Absolute

5

There was a soft knock on the door and the dark haired boy with the glasses poked his head in, looking to Nathan before backtracking and looking at me. He blinked and cleared his throat.

"I uh, it's-" he cleared his throat and tried again, "I'm Dakota Lee."

I nodded, "Kota."

He looked away from me to Nathan and I could tell they had a full on conversation with their expressions. Nathan simply smirked at the end and looked at me.

I couldn't help but notice that Kota was rather cute himself. In a complete different way from Nathan was.

Kota turned back to me, "we were just about to have breakfast if you would like to join us?"

"Us?" I asked.

He nodded, "most of my te- family, is here."

"But this is Nathan's house," I countered, "are you .. cousins?"

"More like brothers," Nathan butted in, "but those are little details," he stood up and walked over to the bed, offering me a hand. "Come on, we might look like zombies but we don't bite."

His hand was like the ultimate test. How deep did I want to be in this?

I knew what happened, how friends were made. These boys and I weren't friends yet, but if I took his hands, we'd be a step closer. If told them I'd like to go home... well I didn't know what would happen.

The thought of going home, well it wasn't an option. I had no way to know what my parents would be feeling. No way to know if Dad had told Mom, if they'd put together that I had not only run off, but hadn't returned yet.

Nathan must have thought my hesitation was something against him, because he squatted down to be closer to eye level with me.

"We can be really nice people, if you let us."

I guess that was all it took for me to place my trust in Nathan and whoever else was in the other part of the house. The last person I'd talked to who hadn't had contempt in their eyes and venom in their voice had been Gabriel. It had been so long since I'd felt any sort of kindness...

I almost wasn't sure if this situation was normal or not.

What's the usual level of stranger/stranger kindness? Should I have expected this, or should this be freaking me out?

I inhaled slowly, glancing down at my clean shirt, wondering if my family would do this for me. Not even the rescuing part, just the making sure I went to bed and didn't wake up with pneumonia part.

In the short time I'd been around them, they'd done more for me than I can remember my family doing my whole life.

I took his hand with my good one, allowing him to help me out of the bed. I was dressed in a soft orange colored top and a pair of grey sweats. The orange top made me a little sad at the boy who was associated with the color, but I ignored it and tried not to think about Nathan's hand as he continued to hold mine.

Kota moved aside with a small, yet happy, smile. He walked down the hall in front of us, leading us to the table that was full of food. There were a few people already sitting down, talking amongst themselves, and a curly haired blonde at the stove.

I stopped walking at the edge of the hallway, just before joining the room. Nathan didn't seem phased as he allowed me to stop fluidly, letting go of my hand casually as he joined the others.

"What are you doing by the stove?" A sharp voice asked.

At first I thought it was directed at me and I took several steps backwards, wondering if I shouldn't turn around completely. It didn't cross my mind that I wasn't even near the stove.