He's Different [ On Hold ]

Chapter 4

Had Sienna just made a boy cry? A boy cry?! When she was in sixth grade, in usual circumstances, if she had made one of those boys at her school cry, she would’ve felt triumphant. But in this case, her heart felt swollen and she couldn’t stop thinking back to when she went to his house… what had she done wrong? Was it the way she talked? She didn’t think so. Was it because of her excuse to leave early? No… Then it hit her hard: After she had accidentally blurted out about his eyes. She clearly remembered the he loosened his grip on her arm. And that’s when he cried. But why?

Sienna tossed and turned around in bed all night, wondering why and how exactly she had made him cry. She couldn’t really wrap her head around it. What was so bad about the comment on his eyes? Wasn’t that a compliment? Maybe he was crying from tears of joy? No, no, definitely not. She was sure that tears of joy didn’t look like that.

Every time she closed her eyes she could see those sharp eyes of his, but the eyes would turn to a dull blue, and the eyelid would turn all swollen red, and then the crying started again.

The next day, Sienna could barely even crawl out of bed, she hadn’t slept at all that night. Her eyelids felt like they weighed a kilogram, and she felt it difficult to keep them open so most of the time it looked like she was squinting.

Sienna dragged herself to her wardrobe and picked out a plain light blue t-shirt and leggings. She honesotly couldn’t be bothered about her appearance today, which was very unlike her. On a usual day, she would make such a fuss if one small thing were out of place. But no, not today. Not right now.

“Hey, there you are!” A voice behind Sienna called. She staggered forward, losing her balance and then turned around to face Annabella. “Looks like someone hasn’t been applying her makeup on properly.” Sienna grunted while Annabella rolled her eyes, reaching in her purse to get lipstick out.

“There. At least you look a bit better now.” Annabella smirked, applying a pale pink lipstick to Sienna. “But sorry hun, I haven’t brought mascara with me today so you’ll just have to go a day without mascara.” Annabella laughed, tossing her wavy dirty blonde hair to her left side.  Then realizing that Sienna hadn’t spoken at all, pulled her aside to where their lockers were. “Look, what the hell is going on?” she snapped, leaning against the lockers as Sienna carelessly opened her locker to get her Math and Science folder out. “Nothing…” Sienna mumbled, “I know when something is wrong okay? You’re not usually like this. Not even having make up on and now even dressing like a hobo? Seriously, what has gotten into you?” Sienna sighed and stuffed her folders into her bag.Anabella started talking again “Is it something about failing one of your stupid tests? Or has someone asked you out already?” Sienna’s eyeballs seemed to almost pop out of her eyelid when she finished asking the last question. “Oh my god…Really?!” Annabella asked surprisingly, but misunderstanding because what really had made her eyes pop was that Kyle had just arrived at school and was only a few meters away from them. Sienna started walking, towards Annabella, then past Annabella, to Kyle.

This was her only chance to get to talk to Kyle, she thought. She was sure the French tutoring thing wasn’t going to continue. Sienna couldn’t wait any longer so she blurted out “I’m so sorry… Why were you crying? Are you okay? What did I do wrong?” she seemed to have used all her energy on those few questions that she had to lean against the door to catch her breath. “Sorry but I don’t want to talk about this.” Kyle murmured clenching his teeth,passing Sienna as if nothing had happened.

At that moment, Annabella had watched all of what had happened in the past minute. She marched up to Sienna and gave her a good shake. “What were you doing?! The last time I checked, he was the bad guy, the one who stole my bag. Remember? Why are you even talking to him? What kind of friend are you? Ignoring me, and then giving it your all to a guy you barely know that has a bad influence.” She spat and then gave another hard shove in Sienna’s chest and strutted away, high heels clicking on the polished floor.

Sienna couldn’t believe what she had just done. What was she going to do all day? Sit in a corner and silently melt away? No, she couldn’t. Of course she can’t. She was Sienna Williams. A member of the Williams family, she couldn’t let her family name down. She made her way to the washroom and fixed her hair and splashed her face with water. At least her eyes felt half as heavy now. Then as confidently as possible she strode her way to Math class.

Well this didn’t last long. At lunch Sienna had a dizzying headache and her stomach kept gurgling, she felt like she was going to vomit. She rushed to the washroom and puked in the toilet and absent-mindedly flushed it away. She decided that she couldn’t go through two more hours of school so she signed herself out and headed home.

***

A day later, Sienna decided to skip school because she still felt dizzy and her stomach hurt. In the afternoon, her headache and stomach had gotten better so she decided to try and talk to Kyle again. His house was only 3 blocks away, not that bad. Anyways, she needed fresh air. She went to her closet and took out a tank top and leggings. She might as well go for a small jog along the way.

Panting, Sienna leaned over and clutched her stomach with one hand as she knocked on the door three times. Kyle opened it. But seeing Sienna at the door, immediately shoved it close.  “Please,” Sienna pleaded, “I know, I might have made you cry, I might have done things wrong, but I promise that they weren’t done on purpose, and I take back all of the bad things I said.” She said, breathing loudly between every few words. There was a cough at the other side of the door and Sienna continued, “I know you were framed. More than one time.” At this, Kyle had an urge of curiosity making his trembling hands twist the doorknob. Sienna suddenly stopped leaning on the door and stood up properly. Their eyes met and they stayed in that peaceful silence for nearly a minute.

Kyle broke the silence by coughing and then reaching for a book on the side table. He then worriedly looked around as if someone might had followed Sienna to his house and was about to jump out of nowhere and arrest him. He cautiously opened the book to a page and then stuck a crumpled piece of paper onto that page, indicating a bookmark. He then handed the book to Sienna. Sienna confusingly stared at Kyle, but glanced down at the book cover and then muttered the book cover name ‘Catcher in the Rye’. She looked back up but Kyle wouldn’t speak. He plainly gestured at the book and then shut the door.