Beautiful Bedlam (7 page)

“Yeah, who are all the really good people?” Sienna asked with a smirk. All they had heard were a bunch of athletes and reality TV stars. “Seeing as we don’t make the cut.” She added wryly. “Well, here come Haven Falls’ very own Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.” Rose said with a beaming smile. Her entire face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.

“What?” Sienna asked in a murmured confused tone as she turned her head to see who was at the center of all the commotion that had just developed at the table in the middle of the high school cafeteria. She slowly stood up from her chair, with her head still turned and there he was at the heart of it all. Ink black hair, dark smoldering eyes with eyelashes so enviably long they cast shadows upon his cheekbones, a dimpled smile and broad shoulders and a height a little over six feet was all that comprised of Logan Jackson. Basically, he looked like he had just stepped out of the cover of GQ magazine and belonged in Milan and not Haven Falls.

He looked the same but completely different all at once. His pretty boyish features had hardened. He was still handsome but in a rougher more masculine way. Gone was the slightly mischievous innocent child. Now there only remained a devilishly handsome young man. Sienna’s heart pounded, her blood pressure must have skyrocketed because suddenly her tongue was tired, her palms clammy, her stomach clenched up in knots. She froze just as she felt those dark eyes find themselves drawn towards her almost as if he sensed her presence.

5.

Sienna quickly turned around just as she felt his eyes drawing towards her almost as if he sensed her presence. She quickly put her hood up and covered her face with her hand even though her back was to him. She didn’t even know why she was doing these things. Shock made you do the strangest things she supposed. “Tom Cruise? I always thought he looked more like a young Johnny Depp, or whatever.” Noah shrugged clearly uninterested and took a bite out of his apple. He was perhaps the only one at school who was completely unfazed by the return of the small town loveable heartthrob. 

“Yeah, or Orlando Bloom!” Rose suggested happily not even noticing the fact that Noah was already so fed up of listening about Logan Jackson by now she could have been talking to a wall, she didn’t care much for a response anyway. She just wanted somebody to ramble on to. “Where are you going?” Noah asked suddenly as Sienna tried to pull her chair back and try and escape like the coward she knew herself to be. She could scarcely breathe. Her breaths came in short and quick. She needed to get out, to get some air.

“I have to go. I can’t do this…I can’t face him…I can’t…whoa!” she said between short breaths before falling on to Noah’s lap after tripping over her backpack.

“Crap! He’s definitely looking this way now.” Sienna hissed and buried her head in the nook of Noah’s shoulder whilst stealing secret glances over his shoulder.

“Marry me.” Noah said abruptly as he stared in to Sienna’s frantic wild emerald eyes.

“Oh God, Rose, what am I going to do? I can’t get up now. He’ll see me. What’s worse is he’ll see me getting off some guy’s lap.” She whispered hysterically oblivious to what Noah had just said.

“I’m a lesbian.” He declared suddenly.

“What’s the big deal?” Rose asked Sienna confusedly. Great. Now they both were ignoring him. “Do you think anyone will notice if I just slide under the table and crawl my way out of here?” Sienna asked. Noah frowned at her. She was being serious.

“I shot JFK.” He announced a little too loudly causing a couple of the sophomore girls that were eyeing him for the past quarter of an hour to glance his way. They actually scowled at Sienna.
Great
. Now the ladies were interested in him, when he had the only girl who he actually wanted in the world, you know the one blind to his affection and love, the one who brought depth and meaning to the adjective ‘platonic’? Life was cruel.
“Honestly, I could be saying anything right now and you wouldn’t hear me.” He said gruffly. “Wait a minute, why am I the one hiding? I didn’t do anything wrong? In fact neither did he. Everything is fine. I’m fine. I’m…yeah…I’m great.” Sienna rambled on to herself and chewed at her plump pink lower lips nervously as she stole another glance at Logan. He was sitting not a chair but on the table surrounded by not just the typical popular kids but everybody who was a somebody that ranged from the obvious cheerleading and football teams to the president of the debate and astronomy clubs to class president to some of the guys from the marching band. He said something humorous causing all those around him to laugh a little too jovially. Sienna couldn’t hear it over the sound of her own nervous incoherent babble but she’d bet her kidneys it wasn’t
that
hilarious. ‘
Look at them
,’ she thought sourly. ‘
Shining his boots, filling his wine glass and kissing his ass. Who does he think he is? Who do they think he is? Some king? Yeah, a dark haired King Joffrey at best and we all know what happened to him!’
She scoffed internally before realizing she had just voiced her thoughts aloud. Honestly, she had no filter anymore. Honestly, she blamed it all on watching too many Jennifer Lawrence interviews.

