Mischief, Charms & Rule Breaking *Watty Awards*

Chapter Six

Charm/France

My uncle was sitting on the end of Alpha’s huge four poster bed, minus his shoes, which he had thrown out of the open door in disgust; he gazed down at his inebriated son who was unconscious on oblivious to the world around him. I noticed that unlike my bed, Alpha’s bed was made of a much darker wood; a deep mahogany colour. The posts twisted around and around, all the way up to the top. There were other items of furniture placed around the room; it was more like a luxury bedsit.

I hadn’t actually been in his room before now, so I took this as my opportunity to have a look around.

The walls were painted in a warm terracotta colour, whilst the windows were hidden by the heavy red curtains; there were several lamps which lit the room up, giving it a friendly, welcoming feel.

There was a table over near to one of the windows and on top, a book which had been left open; I walked over and picked it up, only to find it was one of those awful romance novels that Alpha had been so quick to deny reading, earlier that evening.

“I need to change my clothes, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Henri hesitated, as if trying to make his mind up about leaving me alone again, “Stay here until I get back. Oh, and before I forget, you need to take this.” He handed me a small bottle which I recognized as my medicine, “I know it doesn’t taste very nice, but you know you have to take it…”and with that, he left me.

Gritting my teeth, I thought I’d best get the medicine over with, however after that I was left standing in someone else’s room, with nothing to do.

It’s not every day that I get left alone in the bedroom of an attractive teenage boy, at least as far as I can remember, and whilst some girls might get the urge to snoop through all the drawers and closets, this really didn’t appeal to me, especially as the teenage boy was my cousin and no doubt all I’d find would be the usual; dirty pairs of socks stuffed under his bed.

I considered reading Alpha’s book, but I remembered the terrible title and decided against this.

I looked at Alpha’s motionless form draped over the bed and went back over to sit next to him. I covered him up with a blanket, and then sat back against the pillows to wait for Uncle Henri to return.

As I sat there, it occurred to me that it was strangely ironic – the first day I woke up in the house following the accident, it had been Alpha that had sat with me, while I was poorly, and now I was sitting next to him. I knew that it wasn’t exactly in the same sort of circumstances as unlike mine, Alpha’s sickness was self-inflicted, but I didn’t think it really mattered. It was just nice to feel like I belonged. This family might be fractured, in places, but it was mine and I really liked being part of it.

It was the last thing I remember thinking, before I drifted to sleep…

I awoke with a start; the sun was shining brightly through the gaps in the heavy curtains. At first, I couldn’t remember what I was doing in Alpha’s bedroom, and then it all came back to me.

Alpha was still asleep, exactly as I had left him, on the other side of the bed; he was sleeping with his mouth slightly open and dribbling onto his pillow.

I got off the bed and attempted to sneak out of the room, trying not to disturb him, but as I did so, I walked into the bedside table, knocking the water jug over; there was a crash as the jug hit the floor and I cursed loudly. I’m not sure why I was worried about waking Alpha though, he was sleeping like the dead. Uncle Henri was another matter.

“Good gods girl, what are you doing!” I heard a voice groan wearily from the direction of the large sofa, as my uncle stretched slowly and stood up. I jumped in surprise, I had not realized until now that Henri had been sleeping there all night; he must have fallen asleep, whilst waiting for me to wake up.