Dane

Mackenzie is sitting on their front steps waiting for me. She's wearing jeans and a black t-shirt and with her sunglasses on, she looks like she could be posing for an album cover. When she sees my car, she hops to her feet and picks up her backpack. I don't think I ever see her without her backpack.

"Hey!" She sounds very chipper, but something is slightly off. I don't know what, but I've never heard her sound quite so energetic. It seems almost fake.

"Get a good night's sleep?"

She laughs. "Yeah, everyone else was out of the house last night. It was so quiet." She gives me a look. "I'm told you didn't make an appearance at the baseball party."

"Wasn't feeling it." I tell her.

"Huh. That doesn't sound like you." She's not wrong, but I haven't been feeling partying since I started working with her all the time. I think her responsibility is wearing off on me. Plus, I had wanted to feel good when I saw Henry. At least, that's what I tell myself. It definitely was not that Mackenzie had declined her invitation.

Mackenzie stares out the window for a long moment, and I notice that she's bouncing her leg up and down a lot. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm." Mackenzie makes a non-committal noise.

"Mack?" I pull over, because she's staring out the window and even in the corner of my eye, I can see how tense she looks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong." She tells me. "It's just--" She sighs. "No, it's fine."

"Can you please just tell me?" I want to grab her hand, to reassure her that whatever she has to say, it will be okay.

"Edwin texted me." She says. I feel a weird amount of rage at this statement.

"Okay." I say slowly, unsure of where this is going.

"He called me--" Mackenzie puts her head onto the dashboard. "Here." She opens her phone and shoves it into my hand. It's open to the text messages from Edwin. Despite my desire to scroll up and see all the previous conversation, I just read what he had sent the previous night.

Jenna told me about what you've been doing

You've really lowered your standards if you like this Dane guy

I can't believe that I ever went out with you, you disgust me

I know you're fucking him

I know you did it before we even broke up

You're an ugly, cheating whore

I'm glad I never wanted to fuck you, because I shudder to think about who else you've had up in you. Probably the whole fucking baseball team

You're a dirty slut. I hope he gives you a fucking STD

I've met Jenna before, she's also fucked Grant. I briefly wonder how the fuck Jenna knows Edwin, but I know that's really not the important part of this.

"Mackenzie--" I put my hand on her knee, trying to comfort her. She throws her head back into the seat.

"I just can't fucking believe him!" The sudden ferocity of her words startles me, but I find her anger very attractive. I force myself to focus on her words. "Who the fuck does he think he is? Lower my standards?" She hisses. "Fuck Edwin. Like you would be lowering my standards. You're hot and nice and smart." I blush and open my mouth to say thank you, but Mackenzie is not finished. "And I disgust him? What the fuck? I'm just so mad. I can't believe he called me a whore. I'm the least whorey person I know." Mackenzie takes a deep breath.

I take the brief pause to consider if I actually want to say anything. I decide that I don't and that I'd much rather hear Mackenzie keep ranting.

"I'm blocking him. I'm fucking blocking him." She snatches her phone out of my hand and I watch as she blocks Edwin. I stare at her for a long moment, and then give her knee a squeeze.

Mackenzie looks at me, her eyes suddenly losing all their fire. "I'm not a whore, right?"

"Mack, you do not need me to tell you that." I say. "You know that you're not."

"Yeah, I guess, I just--" Mackenzie sighs. "Words hurt. And I know he's wrong. But it still--" She searches for words for a moment. "Stung."

"He's an asshole, Mack."

"I know."

"Come here." And I awkwardly reach across the center console and give her a hug. It's uncomfortable with the angle, but I power through it. She smells like lavender, and I have to try hard not to be creepy and take a massive inhale through my nose. For the millionth time, I wish that I didn't find everything about her so damn likable.

"Thanks, Dane." She lets go of me and before I can do anything stupid, we start off down the road again. "Sorry if I made us late."

"No worries. Henry is late to everything always."

The silence is comfortable as I drive us to lunch. Mackenzie leans her head against the window and watches the houses fly past. When we arrive, I see Henry's rental car is already parked. I also see Noah's car.

I had met Henry for a super early breakfast that he'd brought me before practice. It had been awfully considerate, but he'd claimed it had been because he couldn't sleep.

When we walk in, Henry, Jadyn, and Noah are all sitting together in a wrap around booth. Given the space, it looks like Mackenzie and I are going to be jammed together.

"Dane!" Jadyn is sitting on the end, and he gets up and gives me a hug. I hug him back but all I can think is that Mackenzie is a better hugger and that was comparing the awkward hug that we'd had in my fucking car.

"Hey, man." I say, patting him on the back a couple of times.

"Good to see you. You're looking fit, as always." Jadyn smiles and turns back to Henry. "This is why you should play baseball, hon. For that hot baseball body."

