11. Sienna
eleven
Sienna
“No! You’re doing it wrong, Sienna. Run it again.” Daisy’s stern voice is like hot coals to my ears as she speaks sharply at me yet again.
Heaving a deep sigh, I count backwards from ten to calm down. Since we’ve gotten started with our practice two hours ago, Daisy has been unbearable and irritable. We’ve gone over the routine countless times without a break, which isn’t a problem at all. The problem is how bitchy she's been.
She acted like this entire dance was her idea and that she was running this show. I want to be annoyed and yell, maybe she’s had a bad day, but fuck! I’ve had a bad two weeks !
I’ve had to deal with Jace popping back up in my life, adjusting to a new school, moving, Derek Perez, Aric turning out to be a douchebag, and I have yet to talk to my parents since the semester started.
We’re all going through things that no one else knows about, but that doesn’t give her the right to be a bitch.
“You know what, maybe we should take a break and get a breather—”
“No! We don’t need breaks, what we need is for you to get your shit together,” she cuts me off, her eyes narrowing on me.
I look around the room, trying to find who she’s speaking to. Was it me? Certainly she wasn’t—My phone’s ringtone blares in the silent room. I chuckle as it saves Daisy from my new found wrath. I don’t know what crawled up her ass and died, but I hope she relieves herself soon.
Daisy opens her mouth to reprimand me, but I silence her by holding up my pointer finger to go check who’s calling .
My eyes narrow on the screen as I purse my lips.
It’s just my luck that today’s the day Eloisa Jones—my mother—decides she wants to speak with me.
“Hell—”
“Si Si, darling!” She greets. Her voice is in its usual high pitched tone as she interrupts my greeting.
“How’s Ibiza, Mom? Is Dad there?” I ask, cursing myself quietly for the hopefulness in my tone as my mother clears her throat.
“No time to chat, honey, I was just calling to let you know that your father and I won’t be able to visit as we planned this month. He’s so busy with DJing and you know how it is…” she trails off, her light tone never wavering as I gulp.
They were supposed to visit for a weekend since they missed their last scheduled visit in June…it’s September, and I haven’t seen my parents since February.
My bottom lip quivers as I pull it between my teeth. “I understand, Mom. Work comes—”
“You get it, I’ll talk to you later. Ta, ta, darling,” she interrupts, her breathy tone like nails on a chalkboard.
“Bye! I love—” The line disconnects.
I gulp, sucking on my bottom lip as I try to compose myself and slide the mask I’ve grown to know so well back on, but it’s so hard.
Why me? Why can’t my parents just want to see me?
I try my hardest in school to get accolades that they’d be proud of.
I was the top ballerina in my program at NYU, and I’m a damn good dance teacher, but it’s never enough for them to just come and visit me.
I haven’t seen them in months, and the one time my mom calls this week is to tell me that her and dad won’t make it to Maryland at the end of the month.
“Well if you’re just going to stand there, I guess we’re done,” Daisy tuts from the corner of the room.
I sigh, rolling my neck as I snatch up my things just as my phone rings yet again.
Daisy raises a brow at me as if daring me to answer the call. Ignoring her, I slide the screen to answer Dupri.
“I need you at the studio immediately, we need to discuss your next steps.” Dupri’s voice is breathless and echoey as she speaks, presumably from my old studio.
“I’m on my way.”
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, I must relieve you of this position.”
I’d never thought that I would ever hear those words, but they blare in my ears loud as can be as I stumble my way through the studio.
Although Dupri didn’t fire me, she did inform me that I was not to teach the Minis anymore, stating that my sole focus is to remain on my new student. I’d been given the opportunity to speak with the girls before officially handing everything over to Guillana, a new coach at the studio.
As I’m dragging myself to the Minis’ studio, a man walks right into me. He apologizes briefly, but cuts himself off as he and I look at one another.
Just my fucking luck.
Derek stands in front of me, scowling as he looks down at me.
I look at him, waiting for him to do what my kids’ parents usually do and ask questions, but he remains silent, staring me down.
“The proper thing to do would be to apologize,” he sighs.
I reel back.
Did he just—
“Excuse you?”
“I mean, you bumped into me, and if I remembered correctly, you cursed me out… so.” He shrugs.
“You’ve got a lot of freaking nerve. You don’t show up for your kid then when you do, you’re late.
Not to mention, you’ve only picked her up from here once since I’ve started working here, and when I call you out, you have the nerve to say that I need to apologize?
” I scoff, tilting my head at his audacity.
I mean, who does he think he is?
Derek looks down his nose at me. “You bumped into me.”
“Yeah, well so fucking what? You’re the only parent in this building who hasn’t asked about their kid, so you know what? I don’t give a damn.” I roll my eyes, turning on my heels as blood rushes through my ears
“Fucking asshole, que te folle un pez espada 1 ,” I mutter as I stomp away from the pompous asshole.
Could this day get any worse? It feels like the world is suffocating me and everything is going the exact opposite of how I planned for it to go.
