I know who you are -Mac Coyle

Chats over chocolate

We all end up sitting together on Mac's kitchen floor. We sit in silence for what feels like forever. I'm not even sure what to think anymore, after everything that happened this morning, I'm questioning everything and weirdly what's at the front of my mind is about what Kj said back at the abandoned house. It's ludicrous that I'm even contemplating this. Imagine the judgement I'd get. If my parents could see my thoughts right now they'd throw me out on the streets. It makes me think of this one time, my best friend Ally was staying over. We've had so many sleepovers in our eight years of friendship but for whatever reason during the night Ally must have rolled over in her sleep and I wake up to her arms wrapped around my torso and my mom barging in to tell Ally her parents were waiting outside to pick her up. As soon as Ally shut that door she went total psycho on me. It was the first time my mother had laid hands on me, accusing me of all sorts of things. She told me I couldn't see Ally anymore, that she had corrupted my mind and was 'devils child'. That was the day I lost my best friend. I sat alone at lunch for a solid week, until I decided to make the library my new eating spot. It wasn't so bad tho, Mrs Jenkins the librarian was sweet. But after that day I knew that I had to obey my parents. I was ashamed to admit, I was terrified not to. So why am I questioning this? Nothing had changed..... except I met....

"Well, if it is some kind of invasion, at least I won't have to wear that dumb dress my mother bought for my bat mitzvah", Kj breaks the silence, interrupting my thoughts. "What the hell is a bat mitzvah?" Mac asked, in her usual irritated tone. We all laugh at that "don't worry about it" Kj says. "I've only been doing this a year, but the stories I could tell you" Tiffany starts. "No way, worse than baseball bat guy thinking I stole his paper?" I look over at Erin, slightly confused. "Way worse, like this one time, I went to collect over on marison. Guys a longtime subscriber for, like, ever. I ring the doorbell, get my whole spiel ready, and when the door swings open, he's completely naked, sleepwalking" I'm shocked to say the least. "Jeez bro needs to strap himself to his bed or something" a few chuckles spread through the room. "I guess his subscription got cancelled" Kj adds, making us all laugh even harder. "Dude that's nothing, you know when I first started, there was this bunch of younger guys who'd get off the overnight shift at the factory" the laughter dies down as Max continues. "And they'd throw like, full cans of beer at me on Amherst" Mac's expression doesn't falter once. "That's terrible" I look at her kind of pitying her. "So terrible" Mac agrees looking over at me "it was a total waste of good beer" she says, making my lips turn up into a smile, as the girls all chuckle. Geez how is this girl so tough? I wish I was that tough. "There was this one time, when I was delivering over on maple" I began to tell a story of my own. "This dude with a mouth mullet kicked his soccer ball right at me" all the girls look at me, interested. "My papers went everywhere...so the next night, I took my pocket knife, slashed his soccer ball...and his lakers basketball....andddd his football and filled them all with blue dye. He must have kicked the soccer ball up or something because on my way to school the next morning, I saw him in his kitchen window, trying to scrub blue dye off his face at his sink. And let me tell you it did not come off. My guy looked like a Smurf for a solid ten days straight!" All the girls erupt in laughter. "That's pretty badass Julia" Mac says looking over at me proudly. I can't help but hide the blush of my face. Fuck stop it Julia! Stop it! "I mean for someone who dressed up as a tele-tubby for Halloween" And the blush is gone. 

We all laugh over more ridiculous stories, as we share Erin's chocolate bar. It must be almost breakfast time because I was starving. There is a sudden swooshing noise outside, it sounded like a mix of the chain of my bike and a hurricane. Okay something really was going on out there. The room was  filled with "what the hell was that?!" And "what the fucks going on?!?". Everyone jumps up from their spot and makes their way into Mac's sitting room. "Down! Down! Get down!" Mac shouts from beside me, pulling me down with her, by my arm. I look over to meet her eyes for a split second, absolutely terrified. Mac suddenly exits the room with a curt "fuck this" and when she returns, she has what I notice to be a gun in her hand.

"Mac what the hell!" I say walking up to her. "Put the gun down!" "My brother showed me where the gun was in case shit ever hit the fan" Mac is pacing around the room, all antsy. "Mac your not Barry Van Dyke for fucks sake! Your gonna hurt yourself or someone else with that thing so put it down right now or so help me god!" This situation is getting more tense by the minute and the others begin pleading with Mac to put the gun down, all freaking out. "What you gonna do huh? Protect us with all your prayers and shit? NO we need real protection!!" Mac walks right up to my face, trying to intimidate me into backing down. I reach for the gun. (A decision I will soon regret). Now both our hands are on it, both of us trying to get it off one another, pulling it in all directions. I pull it down towards my stomach, trying to use my body weight to win this tussle. And that's when I hear it.

The gun goes off. My ears are ringing from the loud pop and my hands slowly loose grip of the gun. I look up at Mac with wide eyes, and she does the same, her mouth slightly ajar. "Is anyone hurt?!" Kj asks in a panic. My breath becomes shallow and shaky and Mac's wide eyes drop down to my stomach. I follow her gaze and see crimson red spreading across my light grey track jacket and that's when my vision begins to blur. I feel my knees buckle and I collapse into Mac's arms. "What the hell did you do?!" I can only hear Erin's voice through the ringing in my ears. I keep sliding in and out of consciousness. "I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Mac says, sliding down to the floor with me in her arms. "No no no no no! She's gonna be okay right?" "She told you to put the gun down Mac!" "I know....I know, please just help her, FUCK! Help her PLEASE!!" And that's the last thing I hear before everything goes black.