Re-Arranged

Chapter Six

One, two, three... eleven and twelve.

Sawyer brought his second foot to the landing and the counting in his head came to a halt. Little height on each stair, but only twelve of them. He eyed the door to his right, slightly ajar. The room on the other side of it had undergone some form of battle where the weapons had supposedly been water balloons. Or, they had left a tap open in the bathroom and had not yet noticed.

He shifted his gaze to the front and nearly did a double take. He grabbed the end of the banister before he could lose his footing.

Who kept such a horrendous picture enlarged and at such a place that could send people tumbling back down the stairs, resulting in unintended manslaughter case on their hands? What kind of weird ass clowns were his cousins?

Kelly returned to his side, followed his gaze, and chuckled. "That was a wedding gift."

Perhaps "weird ass clowns" was putting it too mildly.

Sawyer eyed her ridiculously and said, "You might want to box it up and store it away. You'd make someone have a serious accident keeping it here."

"What? Accident?" his cousin repeated in disbelief.

He rolled his eyes and pushed past her, only to stop a couple steps to the left and ask, "So? Where's the room?" If they did kill someone with their misplaced sense of humour, that was their business. He need not be bothered by it. If at all it came down to it, he would attest how he lost his own footing thanks to the bizarre photo.

Kelly glanced at him with an unreadable expression before pointing behind him and leading the way once more.

Freaks, the lot of his cousins this side of the family were. They acted like everything in the world was rainbows and unicorns, and yes, it was as cliché as they were. Cushioned lives, happy family lives, those things taught none of them of the real world struggles. Ignorance really was bliss with them.

And he disliked every one of them.

Not that it made any difference to anyone in his life. He was the brand ambassador of a brooding sapling who hated everything and everyone in their eyes.

"Sawyer? Sawyer?"

He blinked until his eyes drew into focus at Kelly, her head cocked to one side. She stood just inside a room, its door opened inwards, her hand resting on the doorknob.

Squares of sunlight reflected on the floor of the room and morphed shapes as the curtains shivered from an afternoon breeze. The walls were empty, coloured in some shade of yellow; he would categorise it under mustard, but he could not be sure. The floor had a different pattern impressed into the marble from the other bedroom he had peeked into, and unlike there, it was dry here. A cupboard, in-wall cupboard and shelves, a desk and an accompanying chair, and a single bed filled up the room. His bags had been placed beside the cupboard.

More importantly, it had three separate plug points.

"Well, um... unpack and get freshened up if you want to. The common bathroom is down the hall. And if you want to take a nap, that's okay too."

The awkwardness pouring out of her voice amused him. He smirked without turning as he fetched a charger from his backpack and plugged it into the socket above the desk. "Sure, cousin."

"Is there anything else you need? What about the food? Do you dislike eating anything or are allergic to anything? And –"

"Please" – he wheeled around sharply, his eyes narrowed and his hand stretched out, palm held out – "stop acting like you care about me. I know you are stuck with me, and I know you don't like me, so let's just cut to the chase." His lips twisted up in one corner as he added, "Besides, you've got nothing in it to gain to pretend to be nice to me, have you?"