It doesn’t take long for me to apologize to the girls for having to transfer rooms and handing over the reins to Guillana, who’s already been working with them for some time now.
By the time I get to my apartment, my head is pounding from an oncoming headache, my feet hurt, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t reach my daily water intake goal for the day.
I need a shower. I need to wash this day away.
Stumbling into the house, I say to myself, “I need a drink and some serious girl talk,” as I plop down on the couch beside Cleo, laying on her lap and pulling her hand into my hair.
“Long day?” She asks, massaging circles into my scalp.
“That guy will be the death of me!” I shout, sitting up. I don’t know if it’s Jace, my dad, or Derek that I’m speaking about, but they’re all going to send me to an early grave.
“Spill, girl!”
I jump slightly as the guy that Cleo has a crush on quips in a mock Valley girl accent.
I tell them everything from how Derek is the bane of my existence, how my Dad is absent, and allude a little to Jace being the psycho that he is.
I don’t say his name for fear of what Cleo would think if she knew that I’ve been dealing with Jace for the past two weeks, but she and the guy—Jake, I think—listen carefully.
“Do you maybe think you’re projecting your feelings about Auntie and Uncle onto him?” Cleo asks, making my brain hurt as I groan.
“I don’t know, honestly. But it feels shitty knowing that another little girl is out there being treated how I was.” I sigh, hanging my head as Jake tells me to be there for her.
I don’t know if it’s me or just Delilah that I need to be there for, but I take the advice, happily.
I know just what to do to be there for her.
“You’re so right! Thanks, Jake!” I squeal as ideas flow to my brain, skipping to my room.
I go straight to my bathroom and prepare for my shower, turning the water to its highest temperature. Stepping into the shower and in the comfort of my own bathroom, I allow myself to break.
I have to be strong in front of Cleo and her guy friend. She’s already going through something way deeper than I’d ever know, and I barely know Jake.
In my everything shower, I’m allowed to be the sad, broken hearted girl that I am on the inside. I’m allowed to be mopey about my parents and feel for Delilah. I’m allowed to let my mind drift to Jace and wonder about him.
Soon after washing my body, the sadness that I’d had pent up boils into anger, and I find myself sitting in front of my PC, locked in yet another gruesome game.
I’m in my seventh round of playing COD when I feel a presence brush up beside me. The warm aroma of vanilla and leather invades my senses, and I know it’s him before I see him. Moving my headset off of my ear, I ask, “What?” as I continue gaming.
“We need to talk.” Jace’s voice is gruff as he speaks, his voice closer than I’d expected as his breath dusts the shell of my uncovered ear, making my body tingle.
“What could we possibly have to talk— ”
In an instant, a white sheet of paper is placed over my fingers as I’m typing away. I pause in my haste, eyeing it momentarily then back at my screen, but something in my mind tells me to look at the paper again. When I do, my anger boils over.
My heart stutters as the neat scribble of my hand writing comes into my focus. My eyes stay there, stuck on the scrawl of my list.
In an instant, I open my mouth to yell at him for not only invading my privacy, but also for keeping my list for all this time.
Jace intervenes by softly grabbing my chin, pulling my focus back to him and successfully shutting me up as his lip quirks slightly.
The bastard thinks this is funny…
“Before you go all ‘Assassin's Creed’ on me, can you please just listen to me?” he asks, lowering his head. His eyes track momentarily down to my lips before reconnecting with my eyes…
What the hell was that look?
“What?” I bite out as my heart races.
He takes a step closer, our breaths mingling with one another.
“Use me.”
I gulp, looking up at him as his green eyes lock on mine, filled with determination and something else that I can’t quite place.
“What?” I ask again, exiting my game in total, staring up at the man in clear bewilderment.
Has he hit his head or something?
“Use. Me,” he repeats, shoulders back.
I sigh. “Jace, look…I don’t have time for—”
He steps in closer, slamming a hand down on my desk as he sighs dramatically.
“Goddamnit, Sienna, just listen to me!” he cries out, and although he isn’t yelling, I seal my lips shut. Jace has never, and I mean never , gotten serious with me before .
“I can see it, you want to break out of your shell...You went on that date to do it, right? But then you wouldn’t have sex with him,” he says matter-of-factly, taking me aback.
How would he know that?
“I know what you need, so let me give it to you? I feel like shit for going through your list, but I want you to use me. I mean…you can trust me and I trust you. I’ve experienced all of these things before, and I’d rather you do it with someone you feel safe with rather than a stranger.
” Jace takes his bottom lip between his teeth as he looks down at me sheepishly, red tinging his cheeks.
I’m speechless as I stare up at him.
He wants me to use him to finish my list? How did he even get the list in the first place?
Sensing my loss of words, Jace smirks knowingly.
“Marvel Rivals is the better game, by the way.” He grins, leaning down, placing a heart fluttering kiss to my forehead before leaving me with my thoughts and video games.
1. Que te folle un pez espada – fuck a swordfish (screw you) (Spanish)