Samson

Chapter 10

Samson~

The look in Mackenzie's eyes when I'd told her to hand over her phone had stuck with me all day. They'd been full of pain, but there'd also been determination in there, and it'd been an odd combination. I imagined that it was part of the story that she wasn't telling anyone.

Or at least, wasn't telling me.

Ford had also been right about the entire social media thing. Last night, when I'd finished making Duke dinner, and we had eaten, I had pulled up some of my accounts, and they'd all been going wild with post after post of surprises, congratulations, and some snide shit from random girls. However, catty females didn't bother me. I had no problem being rude to a girl if I needed to be, and any girl trying to hit on me, knowing now that I was officially taken, would be dealt with harshly.

Duke also hadn't shut up about the pretty, little, purple-eyed babies that I was going to have. We had joked, then had hung out, playing Call of Duty: WII. Our phones had also been left on the coffee table as we saved the world, and it'd been one of the best nights that we'd had alone together in a long time.

Then, this morning, when Mackenzie had arrived at school, watching her walk towards me had me feeling things that I'd never felt before. I'd felt pride before when I'd won a game, and I'd also felt it whenever I had aced a test. I'd felt it whenever my brother had hit a homerun, and I'd even felt it sometimes when I'd catch my father looking at my mother like she was the only other human being on the planet. Even though it got in the way of their parenting, there was a certain pride in knowing that my father loved my mother the way that he did.

Still, I'd never felt the burst of pride that I'd felt when Mackenzie had walked towards me in the hallway this morning, and I'd thought, 'mine'.

After that, then I'd finally been able to escort her to lunch, then fifth period, and then sixth period, where I had made Peter Douglas switch seats with me. Mackenzie had rolled her eyes, but she hadn't objected. Then we had spent last break together as an uncomfortable cluster of new friends before heading to P.E. for the end of the day. Amelia and Alistair had looked uncomfortable, Raiden and Charlie had growled at each other, and Ford had just grinned like a lunatic the entire time. I'd also had to warn Mackenzie that I probably wouldn't be able to meet her after school while football season was going on, but she had assured me that she didn't mind.

So, now school was over for the day, and Ford, Raiden, and I had just reached our gym lockers for football practice when Erik Ovadia slammed the doors open, then yelled, "Ridgeview is in the parking lot!"

We all froze.

"Did he just say-"

"There's only two reasons why Ridgeview would be in our parking lot," Ford said, cutting Raiden off. "And since our game with them isn't for another six weeks..."

"Mackenzie," I rushed out right before taking off in a run, Raiden and Ford behind me.

Ridgeview was a twenty-minute drive over, so that meant that they would have had to skip their last class of the day and their own football practice, which I didn't get. How could they get away with that? Coach Rawlins would have all our asses if we ever pulled some shit like that.

When I finally made it around the back of the school to the parking lot, two car-full and one truck-full of Ridgeview football players littered our parking lot. Still, what had gotten my attention was Brayden Mahoney standing in front of Mackenzie and Charlie with a couple of his teammates behind him, and the closer that I got, the more incensed that I became.

Mackenzie was shaking.

I came up behind her, then wrapping my arm around her stomach, I pushed her behind me. I was a couple of inches taller than Brayden, so it gave me a perverse pleasure to be able to look down at him. I also knew that I could kick his ass, so I really wasn't worried about getting up in his face.