The Girl in The Green Scarf

F o u r

CHAPTER FOUR
SEBASTIAN

"I was always attracted not by some quantifiable, external beauty, but by something deep down, something absolute. It's a kind of power that snares people and reels them in."
― Haruki Murakami.

No Wireless Network Connection available.

I snap my laptop shut with a frustrated sigh. Of course there wouldn't be any WIFI  here, I should have known better. It is a wonder they even have phone reception.

I get up, tossing the laptop on the bed. It tumbles and falls on the other side with a crash. Brilliant.

I walk around the bed and pick the laptop off the floor. Its screen is slightly cracked, nothing serious though. I place it on the bed, gently this time, and then head out for the living room.

The hallways are quiet. Alex said he was going to rest in his room, though I am sure he is sneaking around to write that cheesy romance novel of his.

Dad is away at a meeting somewhere. I haven't seen him since I arrived to this dump. Not that I am looking forward to that reunion, it is not like I am here out of my free will.

My family has been residing in this house since I was eleven, but I never called it home. I was away at school most of the time, and even over my breaks I tried not to come here after mum's death.

But now that I was done with school, my father said I should come. And he wasn't asking either. It was as he put it not so nicely, come here or say goodbye to my bank account.

Alex being here just makes it a little bareable. I just wonder why he bothers sticking around at all.

In the living room I pick the remote control off the side table and plop onto the sofa, one leg slinging over the edge. I switch on the wall-length screen, to be faced with a yellow sponge in shorts talking to a pink, deformed starfish.

"Alex," I mumble, shaking my head.

I shuffle through the channels, but find nothing worth watching. Finally I give up, turning off the screen with a heavy sigh.

"Bad TV?" A female voice says.

I sit up straight immediately, looking around to spot someone in the doorway. The lights are off, the curtains closed and the screen which was illuminating the room a second ago isn't any more, so it is hard to make out the features. The figure strides across the room to the light switch and flicks it.

I blink rapidly, my eyes reacting to the light, and then they focus on the person standing beside the switch.

It's a girl. A half-naked girl, that is.

"That obvious, huh?" I ask, rubbing the back of my neck.

Who is this girl, haven't any of the guards seen her get in? I mean how hard is it to notice a girl walking around in nothing but a towel and slippers.

"Well, that sigh was pretty loud," she says in a prominant American accent.

Tucking strands of red wet hair behind her ear, she makes her way towards me, and a smile slowly breaks on her face.

"Excuse me if I interrupted anything," I say, pointing at her towel with a smile of my own.

"Sebastian, I suppose?"

I raise an eyebrow and she half shrugs her tiny shoulder.

"So I'm right, you are the long lost prince." She rests both hands on the back of the sofa, leaning in and whispers, "see you around."