College is the fresh start Mackenna Baker is hoping for, but her past follows her from the small town she left behind like a ghost. She does her best to ignore them and no matter how hard she tries, she can never seem to actually let them go. Shovin...
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The past three weeks have been a mix of emotions for me.
Things with Mackenna are better, but we're still not there.
She's been away at school in Cheyenne since returning from Thanksgiving break. Despite her agreeing to tell me when she made it back safely, I was still shocked when the text rolled through almost five hours later.
Not going to lie, knowing I got a text message from her before her brother made it all the better too since I was sitting on his porch with him when our phones both went off, mine a solid two minutes earlier.
It's a stepping stone.
The rest of that week she was here for Thanksgiving was full of her avoiding me.
I knew that, and I let her.
Watching her leave hurt, and knowing it was nothing compared to what she must have felt like when I left makes me regret leaving her the more I think about it.
I promised to be here waiting for her when she left and I've kept that promise ten-fold. I told my Lemon Drop I loved her and that I'd be right here and she didn't run from me.
She looked like she wanted to say it back, but something in her beautiful little mind kept her from saying what her heart wanted too.
I mean, she left, but for school, she didn't run away with her tail tucked like I did in March.
That's the difference between us.
I left because I was afraid of what her dad would do and I wanted to keep her safe while she left to further her education and I wasn't going to hold that against her.
Either way, we've been texting a little more and more every day, I send good morning and good night texts when I wake and crawl into bed at the end of the day and respond to any messages in-between she sends. I've grown accustomed to waiting for her answers, especially the morning text messages, but the night ones are usually pretty quick.
I have been trying my damn hardest not to blow up her phone every day, all day. I know she needs space to figure out whatever she needs to work through, but having her even partially back in my life has made me sleep a little better at the end of the day.
This past week and a half or so was a bit all over the place with our communication since she was preparing for her finals. There were nights where she hardly slept and I knew that from when I'd get random texts of nothing making sense from her. I haven't seen her though since she went back to school minus checking the two social media accounts I have. We've followed each other again, but the filters make it hard to see if she's gained any weight back and I can see the drained feeling taking over her.
I know her too well for her to hide from me.
"Stop thinking about my sister and get back to work," Miles grumbles as he bumps into my shoulder.
