Looking for shelter (PrincessRover AU)

Chapter 6: Falling

Eretria shoved all her books and papers into a big pile next to her bed. She would go and sort through it later. A few pieces of clothing for later were pulled out of her closet and thrown onto her bed.

Quickly she stripped out of her clothes, wrapped her towel around her body, grabbed her bag with shampoo and headed out of her room towards the showers.

As she entered the room she could hear one other shower running and the soft voice of someone humming was carried to her ears over the rushing of the water. She immediately knew that this voice belonged to Amberle by the way she was humming Out of the woods again. And then suddenly Eretria realized that Amberle was naked. In the shower. About three meters away from her. Water was probably running down her skin and her hands were wandering over her body. And Eretria quickly jumped into a shower stall the curtain pulled shut behind her.

She turned on the water, hung her towel onto a hook and stepped underneath the running water. Only to realize that it was freezing cold. Before she could stop herself she let out a loud squeak while cringing together.

“Eretria?” Amberle's voice sounded from the other side of the room.

“Yeah?” Eretria jumped back, out of reach of the cold water and quickly turned the tab onto warm water .

“Everything okay?” Her voice carried worry.

“Yeah, everything's fine. Didn't expect the water to be that cold.”

Only the sound of the rushing water was echoing through the room, until the noise got quieter and Eretria figured that Amberle had turned off her shower.

The rustling of the curtain and the sound of shower shoes being dragged over the floor, followed by a quiet “See you in a bit” and the closing of the door, told Eretria that Amberle had left the room and that she was alone.

When the water had finally reached a temperature that didn't cause her toes to fall off Eretria stepped underneath the stream of water and allowed the water to run down her body.

While shampooing she let her fingers run over her skin absentmindedly, as she felt the scars on her back and her thoughts were pulled back to the memories of her childhood.
Most of the scars covering the skin of her back she had gotten when Cephalo had tried to hit her after she had gotten home late one afternoon from school. In order to avoid his beating she had tried climbing the fence in the back of their yard, but as she had heard Cephalo yell somewhere near her she had lost her balance and had fallen onto a few sharp rocks on the ground. 
He had brought her to an ER that day, but her wounds hadn't healed properly for a long time, because he had not stopped hitting her after and her stitches had opened up again and again. 
No one had ever found out about his abuse towards her, had Cephalo taken her to a different doctor or ER every time it got too bad. And Cephalo had made sure that even if someone had asked too many questions in his eyes, she looked like she was a terrible kid, out of control, who hurt herself and other kids.

Eretria could feel tears forming in her eyes, but she hurried to shake off the memories. Cephalo was her past. By moving to the other side of the country she had escaped him and broke his power over her. She had never been this happy in her life and for the first time ever she could picture a future for herself. A future that she controlled and no one else. She had found a study course that she liked and friends. Well Wil and the other guys from the pizzeria. And now Amberle.

Thinking about the brunette and the past few days she could feel a smile creep on her face, which she couldn't stop.

It was just dawning on her in that moment that ice skating could be seen as something really romantic. She had never gone ice skating herself, but according to Wil, it was a good first-date idea, because it offered the opportunity to talk and often involved hand-holding.