“I’m in love with you.” Noah said softly as he gazed at Sienna, smiling his small smile at her quirky slightly erratic behavior.

“What?” Sienna asked abruptly, her head tilted up suddenly as if her ears had just picked up on a new frequency. “
What?”
Rose yelped immediately after her. Noah gulped and took one look at their dumfounded bewildered expressions and choked.
Great
, now they were listening. He figured he’d never come to fully understand the beautifully bizarre creatures that were the ‘females’ of the human species.

“What?” he yelped in an overly too high-pitched nervous voice too, as if he wasn’t the one who had just dropped the big L-word so casually in the middle of an unsuspecting conversation?

“Well, I had to say something to snap you out of this weird trance.” He explained quickly saving himself with that comeback. He could see their facial features relax as they went back to completely ignoring him.

“Hey, Rose! Is that you?” Logan yelled. They all synchronously froze.

“What do I do?” she whispered through her gritted tight smile before quickly replying.

“Hey! Oh my God! Logan? I didn’t even…what are you doing here?” she asked giving him the full extent of her best OMG expression.

“Go over there before he comes over here and sees my black eye!” Sienna hissed. Rose quickly followed her orders and went over there gladly.

“Seriously? When did you become so superficial? Your eye looks fine-“

“Really? Superficial? Let’s see how you’d like it walking around like a panda bear.”

“Easy, Mike Tyson.” Noah added with a smirk.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered and slowly slid down off Noah’s lap on to the chair next to him. “How have you been?” she heard Logan ask. “Oh, I’ve been okay. You know, same old, same old.” She giggled nervously and flicked her blond hair over her shoulder. Sienna frowned slightly at that thinking that was rather…
odd
. “I can’t believe this town is still the same. I mean nothing has changed.”

“Well…there is a new gift shop. I mean…its pretty good.” She heard a girl stutter nervously as if she were afraid that Haven Falls wasn’t good enough for him.

“Bethany relax, who likes change? I like the fact that everything’s the same.” Logan said smoothly reassuring and setting her at ease.
Bethany?
Bethany Simmons was nervously stuttering? What the hell was going on? Sienna couldn’t take it anymore she had to turn around and look properly. She sat on the chair facing them and took out her big ass calculus book and hid behind it. “Now all you need is a newspaper with two wholes cut in and some bushy eyebrows and some glasses and you’re all set to go.” Noah chuckled softly.

“You should have seen the evil looks old lady Grover was giving me when she saw in the Principal’s office. She came over and actually growled at me and tilted her head up, then asked Sharpe why she hadn’t suspended me already. ‘Robert is such a foul mouthed boy.’” He mimicked the last part in a crabby old lady wavering voice causing a ripple effect of laughter around the large number of students who stood around the table.

“She thought you were your dad?” Trent laughed, one of his closest friends and one of the biggest douchebags Sienna had ever had the misfortune of knowing.

“Yup, I’m guessing he won’t be getting her vote.” Logan said wryly talking about his father’s Senatorial candidacy, which by now everybody in town knew of. Mrs. Grover was the seventy-year-old high school librarian that had more stamina and will to live than Betty White. She’d reported broken both her hips at least twice given Sienna’s calculations were right. And she was the only woman in town who didn’t tremble at the knees at the sight of Logan Jackson. Teachers adored him, teenage girls flocked to him, he managed to charm the pants off their mothers, and even gain the respect from their father’s due to his extensive knowledge of football and his chameleon like ability to change his colors to blind them with the light of his halo.

“Your book is upside down.” Noah informed her amusedly.

“No, it’s just in Japanese. Oh crap, you’re right.” She replied immediately before realizing her mistake. She sighed and turned it over, her eyes peeping and peering just above the pages. “So you’re all in the football team as expected. Bethany’s a cheerleader.” He said slowly as he looked around at his old friends. It was as if he were searching for something.
Someone
.

