Beautiful Bedlam (18 page)

“Besides, everybody knows you two are…whatever.” He added quickly unable to resist. “That we’re what? Go on say whatever you were going to say.” she told him brazenly.

“Don’t get mad at me. It’s just what I’ve heard. That you two are-“

“Dating? Believe me that is not true. Rose already told me about that one. Honestly, who even believes these rumors?” Sienna asked exasperatedly.

“Its high school, so I’m going to go with pretty much everyone. Wait…she only told you about the dating rumor?” he asked with a wince. Sienna felt her heart sink when she saw the look of worry on his face.

“Wait…what other ones are there?” she asked.

“I, I don’t even believe them.” He replied hesitantly. He wanted to let the topic go but he knew she’d never let him.

“That your mom is an alcoholic. That your dad left you guys. And the other rumors aren’t quite as nice.” He said quietly. Sienna seemed to be taking it all in pretty well. Her face remained cold and impassive as she inquired for more realizing that Noah was shielding her from the worst of it all.

“It gets worse?”

“Well, people are saying that you and Logan…you know…fornicate a lot. And I mean a lot and you do it everywhere.” He said his face turning bright red.

“Fornicate? What are we in biblical times?” she retorted satirically with a scowl.

“And that he…sometimes…pays you.” He gulped quickly.

“
WHAT?
” she practically shouted in shock.

“That rumor nobody believes though!” Noah immediately exclaimed. That had to have been the stupidest rumor on earth.
Who could be cruel enough to spread such a malicious lie?
“Who spreads these rumors? Who did you hear it from? Tell me!” she commanded intensely.

“I heard it from Melanie in woodshop, she heard it from Becca who probably heard it from-“

“Bethany.” Sienna said her name in a low ferocious whisper.

“That’s how Rose knew. It all makes sense now.” she said in a slow hushed murmur to herself. It always baffled her why more and more guys kept asking her for her number this year and the infuriating way they stared at her and the way they completely distanced themselves from her when Logan was around.

“I’m gonna kill her.” She growled menacingly and stormed off in a rush towards her.

“Sienna, don’t!” Noah yelled and scrambled after her. Logan had been silently watching Sienna all day now. Idly stealing glances here and there being careful and discrete in his affection and admiration for her. He lurched up from his chair and stood rather emphatically as he saw her approach him.

“Hey,” he said rather breathlessly as if he had just run a mile and not having sat miserably in a chair for the last half hour. She didn’t even glance his way and instead dragged a chair, scraping it across the hard surface floor and sat inches in front of Bethany Simmons. He didn’t know what was worse having her scream at him or her not even acknowledging and disregarding his entire existence? He believed it to be the latter.

“What do you want, freak? Actually, its McKenna, isn’t it? I heard you-“

“Shut up.” Sienna hissed menacingly as she glared at Bethany. She gasped at Sienna’s response. Her lips turned up in a scowl, the same face she made whenever she would throw her toys out of the sandbox in kindergarten.

“You shut up!” she snarled and gasped some more, her over-glossed mouth open like a gob smacked mentally deficient goldfish.

“If I hear you spread one, just
one
more lie about me-“

“You’ll what?” she asked adamantly and cackled. She looked around at her friends who all looked on completely engrossed in to the drama like middle-aged women watching a Real Housewives show.

“You’ll what? What will soft innocent nerdy little Sienna do…to
me
?” she said slowly, her voice imitating a baby, a voice that sounded nothing like Sienna but baffled her no less.

“Beth.” Logan said in a low ominous voice clearly warning her not to start something.

“Oh look, its prince charming. Come to save the day.” She retorted acerbically and squinted her eyes at him and then at Sienna with her jaws clenched firmly shut.
Oh my god, is Bethany Simmons jealous of me? That makes no sense!

“Logan, go away.” Sienna told him quietly not taking her eyes off Bethany who leaned forward, her mouth turned upwards in a twisted smile.

