Help! I'm asexual and trapped in a dating sim!

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up early the next morning, when the sun came in through the open window and stabbed me in the eyes. I groaned and threw back the covers, which proceeded to get tangled around my legs, tripping me up as I attempted to stand. I fell to the floor with a thud, my face having more intimate contact with the carpet than I had ever had with another living person. To top it all off, as I lay there half blind and in not insignificant pain, a wake-up bell rang, loud enough to deafen me.
What a wonderful way to start my first day at this new school.
Seth, having obviously heard the thump from his bedroom-- which was across the main room, so my fall must really have been quite loud-- poked his head around the doorframe.
"Oh, it's you."
"Hi," I said, smiling up at him. On the outside, of course-- on the inside I was certainly not smiling. I would say that 'dying of embarrassment' would be a better description.
"Why are you on the floor?"
"I fell."
What other reason would I have for lying on the ground?
"Oh."
A moment's silence.
"Okay then."
And with that, he was gone.
I pushed myself up off the floor, kicking away the covers and brushing myself down. The blankets lay on the floor in a tangled heap, and I bundled them up and threw them onto the bed. I'd sort that out later. Definitely.
I staggered to the window, throwing it open and squinting up at sky to try and estimate the time. The sun was low in the sky, and I had no idea what that meant except for the fact that it was morning. Four? Six? Eight? Who knew. I didn't even know what season it was. Probably mid-to-late summer, but my judgement could just be biased because the school year was starting and the ideas from Earth were carrying over.
I ran a hand through my hair and grimaced. I really needed a shower. Did I have time? I didn't want to hog the bathroom, in case Seth needed it.
Who was I kidding? Seth wasn't going to have a shower.
I stumbled from my room, blindly fumbling my way into the bathroom with outstretched arms. I encountered the bath earlier than I was expecting and, for the second time that day, I fell-- this time face first into the bathtub.
I lay for a few moments, close to giving up, then slowly clambered to my feet. I brushed off my tunic, because I knew it was the only thing I had to wear except for my school uniform. Not that I was going to be going anywhere, but it was worth having something not utterly destroyed to wear. I mean, my tunic wasn't exactly looking undamaged, what with grass, mud and food stains splattered across the front and a small rip up one side, but it would be worse with a generous helping of carpet fibres and dust.
Yes, dust. That's how little the bathtub had been used. That's what I now have to live with.
I pulled the tunic over my head, struggling with the sleeves for a moment as I wasn't used to non-stretchy fabrics. In fact, I don't think I owned anything but t-shirts and hoodies back on Earth.
Beating the tunic against the side of the tub helped to clean the worst off it, and I shivered as the cold air of the room hit my bare skin, hurrying to strip the rest of my clothes off and get into the shower. Once standing in the bathtub, I then realised that I had absolutely no clue how to work the shower. There were buttons and dials galore, but no instructions.
Or so it seemed at first glance. When I looked closer I realised that many of the handles were inscribed with runes, which my handy-dandy little tongues skill could translate. 'Go' looked to be the right one to press, so I went ahead and pushed it.
Water poured out of the showerhead above me, cold as if it had been left in a freezer. I shouted in shock, though the cold had seized my chest and it came out as more of a strangled squeak, leaping back and slipping on the water flooding into the bathtub. Fortunately, through the medium of frantic flailing, I managed to keep myself upright. Falling for the third time in as many minutes wouldn't have been the best way to start the day, especially into freezing water.
'Hot' seemed like the right dial to turn, so I did, reaching cautiously around the stream of water and flinching as stray droplets of ice hit me. I turned the dial all the way up, and sighed as the water almost instantly turned warm, stepping under the flow.
Only to leap out of it a few seconds later as what felt like lava poured down on me. One arm was trailing behind and got caught in the burning stream, my shockingly pale skin flushing a bright red.
-1 HP!
Why, shower? Why do you betray me in this way? I trusted you! I never expected you to turn on me.
I reached around the boiling lava-water to turn the dial back to a less scalding temperature. This time I waited for the water temperature to adjust before stepping back under the spray, and was neither frozen nor burnt. Success!
I ducked my head into the flow of water, holding my breath as I scrubbed at my hair, only to realise that there was no shampoo or conditioner.
I looked at the bar of soap contemplatively. What was worse-- dry hair or greasy hair? Definitely greasy. I'd prefer not to look like Seth, if I had any say in the matter. I worked up a nice lather, then rubbed it into my hair. It rinsed out easily and, surprisingly, my hair felt... absolutely fine? How odd.
I shrugged. Elven magic, probably. Or just the luck of the draw from when I customised my appearance.
I climbed out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist and strolling over to the mirror. I tipped my head upside down, shaking the worst of the water out of my hair and then rubbing away most of the remainder with another towel. I straightened, flipping my hair back out of my face, and grimaced at my reflection. For some reason, the drying process had turned my hair almost curly. It didn't look bad, per se, but it meant that it wasn't going to end up sleek and shiny again.
Eh, who cares?
I dried myself off before re-wrapping the towel around my waist. It was all very well walking out dripping with water and looking sexy, but that had to get very cold, very fast.
