Girlfriend?

"Dad, I'm fine."

"I can see that much! Turn around, right now!"

How does he always know? My father made this chainmail for me in his spare time, but every time it got damaged, he knew exactly where it was without taking more than a glance. I turned and I heard a parade of footsteps rush up behind me.

"How do you have that many breaks in the mail, and not have a scratch on you? Your shit is even torn! Liena, do you think you can sew this for K after we eat?" My father asked from behind me.

"K, come one, stop leaving us hanging! Did you or did you not touch the core?" Pike, the youngest of my four brothers said.

"Yes, I touched it, then I woke up outside of the dungeon, fully healed."

"SO YOU DID GET HURT! K, what did I tell you about…"

"They are all dead dad, the entire party was wiped. I was barely able to beat the giant lizard man alone, then I dragged myself into the core room and touched it. After that, a message appeared in front of my face saying I had a system."

I stopped there, they didn't need to know the rest, and I was starting to get uncomfortable being gawked at by everyone in the room. That is, except for Lesha, who was eating furiously. When had that girl eaten last?

My father was about to go on another tirade, but Liena put a hand on his arm when I turned around. Father let out a sigh and then sat down. That was the cue and the rest of my...I was having a hard time calling them idiots, maybe just stupid for now until I was proven otherwise. The five of us had a jaded past, but I should try and listen to Drania, and give them a chance, maybe.

"Your girlfriend has quite the appetite! Are you going to introduce us?" Mike asked with a sly grin.

I had just sat down and barely five seconds after I had the thought. See? That Letcher was already eyeing up Lesha, and I was about to lose it, but then Lesha spoke up for herself. I had to hand it to her for standing up for me, but the way it happened only made it worse.

"I am Lesha, I came to this town to start over and your sister saved me from being raped. Now, I am her servant and I will serve her faithfully until we end our days together!"

Ugh, all five men's eyes nearly fell out of their heads, even Liena, hardly the flappable type, sat slack-jawed. I had a clear shot to the door, but I lived here and Lesha was here. What she said was true, I guess, but the last part is what stripped the eyelids from the men's eyes.

"Then, you are K's girlfriend?" Mike asked.

"Hm, she saved my life, so I would consider her more than a friend, and she is a girl...so then I guess that would make us girlfriends, Right Kiada?"

There was a bird to the south that stuck its head in the sand to hide, and I really wished there was some sand, dirt, or even a boiling pot of frying oil! I could feel my face start to heat, but then I took a deep breath. This couldn't get worse, so I might as well roll with it.

I wasn't sure if she was being serious or if she really thought that a girlfriend was just a girl that was a friend, but I didn't care at this point. I was pissed off and hungry, so I glared around the table and stared down at each person until everyone was absorbed into their meals.

I turned to Lesha and nodded at her with a smile. She gave me a warm smile back, but Pike must have been staring because he spit his food out onto Mort beside him. Mort then smacked Pike and whispered to keep his damn eyes to himself. What happened to these boys? There would have been no end to the torment six months ago, but now, it was like I was looking at different people completely.

I turned back and focused on my food, which was very good. My father could be a hair-brained idiot sometimes, but he was a hard worker and a good cook, something he said that mother loved about him. We didn't talk about mom very much anymore, but it had been over twenty years since she died.

Dad stopped talking about her as much when he started seeing Liena two years ago, but never completely. Liena didn't mind, and I was happy that my father had found someone after all that time. No one deserves to be happy more than my father, the single father of five children that fought like cats and dogs.

Soon, we finished supper, but no one hammered me with questions. Even when I stood up to go to my room and Lesha did the same, no one even batted an eye, but I suspected they were just waiting to hear the sound of my door close to start gossiping about us. That was fine as long as I didn't have to hear about it.

Lesha followed me up the stairs and then into my room. This was about as far as my brain had got with a plan. I guess she could sleep in one of my brother's old rooms, not like they were being used.

"Um, we have a bathroom beside my room, and if you want you can sleep in the room across the hall."

"Can I sleep in here? I can sleep on your floor, it's just that, I feel like I need to be close to you. It's hard to put into words but, I don't want to be away from you, even in another room. I could, but…" Lesha's voice trailed off

"You can't sleep on the floor, you will catch a cold! It might be nice now, but later tonight it will get colder."

"You have a big bed, I could sleep at the end if it wasn't too much trouble…" Lesha let the words hang.

There was a hammer smashing the inside of my head trying to crack my skull to get out, or that's what my heartbeat felt like.