Chapter 4 (Sienna)

Your love is like a cocoon, the thought of it, drenched with the idea of your beauty, like a butterfly, splashed in color, but the reality is like a moth, ordinary and simple. I don’t know why I keep hoping you are different.

Sienna Bray ,

12/08/2020

There were many ways to describe Kevin Stone. I’m sure we all had our own words about the Ghost, but his presence, and his frozen gaze as it stared into the cruxes you thought were hidden, was the most common. Growing up, I wanted to believe there was something dormant in him, that his unfeeling soul had an inkling of emotion, which didn’t surround his need to protect the ones he loved. I wanted to believe many things when it came to Kevin Stone, and at 16 I was sure I had him pegged.

I didn’t know then what I knew today. But it was at the tender age of 16 did I get my first actual glimpse into the man we likened to a ghost. I saw the spark of something real in him, but it wasn’t aimed at me. It was her, always her, Natasha Bray.

I want to say, or better yet, I should say she didn’t deserve him, BUT she did. Natasha deserved way more. It was him who was lacking. Kevin Stone had one vital fault. He was without emotion except when it came to her, and even then, I wondered to what degree his emotions ran.

I remember the last time I saw him; it was 10 years ago; I was a wild girl living a lie, and he was my executioner.

Liston Hills

10 years ago

The night is still, with the stings of a winter’s kiss. I take in the crisp air, as my fingers burn from the effects of its nakedness exposed unduly long to the harsh stagnant weather. My feet, though wrapped in boots, wail for heat.

“I’m not getting my hide turned for this Sin, Papa is going to be ten shades of mad if we get caught.”

“We won’t, next week is my birthday, you promised,” I remind Natasha as she picks the school’s lock. How she learned that in less than two days was beyond my understanding.

It’s dark, and since we were out after curfew, neither of us had any cellphones or torch lights. We went on a whim. My Uncle Marcus was home, and when he was around, he kept his eyes on us constantly. We had to make it so Mason and Kylie were ‘occupied’ so my Uncle didn’t get suspicious.

“I know, but Ky is already in deep shit, after she knocked Dexter,” Natasha whispers as she pulls the chain from the gate.

“He deserved it,” I respond without bothering to lower my voice.

“No one deserves to get run over Sienna, Ky could’ve killed him,” She babbles as we open the gate and I pick up the backpack, we packed weeks ago.

“He cheated,” I declare a bit too loud, considering where we were. Tonight was the night to prank the football players at Liston High Public School. I’ve always wanted to a part of the action, but my cousins never allowed me too. Which sucked, but this year, no one was going to stop me.

“She dumped him,” Natasha hisses, and we both duck down as light flashes too close to us.

“Come on, that’s Mason,” I grab her hand as I secure the bag on my shoulder and we run, with our backs bent, keeping close to the school walls.

There were perks to attending Liston High Public. I would have liked it here, but my uncle insisted I attended a Private School. Which meant it was prankster night, and since it fell a week before my birthday, I insisted we prank the teams tonight. They wouldn’t suspect a thing.

“Come on,” Mason calls out as we near them.

“We could hear you whining from here. Could you have been anymore softer?” Jace Stone, says to Natasha as we make it to the school’s back door.

Jace Stone was my cousin, Kylie Bray’s brother. Long story short, her mother married his dad and they pro-created, not just one, but three children. When my mom passed away, Kylie’s mother, Hunter, looked after me for a month.

My uncle took her passing worse than I did, and I was her daughter, her only child. Jace was the only one who literally pretended to be nice to me. I don’t miss staying at the Estate during that summer. Their sibling rivalry didn’t extend to swearing each other, but apparently beating the crap out of one another was ‘as usual’.

Considering his father, Hector, had 6 children, add in my cousin Kylie, and he was a father of more than half a dozen of the world’s population. There was so much male testosterone in that house.

I felt sorry for Jace since he was the youngest boy and often got the brunt of his eldest brother, David’s anger. So, when he knocked on my room door and offered to take me with him, I was running down the stairs like a puppy following its treat.

Well, it was like that going out with my cousin Mason, Jace and their friend Sabastian Delroy. A treat. The three of them would take me to all kinds of places. My favorite was the woods on the Estate.

We’d climb the trees and wait for the birds to show up. Natasha wouldn’t tag along when Mason was around, and since he was always around, it was just me and the boys.

After I left the Estate, those days left with me. I spent all my time with Natasha, or Kylie. Mostly Kylie, since Natasha preferred spending her weekends at the mall and I preferred mine on a motorbike, off riding in the forest.

Kylie’s best friend Diamond joined us when she got away from her books, which hardly happened, but I looked forward to the days when she did. It made it more memorable, as I loved Dakota, or should I say, Diamond, since that was what people called her.

Why she changed her name was beyond me, and I didn’t bother asking, she didn’t say too much to me. Not for lack of trying to talk to her, but Diamond treated me as she would a very distant friend.

I didn’t mind then and don’t mind now. Because I still enjoyed spending those hours with her.

It was a shame that Kylie was finishing her last year, and off to Washington to study. I wouldn’t get to see any of them.

I guess it was going to be mall weekends, with Natasha and her friends from now. I didn’t have any other friends, since everyone in the school feared my family, or feared me. I couldn’t help that fate, even if it slapped me in the face. I had a temper that unrivalled most people in the school.

Natasha had a few friends, but mostly she hung out with Victoria Stone, Jace’s youngest sister.

They were both 14 going on 15 and I was 15 going on 35. We were all worlds apart except for tonight. Natasha and I agreed. She wouldn’t admit it, but she loved the thrill of sneaking into the school.

“I have the spray and sour cream. Did you girls bring the hair remover?” Jace asks, as he unzips his black flat bag.

Mason bends down and his deep brown hair hangs over the torchlight he remembered to bring. He rummages through his brown leather bag, making clinking noises. Both the boys are wearing black cargo pants and a dark t-shirt. I can’t tell if they are charcoal grey or black.

But if I am going to remember this story long enough to journal it, I need all the details.

“Yup, let’s do this,” I say, feeling the excitement rise as Natasha hands us the hair remover bottles.

“So, the boy’s locker room is on the bottom floor. Go right, and then the 2nd left. Mason and Sin will do the showers, and Natasha and I will head for the lockers,” Jace says as he zips up his bag and slings it over his shoulder. I do the same with ours.