Catchfly: Seeing Stars

Chapter 15: Two Almonds From The Same Shell

September 11 – 7:31 PM

I invite Sienna to stay over for dinner at my house. She told me she'd be home alone, I figured she could use some distraction. The police are still holding Danny at the station until the court reaches a decision on his penalty. Or better said: until Cyrus tells them what to do with him.

We've been pretty successful thus far: Avery and I did a movie night with her on Saturday; I went for a walk in the woods with her yesterday; she sat with me and my friends for lunch today, she has for the past couple of lunch breaks. The guys don't judge her for the fact that she's dating Danny. Maybe at first, but they're starting to get to know the girl behind the Rayas, like me.

I picked up dad's car a couple of hours ago. Jace wasn't home, just Lee. He asked me about my day and we ended up chatting for half an hour. I would have accepted his offer for a cup of tea if my dad hadn't been waiting for me at home to bring his car back. I still think it's ridiculous that I'd have to lie about something like that.

"Thank you for dinner. This was delicious." Sienna thanks my parents.

"Oh, you're welcome. You girls go upstairs, we'll clean up." Mom winks at me. We head up to my room. The first thing Sienna does is compliment me on it. I owe everything in here to Avery: we spent nearly an entire Summer redoing my room when we went to freshman year. She has an eye for the stuff. I'm still grateful to her for the poster wall, the fairy lights, the flower pillows on my bed and the green carpet underneath it.

"Are they still letting you see Danny at the station?" I ask. "Or does he get no visitors?"

Sienna sits down on my bed. "No. Not me, anyway. We've only talked over the phone."

I wait for her to continue, but she's silent. Avery would have included any and every detail, even if I had no interest in knowing.

"Is he... angry?" I ask.

"I don't know... He seems more hopeless, to me." The hurt in her voice triggers something inside of me.

"Can I ask how you even met him?" I ask warily. But it brings a smile to Sienna's face.

"We actually met in detention."

"You got detention?" I say in shock. The girl seems like she's never even raised her voice.

"Yeah, it was dumb..." She shakes her head. "I was really behind on my Algebra homework, so Mr. Gregor put me in detention for as long as I needed to catch up. Danny was redoing Algebra that year, we were the only ones there. Mr. Gregor stepped out to take a phone call, and Danny asked me if I wanted to get out of there."

"And you went with him?" I ask. But in hindsight, I have to imagine I would have done the same. I've been trying to create a friendly interaction with Danny for nearly a year now. If he'd given me an opportunity to actualize it, I probably would have jumped at it.

But the thing is, Danny doesn't give out opportunities like that. Ever. Sienna does have one of the most approachable faces I've ever seen, but still. For him to have even asked her, he must've seen something special in her from the start.

"Not immediately," Sienna says. "I was afraid I'd get in trouble. That Mr. Gregor would call my parents and they would get mad... But Danny smiled and assured me it would be fine. I can't explain why, but I believed him. We went for a drive and got donuts. We didn't talk much, but that was actually what was nice about it." She smiles, her eyes lost in the memory of it.

Why does that sound kind of... cute? That is not a word I would ever use to describe anything involving Danny Rayas.

"It wasn't an instant spark. It was more of an instant comfort." She says. "We hung out about once a week. We'd just drive around or watch Harry Potter–"