Tragic Magic 2: Black Magic [boyxboy]

Chapter Nine

'I know you want to skip,' Tristan said sympathetically as he dropped me off at school the following morning - even though I hadn't said anything, I guess I was making it pretty obvious with my body language - 'but I have some five- and ten-year plans for us and they all involve you graduating and us going to university together so I can't encourage that.'

I squinted at him in the sunshine, even though I was wearing my sunglasses. 'Long term plans, huh?'

Tristan scratched the back of his head and looked at the sky, pretending to ponder. 'They recently legalised gay marriage in this country, didn't they?'

I nodded, trying not to smile.

'Hm. I'll have to make some adjustments.' He turned back to me, dropping the act and grinning. 'See you later?'

'Count on it,' I told him, slightly cheered, before leaning over the kiss him goodbye.

'Hey,' he said, as I opened the passenger side door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. 'I love you.'

'Love you too,' I said, grinning, and feeling somewhat heartened enough to face the day, even though I knew there was a strong likelihood that I would be eating my lunch alone in the library like some loser transfer kid.

Worse. Axel was a loser transfer kid, and he'd be eating lunch with my friends.

Stifling a groan, I hoisted my backpack a little higher and took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders and making my way into the school and to my locker.

I was borderline astonished when I saw Mackenzie standing by it, fidgeting nervously and obviously waiting for me.

'What do you want?' I asked flatly, but, like, not in a mean way, as I opened my locker and started exchanging the books I'd needed for the homework I hadn't done with the ones I needed for my morning classes.

Mackenzie took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to meet mine before saying, 'It wouldn't.'

I frowned at her. 'What?'

'What you said yesterday. Whether it would be enough for me if you got somebody who'd been really mean to me to ignore me instead, and all the other stuff about being ostracised and everything. It wouldn't be enough. I'd be furious and hurt and honestly, Cody, I don't know why the hell you've put up with us for so long because I sure as hell wouldn't have. We've been absolutely horrible to you. We didn't mean to - I mean, Katherine probably meant to, but I sure didn't, but that's not an excuse. And I'm really sorry I got mad at you when you called me out on it, I just felt... Guilty, and defensive, and I didn't want to admit to myself that I was capable of being so terrible to somebody I love as much as I love you. You're like my best friend and I've been up all night thinking about how shitty I've been and I'm just so sorry. And I also feel like the only reason you snapped yesterday was because you tried to talk to me and I just walked away from you, and now the others are mad at you and it's all my fault and-'

'Jesus, Mac,' I muttered, putting my hands on her shoulders and lowering my head down to her level to force her to make eye contact. 'Take a breath.'

She broke off and inhaled shakily and I noticed she was crying.

'Jesus,' I said again, pulling her into me and letting her press her face into my chest while I hugged her. She wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tightly. 'Man up, would you?' I muttered, and I felt her shoulders shake as she laughed weakly. 'Look,' I said, when she pulled away, wiping her eyes, 'I'm not gonna say the past few months haven't been kind of shit, because they have, but I really appreciate the apology, okay? Don't beat yourself up over it. And it's not your fault I snapped at Katherine. I snapped at Katherine because, well, you may not like hearing this, but she kind of deserved it. I'm done with being the doormat for her insecurity.'