Beautiful Bedlam (12 page)

“Can we play some music?” she asked as they stopped at the stop sign. She moved her hand towards the radio but he quickly grabbed it.

“Don’t even think about it.” he chuckled with a smirk on his chiseled handsome face.

“Oh come on! We haven’t done it in years! Nobody’s around! And I know you still know all the words!” she pled trying her luck with the big doe eyes again. It didn’t work a second time. 

“No way in hell.” He chuckled and sat back in his seat with a smile. Instead he looked out of the window. Haven Falls was a beautiful small town of no more than a couple hundred people. There was exactly one high school, one junior high school, one elementary school, one church, one theatre, one park; one of everything and that was it. The town had a lot of land though, spreading acres and acres of greenery, filled with streams and was bordered by the woods. The houses here were almost identical with their white picket fences, rosebushes, and porches surrounding the homes. He had missed it here. He had missed home. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed her til he saw jump out from under the table like a wild feral rabbit. “So are we going to talk about before?” she asked quietly with her eyes on the road.

“You know when we-“

“Played Heart and Soul on the piano like two cheese puffs? You take that with you to the grave Miss Rivers. I won’t have my reputation tarnished that I’m a big sap who plays piano duets to get his best friend to forgive him,” he said playfully purposefully throwing that word in there.
Friend
. Sienna hoped she kept her face cool and passive and didn’t show even a morsel of the crushed disappointment she felt inside.

“You understand don’t you?” he said softly. She did. Oh boy, did she understand. She had been friend zoned by the only boy she had ever loved and couldn’t even run away and hide and cry because she was trapped inside his car with him. So she did what any other girl would have done. She burst out in to peals of sheer unadulterated hysterical laughter.

“You are such a coward!” she cackled and wiped her tears of masked pain, which he mistook for joy or amusement.

“What?” he asked disconcertedly.

“Come on, we had one weird awkward moment where nothing even happened. What do you think of yourself Casanova? That you’ll break my heart? I was serious back there, a Mr. potato head is more of a turn on for me than you are.” She said shaking her head then put her loose strands of hair behind her ear. The sunlight hit her at that exact moment, her green eyes glistened and gleamed, her glossy brunette hair shone, and her olive skin tone glowed golden. He frowned at her statement. Surely, he must have had
some
effect on her.

“That’s overstating it a little don’t you-“
“You’re like Quasimodo meets Shrek-“

“FINE! WE’LL DO THE DAMN SONG!” he yelled and jabbed at some buttons on the car radio stereo system. The familiar sound of Freddie Mercury singing Queen’s hit record “Under Pressure” started in the car. She grinned at him. They had sung this at a recital in the fifth grade, since then they had both discovered a secret affinity for 80’s rock bands and had at every given opportunity alone been singing along ever since.

“Last time!” he chided with a wicked smile letting her know that it most certainly wasn’t!

“Um boom ba bay. Ba ba boom ba be be” He started singing in a low deep voice. She sang David Bowie’s parts whereas he took Freddie Mercury’s just like they always had. The wind was blowing against her hair and she suddenly felt so oddly free and liberated.

“Pressure! Pushing down on me! Pressing down on you! No man ask for! Under pressure! That burns a building down! Splits a family in two. Puts people on streets.” She sang and laughed putting her hands in the air. He grabbed the steering wheel quickly shocked and exhilarated by her crazy impulsively joyous mood.

“Um ba ba be. um baba be. Eh day da. Eh day da. That’s okay!” he sang perfectly.

“We haven’t done in this in so long!” she threw her head back and laughed.

“Sienna, are you all right?” he asked amusedly.

“Yes! I’m fine! I’ve never been better! I feel so, so good? I feel good, Logan! I’m so- wait! Its our favorite part!” she said quickly.

“Your favorite part!” he corrected as he put his feet up against the dashboard.

“Sing with me, Logan!” she plead and squeezed his hand.
“Whoa eyes on the road! Why couldn’t we have at least done some Bon Jovi? Or AC/DC?” he asked dismally.

“Come on, Logan!” she asked with a hundred watt white beaming smile already knowing that she had won.

