her when he wanted something. "i'm always here if you need to talk." he finished off, surprising bella yet again.

it made her feel bad that everyone was so worried about her because of her "homesickness" which wasn't a complete lie since she was always missing home. although, she hadn't really had much time to think about anything to do with her previous life until now because she had been so distracted by that weird dream.