her first everything

chapter three

when she returned back to her table she smiled, noticing her red headed friend.

"eryn." she said excitedly.

"thank god, i did not want to be stuck with them." he was partnered with tyler.

"well then, should we complete this project together?" eryn nodded and pulled out his laptop. like they excepted tyler and nixons group of friends stayed at their table while eryn and mackenzie worked on the projects at theirs. eryn was first to notice the brunette standing and walking towards them, sitting at the chair between the two.

"do you need my help?" she shrugged but didn't look up.

"it would be nice but i don't need it." she flipped through the pages of the book she had.

"well then." he grumbled and looked at eryn. the redhead shrugged and looked to his computer. eventually nixon sighed and walked back to his table.

they stayed here for the rest of the class, and lunch.. and mackenzie's next block was free so she stayed in the library for the majority of that two. she only left because she'd done all of the research possible and needed to get something to eat, she felt like she could pass out at any second.

"hey!" a familiar voice made her spin around, finding nixon behind her in the hallway.

"hey.. i just had lunch, figured i could at least bring you something," she smiled and waited for him to catch up to her.

"thank you, but i don't eat campus lunch... it's no better than high school." he shrugged.

"fair... but maybe, i could take you to get some lunch.. like i said it's the least i could do." mackenzie just shrugged.

"i'm okay, as long as you actually help put together our board." nixon nodded.

"yeah of course." she smiled and turned to continue walking to her car.
~~~
after school mackenzie made a rough draft of what she wanted the board to look like, where they'd put pictures and little descriptions and diagrams. after that she got madeline a snack, then they watched tv until her parents got home.

they had dinner together and talked a little bit about their days until it was time for bed. mackenzie showered and got in some pajamas, and then returned to the bathroom to do her skin care. when she finally went to lay down she noticed madeline cuddled in her bed.

"oh? what are you doing here silly girl?" she poked at her sides and saw a small smile tug at her lips.

"mommy and daddy are sleepin, so i come to your room." mackenzie shrugged and climbed into bed.

"should i put on your lamp?" she asked her sister who looked like she was already practically asleep.

"yes please." the lamp was like a night light in a way. bright enough to illuminate the room but not bright enough to disturb their sleep. mackenzie scrolled tiktok for awhile before she felt her eyes get too heavy to focus. she plugged her phone in and tucked it under her pillow then drifted off to sleep.
~~~
the next morning eryn picked her up. they stopped to get some breakfast and coffee before heading to campus. they already knew the way the next few days was gonna work due to their project.

"hey, should i come with you?" nixon asked while she was standing.

"i mean... you can." she shrugged. turning to continue out of the class room. mackenzie felt the presence of him behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see he was, in fact, following behind her.

"i've made a rough draft... we can change things if you want." he smiled and sat down, resting his back pack on the floor in front of him.

"let me see it." he said, which made her smile, maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"okay, well i want to do a black board but i didn't have any black paper." she giggled at her little sisters doodles around the paper.

"i think it's nice." he shrugged, sitting forwards.

"so you don't think we should change anything?" he smiled softly and shook his head.

"i think it looks pretty perfect... should we go get a poster board?" she nodded and packed her things up and followed him out to his car. after the fact she felt a little naive, getting into a strangers car. but he really did just go to get a poster board and also offered to get her some starbucks.

"my handwriting isn't too good." he warned as he watched her making pretty boardered boxes for some of the descriptions.

"oh that's okay, you can do all the hard work." she smiled, pulling open her computer.

"can go print these out and cut them?" he smiled and took the computer, walking off to the printer in the library. after doing all of her pretty doodles around the board she figured she'd let nixon put the pictures where he wanted them.

when he returned she found herself sort of examining him. her eyes scanned his face, taking in all of his features before trailing down. he wore a gold necklace tucked into his shirt, something you wouldn't notice at a first glance. his freckles were very faint, but so cute. she let her eyes venture back down to his arms and hands, which looked softly, but his veins were very prompt.

"mackenzie?" he said again softly, looking up from what he was doing.

"huh." she snapped out of her daze, looking up to meet his eyes.

"i was asking where you wanted to put this one." the picture was bigger than the others, one she forgot to put in the rough draft.

"oh.. i wanted to put this one here, but i'm open for your opinion." he smiled and nodded.

"i think it looks good there too."
~~~
she was in the car with eryn on her way home when she couldn't stop thinking about earlier, and nixon in general.

"i think i like him." she said out of the blue, which made eryn look over to her.

"what? who?" he asked, looking back to the road.

"nixon... he's so... i don't know, his eyes are so pretty and he's really nice to me." she said while placing her hands over her eyes. eryn smiled while pulling in the driveway.

"look at you, finally crushing on someone after 19 years on this planet." she shook her head and stepped out of the car, grabbing her backpack.

"thanks for the ride." she smiled, closing his door before walking into the house.