Beautiful Bedlam (19 page)

“Hey kid, you’ve barely touched your meat. Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian again.” He said jokily as he looked over at Sienna. Two months. He was gone for almost two months and those were the words he chose to impart unto his daughter? She had imagined him coming home countless times, late at night when she couldn’t sleep. Some nights that’s all she thought of, that he’d come home, suitcase in tow and apologize to them all. Instead the family had conjointly decided to forget the night of his departure and pretend as if he had never left. Somehow she had thought his arrival would fix everything, that her mother would stop drinking, that Meredith would stop lording her self-worth over everyone, that it would somehow give Cora any sense of human decency, hell, even a sense of humor or a moral compass and that it would take away Annabelle’s spoilt bratty attitude or even Sienna’s cynicism and depression but it didn’t because all of those problems still existed before he left and only worsened and amplified to the nth degree in his absence.

“Hey yourself stranger. And Meredith was the one who went vegan for a week.” Sienna replied back drolly her eyes fixated on the clock behind his head. It was Logan’s birthday party. She wondered if Bethany Simmons would hit on him just to get back at her. It was no secret she had been obsessing over him since he came back to town.

“Worst week of my life.” Meredith muttered with disdain and shuddered.

“Oh right. I knew it was one of you girls.” He chuckled hoarsely.
Who else could it be?

“So…what did I miss whilst I was gone?” he asked jovially. The girls all froze with tight smiles plastered on their faces none of them blinking each giving the other their best poker face and stink eye seeing who would falter first.

“Sienna got called in to the Principal’s office today!” Meredith blurted out suddenly.

“Yeah dad! Sienna’s been failing in class and fighting with her teacher!” Cora shouted and looked at her with a look of contempt and disgust.

“What is your problem?” Sienna shouted back at her and threw her napkin at her.
“Is this true?” her father asked angrily.

“And she stays awake all night doing god knows what.” Her mother added as her fingers gently grazed the wine bottle. Her façade of a doting mother and matron of sobriety was quickly wearing off.

“And she never does anything at home. It’s not fair. We have to do everything-“

“You’re never even at home!”

“Sienna! That’s enough out of you.” Phillip Rivers growled and slammed his fist down hard against the dinner table causing some of the cutlery to clatter on to the floor shutting her up immediately.

“Why didn’t I know about this? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked Maria softly. The poor fool was clearly still so besotted with her. He had no idea that she hadn’t loved him for years.

“It wasn’t that bad until now.” she replied exasperatedly and gave in to her desires and took a swig straight from the wine bottle not bothering with a glass.

“From now on, no more secrets.” He warned. Sienna’s heart was suddenly enraptured with building and rising rage that was choking her from the inside out. Who did he think he was? He’d all but upped and left in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye and expected to be welcomed back with wide arms and a stupid dinner and hugs? That might work on the twins and Annabelle and even her alcoholic definitely sociopathic mother but it didn’t for her. No way. 

“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Sienna muttered under her breath.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked stringently straight away. Sienna glared at him for a moment and cocked her head to the side not breaking eye contact, not for one second.

“Principal Sharpe and I had a very interesting conversation today. She told me-“

“Not here.” he reproached and shot a glance at Annie.

“What is she talking about?” Meredith asked picking up on the weird tension especially the way their father suddenly shrunk in his chair and began sweating bullets. “You know full well what I’m talking about. Think about it, Mare, put that college degree to use.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Annie go get ready for bed now.” Sienna said suddenly.

“Can I watch TV?” she asked meekly and ran away before she could get an answer. She switched it on. She fought with the buttons on the remote trying to change the channel but it was stuck on the news.  Logan’s father soon to be Senator Robert Jackson was on giving a speech about his senatorial candidacy. She could see his handsome face from the corner of her eye reminding her of her promise to go to Logan’s birthday party.

“Can I be excused? I have to go somewhere tonight. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“No way. It’s a school night.” Meredith said sternly.

“But I’ll be back before ten. I promise!” she said and stood up quickly.

