Forever Is Now

Fault or Favour?

author | pov

"Why does this look like an intervention?" Wanye says to his friends.

It's the day after their date. The Squad decided that they would tell Wayne and Mackenzie what happened yesterday, together. In fact it was Tiffany's idea and everyone else just agreed with because they feared the couple's reaction.

After practice, the boys and girls took showers. Dragging them to the round lunch tables on the patio at school. Wayne and Mackenzie were sitting across each other but she avoids his eyes completely.

"I'm curious, I know everyone else wants to know but no body got the balls to ask. Where were you two yesterday?" Shawn asks.

"Internship interview," Mackenzie replies.

Wanye looks at Mackenzie, "Doctor's office," he says shortly after.

The group looks at each other and decide to believe them, "Oh, we all assumed you two were together," Ivan tells them.

"Anyone want to tell me what this meeting is about?" Mackenzie says after checking her watch. "You might want to start with why all of you were avoiding me all day. I ate lunch in Miss Swan's class,"

Everyone quickly turns their heads to Alliyah. " We were hiding," Micheal said instead.

"Keep talking," Wanye says. For Wayne, his friends were also MIA, so he spent it Lucy.

"Some thing happened yesterday and we didn't know how to tell y'all," Noel, who is sitting on Mackenzie's right hand side.

"So it's a confession and not an intervention?" Mackenzie shakes her head. "What did you guys do?"

"I was not there," Noah said quickly to excuse himself from the cross fire that was going to happen. Alliyah called him last night and explained everything.

This makes Tiffany speak up,  "Yeah but you know and kept quiet. So you are just as guilty as we are," she says pointing a finger at him. 

"No wait, so if we were just there and didn't actually say anything, we are just as guilty as those who spoke?" Micheal said, with a concerned look on his face.

Alliyah looks at him shocked, "if we want to talk about fault, how about Shawn taking accountability for saying we shouldn't tell them immediately after it happened?"

Shawn turned his head fast to look at Alliyah, "Yeah, after you confess that you can't keep your mouth shut?"

Daphne senses that this is getting out of hand, "Guys, focus!" After yesterday her patience is wearing thing and not necessarily at the group but because it felt like she would be expected to choose between this group of people and her best friend who was in the wrong.

"Can this actually go somewhere? I'm hungry," Mackenzie said. And this was not a shock to anyone. Noah pulled out a packet of M&Ms and handed it to her. "Buying my forgiveness?" She whispers to him after taking the chocolate from him.  He gives her a smile, shaking his head.

"So I kinda got into it with Monica yesterday," Alliyah says after taking a deep breathe.

"I'm going to need more information than that Ally," Mackenzie looks at her.

Alliyah takes a deep breathe and finally speaks.  "I was getting annoyed. She spoke about Wanye like they were together or something. She also said some shit like you were out of his league. She pushed me into a corner and I may or not have said more than what I was supposed to say," she says, all while looking at Mackenzie's face to monitor her reaction.

"Go on," Mackenzie nods her head, popping the candy in her mouth. She already knew something was wrong.  Alliyah is typically up front with things, so the procrastination meant something was wrong.

Noel jumps in, confessing her contribution. "I told her that the only reason why you haven't hit her already is for Daphne's sake,"

Ivan clears his throat, "we might have told them that the reason why you guys weren't here was because you were together," he says quickly.

"What?" Wayne asks.

"We basically implied that you two were going out," Alliyah said looking at them to see their reaction to the news. 

Mackenzie went quiet and just looked down at her candy.  People didn't say anything, waiting for the couple to say something. Wanye looked at Mackenzie and grew frustrated that she hasn't looked at him all day. "I  don't belong to anyone. If I were with someone, you guys would know." He stood firm with this. He did not have a girlfriend, he wasn't asked her to be his. They would have to wait until the moment was right. Little did he know that his words would hurt her.

Mackenzie looked up slowly, heart broke but she tried to keep the sadness out of her face. "Okay, let me get this straight. Not only did you speak for me.  You got involved in my love life after everything that happened in the past?" They should know she is talking about the Steven situation and how she had to shut them down for being overly involved. "Was I not clear enough the last time? When I told everyone that I did not need unsolicited help when came to relationships because the last time I let you guys into it, I was stuck in something I should have left alone a long time ago? Do I look weak or do you guys just hate listening to me?" Mackenzie is not angry, it's clear on her face. She is sad.

"Kenzie, it got blown out of the water and --" Ivan began to say but Mackenzie was not in the mood for excuses.

"And nothing Ivan. Did you guys think about what happens now? Did you guys think about Daphne? Let's forget about me for a second because y'all don't seem to care about me. What is Daphne supposed to do or even feel?" Mackenzie's voice is stern. She looks around the table. Most of the boys are looking down but Wayne is looking right at her. This is the first time the entire day that they've made eye contact and she shakes her head at him, as a sign that she was not happy. The girls are ready to jump up, should their friend start crying.

"They meant well," Noah whispers to Mackenzie.

"I know. They are not evil people, I love them. But I now have a rumour that could blow up at any second, a conversation I didn't want to have and a human headache called Steven to deal with. It's my senior year, I've had drama since I walked through those doors, when will I get a break?" Mackenzie takes a deep breathe after her rant and looks at everyone. "I'm going to need the night, everyone be here early tomorrow morning. Whether you felt you were doing me favour or feel like all this is your fault," she got up and walked to her car, started the engine and went home. 

What people failed to realise was that Mackenzie and Daphne used to be best friends from first grade. Without knowing, their dynamic changed when Monica came into their lives at the start of high school. Mackenzie felt abondoned by Daphne but Daphne was consumed by having this new friend who had a lot in common with her and just assumed they had grown apart. It was Mackenzie giving her space to explore her new friendship, she just didn't know that she would be replaced. This was a conversation she was not ready to have. 

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