The Love Triangle: Mackenzie Meets Jean-Luc

Chapter 7

Bluey was wiping away the last of her tears when Mackenzie came over. "Hi, Bluey," he said in a giddy voice. "What's up?"

Bluey looked at him up and down. He had kissed her friend. Coco! After he'd wrapped her locker up and given her Oreos and everything! Why, after all of that, had he kissed Coco under the bleachers?

"Why?" Bluey said in a hollow voice.

"Um, why what?" Mackenzie asked.

"Why were you kissing Coco under the bleachers?"

Mackenzie quickly looked over his shoulder. "Um, I don't know - "

"Don't lie to me, Mackenzie," Bluey said quietly, standing up slowly. "I saw you. I had lost one of my football cleats and I looked for it. I saw you," she repeated. "Kissing. My. Friend."

"Fine, I kissed Coco," Mackenzie blurted. "But I don't really like her! She just asked! And - "

"She asked," Bluey muttered dully. "For you to kiss her. When she knew full well that you liked me."

"But I don't really like her," Mackenzie insisted. "Not in that way. It was just a distraction, because I just, well . . . " His voice petered off, and Mackenzie was staring at his feet while Bluey was staring at Mackenzie's left eyebrow.

"Kissing my best friend . . was a distraction." Bluey repeated.

"Yes!" Mackenzie exclaimed.

"So you used her to make yourself feel better, despite the fact that her feelings for you were very real. If they weren't, then she wouldn't have asked." Bluey pointed out. Her lips barely moved.

"Um, when you put it that way . . . " Mackenzie mumbled, and they were both silent.

"Why did you need kissing as a distraction?" Bluey asked.

"Well, I needed to practice." Mackenzie said quietly, his fur turning a shade of embarrassed pink.

"Practice for . . " Bluey prompted.

"Well, I just  . . . " Mackenzie muttered.

"Spit it out. I haven't got all day. I have to look for my cleat," Bluey commanded.

"I wanted to practice kissing so that I could kiss you great!" Mackenzie spat out, then clapped a furry paw over his mouth.

Bluey looked at him, her mouth curling down into a frown. "You kissed one of my best friends so that you could practice kissing me, while in the process dashing her crush to pieces? I bet she was really happy when you accepted to kiss her. You, in fulfilling her wish, also crushed her."

There was silence. Then a voice. "Mackenzie! I just wanted to say - " Then Coco ran up, saw Bluey, and shut up. "Bluey, are you all right? You look like you've been crying."

"Yes," Bluey muttered in a monotone, wiping away snot. "I have been crying."

"Why?" Coco asked, oblivious to the tension.

Bluey looked at the poodle unflinchingly. "Do you want me to lie to you?"

Coco shook her head slowly. "You know that I want you to be honest with me."

Bluey nodded. "Yes, you do. And I want the same. If that were the case, then you would have told me that you had a deep crush on Mackenzie, correct?"

Coco froze. "Um, repeat that?" She asked, her voice having gone up an octave or two.

"You have had an immense crush on Mackenzie Border Collie for some time. You kissed him under the bleachers, correct?"

Coco's fur turned a shade of dark red. "Well, I just - "

"Do you want me to tell the truth?" Bluey interrupted dully.

Coco frowned, then looked at Mackenzie and her face softened. "Of course I do, Bluey."

"Mackenzie just told me that you asked him to kiss you under the bleachers, and he accepted. He also told me that the reason he accepted was because he needed someone to perfect his kissing on, because he wanted to give me a perfect kiss. Many perfect kisses, by the way it sounded."

Coco froze. Then she rounded on Bluey. "You liar! You're just saying that because you don't like the fact that you have one less admirer!"

Bluey bit back. "What are you on about?"

"Everyone loves you," Coco spat. "Everyone. Your parents, your teachers, your sister, and everyone at this entire school. Bluey Heeler, smart, funny, pretty, popular, star of the football team, leading us to the first championship title in twenty years, and having dozens of boys who would sell their souls to be your boyfriend. Meanwhile, I am Coco Poodle. I am failing two of my classes, my fur is always frizzy and I have so much acne, I make terrible jokes, my friends prefer for you to hang out with them instead of me, I am pathetically bad at any sport I've ever tried, and I have no admirers. Until, of course, I worked up the courage to ask Mackenzie to kiss me under the bleachers, which I have wanted to do for years. And he accepted, by the way!"

Coco got right in Bluey's face. "Do you realize how hard it is to have no one like you? Not even my own parents like me! My father would rather read the newspaper than talk to me and my mother compares me to the rest of my siblings, my eight siblings, saying stuff like, 'Oh, Jacob got into an Ivy League college in America. Do you want to go to any college, Coco? Then you'd better pick up your math grade.'"

Coco burst into sobs. "Then you, you had the, the gall to say," she hiccuped, while Bluey and Mackenzie stayed very, very still, "that the only boy who had ever t-taken notice of me, b-been nice to me, h-helped me, even k-kissed me, was just using me as a tra-training session so th-that he could give you the BEST KISS OF YOUR LIFE?!"

Bluey had tears running down her face. "Oh, Coco, I didn't realize that you had been feeling that way . . "

Coco turned on the Heeler. "Of course you didn't! Everything has got to always be about you! You had never once asked me how I'm feeling, when it's really frickin' obvious! And when I say I'm fine, and It's clear that I'm not fine, how do you react? Oh, yeah, you say, 'Okay,' and move on!"

Coco was screaming by now, and she paused, panting, angry tears rolling down her cheeks and her fur a brilliant scarlet. Bluey was openly sobbing, not bothering to hide it, while her eyes became swollen and puffy. Mackenzie was turning paler by the minute, finally able to see what he had done.

"You are lying to me," Coco snarled. "Mackenzie would never, ever take advantage of anyone, ever." Neglecting to ignore the part where Mackenzie hadn't actually decorated Bluey's locker, she ran off, tears streaking her mascara as she went.

Mackenzie started to walk away, but Bluey snapped, "Mackenzie Collie!"

Mackenzie began to, very slowly, turn around. "Yes . . . "

"Do you have any idea of what you've just done?" Bluey said furiously. "You might have just ruined one of my oldest friendships. We were just fine until you created a huge mess. Why would you do such a thing?"

"I, I didn't know that you'd tell her," Mackenzie blubbered. "Digger said that you wouldn't, that girls keep kisses private-"

"Digger," Bluey breathed. "Digger Kelpie? As in, Digger Kelpie, Rusty's older brother?"

"Erm, well," Mackenzie mumbled.

"So Rusty is a part of this too?" Bluey said dangerously.

"No! No, it was just me and Digger," Mackenzie said quickly.

"Goodbye, Mackenzie Border Collie," Bluey said coldly. "You've just thrown away your last chance for a relationship with me. I certainly don't want to be your boyfriend, and I might not even want to be your friend. You've ruined a friendship of mine, and I won't forget this. You'd best hope that I can still salvage Coco's friendship."

Bluey walked towards the school gates and pushed the side door open. From there, she walked the halls of the school until she found her locker. She unlocked it and grabbed the stacks of Oreos. From there, she sprinted out of the school, not realizing that she'd left her locker wide open.