Too Close for Comfort

Summer: Day 24

Summer: Day 24

Kylar's POV:

Sometimes you force yourself to believe something that isn't true just to save yourself from what actually may be. That's what I do with Mackenzie. I force myself to think Mackenzie isn't doing anything behind my back—because I love her. She's my best friend. She is someone who I've learned to trust over the years.

My brother though, I have never learned to trust him. Family is instant trust, and believe me, my family is all but trustworthy.

Maybe with the exception of my mom.

I knock on Mackenzie's front door and she opens it right away.

"Oh hey," she says, pulling me into a hug as a greeting.

I inhale the scent of her hair and sigh in contentment. "This is some place you got here."

She shrugs. "You could say that."

"How'd you even get it with such short notice?" I ask, walking into the apartment when she lets me in.

"Oh, Zachariah got it for me... as, um, as an early birthday gift." Mackenzie looks up at me and it breaks my heart seeing how much love for him she has in her eyes.

I just don't understand this. She's more in love with him than she's ever been. She can't hide it, and honestly, I don't know how much longer I can hold in my own affection for her before I explode.

She loves him. And I know he loves her.

Maybe I could let it go—

No. I can't just let her go. I can't, not like how he let her go. That's why we're in this mess.

"He got you an apartment for your birthday?" I say, bewildered. "Like seriously?"

She nods happily. "Yeah, but I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

She twiddles with her fingers, never looking me in the eyes. "I don't know what it means for us."

Is she for real right now? Zachariah is completely and utterly in love with her, and here I am standing around and letting it happen. "He did get laid the other day, Mack. Don't get your hopes up."

She turns a bright pink and starts nervously biting her lip. "He really didn't get laid, Kylar."

"I don't want to argue about this again," I say with a hurt tone. "The arguing is eating me alive."

"So if I tell you something, you promise not to get mad?" Mackenzie finally lifts her head; her irises meet mine and I melt. She has such reassuring eyes.

"Okay, I promise."

"Are you sure?" Oh no, what has she done this time?

I nod. "Positive."

She takes a long drag of air, building up the tension so it's almost unbearable. "I kissed him—"

I hold up one of my hands to stop her from talking. "Okay, what?"

"I'm the one who gave him the hickies," she explains, her face heating up again but her eyes as innocent as ever. "Corey was making fun of him for not getting laid in the past two years, but Zach's already explained to me why he hasn't, so I kissed him. It made Corey back off." She drops her head. "Please don't be mad. I love him, I couldn't see him suffer like that."

I take a second to process her words. My train of thought as follows:

How does she know how to give hickies? Since when did my brother not have sex? Why were they talking about his sex life in the first place? Why did she have to kiss him? And why the hell does she have to be in love with him?