“Where? With who?” Cora barked out.

“Just…Rose, we have a school project due in.” Sienna lied shamefully.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Phil scolded as if he were disappointed she weren’t a better one.

“Yeah well, we’re not all like you.” She heard herself spit out much to her shock.

“Go to your room now! You’re grounded indefinitely!” he yelled. Sienna’s mouth fell open in protest but the words didn’t come out. The injustice of it all smothered her vocal cords! She turned to leave but came hurtling back when she found her spite.

“Yeah, well you know what dad? Seeing as we’re all sharing secrets. Mom’s an alcoholic, Cora smokes pot, Annie’s failing Math and Meredith isn’t a virgin!”

“
Oh
!” Meredith gasped and stood up and threw a bread roll at her. She looked like she wanted to murder her. Thankfully Sienna was on the other side of the table poised perfectly to either stab her with her weapon of choice, a fork of course, or run for the hills.

“Its not pot! They were just my herbs…for my tea!” Cora refuted tentatively. Her brown eyes shifted shadily from side to side comically almost like a cartoon character.

“Alcoholic? How dare you talk to your mother that way? Do you see how rude she is? I blame that boy!” Meredith cried out furiously.

“Don’t believe a word that comes out of Logan Jackson’s mouth! He and his brother are just… dad, aren’t you going to ground her or something?” she stuttered red-faced.
What on earth was she talking about?

“What boy? Boys. Oh God, there’s boys involved too?” he yelled with his head in his hands.

“No! There are no boys! She’s deflecting!” Sienna shouted back and threw a bread roll back at her, which bounced off her sister’s head.

“Logan Jackson? I always liked that kid. Wait a minute. Oh God no.” he paused and looked at Maria who looked ahead over at Annie, her eyes glazed over and distant, her face wet with tears. How did they not notice her silent…or even crying? This was so unlike her.

“You’re kidding me. She’s dating
him?
That’s disgusting! How could you let this happen?” he bellowed at her but she didn’t even look up. She just clenched her eyes shut and started gulping and gulping.

“Oh you make me sick, you know that?” he said despicably and knocked the bottle out of her hands.
Hmm, maybe he did know about her drinking problem?

“Why are you all fighting?” Annie cried ran up the stairs sobbing all of a sudden just when the doorbell rang.
Oh for the love of God
!

“Oh Annabelle!” Meredith yelled whilst her mother still sat there in her seat her eyes fixated to where Annie had stood before, still crying and muttering to herself incorrigibly in Spanish and drinking heavily. Cora continued to wolf down her steak without a care I the world and just rolled her eyes at the bedlam surrounding her. The doorbell rang again.

“I’ll get the door.” Sienna grumbled and leapt towards the front door hastily.

“No you’re not! You’re not going anywhere!” he yelled and held on to wrist.

“What are you my father now?” she retorted bitingly and tried to pry herself out of hid death grip. He dug his fingers deep in to her little arm and twisted it slightly as if to remind her who really had the power in this house and to put her in her place. The more he yanked and pulled at her, the closer her free hand got to the doorknob.

“Dad, stop it. Sienna just leave it!” Meredith shouted worriedly as if Sienna were the one yanking at his wrist.

“Ow! Dad you’re hurting me. Let go of me. Let go of me!” Sienna yelled just as she pulled the front door open revealing the last person she could have ever expected standing there.

“Logan.” she gasped just as her father quickly let go of her his face bright red from embarrassment.

15.

She wondered how he was going to talk himself out of this one. The wind was blowing severely outside quite literally howling and bellowing along with the pouring rain that drenched everything in its path including Logan, his ink black hair was completely soaked causing perfect droplets of water to gleam and glisten down his handsome sculptured face. His fiery black eyes flicked from the pain in Sienna’s exquisite emerald eyes to the way she winced and held her wrist and then finally to the cowering coward of a man who thought it was okay to hurt a girl. Sienna took one glance at his face and her heart lurched up in fright because she knew what that stormy look meant.