“Don’t say I don’t love you.” He sighed and turned up the music and joined in with full enthusiasm.

“’Cause love’s such an old faaashioned wooord and love dares you to care foor the peeeople on the edge of the night and love dares you to change our way of caaaring about ourselves, thiiis is our laaast dance! This our last dance! This is ourselves!” 

The chorus continued but the duo had lost their ecstatic grins and smiles and had lost themselves in each other’s intimate gazes. Sienna’s heart raced in that usual way when he looked at her like that. She felt as though someone had just stabbed her in the heart with an injection full of adrenaline.

Sienna saw something in the corner of her eye and quickly reverted her attention back on to the road and shrieked as she saw a figure jump out in front of the car. She slammed her foot on the brakes just as a slim dark-haired girl hit the car; her body rolled on to the windscreen smashing shards of glass and smatterings of blood all over her and Logan then slammed on to the floor dead.
 

9.

Sienna kept her eyes screwed shut with her arms over her head as she shrieked. Her screams were of the inordinate high-pitched bloodcurdling over the top helpless teenaged girl running away from the grim reaper in a Scream movie variety.

“Sienna! Stop!” Logan yelled and shook her slightly. She was beginning to freak him out a little. “SIENNA!” he yelled and grabbed her arms away from her face.

“Calm down.” He said softly as she whimpered and looked around confusedly at the empty road. The windscreen was perfectly intact. She looked at her arms that were free of blood and glass. Finally, she looked bewilderedly at Logan who was staring at her as if he was trapped in a car with an Arkham Asylum escapee although he tried to show he wasn’t so alarmed. Sienna quickly whipped off her seatbelt, got out of the car and ran out in front of it to see the clear tarmac free of any dead bodies. Logan immediately followed suit.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly as he gazed at her with a pensive look in those enigmatic dark eyes.

“I thought I hit a-“

“Hit a what?” he asked gently suddenly intrigued by her answer. She had just opened her mouth to answer but her reason and logic quickly kicked in before the words could spew out before she could take them back. What could she say that wouldn’t make her seem insane? She couldn’t exactly tell him that she could have sworn she had just run over herself, or at least a girl who looked exactly like her. Sienna only saw her for the slightest second but she recognized those feral feline green eyes anywhere.

“A bird.” She gulped. They both knew she was lying but he didn’t push her on it thankfully. “I must be pretty dehydrated after that work out, plus I didn’t get much sleep.” She said airily shaking it off. “I’m sorry if I freaked you out.” She said warily and tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. Her cheeks burned again with humiliation. She must have broken a new record for blushing so damn much in the same day and she knew just who to blame. She could barely look him in the eyes.

“It takes a lot more than a bird to freak out Logan Jackson.” He gave her a small smile, a reassuring wink and touched her lower back for the briefest moment that seemed to have generated a current of the most magical electrical energy all the way up and done her spine as he walked past her to switch seats. Her heart raced now for a completely different reason; the antithesis of fear, her own personal nemesis,
hope
.  The ride back home was quiet. Neither music nor conversation flowed, just that new unfamiliar electric tension that passed back and forth between them whenever one of them would dare glance the other’s way.

“Home, sweet home.” he remarked as he pulled up outside her home. She sat still in her seat, unmoving, just staring out at her home. She didn’t want to go back inside. Sienna looked at Logan and felt her heart thrum and twang as if someone were pulling at the strings of her soul; playing a song she didn’t quite understand the lyrics to yet.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked uncertainly. His eyes lingered on her a little more than usual and Sienna had the innate feeling that she wasn’t the only one stalling for some more time to spend with the other person. Surely he must have felt that connection too? Maybe it was all in her head just like the so-called accident.

“No, I should probably let you sleep.” He replied hesitantly after a prolonged pause.

“I don’t sleep in the day. It’s some weird Dracula complex. Can’t rest when the sun’s still up.” she explained and looked back at the house.

“Besides, imagine the look of derision on my mother’s face when she sees your mustang, leather jacket and overall blatant sense of disregard for women.”

