BETTER OFF

7

KENZIE

"Okay I know you don't want to see people from high school," Macey says walking into my room the next night.

"I'm not going," I cut her off.

She's already dressed for the party, jean shorts that show of her long legs, a white tank top that's got lace lining the straps and neckline. She's got on her own little diamond necklace that matches the one hanging around my neck.

"Let me finish," she sasses, "We only have a week together. And I fucking miss you! I want to hang out with my sister."

She walks over to my bed and sits on the edge and her tone changes when she says, "I'm not used to you being so far away. I feel like you're forgetting about me."

Fuck, I didn't even think about how she's been handling this. We've been attached at the hip since birth. We're basically the same person. Like we had our first kiss on the same night in eighth grade, our first date was a double date together!

"Mace, I'm sorry," I sit up, "I didn't know you felt that way."

"I didn't want to tell you because you're having so much fun in California, I didn't want you to worry about me." She sighs. "Please come tonight, we can leave as soon as you want to. I just wanna have a fun night with my sister."

I nod, "I'll go, do you have another preroll?"

She smirks and pulls a black tube from her bra, "Of course I do!"

I laugh then say, "Let me change and throw on some makeup."

"Brandon's picking us up at ten," she says getting up and leaving my room.

-

"Fuck," I mumbled as I follow Macey and Brandon into the party.

Why did I agree to this? Oh yeah, because I love my sister.

I pull on the bottom of my shorts, and adjust my t-shirt. I've got it tucked in the front but hanging loose in the back. It's a Dallas Cowboys shirt from when Dad first joined the team in the 90's. It's one of my favorite t-shirts because it's big and baggy, it's like a comfort shirt.

I don't even notice Macey stop in front of me. I almost run into her but she puts her hands on my shoulders so we don't collide.

"If you get uncomfortable just tell me."

"Just find me some alcohol."

"On it!" She takes one of my hand, and leads us towards the laughter echoing from the backyard.

"The twins!" Jason cheers from where he's standing at the pong table. Jason and Brandon were on the soccer team together.

"Hello!" Macey basically bounces away, waving to the group. I slowly follow behind her. I'm not high or drunk enough for this. We shared the joint in the car on the way here and took a few shots before leaving the house. But nothings hitting yet.

I do a scan of the party. There's not a ton of people but there's a group playing pong, a few people sitting in a circle sharing a joint and a group right outside the open barn doors sitting around a fire. I recognize all of them and I wish I didn't.

The best part of being in California is that no one knows my past. No one knows about the crash, about Logan, no one whispers about me being stupid because of everything he did, no one pities me. But here they know, they know it all. They all whispered about me behind my back, they called me stupid and I can still see a few of them looking at me, talking about me like I'm not here.