“You may think that you’re better than me, that you’re smarter than me, that you’re prettier than me. Wrong! At least I’m not some dumb girl who hides behind a guy all her life waiting for him to save me.” She said bitingly and stood up towering over Sienna with her arms crossed over her chest. Sienna’s fingers slowly crawled in to a tightly clenched fist. She stood up slowly, her entire body shaking with anger.

“Oh yes! It’s finally happening!” She heard Trent squeal with joy amongst his other friends.

“Do it. Oh, I
dare
you. My mom is the head of the PTA board. I’ll have you out of this school by the end of lunch break. Then we’ll see how you get a scholarship to college. We all know you need one! You can’t touch me.
Nobody
can. I run this school.” She said grinning ear to ear, her eyes manic, and her voice airily light yet her words purveyed threat and were laced with menace. She glanced around at the many faces in the cafeteria almost as a warning threat to all of them. Damn, this girl let power even miniscule mean popular girl power get to her head.

“She’s not worth it, Sienna. Let’s go.” Noah said concernedly and looked at her imploringly. She sighed and succumbed to the saner voice in her head telling her to leave even though for once Sienna wanted to be the cool impulsive kid and just knock Bethany’s lights out and wipe that arrogant smile off that ridiculously pore-free face.

“Yeah Sienna, go. Go run and hide behind some other poor idiot. But I thought it was the other way around with you two. I thought
he
was the lapdog?” she snickered causing a few people to laugh as if they were all in on some inside joke.

“He’s right. You’re not worth it. My only advice to you is to stop lying and get a life before your ugliness in here catches up to you out here and judging by the look of those pores, I’d say its already spreading.” Sienna said and pointed to her heart then to her face. She said this with a small smile and shook her head at her almost pityingly before walking towards Noah who awaited her with a beaming proud smile.

“Oh yeah, if I’m a liar then how come we all saw your mom wandering the hallway drunk off her ass?” Bethany shouted before Sienna could walk out. Sienna froze in her steps. She couldn’t just walk out now.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” She replied adamantly as if it were the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard whilst inside panicking wondering how everyone knew. She stared at Logan with her heart hammering against her ribcage.
Would he really tell anybody? Beth, of all people? Maybe he told her in a moment of weakness or when he was mad at me? Maybe it’s my fault-

“Oh really? What about the fact that your dad
abandoned
you?” Beth said and laughed. She expected everybody to laugh along with her but they only looked slightly uneasy and uncomfortable, not that she noticed or cared. Even Trent O’Connell scratched his head and leaned back in his chair no longer whooping and rubbing his hands together in anticipation for the hottest catfight Haven Falls was ever going to see. Bethany then went and sat on her table and began playing with the pompoms in her hands.
Rose’s
pompoms.

“You told everybody?” she asked her quietly, her voice barely an octave above a whisper. Rose’s pretty face was riddled with guilt. She stood up abruptly as if to say something. She was still dressed in her yellow cheerleading costume…that she must have worked so hard for.

“Sienna…” she gulped out but seemed at a loss for words.

“Who’s the liar now?” Bethany cooed and threw the pompoms in the air and caught them gleefully.

“And don’t even get me started on
you
and Logan-“

Sienna moved towards her so quickly it was nothing short of a miracle that Logan between them so fast before he hauled her out in to the hallway.

“You should have just let me sock her in the face!” Sienna screamed before he pulled her in to an empty nearby classroom.

“And what? Have you sent to Sharpe’s office twice in one day? She already wants your head on a silver platter!” he yelled back at her.

“How do you know about that?” she asked through her deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. “It doesn’t matter.” He replied swiftly and ran his fingers through his hair just as Noah came in.

“I hate her! I want to take a note out of George R R Martin’s book and squash her eyes out and smash her head in!” Sienna growled and emphasized her point using the skull of the white plastic skeleton in the biology classroom.

“Whoa! Spoiler alert! You damn book readers have no respect!” Logan yelled and put his fingers in his ears.

“Okay, I don’t understand any of these references and why are you so angry at Beth? You should be more angry at Rose!” Noah retorted angrily, feeling betrayed by Rose on her part.

