When Newt said his house is like Bill and Fleur's, he wasn't lying.

It's one of the few houses at the side of the lake. Instead of bricks, I mostly see different sizes of stones on the walls. There's a lot of windows. The veranda is big, with a lounge couch and all. Above it is a balcony, which I hope is connected to Newt's room. That would be cool.

"It's really not that special." Newt pulls me toward the front door with a laugh. "Come on."

"My house is the most boring thing ever," I realize.

His father chuckles as he unlocks the door.

He's really nice, by the way. He didn't talk an extreme amount during the thirty-minute drive here, but he introduced himself and asked us some questions.

Noah Isaacs is a tall man. He wears glasses. The small ones, you know? His hair is blonde like Newt's and he also looks way younger than he probably is.

Newt continues pulling my arm as we walk inside. Well, he's kind of always pulling my arm, but I don't mind. Whenever he pulls hard, he's excited— never mind, this sounds way too dirty.

But yeah, I can tell he's excited.

First, we walk through a hallway. I see a mirror, a door to what I think might be the toilet and another door that's likely some storage room, or maybe the electricity closet. But I don't have much time because, as I said, Newt's pulling me with him.

"You're gonna pull the poor boy's arm off," his father laughs.

"He wanted to see my room," Newt points out.

"The one you paid Sonya to clean for?"

"Dad!"

I look at Newt, smiling. "You paid Sonya to clean your room?"

His cheeks grow red. "Well, you know, it was messy, and she was here in the weekend, so I figured I should spare you from the mess."

"I don't mind some mess. You should see my room. It's full of paint."

Literally. When I was seven, I had a beautiful wallpaper with... I don't even remember, I guess dinosaurs. A week later, I got a white canvas for my birthday. One stripe of paint on my wall after the other, and little me painted my whole wall with canvas paint. Then I get into the 'splash paint onto the canvas with my hands' phase, and my wall was covered in spats.

Then I no longer started caring about the damn wall. I even painted on my wall to see if colors would match before actually painting on canvas.

I've said it before: my bed is the last thing that has made it through without getting paint on it.

"Okay. I'll show you the whole house."

"Not Sonya's room," Noah warns. "She won't like that, Newt."

Newt waves it off. "Yeah, yeah. Not Sonya or you and Mom's room."

He takes me into the kitchen. It's very light and has perfect sight on the lake. Shells decorate one wall. There's a small bar. The counters are made of a light wood, matching with basically the whole house.

Then he takes me back to where we were standing in the first place. There is a table, also from light wood, and the living room is next to it. The couch is blue. Light blue. But I swear, all these light colors match perfectly.

"Okay. The toilet is in the hallway. My room is on this floor. Right here." Newt opens the door next to the couch, revealing what I've been wishing to see since the second he mentioned it.

Oh my gosh, he also has this giant window that gives him perfect view on the lake, maybe even better than via the kitchen.

The end of his twin-size bed meets the window, though there's a few feet of space between them. His closet is on his bed's left. A nightstand is perched on the floor next to the other side of his bed. Next to a wall full of pictures, I see a whiteboard.

NEWT IS AN ASS.

It might be Sonya who wrote that. Most definitely.

"Ahw." I chuckle when I see one of his baby photos on the picture wall. And I see an adorable young Minho, and also a young Thomas. I think I even catch a picture of baby Thomas and Teresa, playing in sand together.

"Don't bother those awful pictures." His cheeks heat up again.

"No, they're cute," I blurt out. But I don't really regret it. It's just baby photos I'm calling cute.

He shrugs. "Well, is my room up to your expectations?"

I can see myself painting this, so yes.

"Mhm." I nod. "Especially the window. It's so cool."

"Only reason I wanted the room on the ground floor."

"You're damn right for that." I chuckle. "I think I'll survive here for two nights."

"You better. I'll be sent to the camp for a million years for 'killing you'."

I scoff, putting my bag down on the ground. "I think you'll be sent to jail for that, Newt."

"Probably. Anyway— you want to eat something? Drink?"

With a shake of my head, I follow him out of his room. "No, thanks."

"Alright." He stops walking. Turns around to look at me. "Mom will be home tonight. Went shopping or somethin', I don't know. We'll eat dinner once she's there. So now we just have to figure out what to do in the meanwhile."

I look at of the kitchen's window. It's super hot outside. The lake doesn't seem wrong to fill our time with. "How cold is the water?"

"Cold," he says.

"Too cold?"

A shrug. "We'll have to find out."

☀︎︎

Once we're out of the lake—in which we stayed for ten minutes, if not less—we're absolutely freezing. Newt's lips are blue as we run inside the house, desperate for warmer towels.

We did spend quite some time, because as we grabbed our swim shorts, Newt urged we might as well unpack some of my things, and he asked if I wanted to change the pillowcase with my own, since we're gonna share the bed, obviously.

I told him I was fine with his pillowcase. Then I put my toiletries down in the bathroom, because Newt told me to, and then I changed in the bathroom as Newt changed in his own room.

Oh, and it took us like half an hour to get enough courage to jump in. Why? Because we first took a single step. When I jokingly pushed him, he pushed me back in what must've been a less joking way. I didn't fall, but I ran off. And then he followed. And then I could tell his leg hurt, so it took quite some time to return. And then we finally jumped in.

Something like that.

"Okay, you can take a shower first." He wraps another—like the fourth—towel around me. "Be quick before I freeze to death."

"You can go first. Your lips are blue! I'll sit in front of the fireplace for a while—"

"No, you're the guest," Newt interrupts, moving me toward the stairs. "Bathroom is the first door right. Shower buttons are confusing, but you'll figure it out."

☀︎

I recognize my mom in Newt's. Even though I only knew her for about two years, Dad told enough stories for me to know what she was like.

Newt's mom is just as kind, caring, and interested.

"And Newt mentioned you have a sister, right? Friend of Sonya's?" She asks after a million questions about how I like the camp, how I like Newt's friends, how old I am, what my hobbies are, et cetera. But I don't mind replying at all.

"Yes. She's awesome." I give a heavy nod. "The best."

We were already kind of in a fight after the call with Mom and Dad, and I never told her a proper goodbye before leaving with Newt. I hate leaving during an argument. It's when the worst things happen.

So I wonder what she's doing right now. Noelle said she was in tears. But I haven't seen Lelia cry since... a long time, and Noelle lies a lot. If she was crying, I wish I would've been there.

Damn it, I should've just waited for her to come back from that girl friend she was staying, then hugged her, and then go here. I should've asked what girl friend. Because Lelia has no girl friends apart from Teresa, Sonya, Harriet, and Miyoko.

A soft nudge in my side shakes me out of my thoughts.

"Uhm, sorry." I clear my throat as the heat rises up my cheeks. Always choosing the worst moments to zone out. "I zone out a lot. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Newt's mom smiles. "Newt used to, too. But anyway— I hope the food is nice. I didn't have a lot of time to cook."

After giving Newt a glance, wondering why I didn't know about that, I compliment the food.

I mean, he doesn't have to tell me everything, but his mom said it in such a way... well, whatever.