She Won't Be Lonely Long

Chapter 15: Busted Lip

The kiss started soft and sweet. Jaden’s hand cupped her face. Her left hand was on his waist. He deepened the kiss moving his hands into her hair. All of Sienna’s stress seemed to fade away when they kissed. The pressure of getting good grades and scholarships fell to the side.

They both seemed to get lost in the kiss. Jaden eventually broke the kiss, breathing heavily. He rested his forehead against hers. His eyes were closed as he took another deep breath before looking up into her eyes.

“God, you are just way too good looking.” He breathed.

“Oh shush,” Sienna said, pulling away embarrassed.

“And you still suck at taking compliments,” Jaden said, pulling her back to him. “Why is your first instinct to pull away from me?”

“I don’t know. It just feels safer to pull away before you pull away from me.” She replied, biting her lip.

“You have got to stop doing that.” Jaden pulled her lip from her teeth with his thumb. “And I have no plans to go anywhere.”

He pulled her tight against his chest.

“You can’t promise you will never leave.” Sienna said. She said it more for herself than for him. She needed to remember, nobody was permanent. The thought of connecting with someone and then having them leave again terrified her.

“I guess I will have to prove it to you.” Jaden said, into her hair.

Sienna took a calming deep breath and snuggled into his chest. His arms were wrapped around her. She was doing her best to live in the moment and not worry about the future. The last thing she remembered was thinking about how comfortable it felt for him to hold her in his arms.

She woke the next morning well rested but alert. Slightly glad, she was waking up alone. Her mom would not be impressed with a boy staying overnight in her bed. Though, she thought waking up with him would be quite enjoyable. She shook the thought from her head and got ready for a weekend of softball. There would be a lot of college scouts at the tournament this weekend and she needed to focus.

Sienna returned from softball Sunday night a little worse for wear. Stealing second based, she had been tagged in the face by the shortstop. The impact of the tag broke a tooth and busted her lower lip. The good news was she was safe.

She also had ended up with a couple bruised ribs. Sienna was out in left field and ran back for a ball. With her eyes on the ball, she never saw the outfield fence and had ran right into it, her arm outstretched. Her ribs slammed right into the yellow fence roll. And sadly, the ball had landed another foot past where she could reach.

Regardless of her injuries, she had played really well. Hopefully she left the college coaches with a good impression of her willingness to go all out.

Her mom was making an emergency dentist appointment for first thing in the morning and she was sure she’d be out of school all morning. She hated missing school.

Jaden had stayed at Stephen’s the night before. She hadn’t seen him since Friday night. Just a few short texts both days. Now with missing part of school, she would be separated from him even longer. She figured maybe they could talk on the phone after her shower.

She sent him a quick ‘We should talk after my shower’ text. Then, she took a long hot shower to ease the ache of her muscles and her ribs.

By the time she was done with her shower and dressed, she had received four messages from Jaden.

Jaden: Hey what’s up?

Jaden: What’s wrong?

Jaden: Is it serious?

Jaden: I’m coming over.

Sienna had not meant to freak him out, and she was self-conscious about him seeing her face. She was 100% a chipped tooth and a fat lip was not attractive. But the thought of seeing him had her giddy.

She made her way to the kitchen and retrieved an ice pack for her face. She had big plans to hid behind it when he arrived.

It was not long before there was a knock at the door. She opened it slowly and was engulfed in Jaden’s arms. She whimpered as he squeezed too tight. His arms dropped, as he pushed her away to look at her. She grimaced behind the ice pack.

“Are you okay? Are we okay?” Jaden asked, looking her up and down.

“I’m fine. We are fine. I got slightly injured and my face is jacked up.” She replied, turning to go sit on the couch. He followed and quickly sat next to her.

“Let me see,” he asked, trying to move her hand away from her face.

“No, I’m hideous.” She said, holding steady with her hand in front of her face.

“You could never be hideous.” He said seriously. She slowly lowered the ice pack. Her bottom lip was cut and pretty swollen. “It does not look that bad.”

“Thanks,” she said sarcastically before putting the ice pack back against her lip.

“I’m serious. You are still beautiful,” Jaden smiled sincerely. “Now do I need to check out the rest of you and doctor you up?”

He was smirking now. She swatted at him, instant regret aching from her ribs at the sudden movement. The intake of breath at her own pain had him pitying her.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” Jaden said, serious once again.

“It is just a couple of bruised ribs. It will be fine.” Sienna replied, taking his hand into hers.

“Is that fine, like I’m fine but I’m dying or I’m fine and good.” He asked, the edge of a smirk playing on his lips.

“I’m good, in some pain but good.”

“Okay. So, what’s up? Why the scary text?” Jaden redirected.

“I was just going to tell you I would not be at school tomorrow morning.” Sienna said, tracing the lines on his palm.

“Man, I thought you were going to break up with me!” Jaden sighed relieved.

“Did you do something bad?” Sienna asked curiously.

“Not yet.” Jaden winked at her before pulling her against him.

“Whoa there. My mouth is jacked. There will be no kissing until this is fixed. Perhaps just a little cuddle.” Sienna said, he’d been angling to kiss her.

“How long until I can kiss you again?” Jaden whined.

“Probably Tuesday,” she said and he pouted. “I will be numb most of tomorrow and still swollen.”

“Fine,” he said, lightly pulling her against his chest. His arms wrapping around her gently, and she snuggled into his chest.

The two of them sat cuddled together for a while discussing the weekend. Finally, Jaden bid her goodnight and left Sienna to go to bed.