Attention Runner-Up

Chapter 33

The initial grace period after Aphrodite left back to England and Lexi still needed time before she could be around me again was the worst. I felt so lost. So alone. I felt frustrated and confused and angry at myself.

If it wasn't for Kenzie I'm sure I would have gone crawling back to Lexi yet again. Just like I always do. Lucky for me, or maybe Unlucky for Kenzie. She hit a few speed bumps and her problems allowed me to ignore my own.

She was still struggling to find some type of job. She applied all over the place but wasn't getting any bites. This was for a few reasons. First, the only work experience she had was the few months she worked at Smoothie King that summer after high school. She had a high school diploma but she dropped out of college and that didn't help her much. She just didn't have anything going for her. No experience, no education, nothing.

The more time passed, the more frustrated and useless she felt. She began to stress clean my apartment, even going into my room and bathroom. She aggressively reorganized all the books on my shelf and I swear to you this girl somehow cleaned all the windows of my apartment. Even on the outside. Mind you, we are on the seventh floor.

It went too far when I caught her scrubbing my toilet.

"Mackenzie," I said from the doorway.

I'd just come back from school.

She flinched at the sound of my voice.

"Oh, sorry. I'm almost done." She started scrubbing faster.

"Mackenzie! Stop!" I grab her by the shoulders.

She eyed me in confusion.

"Girl, I can clean my own toilet. I swear to you, it's clean. You got it. This whole apartment looks better than when I moved in."

"Oh... sorry..." she averted her eyes in embarrassment.

I sighed and kneeled down next to her, pulling her hands away from the toilet and forcing her to put down the toilet brush.

"Want to talk about what this is really all about?" I looked into her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, either you think I'm a filthy slob, or..."

"Oh! No! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just... I was... I clean when I'm stressed."

"You don't say?" I smirk.

She huffed.

"Come on," I picked her up off the floor and pulled her out of my bathroom.

"Where are we going?"

"You are going to relax and talk to me before you inhale so much bleach I have to take you to the hospital."

I sat her on the couch and pulled out my phone and handed it to her after opening a food delivery service app.

"Order whatever you want, even if it's from multiple places. We are going to stress eat and get stuff off our chest."

"No Darleen I can't—" she tried to hand me my phone back.

"Order." I grabbed her hand and forced her to hold on to my phone.

She pouted and looked at me.

I eyed her expectantly.

She huffed again before scrolling through the app.

"Did you see Lexi today?" she asks as she begins to order something.

"Yeah," I sigh and lay back on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

"Well?"

"She's still upset. She can't even look at me. I tried talking to her yesterday, but she completely ignored me. She texted me last night that she still needs some time."