AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What if it’s not?
Do you want me to check on her and make sure she’s ok?
Yes.
Yes. There is a pain in my chest all of a sudden, a tightness spreading over it.
Ben wasn’t lying then. Sienna was. She did ask him to come check up on me. All of a sudden, it calls the whole night into question. Was Ben’s reason for being here not as malicious as I thought? Did he really come with good intentions?
Why would Sienna lie to me? Why would she call me a liar?
I don’t have time to consider the possibilities when all of a sudden there is a strange sound coming from Sienna’s room again and I look sharply up from the phone, sliding it into a pocket. I make my way to Sienna’s door, rap once and then let myself in without waiting for permission, bracing myself for what I’ll find, expecting to come in and see them making out on Sienna’s trundle bed beneath its pink, puckered comforter, Nico’s overzealous hand crudely up her shirt, pawing at her chest.
But that’s not what’s happening. Nico sits at her little desk, looking far too big for the pink kids’ desk chair that she’s had since she was young. Her pencil cup has been knocked from the desktop, which was the sound I heard, the volley of dozens of pens and pencils spilling to the floor. Beside the desk, Sienna is on her hands and knees picking them up, her laugh a cackle. “You’re such a fucking klutz,” I overhear as I come unexpectedly in and Sienna flies to her feet.
“Mom,” she says, flustered as Nico, at the desk, tries to cover whatever he was doing with his hands, so that all I can see of it is a swathe of red. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here.”
“But aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“I just had to go in for a meeting today, but it’s through. I thought we talked about not having boys in the apartment when I’m not home.”
“You didn’t say I couldn’t.”
“Yes, I did, Sienna.”
“No,” she says, “you didn’t. You said you had to think about it.”
I think back to the conversation and realize she is not wrong. That is what I said. “What are you two working on?” I ask. If not for Nico’s quick attempt to hide it, I don’t know that I would have noticed he was even writing something.
“It’s nothing,” she says.
“It’s not nothing, Sienna. What is it?”
“Just something for school,” she says, but it’s too late because, at the same time, Nico’s hands lift, revealing the item to me. It’s a red envelope and, beside it, a torn piece of paper with the start of something written in Nico’s all-caps script: I KNOW WHAT YO
Nico holds a black pen in his hand. The envelope and the torn paper with its sawtooth edge take me back to that day in the hospital break room, when I pulled the red envelope out of my bag, the one I’d taken from the mailbox that morning, the one with my name on the front, but no postmark or return address. The one that said BITCH. At the time, I thought someone had broken into the building and into the mailbox to leave it, because how else would I have gotten it?
But what if it was as simple as that the person who put it there had a key?
My eyes go from the note to Sienna and back again.
“I think you should go, Nico,” I breathe.
He nods, dropping the pen to the desktop, pushing back on the chair, rising. Nico says goodbye, though it’s gutless, cowardly. He know he’s been caught though Sienna’s response, on the other hand, is typical Sienna. As I move to the living room, she walks Nico into the hall to say goodbye and then lets herself back into the apartment, defiant as always. “That was so embarrassing,” she mutters, angry with me. “You didn’t have to kick him out.”
“What was that note you two were writing?” I ask. I KNOW WHAT YO
Sienna just shrugs. “I told you already. It was nothing. Just something for school,” she says, walking past me, like she’s just going to go back into her bedroom and close the door.
“It’s not nothing, Sienna. What was it going to say? Was it for me?” I ask, but Sienna just pulls a face, as if trying to refute it but unable to come up with the words to do so. It doesn’t matter either way. Regardless of what she says or doesn’t say, I know it was for me because the writing and the envelope match the first note, but now I wonder why she is so angry that she would lash out and call me a bitch.
“Did you text Dad last night and ask him to check on me?” I ask, letting the note go for now.
“Why do you keep asking me that?” she barks this time before narrowing her eyes and insisting, “I already told you no.”
It’s convincing. If I hadn’t just seen evidence to the contrary, I would believe her, which makes me wonder how often Sienna lies and how many times I’ve fallen for her lies.
