Breaking Bedlam (Beautiful Bedlam Book 2) (19 page)

“What?” Noah retorted his head snapping back to Logan as if he couldn’t believe what he had just said. He stole his girlfriend yet he wanted
him
to apologize?

“Who do you think you-“ Noah began shouting but was instantly cut off as Logan’s hand firmly gripped Noah’s throat and lifted him up to face him at eye level without flinching or wincing at all.

“I said
apologize
.” He roared in to his face. His voice echoed throughout the entire cafeteria. He had a strong rich voiced that reeked of authority and had the power to make you want to cringe or cower away. People stood up now and looked around at each other, knowing this was going a little too far but too terrified to do anything. “Stop!” Sienna screamed. She had never seen him this angry before and it scared her. “Logan!” Trent shouted and jumped up as Logan choked one of his oldest friends in front of the entire school. He didn’t even flinch as they called his name.

“I’m sorry.” Noah croaked out and fell on to the floor coughing and clutching his throat as Logan dropped him.

“Not to me.” He hissed as he looked down at his old friend.

“I’m sorry.” Noah coughed out and stared at her with his bloodshot eyes and red face. Sienna was rendered speechless as she tried to process what had just happened. Logan then slowly strode to his seat back at the table and took a bite out of Noah’s blood red apple. The security guard eventually came running in sensing the tension in the air. He had got caught up flirting with the secretary in the hallway. The first thing he noticed was that it was quiet. Far too quiet. He looked around at all the wide-eyed silent kids. He realized they were gawping at some poor kid on the floor. He rushed to him.

“Are you okay?” He asked and bent down next to the kid.

“I’m fine.” Noah gulped and stood up jadedly with his help.

“I’m fine.” He mumbled again and stumbled out before anyone could stop him.

“See. He’s fine.” Logan smirked at the confused guard and to those around him.

“Oh look, Jell-O. My favorite.” He
said casually as everyone gulped and wet back to their hushed uneasy conversations. ‘
Long live the King’
that familiar voice whispered inside her head reminding her to take her medication.

13.

Sienna couldn’t bear another minute in that dreaded cafeteria. She knew if she had to sit there for a minute longer watching Logan so casually laughing and talking as if nothing had happened. She could feel the weight of everyone’s eyes upon her. Her head spun. Or was it the room spinning? She could hardly tell the difference. What bugged her even more was the way he so brazenly defended her in his own warped way then went straight back to ignoring her as if she didn’t exist. It was as if he were punishing her.

She just couldn’t take it anymore. She preferred it if he screamed at her. She knew he blamed her for his injuries. She knew that he wanted nothing more than to be playing the football match today, and to win and to have everyone chanting his name because that’s just who Logan Jackson was. He cherished being adored and he was. People swarmed around his table laughing and cracking jokes with him, eager to please him all of a sudden. Sienna slipped out and rushed to the girl’s bathroom. She leaned her hands against the white sink. She felt sick.

Sienna splashed water over her face and looked at herself in the mirror and sighed before dry heaving. She rushed in to the bathroom stall feeling as though she were about to puke. Thankfully her stomach settled down. Sienna shut the toilet lid and sat on it and gathered her thoughts. The door was shut. So when she heard a couple of girls rush in talking incessantly about what had just happened, Sienna decided like the coward she was to stay hidden.

“I mean, I can’t believe he strangled him like that in front of everyone!” she heard one voice yelp. It sounded like Melanie Boscov was gossiping as usual.
God, didn’t her mouth ever get tired of spewing out the obvious and the bullshit
?

“I know right! It was like so hot. It was badass. Even with a broken leg Logan Jackson beat his ass hands down. God, he’s so gorgeous.” She heard Becca say excitably. “I wish guys would fight over me like that!” Melanie sighed. Sienna rolled her eyes. They didn’t understand. This was the last
thing she wanted.

“You know Trent told me that Sienna tried to kill herself that night and Logan told her he loved her. Apparently he asked her if she trusted him and held his hand out to her but she didn’t take his hand so he pushed her out of the way. He would have died for her! But she didn’t care. Isn’t that the saddest yet the most romantic thing you ever heard?” Becca whispered. Sienna wiped her tears. If only it were true. If only it hadn’t been all lies. And she cared. Sienna cared a lot more than she wanted.

“Oh crap. My mascara’s ruined.” She sniffed. For once the rumors were true.

“Why did they break up then?” she blubbered.

“Trent told me that Logan was heartbroken when he found out that she was in a coma, but then when she woke up ages later, he-“ Becca was cut off short just as Bethany tittered in.
“Oh hey Beth!” she quickly said. Sienna could hear the tap running as if someone were washing their hands.

“Let me guess, you’re talking about Logan and that stupid ugly
slut
.” She hissed.

“Oh come on Beth, you can say whatever you want about Sienna, but we all know that girl’s
at least a nine.” Rose told her casually.
Rose
! What was she doing there? “Whose side are you on?” Beth asked. She sounded angry.

“Obviously I’m on your side. I’m just saying she’s not ugly or stupid. I mean how else would she have gotten Logan Jackson of all people to fall for her?” Rose said wryly. There was silence afterwards as if the girls were deep in thought. Even Sienna was deeply intrigued as to what they were about to say.

