The alarm woke Valerie up with a start and she checked the time on her phone. Crawling out of bed to the restroom, she looked for her medicine and remembering that she had packed it in her purse earlier, she pulled it out of her purse which was laying beside her bed. It was good that she had chosen to administer it in the restroom using the mirror, because John had seen through the blinds, finally what medicine Valerie had been taking for her “condition”. 

A knock on the window surprised Valerie and when she approached it she saw John there again. Valerie raised the blinds, unlocked, and opened the window to let John in. He climbed in and walked past her to the restroom finding her empty makeshift syringe in the drawer of her vanity. 

“John, what are you doing?” Valerie demanded raising her voice at first then controlling it to not alert her sister or father.

“Is this your medicine? Where’s the prescription label? What kind of device is this?” He demanded angrily.

“That’s none of your business,” Valerie retorted, putting everything away and closing the drawer. 

“What are you hiding?” John fumed, tired of not knowing what was going on.

“Can you leave? Why are you even here?” Valerie half-shouted pointing towards the window. 

“I- I was. Nothing. Just. Nevermind, I’m going to go,” John replied, upset and angry. 

He left through the window barely five minutes after he had entered and another knock on Valerie’s door, beckoned her for dinner. John watched through the window as Valerie left to have dinner. Since she hadn’t closed the window, John saw this as his chance to see what she was up to, but there was no point. Her medicine had no information on it. He could have it analyzed, but that would take too long not to mention if it was medicine that she was taking she might need every bit of it.  John looked around the room one more time and noticed her laptop, it’s probably password protected. Anything else? There was nothing else, not even a journal for him to look through. 

It was then that John knew that the only way he was going to get an answer was directly from her. He left brainstorming ideas for how to get Valerie to tell him what she’s hiding. 

Valerie sat down at the dinner table pretending everything was fine, when she was furious at John. It was a total invasion of privacy! She screamed in her head. But he knows something’s up. I’m hiding a lot from everyone, but of all people why does he care? Valerie couldn’t understand why John cared to know, they were basically strangers. But now she knew she had to be careful around him. She let out a loud sigh drawing the attention of Reina and her Dad. 

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” Will asked. 

Valerie laughed rather hysterically, “Well I just think living with John is going to come with its own challenges, that I didn’t realize till now.”

“Dad, we saw him today at the boat house and he was partying with his friends,” Reina added.

“It’s your house. Set ground rules and enforce them,” Will reminded her daughter. 

“I know Dad. I will,” she replied with a sigh. He’s right though. It’s my house. I can make it a living hell if he pushes me too far.

The next morning Valerie, guarded, met John outside of her home and sat in the passenger seat since no one else was in the car. 

“Did you sleep well?” John asked out of the blue.

“You could apologize first. And no I didn’t sleep well,” Valerie snapped. 

“Sorry. But you won’t tell us anything. What’s wrong with you? What’s your diagnosis? What medicine are you taking?” He blurted out. 

“Don’t you think I’d tell you if I was ready to? Maybe I’m not ready?” Valerie tried persuading him.

“Who hides that stuff from their family? Unless you're dying?” John gasped, “Are you dying?”

“Why do you even care? You don’t know me. I’m not the same little girl from years ago, and you're not the same, John!” Valerie yelled. 

“You still didn’t answer the question.”

“No, I’m not dying, can you just drop it? How are we supposed to live in the same house like this?” Valerie turned away to look out the window and they didn’t speak to each other as John picked up his four friends and drove to the house. 

The contractors had already arrived and were performing an external assessment. Valerie hopped out of the SUV without speaking to John or his friends and walked over to introduce herself to the contractors. 

“Dude, did you guys have a fight?” Greg asked the obvious.

“Yeah, Valerie’s mad at me.”

“What did you argue about? She’s only been here for three days, what could you have argued about?” Allen wondered. 

“Ah, she just won’t tell me or her family what disease she has,” John sighed. 

“That’s really personal stuff dude, I mean. Didn’t you say the contact between even her family was limited? If she barely interacted with her family, how is she going to trust them with her personal life, let alone you?” Allen suggested.

John grumbled. Allen was right, but it was hard for him to take steps back from learning the truth. “Let’s go.”