“Why am I angry at Beth? Weren’t you in the same room?” she retorted sardonically.

“But Rose is the one who blabbed everything.” Logan interjected bluntly.

“Because I can’t! Because if I blame her, if I allow myself to hate her, then its just one less person in my life that I don’t have…and in case you haven’t realized I’m not exactly Miss Congeniality.” She sighed and looked so beautifully young and vulnerable all of a sudden.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so mad.” Logan commented with a hint of wry amusement. Noah couldn’t help but smile although he tried his best to hide it.

“I can get angry! I get angry all the time!” she exclaimed fervently appalled by their coherent attempts to hold back muffled chuckles.

“Sure, lets just get to class before you hurt anymore skeletons.” Noah said amusedly.

“I can totally hulk out. I just choose not to!” She replied furiously and blew the loose strands of hair away from her face. Logan couldn’t help but notice how cute she was when she was angry.

“Okay.” Logan replied and gently rubbed his nose for a moment
. The nostril dig!

“I am not lying. I can be mad! Look!” she said and looked around frantically and slowly and ever so hesitantly edged a couple of textbooks off the counter and cringed as they thudded on to the floor just as Mr. Norfolk the old loveable biology teacher walked in.

“Miss Rivers!” he cried in shock and adjusted his glasses just to be sure it was her.

“Oh, sorry. Let me just…fix that.” She muttered and scampered over and picked them up. “It was an accident.” She lied and quickly ran out of the class after Logan and Noah who had already burst out laughing in the corridor just as the bell rang.

“
Haha
. Hilarious. Laugh it up boys.” She said sarcastically with her hands on her hips. “I’ve got to go. Should I give you a ride home after school now that you and Rose are…you know…fighting?” Noah offered hopefully.

“I’ll take her.” Logan said immediately without missing a beat and glared at Noah then looked at her giving her the full extent of his smoldering dark eyes and sexy smirk that rendered her mind completely blank for a short moment.

“I always take you.” He said softly, his velvet voice melted and thawed away at the fist-sized pound of ice pumping away in her chest cavity.
Dammit! He’s doing it again.

“You know what? I’ll just walk. I haven’t done that in a while.” She said warily.

“Sienna, its really windy and cold out today.” Noah said and looked at her again imploringly. What on earth was going on? What was today opposite day? She wondered which one of them would be the first to pee on her and mark his territory? This was just beyond weird.

“Then I’ll take the bus!” she exclaimed exasperatedly and quickly left and avoided the boys for the rest of the school day which was by no means an easy feat.

Dinner at the Rivers household was absurdly familial and false all at the same time. The stench of repressed home truths and ignorance suffocated Sienna. She took a large gulp of her water to help her swallow the emotions down as she took in the scene before her.

Her father had come home jovial and even sun kissed as if he had just come back from the Bahamas and not the North Pole thus damaging the desired loveable Father Christmas image he was trying to purvey. He had returned with a bag full of random ridiculous souvenirs from New York, ones you’d find in any souvenir shop all up and down the coast. Sienna figured her parents must have had some form of contact to at least get his cover story straight. Annabelle of course didn’t suspect a thing and was overjoyed by his return. Meredith as always brandished her many academic achievements rather desperately in an attempt to win her father’s love, attention and heck even acknowledgement. He merely smiled at her from time to time with a small smile as he took a swallowed a piece of his steak. It was quite sad, really. Cora, the poor thing had never been the brightest spark as a child. She tended to use her fists instead of her mind but it seemed to work for her seeing as their father paid her a lot more attention out of the twins. She, like any other child seemed to slurp up his lies even though the truth was painfully obvious. Especially given the fact that Sienna could see the shape of his wedding ring carefully tucked in his breast pocket.

Her mother of course had to have been the icing on the proverbial cake of false portrayals. She wore her pearl earrings, her ivory colored dress, a big smile and no liquor on her breath. She near her estranged husband looking at her children almost proudly as if they were the Kennedys and not the even more messed up Rivers.