Breaking Bedlam (Beautiful Bedlam Book 2) (21 page)

“Something that I am deeply ashamed of. I alone attacked and instigated a physical fight with Bethany Simmons who was walking innocently by, alone, without any of her friends present to her morning classes and I just unashamedly broke her nose. She didn’t even provoke me. I just saw her and me being me, you know,
crazy
. I thought why not break that surgically perfected nose?” Sienna said nonchalantly with feigned remorse causing quite a few laughs to arise from the riveted audience that were her fellow peers and tormenters.

“Miss Rivers!” Sharpe barked and took her glasses off to glare at her.
Uh oh
.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. That came out wrong. It must be my illness. Basically what I am trying to say is that I do
not
condole violence at all and that I am sorry Bethany. I honestly am. It is all my fault.” Sienna said condescendingly and pulled a disgruntled Bethany in to an airtight bear hug. Everyone began clapping clearly amused by her performance.

“Don’t think for a second I forgive you
for the nose or for stealing Logan from me.” Bethany hissed in her ear. “Oh honey, you’re welcome to him.” Sienna hissed back through her fake smile and released her nemesis from her deadly embrace. Sienna turned to leave.

“Oh and Miss Rivers?” Sharpe called. Sienna turned around.

“Isn’t there someone else you’d like to thank? Someone who saved your life?” Sharpe asked with raised eyebrows. Her tone suggested that she wasn’t asking. Sienna froze on the spot. All the thought that were in her head suddenly flew out of her head. She felt her heart rate quicken with shock and fear.

“That’s not necessary.” Logan quickly responded as he noted the sheer look of despair that washed over Sienna’s ashen face.

“Come on.” Sharpe whispered and jerked her head towards the podium. This wasn’t part of the deal. Somehow Sienna dragged her leaden legs and addressed the almost half the population of Haven Falls about her deepest and darkest most private problems.

14
.

“You don’t have to do this.” Logan said as he made his way over to her as an attempt to get her off the stage but she had already made up her mind.

“There is another person whom I yet have to thank, and that person is Logan Jackson.” She said solemnly; her voice echoed throughout the entire gymnasium, the hurt and pain in her voice resonated in the air made manifest to the world. Her cheeks burned with humiliation but that didn’t stop her from continuing.

“He loved me at a time when I didn’t think I deserved any love. He saved me at a time when I needed saving most and for that reason I thank him and that is only one of the reasons we all love Logan Jackson don’t we?” she asked as tears flew down her face. You could literally hear a pin drop in the gymnasium. It was so abnormally quiet. Everyone was stunned silent by Sienna’s sudden confessions. No one was laughing anymore. The atmosphere felt a lot colder all of a sudden. She could see her peers exchanging looks with one another as if to ask whether this was all really happening?

“Sienna, please don’t.“ Logan whispered as he gently tugged her arm. She snatched it away.

“Yeah! Whoop! LJ!” a group of people in the corner of the room yelled. Sienna’s wiped her tear with her sleeve and continued.

“We all
love
Logan because he is kind, strong, confident and because he’s brutally honest and because he is fair and smart and he would
never
lie or cheat.” She professed her anger seeping through marginally. Logan swallowed the guilt that was eating away at him.

“And let’s not forget he’s ridiculously good looking ‘cos he certainly doesn’t!” she retorted causing a lot of people to laugh nervously.

“So I just want to thank you Logan, for making me realize who you
truly
are and I hope one day the entire world realizes just how amazing you truly are too. Logan Jackson everybody!” she called and clapped her hands along with what felt like the rest of the world as she stared in to those black eyes, black like his soul, black like his heart. She wondered how she ever loved such a cruel being before, someone who regularly toyed with her emotions just for laughs, someone who pretended to like her just so he could boast of his latest triumph, someone who ‘saved’ her when she tried to put herself out of her misery.

Logan physically flinched as she gave him walked past him. He had never felt such hatred being emanated from someone who he until recently believed loved and adored him. She hated him. Perhaps beyond repair. The thought made Logan feel sick to his stomach.

“One more quick announcement before you all leave.” Blake’s voice boomed throughout the gymnasium as he quickly appeared before the entire school. Sienna gaped at him confused by the strange expression on his striking face.

“I would just like you all to give a nice warm deserved round of applause and welcome back to Haven Falls’ original best and brightest, someone who has seen far more than most people have seen in their entire adult lives, someone whom you could all learn a lot from Miss Sienna Rivers!” Blake yelled through the microphone causing the entire school to clap and cheer loudly and enthusiastically much to Sienna’s surprise.

It was a pity clap, but it was an acknowledgement of her existence nonetheless. Blake’s amazing piercing ocean blue eyes bore in to her sad green ones washing away some of her pain like the rush of the tide hitting the sand taking away some of the pebbles, shells and debris. Something happened in Sienna’s fragile heart at that very moment, something inside of her flipped. Emotions inside her that she didn’t quite understand swirled within her. She knew it was wrong, that she wasn’t supposed to have those types of feelings for her teacher, but at that very moment Sienna couldn’t help herself.

