Attention Jade Tate (Rewrite)

Chapter 14

After breakfast, Jade and Oli run upstairs to play with the cats while Mackenzie and I got stuck with clean-up duty.

"Who's Darleen?" Mackenzie asks as she puts away the dishes I wash.

"My uh... girlfriend, I think. I mean we've been on a couple of dates and we've like kissed or whatever, what makes someone your girlfriend anyway? Is there like, a defining factor?"

She's eyeing me.

"Sorry! Sometimes I just ramble on. Feel free to stop me. Hehe," I feel my cheeks heat up.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," She says.

"You never asked."

We are silent for a moment.

"About the other day," I start but at the same time she says,

"Skylar I—"

"Sorry, you go first," I say.

"No, you."

"Mackenzie I—" she cuts me off by kissing me square on the lips.

My eyes go wide and I quickly push her off of me.

"I—I like you." She quickly spits out.

"Mackenzie... I have a girlfriend," I turn away from her to face the sink. "Plus I like someone else."

"I know," she says in defeat.

We continue our task in silence for a moment.

It's not like Mackenzie and I are total strangers, in fact just the opposite. I've known her for as long as I've known Jade. We were always around each other when I was younger. Every time I would hang out with Jade, Mackenzie was there, either hanging out with us or just in the background. All three of us are the same age after all.

And maybe I've noticed Mackenzie has been acting weird around me since I turned 15 but I just wrote it off as me seeing things. Now I know for sure. She has a crush on me.

"Why do you even like her? Jade's so ugh!" Mackenzie says out of nowhere.

"She's nice to me," I mumble as I scrub the dishes.

I don't know exactly how I am supposed to defend my feelings for Jade when I hardly understand them myself. I just feel the way I feel. You can't pick who you fall in love with. No matter how much I wish you could.

"She's not! She's awful if you only knew the half of it." She huffs.

It was never a secret that Mackenzie is jealous of Jade. This is something I have picked up on over the years. She and Jade fight over almost everything, but especially her own mother's attention. She hates having to share everything with Jade. Most of all she hates how Jade is the star child while she is just, ordinary.

Mackenzie plays the violin, but she is just average, not good enough to go to Lincoln high. I know this because she auditioned once and was totally embarrassed when she didn't get in. Jade teased her about it for a week. These two are always trying to one-up each other and constantly picking on each other when the other screws up. Jade is usually the winner though, because Jade is Jade, and she can't let anything go.

"It's complicated okay, I just feel the way I feel," I get defensive.

"Skylar, Jade found out I have a crush on you last year and has been teasing me about it ever since. That is why she is always clingy to you when I am around. Not because she likes you back. She is just using you to get at me." Mackenzie comes clean.

"Jade isn't like that." I defend her.

"Yes, she is! You are just too blinded by your love for her to see it."