BROKEN ANGEL

CHAPTER FIVE - THE MONSTER

"I'm friends with a monster that's under my bed

Get a long with the voices inside of my head"

Melissa Bittencourt was locked in the room that had been given her, sitting on the bed, and she try to convince herself that she wasn't a wildcat and could handle all those people down there.

Gabriel's family was pretty cool, she had to admit. So maybe it was not as bad as she imagined. The singer had two sisters, Mariana, who was the eldest; and Karen, the youngest. His mother's name was Esther and his father was Richard. Lissa had to pretend she already knew all of them by name, since any fan (especially the groupies) knew the life of the idol, so, until it hadn't been so bad when she introduced herself to them two days ago. Everything was fine, and she could handle those people, since everyone spent more time outside skiing and doing other things than indoors.

It was so easy to not socialize. Arthur and Gabriel set about working on the singer's recovery, and Melissa could simply lock herself in the room in peace and gaze at the beautiful view of the mountains through the window. But as nothing in the girl's life was easy, on the second day since the musician's family arrived, the five members of Gabriel's band decided to appear as well. And then there were twelve people occupying the house without counting Gabriel's bodyguards... Suddenly, the peace of Alaska had turned into a real mess.

"Melissa," someone called and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" She replied in a bad mood.

"Let's go down?" It was the voice of Esther Voss "It's almost time for us to begin the supper, it's close to midnight."

Her heart throbbed... She did not want to come down. She didn't want to eat or celebrate. But she had to do it, otherwise, the plan would go down.

"I'm coming downstairs, Esther". She shouted back. "Just one more minute."

"OK. I'll wait for you at the table."

The girl got up from the bed, took a deep breath, and decided it was time to face Gabriel and company.

♬

Melissa Bittencourt was deeply sorry for broke the Gabriel's nose while she was sleeping, resulting in a passage through Alaska. So, if she wasn't prepared to spend a year with him on tour, how would she be prepared to actively participate in the personal life of someone she didn't know intimately and didn't even want to meet? And to make matters worse, it was Christmas, the family's holiday where everyone in the world felt compelled to smile at anyone, hug everyone and act as life were perfect. She hated the Christmas as much as she hated any holiday that meant bringing the family together and pretending to be happy.

She'd been running away from such meetings since she was young, and now she was bound to a celebration where she definitely did not fit. And the great proof of the time Melissa disregarded everyone around her was the way they all laughed at the jokes that Karen - Gabriel's younger sister - never tired of telling about her.

Although she had a forced smile, she was really annoyed by the witty comments about her clothes and makeup. She knew that her style was a little bit different and it caught the attention of some people. Beside she had become accustomed to being a joke among other people, but in that moment, far from everything and everyone she knew and loved, Lissa felt, achieved.

The brunette had imagined before she did not like Gabriel, but she had discovered that she liked his sister even less. The youngest of the family appeared to be someone who doesn't knew any limit. And the way the girl behaved could make the usual oppression on Melissa's chest triple in size, until make her breathless.