“I have respect for women. Some of my best friends are female.” He said in a mock outrage. His eyes flicked over her lithe ladylike body quickly.

“Well, last time I checked.” He added with a mischievous grin. She just laughed slightly and shook her head slightly. Most girls would have instantly been breaking out the notepads and scrawling Mrs. Jackson all over but Sienna knew Logan was like this with everybody. He flirted with literally any and every girl. She wondered of he even knew he was doing it. It was just his way of communicating with the opposite sex. He oozed self confidence, wealth and sensuality and girls flocked to him because of it.

“Tempting. Come on, Bert, let’s go say hi to good old mom.” He said with a wicked smirk as they got out of the car.

“Oh come on, I’m Ernie!” she refuted.

“Sure.” he chuckled as she rifled through her backpack for her keys. She eventually found them and unlocked the front door.

“God, I haven’t been to your house in so long!” he said looking at her warmly, following her in to the house. It really was strange. She spent so many afternoons and summers as a child playing with Logan in her yard, or in her living room playing on the Xbox and even in her bedroom playing card games.

“Honey, are you home?” she heard her mom call, whilst coming over to the foyer. She was surprisingly in a good mood.
She must be hitting the Rosé again
, Sienna thought dryly. Maria’s smile faltered marginally when she saw Logan.

“Logan! I haven’t seen you in years. Look at how tall and big you’ve grown!” she cooed with a strained smile, her accent seeping through her almost perfect English. Sienna knew underlying that sweet tone was prejudice. She looked at Logan’s black leather jacket and dark jeans and black Timberlands and his mustang disapprovingly.

“Hello, Mrs. Rivers, you haven’t aged a day.” He smiled at her handsomely and kissed her hand. She smiled back at him taken aback by his charm. She looked at Sienna worryingly. “I didn’t know your family were back in town.” She said with a rather anxious look on her beautiful face.

“How is everyone? Your family? Your parents? Your father?” she asked and took a gulp from her wineglass.

“Everyone’s fine. We’re all fine. My parents are actually thinking of getting their wedding vows renewed soon.” He retorted and stared pensively at Maria Rivers, who glanced away probably because she couldn’t stand the thought of someone else’s seemingly perfect marriage in comparison to her crumbling one. Or that’s how Sienna perceived her mother’s crestfallen reaction.

“Oh my god, that’s so sweet.” Sienna remarked. His parents were everything hers weren’t, stable and loving.

“Sienna! Where are your clothes?” her mother gasped suddenly as she took in her daughter’s long athletic bare legs on display.

“I had cheerleading tryouts.” Sienna gulped and blushed.

“
You?”
Maria retorted bewilderedly.

“I know right.” Logan added humorously with a smirk.

“Aren’t you the president of the chess club?” Maria asked with a frown.

“Oh my god! That was the sixth grade! When will the both of you ever let it go?”

“Never.” Logan chuckled taking great amusement in her displeasure.

“I can’t believe Sienna fell down the stairs and hit her eye.” Logan said innocently after a pause, the mock shock evident in his voice.

“That’s what I always say! She has to watch where she is going!” her mother quickly replied before Sienna could say anything.
Crap
. She winced slightly as her lies unraveled.

“Tell me, Mrs. Rivers. Is Mr. Rivers home? I was hoping he and I could have a quick conversation outside?” he inquired quietly in an ever so polite and eloquent way that seemed to startle and put Sienna on edge. He had the face of an angel but the intentions of the devil. There was an immeasurable darkness to him that Sienna only saw in glimpses, from time to time, he let that wall down and some of that danger seeped out.

“We’ve just got some chemistry homework, so we’ll be in my room.” Sienna quickly said before she could be forced to endure her mother lying about her father’s whereabouts or witness Logan’s seething resentment towards her innocent father. She pulled Logan by the crook of his elbow before he could say or do anything stupid. They quickly retreated up the staircase and in to her bedroom.

“Leave the door open!” her mom called after them, her false cheery voice wavering slightly. 

“Your room’s still the same.” He noted while jumping on her bed, looking strangely comfortable there despite his limbs being far too long for her small single bed. “Where’s Annie?” he asked with his hands behind his head.