Attention Runner-Up

Chapter 23

Having Mackenzie suddenly back in my life is bringing back a lot of old feelings and memories. I found myself staring at my phone, Aphrodite's name staring back at me. If I wasn't such a coward, I would just call her.

I guess I should catch you guys up on what has happened to me over the course of two years. Senior year started off with a bang. After Florida everything was perfect. We all stayed close and became the best of friends. I stayed in touch with Lexi. But towards the middle of the year, around the time Aphrodite and I had gotten back together we all just started drifting apart again.

Jade and Skylar had their drama with Cassidy. I stayed out of it. Aphrodite sort of wanted me all to herself, not that I was complaining, it was just a change of pace from the new normal I had gotten used to. Wini and Demarcus broke up, which was awkward and sort of forced everyone to pick sides. That's when it really started falling apart.

Kenzie just stopped hanging out with everyone after she met her...

Jean Doyle.

Aka the abusive bitch, who will most likely get my fist to her face if I ever see her again. I don't know the whole story but I can still remember when I met Jean. Short spiky black hair, lightly freckled cheeks, soft grey eyes with specks of brown. Pale skin. Very butch. Sort of muscular, average height. Always wore her shirts tucked in.

She has this loud obnoxious laugh that always made my eye twitch. Always had to talk over people. If we didn't laugh at her jokes, she would keep bringing it up until Kenzie laughed with her.

Just thinking of her makes me nauseous. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was Skylar who said something to Kenzie about Jean first. About how Jean rubbed her the wrong way. After that Kenzie just stopped coming around, and never brought Jean around either.

I didn't think much of it at the time.

The rest of that year was pretty shaky at best. Graduation was fun. Summer was even better, I got to be with Lexi again, we went on another fun vacation, this time with Wini. I applied to several colleges. So did Aphrodite.

I got into Stanford, she got into Cambridge, in England.

She hadn't even told me she applied there.

We got into this big argument. I was so mad that she was just leaving me again. She didn't want to break up with me, said we could do long-distance. I basically told her fuck you and broke up with her. It wasn't what I really wanted, I was just so hurt and betrayed at the time.

She said if I ever changed my mind just call.

I never called.

I still feel like shit because of it.

I've lost all connection with Aphrodite once again. After that, Lexi and I started hanging out a lot more. She moved in with me as we moved to California. She was able to get into Stanford too by a miracle after we spent night after night studying and convincing the school to let her apply late.

One thing quickly led to another between us and before I knew it, I was madly in love with the girl. Of course, as you may have guessed, that also went downhill fast. Lexi is so hot and cold. I love her, but the girl drives me crazy! And not in a good way.

We're trying to make it work. As I've said before, it's complicated.

So there you have it, a summary of everything that happened. Every major event anyway. Well, not everything. A few days ago Kenzie calls me out of the blue, I didn't even recognize the number and only answered because I was expecting a call from this internship I applied to. She was all weird and whispering, asking if she could crash at my place. Even though I am like a whole state over from where she was in Oregon. I said sure, and the next thing I know she showed up with all her stuff.