Two Broken Souls

chapter fourteen

Weeks have gone by and Mackenzie still refuses to talk about her appointment.

Lockers at Langston High are not assigned in any particular order, but by random so there is a lot of switching among the students. The administrators don't really care as long as the locks get returned properly by the original students.

My locker is near Mackenzie's and it is clear that she is still going through a rough time. Who could blame her? She still won't talk about her appointment and I don't know what else I can do for her at this point.

This egg project is almost over in two weeks. Harry and I had managed to come up with a system that's working well enough so far. We keep our eggs in a plastic container surrounded by tissue and foam balls so if the container was accidentally dropped, the eggs would still be protected and won't break. We two tested it multiple times to ensure the eggs would be protected.

Mackenzie slammed her locker with force and dropped her egg in the process causing it to crack open splattering everywhere. "Damn it," she grunted, bending down to clean it up with loose binder paper.

I took out a box of tissues that I kept in my locker to help clean the spilled yolk up. "Are you okay?" I asked, bending down to help her.

"No, Mia, I am not okay!" Mackenize yelled. I haven't been this close to Mackenzie in weeks.
And I hadn't noticed the dark circles around her eyes and her hair was in a messy bun. Mackenzie is also wearing sweats, she never does that. She makes it a mission to look presentable no matter what. She looked like a zombie. "Nothing about this situation is okay. Do you understand that I killed my egg?" Mackenzie looks down at the ground while holding her stomach. "The one thing I was supposed to protect and keep alive, but I made a big mistake and now it's gone." she said the last word in such a whisper that caused her voice to break.

I stared at Mackenzie in disbelief. I've never seen her so broken and vulnerable. I know Mackenzie stopped talking about her egg from the start. "Mackenzie." I said in a soft whisper, reaching out to comfort her, but she stepped back.

Mackenzie's small rant had caused a ruckus in the hallway, and a crowd was starting to form to listen to her outbreak. "I killed it, Mia." Her voice cracked and she walked away.

"What was that about?" Harry asked, hovering over me.

I was still in the process of cleaning up the yolk on the floor. "Nothing, I just think that the stress of senior year is finally catching up to her." I lied. I hated doing it, but I needed to respect Mackenzie's privacy.

Harry stood, wiped his hands on his jeans and offered me his hand. "We should get to class anyway."

There are only a few pairs left that haven't killed their eggs yet. Harry and I are among the few, and so is Clay, but Aubrey and Will are unfortunately not.

The only downside of this project is that the egg is starting to have a certain stench. The students would put their eggs in the fridge to try and keep it fresh as long as possible, but that plan backfired after two and a half weeks. Keeping eggs out for a long period of time everyday wasn't a good idea.

—

As I walked into school the next morning, I felt like all eyes were on me. I don't know why I would be the center of attention, I haven't done anything, but everytime I passed a classmate, they would lean in and whisper to their friend.

I brushed it off the first few times that it happened, but something just felt wrong.

"How could you not tell me?" Paige asked.

"Tell you what?" I said.

Paige grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. "About your appointment." She whispered.