Silent Chaos| Matt Sturniolo

Chapter 2

"Amiraaaa." A voice jolts me awake as I instinctively act and punch. My hand hits something following a yelp as the whole class turns to look at me. Shit, I can't get detention again. But now it's inevitable for one being caught sleeping in class, and another for  punching someone.

"The hell, Amira." Chris rubs his arm as he glares at me as I kick his shin as well, because he's the one who did this and now he's acting all victim. He seethes starting to now rub his bruised shin which he looks up from so he can shoot me another glare, but I just give him a bitter smile back.

"Amira." Mr. Lynch doesn't even say anything further, he just hands me a slip silently and walks back to the class to continue teaching. Great, three days of detention. My sisters are going to kill me.

The bell rang as we walk out of class. "You're such a little bitch Chris." I groan thinking about how I'm going to explain this to my older sisters. I was already on probation for buying a 5 thousand dollar purse without their permission. What? They have the money.

           "It's not my fault you were asleep for the hundredth time in history class." He retorts back with a glare of his own. "Also fuck you, you caused me two bruises." He whines rubbing his arm again as if he felt it.

           "Thirds's the charm." I say moving closer as he backs away from me with a frantic look.

            "Someone needs to keep you locked up." He yelps which causes the attention of Nick who waves us over to where they were sitting in the cafeteria. I usually sit with Maya and Sasha, but every once in a while I'll join the boys for lunch. I just don't necessarily like a big crowd when I'm eating. Too much wandering eyes and it makes me feel self conscious.

            "Drama queen." I murmur under my breath at Chris's remark.

            "Hi, stranger." Nick says once I approach him and take a seat.

           "Shut up, I came looking for you yesterday, but somebody wasn't home." I say responding to his pettiness because we haven't spoke in almost a week. "And speaking of which, thanks for telling me that you had a date with Jake Moore." I say because if he wants to play the petty game, I'm going to win.

            "Would you keep your voice down, I don't want everyone in the entire continent to know." He sarcastically responds.

             "Don't worry, they probably already knew before me too." Like I said I'm really fucking petty.

              "Alright that's enough dramatics, which one of those two told you." He points at his brothers who were across us eating their hearts away.

            "Not me!" Chris raises his hands defensively as he picks up another chicken nugget. I swear he's like an over grown child. Then there's Matt who was avoiding all eye contact giving away the answer to Nick's question.

           "Of course Matt's nosy ass did, and just an fyi I didn't want to tell anyone yet not even them, but they just happened to find out." He explains himself even though I wasn't actually mad at him. Who can truly be mad at Nick, like sure he might trip you on purpose, but you're more likely to laugh with him than be angry at him.

            "Fine, fine." I said waving away the thick air. "But, how was it?" I poke wanting to know all the information, because I don't think there's been something this interesting, since someone in our grade  dropped out because they got pregnant.

            "I'll let you know after the second date." He says with a small smile, which isn't very like Nick. Nick was big with all his expressions and it's cute to see him this way.

            "There's going to be a second date?" I squeal bumping our shoulders as his smile widens even though he tries his best to hide it.

         "You'll be the first to know." He promises as I get giddy with excitement. Seeing him happy after months of seeing him hurt was probably one of the most breath taking scenes I've ever experienced.

         Eli, another senior, slides into the seat next to me. "Are you guys going to the carnival on Sunday?" Eli asks us as he offers me a charming smile.

          Elijah was cute, soft dirty blonde curls, and hazel eyes, he's definitely broken a handful of hearts and for some reason he thinks I'm going to be one of them. Truth be told I don't trust men, and even if I did, it wouldn't be Elijah Stone. However I do love making him think he might have a chance.

"If you're there maybe I'll consider it." I tell him, knowing damn well I'm going to be grounded till June for getting detention for the 6th time since the semester started.

"Gross." Chris acts like he's about to throw up, which almost made me break my facade and laugh, but I kept myself together.

"She's going with us." Matt chimes in, which was kind of unusual because he never really makes the move to speak first. I look over finding him playing with his ring spinning it around with an irritated look on his face.

"Am I now?" I say quirking my eyebrow because I don't remember this being discussed with me.

"Great, save me the last ride at the Ferris wheel why don't ya, gorgeous?" Eli says lifting my chin with his finger so I can see him give me a wink before he walked away.

My god, he's such a sleeze.

"As if." I snort diverting my attention back to Nick who was holding in his laughter.

"Why do you even entertain him?" Nick asks.

"Boredom." I sing out causing him to finally release his laughter a couple seconds in and I can't help but join him.

~~~

"Before you get mad I can explain." I say walking home seeing my sisters in the living room awaiting my arrival, because I'm almost sure they got a call about my detention.

"Go ahead, Amira. Explain." My eldest sister Leena says stiffly stretching my name out in Arabic.

"I was tired and I fell asleep." I said with a shy smile as my other sister Basma gives me a bored expression.

"This is the third time we've got a call that you've fallen asleep during a lesson. We already knew this, what is knew? Mama and Baba entrusted you to us and this is what you're doing, falling asleep during class, running around with those boys, and purchasing anything your heart desires. So, tell me what are we doing wrong?" She says frustrated with my actions that I didn't even know were upsetting her. Leena is usually very easy going especially with me, she has a soft spot for me because she feels bad. So she tries to fill the void with gifts, and conversation.

"Mama and baba didn't entrust me with you, they abandoned me and left you all to take care of me because they decided they didn't want to have kids anymore. There's a difference." I snap not meaning too but sometimes I get hyper sensitive about certain things.

"That's not true Amira. They left you with responsible adults, a huge home and anything money can buy. You don't even realize how fortunate you are". Leena expresses with the same story she's told me a thousand times, I wonder if she ever hears it? The fact that she always repeats herself.

"Right. I'm sorry. I'm wrong. You're right. Is that what you want to hear?" I ask feeling myself being horrible, but right now I couldn't bring myself to care.

"Don't speak to us like that." Basma intervenes giving me a patronizing look which could make my blood boil at this point.

"I don't care what you have to do, sleep earlier. No more weekend rides with the boys. Whatever you need to do, because I do not want to see you get one more detention. Do you understand?" Leena orders although she is the one that makes the most decisions when it comes to me, she somehow is actually the good cop between the two.

I salute to her without a word as I make my way to my room and once I got in I never wanted to come out.

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End of Chapter 2