“Come on, isn’t it obvious? It’s
Logan
. We’ve all been there before.” She whispered. Sienna then heard a chorus of “Ohhh.” Sienna still didn’t get it.
Been where before?
Then the realization finally hit her.

“Come on, we all know Logan Jackson doesn’t just hold hands and kiss you goodnight.” She laughed. Sienna could see them fixing their make up in the mirror through the cracks in the toilet stall door. ‘
He did with me.
’ She thought absentmindedly then froze when she realized what had just happened. They had all had sex with him.... including Rose.

She lied to her. Logan probably made her lie. Sienna closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she ran her fingers through her hair and tried to blink out the tears that were forming in her glistening green eyes. She listened to the group of babbling gossiping girls intently.

“I still don’t see what’s so special about her. She’s crazy! She attacked me today! She broke my damn nose!” she yelled.

“Maybe he likes crazy sex?” Becca suggested and the other girls laughed nervously then stopped as they noticed Bethany’s grim expression.

“I’m serious. We’ve all been with him. Almost all of us lost our
virginity
to him. We
all
loved him at one point or another. I get that she’s beautiful in that obvious way and that she’s an insufferable know-it-all but why her? Why not us? Why not me?” she asked quietly. Up until that moment Sienna had never noticed how serious Bethany’s feelings were for Logan. She had never even taken a moment to realize that there were so many other girls who were probably just as in love with him as she was. She’d always thought that they just wanted to fool around with him but Bethany clearly wanted more. She wasn’t as shallow as she appeared to be.

“
I hate her
.” She hissed with so much venom and hatred in her voice.

The girls huddled around and hugged her. Sienna hugged her arms closer to her. She felt so alone. She had no one to comfort her. She had no one to confide in. They all thought she was so lucky. They thought that he was in love with her.  But the sad truth was that he wasn’t and what they didn’t understand was that he was nothing more than a charming manipulative liar. He had fooled them all in to thinking he loved them.

Sienna walked out with her head held high and began washing their hands as they stared at her agape.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Bethany scoffed and immediately wiped her tears. “So I’m guessing you heard everything?” Rose asked timidly.

“Ah, it speaks.” Sienna retorted softly looking at Rose through the mirror. They hadn’t spoken at all since the winter formal night, since the night of her father’s funeral. She hadn’t even bothered to pick up the phone to call her. Instead she went and found her own set of friends and avoided and ignored Sienna whenever she passed her in the hallway. At least she sort of knew why now. Rose had feelings for Logan too?
‘Who didn’t?
’ Sienna thought sourly.

“I’m sorry about your nose.” Sienna said to Bethany as she went over to wipe her hands on the towel.

“Oh screw you Rivers! I don’t watch your damn pity!” Bethany shouted and tentatively touched her broken nose.

“Well, you’ve got it nonetheless.” She said and turned to face the girls.

“I know what you all think. I know you all hate me, and honestly I don’t blame you. I’d hate me too. But he doesn’t love me. He never has. The only reason he stayed with me so long was to sleep with me.” Sienna admitted. She didn’t understand why she felt the need to put these mean girls out of their misery but it was just her nature. As a child, even if a spider or an ant would die, Sienna would go bury and make a prayer for it. It had always felt like the right thing to do despite being albeit absurd.

“What?” Becca said raising her eyebrow like she didn’t believe her.

“He only put up with me for so long to get in to my pants. He only saved me because that’s just who he is. He may be an egotistic narcissistic repulsive promiscuous douchebag but he’s not a coward. He saved me from myself because it was the right thing to do. Not because he loved me. He even told me when I woke up from my coma. He was only with me so he could tell everyone how he screwed the queen of the celibacy club.” She said softly as she recalled his words from years before. Her voice shook as she spoke. You could see the mixture of sadness and relief on all of their faces.

“That’s why you guys broke up.” Rose exclaimed finally putting the pieces together.

“But then why did he just stick up for you just now?” Melanie asked refusing to believe that Logan was that much of a sociopath.

“Because he wasn’t sticking up for me. He was sticking up for himself. He just wanted a chance to show everybody that he’s still the boss. Didn’t you hear him when he said ‘this has nothing to do with you’ to me?” she asked.

“But in English you were both flirting!” Melanie refuted.

“Flirting? We were arguing.” Sienna replied shocked that anyone could have possibly perceived that conversation in that way. They all exchanged looks with each other. They believed her. Why would she lie? It all sounded conceivable. Sienna gulped back her emotions that were bottled up for so long as they forced their way up her throat. She quickly turned to leave.

“Hey, Sienna, see you at the prep rally.” Bethany swiftly said before Sienna could walk out of the door. “Oh screw you Simmons! I don’t want your damn pity.” Sienna shouted. The look of shock glazed over everyone’s faces. Then Sienna smiled knowingly at Bethany who smiled back, and left.

The bleachers were packed full of excited screaming teenagers eagerly cheering on the cheerleaders whilst they were performing their routine. Bethany sat out of the routine due to her injury. Instead she sat idly by anxiously touching the gauze that covered her nose as several people smirked and looked her way. Sienna felt quite guilty about that but in her defense she did warn Bethany at least twice not to start a fight with her. From her view point Sienna could see the football team screaming and chanting with excitement.