The Line Drive

twenty-eight

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.