"J, I would have to work out for 40 hours a week to look like Dane."

"Worth it." Jadyn mutters to us. Mackenzie is standing awkwardly behind me, and I know that she's waiting to be introduced.

"This is Mackenzie." I say, putting my arm behind her and scooting her forward. The move seems oddly intimate. I mentally slap myself, because I literally cannot stop thinking about everything with her being a couple thing.

"You must be Jadyn." Mackenzie says, sticking out her hand. "Nice to meet you." Mackenzie gives Jadyn a big smile as he shakes her hand.

Mackenzie steps into the booth and scoots over to be closer to Noah and give me room. She and Henry shake hands over the table. Noah peers around Mackenzie and gives me a questioning look. I wonder what he sees that indicates to him that he should be looking at me like I've done something, but it unnerves me that he somehow always knows.

We've barely gotten settled when Henry opens his mouth again. I already know he's going to say something I'm going to regret. "So, Mackenzie. You're not what I was expecting."

Mackenzie snorts. "Yeah?"

"You're just not Dane's usual type."

"We're not--" I start, looking at Mackenzie.

"We're not dating." She says, nodding. "But I am curious what you were expecting."

"Well--" Henry begins. I'm already ready to reach across the table and slap him.

"Henry, you don't need to harass the poor girl when you've only just met her." Jadyn says.

"I was just going to say someone meaner." Henry says defensively. Mackenzie smiles and tilts her head. "And someone dumber."

"You don't know if I'm dumb or not." Mackenzie points out.

"Well, you are friends with Dane, so I guess that's a good point." Henry teases her. I tense a little, hoping that Mackenzie doesn't get offended, she's only just met Henry.

Mackenzie just smiles, and pats me on the knee under the table. "So how did you guys become friends? Are you in the same classes?" Jadyn asks.

"No, he insulted my boyfriend, now my ex, in the library, and then a couple of days later asked me for tutoring help." Mackenzie looks amused.

"Wow, asking for help. Good for you." Henry actually looks proud of me and I feel myself relax a little.

"We're so proud of him." Noah reaches over Mackenzie to punch me in the shoulder. I glare at him. "All grown up."

"Noah, your arms are unnaturally long." Makenzie grabs his arm and shoves it back towards him. Noah looks at her, acting offended.

"I grew those myself, thank you very much."

"You should've stopped a couple of inches ago." Makenzie shoots back.

"I thought we were friends. And now you're insulting me like this?"

"I thought I might have a modicum of personal space." Makenzie motions around her body in the tiny amount of space that we've left for her.

"Modicum? Who are you?" Noah asks.

Makenzie turns her nose up and looks at me, as if expecting me to weigh in on this debate. Luckily, the waitress arrives and saves me from having to do anything. I feel Mackenzie elbow Noah in the ribs and hear him mutter under his breath. "Ouch. Fuck."

"What are we having today?" The waitress makes direct eye contact with me, ignoring the rest of the table. I feel a weird mixture of emotions as she looks me over. Usually, I would give her a grin and lightly flirt with her, because she's pretty cute. And I would expect her to give me her number after we ate. Instead, I feel mildly uncomfortable because I don't want to give Mackenzie any impression that I'm interested in someone else. Because that's totally the way I should be thinking about my tutor.

I can't help myself, I look down and away towards Jadyn, who clearly has caught that this is not my norm because he gives me a surprised look.

"I'll go first." Mackenzie says when I don't say anything. "Can I have the Avocado Eggs Benedict, and also a chocolate chip pancake?"

The waitress removes her gaze from me and looks at Mackenzie. I look at Mackenzie too, because I know that I have to tease her about this. "A chocolate chip pancake?" I whisper to her as Noah orders.

"I just really like pancakes." She mutters defensively.

"Your food choices never cease to amaze, Mack." I give her a small smile, aware that our faces are inches apart. "Surprised you didn't just get a stack."

"That would make my tummy hurt."

I snicker. "Your tummy?"

"It's your turn to order." She says instead of replying. I turn to the waitress, and place my order, and then turn back to Mack.

"Your tummy?" I repeat.

She rolls her eyes and turns dramatically to my brother. "So what do you do, Henry?" She asks politely. They start a conversation and Noah gives me a knowing look.

"Stop." I mouth at him.

"You like her." He mouths back.

I glare at him, praying that he doesn't say that phrase at any sort of volume. Luckily, even though Mackenzie is in the middle of us, she's animatedly talking to my brother about his engineering career, and definitely ignoring the two of us. Jadyn is definitely watching me and Noah glare at each other. Scratch that, I'm glaring and Noah is making suggestive faces.

"Let it go." I lean back and mutter behind Mackenzie's back.

"Never." Noah gives me a satisfied grin and rejoins the conversation.