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Sienna
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Today was going to be hell. After the beach, they walked back to the bus and Sienna went to her bunk. She emerged for food, then went right back when her father and his bandmates were talking about the plan for tomorrow. Today.
It was a new day. The day she met Sam Quinn. The day she found out if Sam was the Sam she was thinking of. She felt a lump in her throat as she breezed past her father.
“I’m taking a shower.” she told him. Austin nodded tiredly.
“Alright. What do you want for breakfast?”
She liked how scratchy his voice was. It made her wonder if he had always sounded that way, or if his career made it that way. “Dunno.” she replied, a towel in her hand with extra clothes. She shut the door behind her and tried to ignore Austin’s worried look.
She avoided looking in the mirror as she climbed in and out of the shower. She quickly dressed herself and reapplied the needed makeup. She opened the door and ran into Aaron, his smile wide.
“Whoops, sorry.”
“It’s okay.” she said quietly. He gave her a small smile.
“Are you alright, Sienna?” he asked softly. Sienna felt even more sick.
“Yeah.” She lied. Aaron didn’t look convinced, but Austin saved her.
“Kellin texted me and said that Sam’s here.” Austin grinned. “ready to meet him? You guys can hang out during our sets.”
Sienna was not fucking ready, but she nodded. Alan walked into the lounge, chomping on come chips making Sienna inwardly cringe.
“Oh! I wanna meet new people too!” Alan whined. Austin shrugged and walked out the door. Alan gently hip-checked her towards the exit. She followed Austin, her fingers playing with her sweater. Each step seemed heavier and heavier, her stomach doing flips.
The Sleeping With Sirens bus wasn’t far, but it seemed like it was a thousand miles away. She could see the silhouettes of the men just standing about, laughing at a joke that was said.
There was one person, though, who stood by himself, his arms crossed over his chest and he was frowning at Kellin and Gabe’s joke.
Sienna felt her jaw go slack. There he was. Samuel Quinn. She thought she had seen the last f him when she was pulled out of school and started correspondence, but like all good things, there had to be a downside.
Sienna flinched back and Austin looked down, seeming confused.
“N-no.” she murmured.
“What’s wrong?” Austin asked lowly. Sienna swallowed hard and looked at the ground.
“N-no, I can’t. I have to-”
Alan placed his hand on her shoulder. “Come here.” He directed. She did as she was told, hiding behind the ginger.
Austin looked conflicted, but Alan told him to walk over to the men and he and Sienna would join him shortly. Austin nodded and did exactly that. Alan walked Sienna a fair distance from both of the busses and looked her over.
“What’s wrong?” he asked gently, leaning against some fencing. Sienna didn’t want to get Sam in trouble, so she ignored her conscious telling her to tattle like a whiny baby.
“I knew him from my old school.”
“Old crush? “Alan teased. Sienna’s hand instantly went to her sleeves.
“Uh-”
Alan noticed her action and reached out fr her arm. She jumped back, her heart leaping to her throat. Alan made a noise of annoyance and he snatched at her arm. Sienna was tempted to scream at him, but that wouldn’t do any good. Alan was set on figuring out what she was hiding.
When he pulled up her sleeve, he gasped. “What is that?”
“It’s a burn.” she snapped, taking her arm back and shoving her sleeve down.
“What happened? It isn’t self-inflicted, is it?” he breathed, his eyes never leaving her arm. Sienna was now beginning to feel very uncomfortable.
“Chemistry accident,” She muttered, looking up to see Austin waving at her, Kellin doing the same gesture. Almost in unison, she made eye contact with Sam.
He didn’t really change since the last time she saw him. He still had a sneer on his face, his eyes identical to Kellin’s She made a small turn on her heel to avoid walking to them, but Alan steered her towards the group. Sienna’s legs were shaking so horribly, her knees knocked together with every step, making it incredibly hard to walk. The only thing keeping her from tripping was Alan’s steady hand.
She opened her mouth to say something to Austin, but Sam cut her off.
“Hello, there, lanky bitch!” Sam laughed. “I thought I wouldn’t have to see your fucked up face ever again.”
Sienna felt her blood boil.
“The feeling’s mutual.”
They stood there, seething at each other. Austin and Kellin looked at each other in confusion. “Do you know each other?” Kellin asked, his voice pitched a little higher than usual from his discomfort.
Sienna wanted to lie, but Sam laughed loudly. “Yeah, I had this little cunt in Chem with me.” He chuckled, giving Sienna a sneer. “Sienna Francias.”
Sienna took a deep breath and looked down at her toes. Austin growled.
“Don’t call her names.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” snapped Sam immaturely. Sienna swallowed and felt tears well up in her eyes. She could feel Austin’s anger radiate from where she stood.
Alan’s hands were clenched and shaking slightly. She closed her eyes and waited for him to make the connection, but it wasn’t him who put the pieces together.
“You’re the one who burned her in Chem, weren’t you?” Austin breathed, his eyes narrowing. Sam smirked.
“Maybe I was. maybe I wasn’t.”