“No!” she tried to scream but it came out rather as a whimper just as Logan lifted his right arm up and swung with all his force landing a blow right in to her father’s nose.

“Ah!” Mr. Rivers let out a cry as he was sent hurtling on to the floor all the way to the foot of the staircase. His face was a bloody mess from just the one blow. Meredith screamed and ran towards him whilst Sienna ran straight in to Logan.

“Logan, what are you doing? What did you just do?” she asked in a shocked terrified whisper.

“Something I should have done a long time ago. Let’s go.” He said quickly and put his arm around her leading her out on to the porch.

“Are you crazy? I can’t…I can’t just go with you!” she exclaimed warily and looked back at her father who struggled to get up from the floor. The rain poured down on her like the mixture of misery and terror she felt inside.

“I’m calling the police!” Mr. Rivers snarled and took out his cellphone.

“You can’t! No you can’t! You promised remember?” her mother yelled just as she came running to him, pleading with him.

“What the hell is going on?” Cora asked with her cutlery in her hands, still chewing her piece of meat.

“I think my nose is broken.” He winced as blood continued to gush forth out of his like a stream all the way down his shirt.

“Get the hell of my property and you stay the hell away from my family. Do you hear me!” he yelled angrily, he was humiliated and frustrated that on his first day back he was made to look like a simpering man-child after taking a beating from an overgrown steroid-induced child in front of the wife he was trying so desperately to win back.

“Logan you have to go.” Sienna told him swiftly in a panic.

“Sienna,” he said softly and simply with his hand extended out to her as if he had the answer to all of her questions, as if it were so easy.

Her teeth chattered in the cold, her entire body trembled she didn’t know if it was because of the rain or because of the cocktail of emotions that were rushing to the surface. Never had she felt so conflicted before. Part of her just wanted to take that hand, take a chance and run off in the rain with the guy of every teenage girl’s dream but this was not some Nicholas Sparks novel. This was real life and the reality of it all came crashing down on her harder than a ton of bricks and evoked an anger in her that shook her from deep within her core and boiled her blood at the injustice and unfairness of it all.

“GO! Just go!” she screamed and pushed at his chest a little with her uninjured hand as she tried to choke down the sobs that tried to escape her lips. He fell back a step but didn’t take his eyes, those beautiful dark eyes always so warm and tender towards her, continued to gaze lovingly and imploringly in to hers willing her to for once not just choose him, but to choose her over them. And the more he looked at her so somberly and confusedly, the greater the front of outrage she had to put on just to get him away from her. 

“You heard her. Get out! Don’t you ever come back!” her father snarled underneath the mop of napkins that Meredith had retrieved to mop up his blood.

“I don’t get it. Why aren’t we calling the cops?” Cora growled and began dialing on her cellphone. Much to Sienna’s surprise her mother was the one who snatched it out of her hands and told her to shut up. This was just becoming more and more like a series of a most baffling and bewildering events.

“Sienna, come with me. I just want to help-“

“God, Logan!
Help?
Does this look like help?” she looked around and cackled with disturbing and manic look in her eyes. “Since when have you done anything but make things worse! Just leave! How many times do I have to say it? GO!” she hissed as she walked towards his Mustang. He followed her baffled and confused at her response. This was
not
the way he had expected this would go down.

“You want to help? Just…please go. I don’t want your help nor do I need it!” she told him scornfully as she opened his car door for him not even having the guts to look him in the face as she spewed out those hateful words. He exhaled and looked up at her home from the driveway. The front door was already shut, already closed to her like it had always been but she didn’t seem to care. She was too busy kicking the dog out and swatting him away as if he were some pesky fly always inconveniencing her. His jaw set and clenched, his entire body shook with anger as he got in his car and slammed the door causing her to jump a little. He turned the keys in the ignition illuminating the dark with his bright headlights. She stood by with her arms crossed over her chest quivering waiting for him to leave, a part of her praying that he wouldn’t despite her adamant wishes.