‘
Thank God for Blake,’
Sienna thought gratefully. He was the one person in her world that restored her faith in humanity. Not everybody was awful and had hidden agendas like Bethany, Sharpe and Logan. Some people were genuinely nice and cared about her. It was past time getting over the loser that was Logan Jackson. She had spent her entire life pining after him just to have him use and abuse her. She marveled at how she hadn’t even noticed Blake standing in the gymnasium all this time but now as he stood tall and handsome up on the podium calling and cheering her name she decided she would certainly start paying more attention to her white knight.

Thankfully the damn pep rally was finally over and Sienna was out of there in a shot. She half jogged half ran to her locker and after wresting with her locker code she threw her books in to her backpack eager to get the hell out of school. She could hear the buzz of students behind her. She could hear them murmuring her name frantically. She could hear Logan calling her name behind her. She struggled with her ridiculously huge chemistry textbook that seemed to be wedged in to her locker. She pulled at it frustrated by her lack of strength. Everyone in the world appeared so put together and strong but her.

“Sienna!” she heard him call behind her. For a cripple he sure was fast. She yanked at her book with all her force and dislodged it triumphantly only to fall backwards on to the floor and have all of her books scatter over the floor. Naturally everyone snickered at her as she reached for her books. She wondered how it was even possible for one human to have so much bad luck in one day? Logan bent down and picked up her chemistry book in one hand as if it were a feather and handed it to her. She couldn’t help but scowl at him and snatch the mammoth sized book from him. She somehow managed to fit it in her backpack. He extended his hand out to her. She didn’t take it.

Instead she slowly stood up and swung the backpack over her back looking like Quasimodo, she was in freshman year all over again. She knew how it must have looked to the onlookers standing near them. He was nothing more than a handsome gentleman trying to help the town nutcase. In every scenario he played out as the hero.

“Sienna, please let’s just go somewhere to talk.” He asked with pleading sad eyes. She couldn’t help but slowly clap. He looked at her confusedly. The look of contempt in her eyes was more than enough to get his stomach turning and his heart racing for all the worst reasons. She leaned in close to him, resting her hands on each shoulder and moved her lips towards his ear as if to kiss him.

“Somebody should just hand you the Oscar right now. You may be fooling everybody else with your captain America good guy act but not me. You forget I actually
know
you. I know who you are right from the pretty outer surface to deep within down to that ugly black rotting heart.” She whispered as she pressed her palm against his galloping heart. She then took a step back. A sick part of Sienna enjoyed seeing the look of hurt and shock that passed his face, but most of her felt darker somehow. She quickly turned and left the building. Logan couldn’t bear to keep up with the pretense of hating her anymore and rushed to find solace in his Mustang.

He slammed his fists against the dashboard out of anger, frustration and overwhelming guilt. His stupid plan had backfired. He had played his part so well that she genuinely believed that be hated her and now she
hated
him. He saw the look on her face and knew the damage was done. Their relationship would never be the same again.

Sienna stood outside the science block and leaned against the wall gasping for breath. She looked around to see if anyone was around. There wasn’t. Everyone must have already been at the football match. The area seemed deserted. So she let out a huge sigh and leaned her hands upon her knees. Her head spun, or was it the world spinning around her? She fell against the wall and dropped to the wall in defeat. She let out the most agonizing cry filled with pent up emotion, and buried her face in her hands unable to contain the aching bellowing sobs that were erupting out of her. After some time her pain subsided leaving her feeling nothing but numb, hollow and miserably empty. She looked up at the sky and wondered the world was so cruel, why so many suffered whilst others lived remarkably happy lives?

It made no sense to her. She had grown up with everybody telling her that life wasn’t fair and to get over it. Yet, although she accepted the fact Sienna couldn’t even begin to fathom the reasons as to why? She wiped her tears with her hands and was surprised to find blood on her fingers. She tentatively touched her nose and found it wet, dripping with blood.
Nosebleed
? This made her feel a mixture of conflicted emotions. She was shocked to see so much blood seeping out of her for no apparent reason, and the other emotion that burned up inside of her was hope. She was hopeful that God had finally shown her mercy and endowed her with a terminal illness knowing she was useless when it came to ending her own life.

The reasonable part of Sienna knew she shouldn’t be having those types of thoughts. She knew it was wrong to pray for death and for sickness when there were so many people on Earth who suffered from severe long-term illnesses and it was nothing anyone sane would ever wish for. Sadly Sienna was anything but sane at that moment.

“Sienna?” she heard a familiar voice call. She turned her head too see Blake with a cigarette in his hand. He quickly put the unlit cigarette back in to his back pocket and crouched down next to her. He gently lifted her chin and looked at her worriedly. “Who did this to you?” he asked as he fished out a handkerchief.

“Nobody.” She sniffed and tried to mop up the blood from her disheveled face. She must have looked like such a mess. She couldn’t help but feel absolutely mortified.  Yet
Blake barely seemed to notice as he held her face in his hands and told her to pinch the bridge of her nose. He didn’t believe her. He was sure one of those girls was sure to have retaliated, but Sienna being Sienna, she would never rat out on anyone. He pulled her hand up and helped her to stand.

“Come on,” he whispered and led her to the lab nearby. He opened the lock with his key, flicked the lights on and seated her on a stool and began rifling through the first aid kit.

“Who the hell carries a handkerchief nowadays? Seriously how old are you?” she joked. He couldn’t help but smile.

“I know, I know. I’m terribly boring and old fashioned but hey you’d be surprised how handy they are.” He replied and wiped the smears of blood from her chin with the sanitary wipes.