stoic

Chapter 13

"Decided to finally sit with us?" Blake joked and I rolled my eyes sitting beside Ella.

"Where were you yesterday?" Jeremiah asked me. "I missed you in lit."

I glanced at Brendan before looking back at Jeremiah, "I wasn't feeling well so I went home."

"I need to pee. Come with?" Ella said and I nodded, following her as she walked out of the caf.

"What actually happened yesterday?" She asked me after checking if all of the cubicles were clear.

I told her what happened in the classroom and how I 'went home and fell asleep.'

"Come on, I know that you didn't just fall asleep." She crossed her arms.

"What do you mean?" I looked at myself in the mirror to avoid her gaze.

"Well, I know Brendan didn't come back after free period and neither did you... I asked him to meet up with you so you two must've been together."

"Yeah... we just hung out at my house for abit. Nothing happened." I bit the side of my cheek and she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Sure." She trailed off and I shook my head and laughed.

•••

I had gym and I was ready to beat Lindsay's ass at volleyball.

"Alright everyone!" Coach said as we all piled into the gym.

"Instead of having two separate games today, we are going to be doing a mixed game of volleyball." He cleared his throat so everyone would stop talking "Team captains are, Brendan and Lindsay. Lindsay choose first."

I roll my eyes before waiting to be called

"Ryder." She called and I heard him grunt before walking over to her.

"Mackenzie." Brendan called and I smiled at him before walking over.

After choosing the teams our team included Jeremiah, Ella and a few other people.

"Let's win this!" Brendan shouted to the team.

We were half way through the game and we were winning by 1 point.

The ball came flying over the net, this time much higher and from above. I waiting for it to come down and just as I did, I hit it with force over the net, making it land on Lindsay's foot.

"YOU BITCH!" She screamed, limping on the wrong foot.

"Keep playing!" The coach yelled and Lindsay scoffed in anger.

Brendan gave me a high five before we continued playing.

5 minutes until the game was about to end and we were 2 points behind thanks to this girl on our team who kept daydreaming and screaming every time the ball came to her.

It was just our luck when the ball came flying towards her and I leaped for it, managing to hit it over the net - I did this twice, enabling us to draw with the other team.

"Game point!" The coach shouted and the tension was building in the room. As the whistle blew everyone was hitting the ball with precision.

The ball started flying towards Brendan and he managed to hit in hard enough and quick enough that Ryder couldn't hit it back in time.

"You're shit at this game!" Lindsay screamed at Ryder making him roll his eyes as the whistle went.

"We won!" Jeremiah said happily making his way back in the changing rooms.

Brendan swung an arm round my shoulders and pulled me to him.

"You're so bad at that game." He said sarcastically and I poked his side.

We stopped outside the locker rooms and I looked up at him.

"I'd tell you what you're bad at but I don't want to damage your poor ego." I winked and he was left with a shocked face.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He said as I walked into the changing rooms leaving me to laugh.

"MACKENZIE!" I heard him shout from the other side of the door.

•••

After getting dressed, Ella and I decided to go to the diner seeing as school was over for the day. When we got outside, Axel was waiting by the wall for Ella.

"Hey," He smiled at her. He had a sparkle in his eye when he spoke to her and his attention was focused on her and her only. He lent down to give her a gentle kiss before looking up at me. "Hi Kenzie." He gave me a small smile before speaking to Ella.

I turned to see Jeremiah walking towards me before grabbing my wrist and pulling me away from Ella and Axel. He seemed out of breath before speaking up.

"Emmitt is looking for you." He took in a deep breath, "Something... about.." He breathed out and in again before leaning on the wall, I chuckled at him before he spoke up again "Ryder? Tim.. I dont know.. but he seemed..." He calmed down abit and looked up at me , "Angry."

"Oh no.." I said under my breath.

"We need to go." Jeremiah said and although this sounded serious, the worry in Jeremiah's voice made me laugh slightly.

Just as we were about to tell Ella that we needed to go, I saw Emmitt and his group walk towards us. I turned on my heel and grabbed Ella's wrist and tried walking away.

"Mackenzie!" Emmitt shouted and I ignored it as we continued walking with Axel and Jeremiah close behind us. "Mackenzie. Don't walk away from me." I scoffed slightly and Ella gave me a confused look.

Just as we were about to turn the corner, Emmitt ran round to come face to face with me.

"Thanks to you, your brother beat the shit out of me." He spat and I looked at the bruise on his jaw and on his eye.

"You brought that on yourself." I crossed my arms, standing my ground.

"If it wasn't for you, going around fucking Ryder and his friends, your brother wouldn't have beat me up."

"What?" I say slightly taken aback.

"Your brother blamed me for our break up saying that if it wasn't for me then you wouldn't be hanging around with these... these outcasts. "

"First of all.. they're way more popular than you and your big headed posse and second of all If you hadn't of cheated on me you wouldn't have gotten beaten up." I took in a breath and studied his face, "but in all honesty, you did have it coming for you."

"What do you even mean by that?"

"You're a jerk to everyone in this school and it's not even occasionally. Go back to playing football and minding your own business like in Freshman year. That's the Emmitt I fell in love with... not this.. this jerk stood infront of me."

"Mackenzie-"

"Can you just leave me alone now? I'm fed up of hearing your bullshit." I spit and walk off past Axel, Jeremiah and Ella.