28

Sienna couldn't get Damien's words out of her mind. To be fair, it was a refreshing change of pace to constantly daydreaming about Adrian.

She knew her younger brothers were adopted as she had been there during the adoption process. Could she be adopted also?

The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. She had thought about it in the past, but pushed it aside and made peace with it, assuring herself it didn’t matter either way.

As she pottered about the kitchen, searching for snacks, her mother arrived to replenish the stocks. She dropped two carrier bags and sighed, rubbing the handle marks on her hands.

Packets of her brother’s favourite crisps slipped onto the tiles. As she bent to pick them up, Sienna saw her mother bad also bought marshmallows and squirty cream for her hot chocolates.

"Mum," she blurted. "Am I adopted?"

Silence rang as her mother paused in her efforts to shove the shopping into drawers.

"Oh, Sweetie," she said at last. "I've been waiting for the right time to tell you."

"I'm eighteen." Sienna frowned. "How long were you going to wait?"

Her Mum squeezed the cellophane-wrapped bread in her hands, frozen for a moment before placing it by the toaster and ushering Sienna into the living room.

The pair sat on the sofa, knees facing each other, as her mother explained that she was infertile and decided to adopt instead of taking the IVF route because she wanted to give a child the gift of a loving home. Sienna had been five years old, almost six, when she had been placed into the care of the people she now knew as Mum and Dad.

"What do you know about my real parents?" Sienna asked.

"Nothing," her Mum said.

Sienna shook her head, not accepting this. Damien had seemed to know something about them, so how could her mother possibly be in the dark.

"You must know something—" Sienna argued.

"That isn't how it works," her mother interrupted her. "Those details aren't given to the new families."

"Then how come Damien knows something?" Sienna asked.

Her mother shook her head, genuinely confused. "Who's Damien?"

"A kid at my school. He's kind of a freak but he's clever and his parents are rich," Sienna said, trying to explain Damien in a way that her Mum would understand.

"I have no idea, Sweetheart," Mum said. "Maybe he is messing with you. Some cruel joke. Kids these days can be awful."

Sienna made a scoffing sound. She knew how awful kids could be because she was one of the awful ones. Maybe her mother was right, and it was just a mind game. A very messed up one.

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and jumped up, seeing Adrian had summoned her. Her excitement overtook any emotions she felt about her adoption.

"Get here in ten minutes," it said, prompting her to rush off despite her Mum's protests that they needed to discuss this further.

"We'll talk later," she shouted as she closed the door behind her and half-walked, half-ran to Scarlett's house.

When she got to Scarlett's room, she found Damien and the other lads were there, lined up on the sofa next to Adrian. Damien was holding the acoustic guitar that usually gathered dust in the corner.

He played an abrasive sounding little tune, singing along with no musical ability.

"Swastikas and Klan robes.
Sexist, racist homophobes.
This one's for the Master Race.
My brown-power ass in your white-power face.

Kill them all and let a Norse god sort 'em out!"

"Nice," Sienna commented, frowning as Damien placed the guitar back down.

"You disagree with the sentiment?" Damien asked.

"Erm," Sienna shrugged, not wanting to get into an argument about something he would invariably know more about. "No. I agree. It's just... abrasive."

"So, Sienna," Adrian interrupted, not interested in their conversation. "I've been hearing some pretty unsavoury things about your past and I'm frankly disgusted by you."

He turned up his nose as he looked down at her, as if to illustrate his point.

'What could it be?' she wondered, feeling her heart sink. Suddenly a pain spiked in her stomach as her panic rose. Was is possible he’d dump her over some ridiculous past foible?

"Damien was telling me about the time you got your male friends to pin him down and force-feed him a hamburger," Adrian interrupted, looking at her like she was the worst human being on the planet.

'Damn it, Damien!!' she thought angrily. She'd only done it because he'd made her look like a complete idiot in front of the gorgeous substitute teacher she'd been desperately trying to seduce. Now that she thought about it, it was a gross overreaction and a horrible thing to do.

"I'm really sorry, Damien," she said, looking down.

"That's not good enough," Adrian told her. "Get down on your knees and apologise properly because if he doesn't forgive you, I want you gone."

Sienna's eyes jarred open wide, shocked by the anger in his voice. She lowered her head and took a deep breath before lowering herself to a kneeling position.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "It was a really shitty thing to do. I... I was wrong. I'm sorry. Please forgive me."