Re-Arranged

Chapter Two

Ben woke up the next day earliest in the house. On a Sunday at the Summers', he did not find it odd. The young ones had woken up in the middle of the night. He could hear them all too clearly from the first floor. He had drifted off again before they did. All that studying had wrung his brain out well and good.

So he was prepared to roam the house alone, get some junk food into his system before the breakfast got set up and race through the channels on the television because they looked better that way than any program on at that time anyway.

All said and done though, he was not prepared to find what he did soon as he turned on the lights in the living room. The heavy curtains across the windows had thus far shaded the area from the brimming sunlight outside. They could not hide the secret anymore.

Darian and Kelly were passed out on the centre table, dishevelled, two empty glasses of wine sporting maroon dots at the bottom.

"And drooling? Really? What happened last night?" Ben scrunched his nose and tread closer very carefully. "There's red wine too! Were they fighting?"

He poked at his aunt's shoulder first, being in closest proximity to her. When she did not stir or make a sound, he moved to his uncle and repeated the process with the same result.

"I'm getting scared now," he murmured, backing away and turning on his heels. He raced to the sliding doors and knocked fervently. "Jeez, who scares a twelve year old like this? I am not cut out for this lifestyle!"

~

They assured Ted they'd think about it and let them know by the next day, bid them good night and sat on the bed, staring at each other.

"So much for the plan of growing old with just the two of us, huh?" Darian punctuated the break in silence with a nervous laugh.

Kelly sighed and shook her head, pressing at the ends of her temples. "I am not cut out for this! ARRGHHH!!"

Her husband stroked her back in silence while she buried her face in her hands. He could hear a horde of generic dialogs to say in such a situation go through his mind, but it was not a simple matter of consolation. Kelly was still Kelly, consolations did not work. Exact solutions worked and exact solutions would not come up unless she told the problem, which she did not.

She had to resolve her problems on her own first. As always.

He heard her inhale a long breath and smiled. "Ready?"

Kelly straightened her back and leaned over to kiss him. "F-ck it, yes."

"Wow, you come back strong."

"Such is life, my darling, such is life." She patted his thigh once and jumped to her feet, stretching her arms over her head.

Behind her, Darian shuddered. "Don't... don't say that. Oh no... did I do something wrong again?"

When his wife turned to face him, her expression was bright, a huge smile plastered over her lips and her voice was cheerful when she spoke. "Not at all. But I am pissed at a whole lot of things right now. And for lack of a better outlet, I'm drinking red wine tonight."

"Seems like the only way I won't be culpable is if I join your strange quest." He stood up and held out his arm. Kelly readily linked hers through it.

"See? I don't have any reason to be mad at you."

"Just... let me get the remote!"

"Sure, my dear sounding board." Kelly slapped him on the back as they walked out of the room and down the stairs. "Ah, I already feel half good!"