I roughly folded my clothes and draped them over my reddened arm before scurrying from the bathroom, shivering as the warm humidity of the bathroom hit the colder air of the main room. I hurried into my bedroom, scrambling into my school uniform and hugging my blazer tight around myself because it only had two buttons. I began to button up my shirt, cursing under my breath as my numbing fingers fumbled with the tiny, delicate buttons. Why had I left the window open?
Ooh. That wasn't good. I'd just torn the top one off. Never mind, I'd be able to scavenge a needle and thread from somewhere, I'm sure.
I hooked the tie around my neck, not bothering to actually tie it considering that I would have to undo it anyway to reattach the button, then strolled out into the main room, making my way over to the kitchen area.
Last night, Garnet had explained to me that, although the evening and midday meals was provided, breakfast was not. Which was great, because I had exactly zero food and wasn't allowed to leave school grounds until the weekend. Considering it was Tuesday, that was quite a while to last without breakfast. Caleb had offered to share his food, but I had refused. I don't think he was a noble, and it wouldn't be right to take food bought with the money he had to have worked hard to earn. Ryan had forced a loaf of bread on me though, so I did have something.
I took the bread, now slightly stale, from the cupboard and set it down on a chopping board. There was a drawer full of rather dangerous looking knives that I pulled open, rooting around for the bread knife and suffering a not insignificant number of shallow cuts in the process. Fortunately the bread was still perfectly soft on the inside, so I held up the end piece and started to gnaw at the inside of the slice so that I didn't have to eat the stale crust. That was going to have to be all I ate today, because this one loaf had to last five whole days. Unfortunately, the position of the bread meant that I was getting crumbs into my eyes. And, because it was stale, those crumbs were really quite sharp.
A knock at the door stopped me in my gnawing.
"Yeah?"
"Just me! Can I come in?"
Caleb? Ryan? Felix? I couldn't really tell, as I hadn't properly memorised their voices yet. Whoever it was could come in, I didn't mind.
"Yeah, come on in!"
Caleb's head poked around the door, a smile spreading across his face when he caught sight of me.
"Hi Lee!"
"Hey, Caleb. How are you doing?"
"Blazing!" He threw the door open with such enthusiasm that it bounced off the wall and bounded into the room. "You?"
"I'm good."
A figure I recognised as Ryan's stumbled into the room after him, rubbing at his eyes.
"Hi, Ry." Ooh, that rhymed. "Good morning."
"Is it?" he slurred, his voice heavy with sleep.
"Every morning is a good morning now," Caleb beamed. So he was a morning person, hm? That came as something of a surprise-- he seems more like the kind to snooze his alarm about twenty times and end up late. Not that I'm speaking from experience here or anything.
"So what're you doing here so early?" I asked curiously.
"We came to see you, of course!" Caleb exclaimed. He strode over to me, pulling me into a hug. Well, more accurately, pulling my head into his shoulder and wrapping his arms around me, crushing my breakfast into my face. Good thing I didn't have cereal.
"Watch my bread!" I said, my voice muffled. I managed to work the hand holding the bread out of Caleb's hug, but he was too busy sniffing my hair to reply.
"What kind of shampoo do you use?" he asked. "I want the same."
"That's soap, actually. And wouldn't it be weird if we smelt the same? People would think that we were showering together or something."
"Nah, it wouldn't be weird."
"It would be very weird," Ryan said grumpily. Caleb grinned over at him.
"Why? 'Cos you wouldn't be able to tell us apart?"
"Obviously I would," Ryan scowled, crossing his arms. "You smell like a bonfire, whereas Lee smells-"
He cut himself off, blushing a little. Or at least I think he did-- I couldn't exactly see. Let's just say that Caleb would make a better door than a window.
Besides, I was preoccupied. "Hey, could you let go now?"
"Ah, sure."
Caleb released me, and I gasped for air, wiping crumbs from my face. "Thanks."
"Um... You've got some bread in your... everything. There's bread everywhere."
"And who's fault is that?" I joked, slapping playfully at his shoulder.
"Wait," Ryan asked. "Is that all you've got for breakfast?"
I shrugged. "I'm broke, baby!"
For a moment he froze, a blush spreading across his cheeks, but then seemed to get angry.
"Don't call me that. And really, Lee, you need to take better care of yourself. If you can't afford food then come and ask us, for the Goddess' sake."
"Nah, I'm fine," I said. "Gotta keep in shape, eh?"
I pulled up my shirt a little, patting myself in the abs. It was a total lie-- I had never exercised or dieted a day in my life. I was stick thin in my old life, but only because I couldn't really afford more than one or two meals a day. Of course, I could have asked my parents for help with finances, but I'd rather have starved to death.
Both Caleb and Ryan's eyes were fixed on the skin I was showing, so I dropped my shirt. They seemed to come out of a daze, blinking, and looked back up to my face.
"Well," Ryan said, after a moment. "Starving yourself isn't the right way to do that."
"I'm used to going hungry. Don't worry about it."
Ryan looked furious. "Well, we do worry about you, Lee. So it's a good thing that we sent someone to get you some proper food."
Felix's head poked around the door, followed by a stack of boxes and bags that was put down to reveal the rest of his body. "Hallo!"