“What about you Rose?” he asked abstractedly as his eyes searched the room, his fingers tapped almost impatiently against the table. This time he looked towards the pretty dark-haired girl who sat with her face concealed behind a chemistry book, only a few feet away. He didn’t need to see her face; somehow he knew she was beautiful and so achingly familiar. Sienna kicked Noah in the shin before slowly sliding under the table.

“You do know how wrong this looks, don’t you?” he asked with a chuckle, which abruptly ended when she pinched his leg sharply. He winced and succumbed to the dominatrix’s demands.

“What’s the plan?” he asked with a smile. He couldn’t believe they were actually hiding under a table in plain sight. Only Sienna would think this a perfectly sane move.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead.” She admitted shamefacedly.

“Oh, well, I…I’m actually trying out today.” Rose stuttered and smiled at Bethany nervously.

“Oh good for you. So, er…where’s Sienna?” he asked almost abruptly with a frown.

“Don’t tell me. She’s in the library?” he asked. For some reason they all laughed at that.
Asshole
. She wasn’t that much of a nerd. Was she? Oh what did it matter? She needed to get out pronto.

“No, actually she’s over there.” Rose said as she and at least fifteen of the most popular kids in school all averted their attention to the two teenagers caught in a rather compromising situation under a table together.
“Crap…we’ve been made.” Sienna hissed.

“
You think?”
he retorted snippily.

“And there’s Noah too!” Rose exclaimed before she made an audible ‘Oh!’ sound.

“What are they doing?” someone asked incredulously. Sienna could literally feel the weight of their glare upon her as heat rose above her collarbone to her flushed cheeks.

“I FOUND IT!” Sienna yelled and jumped up suddenly but not without banging her head against the table first. Noah, the genius that he undoubtedly was, did exactly the same thing. They both clutched their foreheads and waved sullenly.

“Oh my god! Logan? What are you doing here?” Noah gasped sounding like he had just inhaled some helium gas or belonged in a singing chipmunk movie.

“Noah?” Logan called, his tone surprised and shocked as he stared gob smacked at his physical transformation.

“You’re thin! I didn’t even recognize you, man! Grab a chair. Hey, move up, make some room.” He ordered and stood up suddenly. Although he spoke directly to Noah, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. They shared no words but they didn’t need to. “Sure!” Noah cried cheerfully.

“See, I always liked this guy!” he whispered to her before making his way towards Logan. They engaged in some weird hand clasping, back thumping bear hug for short moment before releasing each other.

“I think I have a concussion.” Sienna muttered.

“No way! You’re Noah? That fat kid from my woodshop class?” Becca, a preppy cheerleader whom they had known their entire lives exclaimed theatrically. She knew who he was. She just wanted to make a spectacle of the guy who seemingly had won the respect and approval of the hot shot of the school. The worst part was when Noah nodded with a goofy smile on his face as all the girls cooed over him whilst simultaneously mocking him by reminding him of how repulsive they used to find him.

Logan wore dark jeans and a simple black t-shirt. His leather jacket sprawled on the table. He walked towards her and looked uncomfortable, uneasy, as if he didn’t know what to say. Sienna had often wondered how she’d feel the day he’d eventually come back. She had always thought her heart would implode would joy, that her life would suddenly have meaning or whatever damn rom-com chick flick she had watched over the years had convinced her that having the right guy would suddenly make her life complete.
As if
. In reality, the truth couldn’t be further from the truth. She felt hot. Seething hot, all over, her warm blood gushed and flew through her veins like molten lava, even her eyes burned a little but she didn’t show it.

“Hey.” He gulped and put his hands in his back pockets as he came closer to her. He was even more beautiful up close. The truth of the fact only seemed to incense her further. No one should be that good looking. It wasn’t right, or fair. The corners of his mouth tilted up slightly as he rubbed his jaw. His eyes very subtly flickered over her physique and widened appreciatively. He came up to her as if to hug her like they always did as children but now it felt wrong, or more intimate rather so he jittered around her unsure whether to hug, kiss or hell even shake her hand or muss her hair.