The Darling Boys (Rose Award Winner) (#Wattys2017)

The Curious Incident Of A Sienna In The Night-Time

Friday swung around so quickly that I barely had enough time to come up with an excuse for why I wouldn't be showing up at the party next door tonight.

A small part of me did want to go, to be at the party for once instead of watching it through my dewy window. The bigger part of me, the one that always tried to think logically, knew better than to let that small part of me get its way.

"Looks like the boys are throwing another party," Mom commented when I walked into the living room, tying my hair in a tight ponytail. I nodded, ready to respond when she continued, "Those boys are so sporty and fun. Could they get any better?" I had given up on trying to convince Mom that those boys were he-devils years ago. She always looked at everything and everyone with a bright, optimistic outlook, something I wish I could have inherited from her, but sadly got the exact opposite.

"Why don't you go join them, Sienna? Isn't one of the Darling boys in that Math Club thing with you?"

"Yeah, Mom. But it doesn't matter. I'm not a party person." I replied, rubbing my cold arm as I stared at the kids piling into the Darling's front yard.

"Have you ever been to a party?" She questioned, going back to rolling out the dough on the board in front of her.

"No, but-"

"Sweetheart, you can't say you don't like something if you haven't tried it." I hated my mom for being so smart and logical.

After asking if she needed any help, to which she only gave me a quick smile and nodded toward the party outside in response to, I headed to the living room and flopped down on the couch.

"Sienna, love! Would you please go get the spray bottle from the wall beside the plants outside?" Mom called after a few minutes of channel surfing. I groaned internally, prying myself off the couch.

The plants just had to be out by the pool.

I grabbed Sammy's robe from where it was hung on the door knob outside of room before hurrying toward the front door.

My eyes immediately darted to the Darling's open front door, at the loads of kids pouring in and out of it, as if it were just as much their house as it was the boys'.

Trying to keep myself in the shadows behind my house was fairly easy, considering everyone that was actually out by the pool were either ready to have sex in it or too busy talking and getting high to actually see the figure in a hoodie walking along the wall.

"Sienna, hey!" I cursed under my breath and straightened myself out so I looked more like a girl in her older brother's Marvel robe than the Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

"Hey, Robbie." I waved, ducking my head quickly so my hair fell over my face.

I was still in my Ninja Turtle Pajamas and I was terrified he'd be able to see them under my robe.

"You didn't show up to school today." He said, "And you said you'd be at the party." He looked confused. I shrugged, reaching up to tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear.

"I'm sick." I lied.

The reality of things had been that today had been one of the only days that we were allowed to visit Dad, and mom wouldn't let the fact that I didn't really want to see him go, I had been forced to go.

"Oh." He muttered, "Do you need some company on your long escapade back to your front door?" He joked, earning a strange look rather than a laugh out of me.