Sienna turned on her heel and walked away from the group of baffled men, hating everything, herself the most. She heard footsteps behind her, and without thinking, she ran. She ran, her feet barely touching the ground.
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Austin
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Anger. Red. He didn’t know how else to explain how he was feeling. Sienna ran off and looked like she was going to puke in the process. He started to run after his daughter, but Jaime, who had walked in to only see Sienna run away on the brink of tears, stopped him and went after her instead. Austin didn’t know whether to be grateful for that, or to feel even more angry.
He rounded on the young boy who had a smirk on his face.
“You fucking hurt Sienna! How sick can you be?”
Sam looked confused, and it made Austin’s blood boil even more.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m only here because my mommy made me.” He said in a whiny tone, clearly mocking Austin. Kellin stood there, his eyes blown wide, trying to decode what just happened.
“What’s going on?” He finally asked, his hands going up in confusion and irritation.
“Your fucking nephew,” Austin growled through gritted teeth. “fucking burned my little girl with acid.”
Kellin’s eyebrows raised and he turned to Sam. “Did you seriously do that?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t recall-”
“So why’d you call her names?” Alan snapped, getting equally as angry.
“Don’t turn this on me.” Sam shouted. “I don’t even want to be here.” and with that, he started his way back onto the bus. Austin’s fists were ready to slam into the pathetic bully, but he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Sienna needs you.” whispered Phil. Austin looked back to Sam, but he was already on the bus, probably fucking masturbating. Austin narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at Gabe and Kellin.
“You keep that little shit away from Sienna.” he hissed, and then turned on his heel, striding to where his bus was.
“Aus, she’s not on the bus.” Phil sighed, nodding to the small like park area where there was some patches of greens, sturdy trees, and bushes. Austin immediately changed his direction, going off in the area that Phil pointed to.
He listened carefully as he heard the soft sobs and whimpers of Sienna. He tried squinting to where she was and saw Jaime under a thick tree, looking up at it, fascination and pity on his face. Austin carefully walked closer, and looked up to the branches, his eyes falling on Sienna, curled up like a squirrel on one of the highest branches. The leaves formed some sort of a canopy to hide out the sun. Her back was to the base of the tree, her legs curled up to her chest. Every time she gasped for air, the branch shook causing Austin to flinch.
“How’d she get up there?” Austin whispered to Jaime. Jaime shook his head.
“No idea. She said she wanted to be alone, I told her I couldn’t do that, so she climbed.” He shook his head again, this time looking away from her. “How’d she even do that?”
“No idea.” Austin agreed. She continued to sob and Austin cleared his throat. “Great. I was never one for gym class.” he tried to ease the awkwardness and he gripped one of the branches.
Austin’s upper body strength was about as equal to a T-rex doing push ups. He grunted loudly as he tried to scramble up the branches, his actions making the sobbing falter a bit. He gritted his teeth and used his knees to push him up a little further as he clenched onto another branch. It took him a solid five minutes to climb up the tree, but he finally sat himself on the branch next to Sienna’s panting loudly.
She wiped her eyes and looked over at him, her nose a tint of red from her sniffling. “How’d you-”
“I don’t even know.” Austin laughed. She snickered too, her voice sounding clogged up a bit. Austin sighed and tapped his foot anxiously on the branch. “God, I hate heights.”
“So why’d you come up here?” she laughed at his stupidity. Austin shrugged, feeling a bit dumb himself.
“I needed to make sure you’re okay.” he admitted. He saw his daughter turn a bit, her eyes red from her crying. She gave a shaky laugh.
“I’m fine. I really am. Sometimes I just need to cry. Let it all out. You know?”
“If Sam comes near you, I’ll rip him to pieces.” Austin assured her. She gave out a bitter laugh, making Austin confused.
“You don’t have to do that. He won’t be here forever.”
Austin was surprised at how maturely she was handling this situation. If one of his bullies burned him and showed up months later, calling him names to his face, he would take his microphone and shove it up his-
“Thanks.” She told him. Austin’s thoughts stopped as he glanced over at her. Her thin lips were curved in a smile and she was smirking. “Thanks for helping me.”
“Any time.” he told her, giving her an awkward hug. “Now...how the hell do we get down?”
Sienna’s eyes widened as she thought about this.
“Erm, jump?”
“Jump.” Austin agreed. He closed his eyes and bit his lip. “Okay, jump.”
He slid off the branch and was expecting pain. Instead, he heard a shout and he fell into something soft and fleshy. He opened his eyes and found himself laying on top of Tino. He grunted and shoved Austin off of him, his frown ever present.
“Fuck you, Austin!” he snapped playfully. Austin chuckled and rolled onto his back, his eyes connecting with Sienna’s. She was sitting on the branch, laughing at her father. Tino stood and brushed himself off and placed the green ladder under the tree. Sienna easily climbed down it and thanked Tino.
“I didn’t think you were actually gonna jump!” she laughed rolling her eyes. “I thought you saw Tino with the ladder!”
“Well, I clearly didn’t.” Austin joked, standing and grabbing Sienna to his side. He hugged her tightly and for once, he didn’t feel her squirm at his touch. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”