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“I guess I did,” I say softly.
Holy shit.
It’s all finally coming together. And unlike when I thought about teaching, this feels right, exciting.
Rae’s fingers brush mine. “And you know the best part? That means we’ll be in a bunch of classes together. Besides just shitty statistics,” she huffs.
I laugh and then meet her eyes. “That would be a big bonus.”
Oh shit, we’re doing it again.
Blurred lines. Always blurred fucking lines. It doesn’t matter how hard we try or how many times we say we’re just friends, you can’t turn off chemistry. You can’t turn off love.
She moves a little closer, her eyes locked on me. My blood pumps faster.
Son of a bitch.
“Rae, I—”
The door flies open and smacks the wall. Then I hear hysterical crying.
Rae jumps off the couch. “Mackie! What happened? What’s wrong?”
I whip my head around as the door shuts, and Rae leads her over to the couch and gently sits her down.
“Hey, what happened?” I ask softly, pulling the blanket over her as Rae sits down next to her, sandwiching her between the two of us.
Mackie takes a big, stuffy breath and sobs out, “She’s dating someone.”
Rae’s eyes flit to me for a second as she asks what neither of us wants to. Because we both already know the answer.
“Who?”
“Hyla!” she wails.
It’s official. I haveneverseen Mackie like this. And even though I know breakups happen—obviously—I’m already insanely angry at Hyla.
“What happened?” Rae asks, rubbing Mackenzie’s back.
Mackie shakes her head as she cries. “She kept putting off telling her parents. I was trying to be understanding and agreed we could wait until summer. She was supposed to visit me this weekend, but ever since we got back to school, she’s been distant. Then she canceled the visit, saying she had too many exams the following week. I let her do it. Still, I told her I loved her. We’d been saying it since Thanksgiving. She didn’t say it back. I tried not to be too pushy. God, I sound like such an idiot! I’ve been loving someone who doesn’t love me back!”
I gently squeeze her leg. “I think she loves you.”
“Then what the fuck is this?” She opens her phone and angrily scrolls her Instagram account until she finds the picture she’s looking for. Then she slams the phone into my hand. Rae looks over her shoulder and we both see a picture of Hyla kissing some douche named Grant with the caption underneath reading,Finally made me his girlfriend.There are a bunch of nauseating heart-eye emojis after that.
I turn the screen off and set it down.
“I’ve called and texted her a bunch this week. Since I saw that, I called four times. Texted a bunch. She hasn’t responded to me since last week. She said she loved me, ghosted me, then started dating someone else. Didn’t even have the courtesy to break up with me! Bitch!” she screams toward her phone, then collapses into Rae’s arms, crying again.
Rae leans against the couch and squeezes Mackie tightly, then looks at me over Mackie’s head and mouths,brownies, in the freezer.
I nod and head for the kitchenette, whipping out my phone as I go. Before I open the freezer door, I fire off a text.
Me: Hyla ghosted Mackie and started dating some guy. Girls’ room. Now.
I shove my phone back in my pocket and grab the brownies from the freezer. I dump them on a plate and quickly microwave them, then bring them over to the girls.
Rae picks one up and holds it up for Mackie to take a bite, sweeping Mackie’s tangled brown curls away from her face with the other hand. She’s so damn good at taking care of people.
