I Will Never Love You~Jenzie

22. I'm Down.

Mackenzie

"Kenzie what is it?" Johnny said from next to me. I turned to him and sighed. I didn't say it out loud, only thought it in my head. "I can't, Johnny, I can't tell you guys." I replied and he looked down to his lap before taking a deep breath and looking back up at me. "Okay, that's alright. You'll tell us when you're ready, right?" I nodded and he flashed a small smile before bringing my hand up to his face and kissing it softly. My heart fluttered at the feeling and when he stood up I wanted to convince him not to leave. "Guys can I talk to everyone downstairs?" Johnny asked and everyone nodded, said their goodbyes to me, and walked out the door.

Johnny

"We're not letting this go." I stated as soon as everyone was seated on the couches. I stood in front of them with my arms folded across my chest. They all nodded and I kept going. "Hayden, you're the only one who knows what's going on, correct?" he nodded again before wiping his eyes to stop the flow of more tears. "I know you can't tell us, and that's okay, but we are still going to protect her." They all nodded again. "Absolutely," Conner said and stood up. "Kenzie might not tell us but we are still going to do everything in our power to make sure she's safe. Now that there's more of us, we can do that." I looked over to Conner and smiled at him, he nodded back to me with a smile and it felt like we formed a bond. "Exactly," Brynn chimed in, "Mackenzie is our best friend, we protect her with our lives." Everyone nodded once more. "Hayden?" Lauren said and he turned to look at her. "Can you just give us a little background of what's going on? We can't really protect her if we don't know who or what we're protecting her from." Hayden's face twisted into a look of pure anger as he clenched his fists. "I, I can't." he said sharply, "She'll hate me if I do and I can't break her trust. I love her, I can't do that to her even if it's what's right. I can't lose her again." My head whipped around to the sound of "I love her." After I couldn't find Mackenzie after school I freaked out, I looked everywhere for her but I couldn't find her. I wrangled up all of our friends and we all went home and sure enough, there she was, sleeping peacefully. Hayden explained everything that happened between him and Mackenzie before we woke her up, I didn't want him to come but Conner insisted. I still don't like him and I didn't believe him but after hearing his explanation and seeing him crying when he talked about it convinced me that he wasn't asking. The way he handled Mackenzie earlier made me jealous that I couldn't do that, but at least she got help. "What do you mean you love her?" I asked. "You guys aren't dating again are you?" My heart tugged in my chest just thinking about that possibility. Hayden let out a dry laugh and wiped his eyes. "No, we aren't dating again." he said and I let out a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding. "I love her though, I love her a lot. We were friends first as you know, best friends. I'll always love her but it's best if we aren't romantically together, especially because..." his sentence died in his mouth and I knew something was wrong. "Because why?" Annie asked, beating me to the question. "I can't," Hayden whispered before covering his face with his hands again. We all stayed in silence for a few minutes while Brynn comforted Hayden before Lauren spoke again. "Hayden who's he?" Hayden looked to her and shook his head as if to say 'I can't tell you.' I hadn't even thought to ask that question! Earlier he was talking about a he hurting her. But who? Did she get beaten up? I sighed before slipping into one of the comfortable Lazy Boys my dad has in the enormous living room across from the couches. "When did you say you had to leave?" I asked and Hayden sighed. "Two months from today. November 21. I'm being sent to some military boot camp or some shit." The room fell quiet after that. I may not have known hayden well but now that I understand why he did those thing to mackenzie, and how they weren't his fault, I don't have anything against him. He's a good guy I can tell. It's going to be hard for Mackenzie, Brynn, and Annie, they know him. "I'm sorry Hayden." I said and everyone looked at me. "You don't deserve to go there." I said. "Yeah," Conner agreed, "I wish you were just leaving, going somewhere else, that way we could all go with you and leave everyone else behind." We all laughed bitterly, "Yeah, tell me about it." Annie mumbled. "I fucking hate our parents." Lauren spoke and I nodded. "Me too."

"They fucking suck." Conner agreed and we all looked at him. "Why? Yours aren't like ours." Hayden said and Conner snorted. "Oh yes they are. They got me engaged to some girl named Ruby for clout. They have me so much, always breaking my skateboards and calling me names, if they're even home." The next few hours were spent eating pizza, checking up on the sleeping Mackenzie, and talking about our mutual hatred for our parents and this bullshit marriage arrangement system.

After everyone went to sleep in our spare rooms I stayed downstairs and made a cup of coffee. I'd been thinking about what Conner said earlier. Running away, leaving everyone behind, sounds like the best idea I've ever heard. I'm going to be eighteen next month so it works out perfectly. I was so caught up in my daydream that I hadn't even noticed Mackenzie walk into the kitchen and get a cup of coffee until she was tapping my shoulder. "Huh? What?" I said as I whipped my head to the side. She giggled before answering. Jesus Christ she giggled, I've never heard anything cuter than that. "I said why are you staring into space? You look a little lost." She took a seat in front of me and sipped her coffee before looking back to me. "Well?"

"Oh, I, um," I stuttered. She laughed, and when she did her nose crinkled up and her eyes closed. It was right next to her giggle on the cuteness meter. "Sorry, I'm just thinking about something." I replied trying to hide the blush that was forming on my face. "What about?" I looked back up to see her looking at me with genuine interest in her eyes. "Just about how many people we're currently fostering upstairs in my parents house." I said and she laughed again. "No, but, for real. I'm actually thinking about something Conner said earlier." She nodded as a queue to go on so I cleared my throat and directed my gaze back to the table. "Um, it might sound like a dumb idea but, I think we should run away. All of us. You, me, Lauren, Brynn, Annie, Conner, and Hayden. Hayden was telling us about how he has to leave in two months and Conner said how it would be cool if we all just left instead of Hayden going to that place. I'll be 18 next month and so will Hayden so, I mean, we could. We all hate it here and we hate our parents so why the fuck not, ya know?" When I finished I looked up to see her reaction, growing worried when all she was doing was staring at me with a blank expression on her face. After a few minutes I opened my mouth to say something but she beat me to it.

"Let's do it." I blinked in surprise, "What?"

"I said let's do it." she replied calmly. "You're right. We all hate it here so why the fuck not? Let's go live our lives and get away from this misery." I stared at her for awhile, not knowing if she was being serious or not. How did she agree so easily? "Are you serious?" I asked in disbelief. She nodded and looked down at the table. "We should do it, I want to do it." she looked back up at me and I couldn't help but smile. She smiled too and I felt my heart expand as I replied.

"Ok."