Suburbs Boy

4 - #JusticeForMackenzie

THE MACKENZIE MEN HAVE A PUBLIC DISAGREEMENT. Chad chewed on his carrot as he read the headlines of The New York Times.

"Hey dad have you seen this?" Chad turned to his dad.

Chad's dad looked at him, pressing an ice pack to his face. "Is that today's paper?"

"Yes."

"What does it say?"

"In the middle of a press conference," Suburbs Boy began to read. "Brad Mackenzie, founder and CEO of Mackenzie Enterprises, yelled at his son, Chad Mackenzie, about his grades. In result, Chad picked up a table and smashed it over his father's head. Brad Mackenzie was admitted to a hospital in critical condition."

"Oh please. The news has started again with their lies." Chad's mother walked into the white kitchen and picked an apple from the fruit bowl, kissing her husband's bruised cheek. "My men would never hurt each other."

"Speaking of men," His father kissed his mother's cheek delicately, silently apologizing, them turned to his son : "I'm actually having a Mackenzie Grammy type awards show and I'd really want you to be there."

"Sure. When is it?" Chad finished his carrot and picked up a strawberry.

"Today. In a few hours actually."

"Thanks for the long notice. I'm so happy that you told me this a week before the date so I'd have more time to plan for it." Chad was bad at being sarcastic but he felt like his point still got across.

"Don't Chad."

Suburbs Boy dropped the paper and stood up, squeezing his dad's shoulder and giving his mom a side hug, he left the kitchen.
As he walked to his room, Suburbs Boy began to contemplate on how his life was all a gigantic lie. His entire family had already mastered the act of pretending nothing had happened no matter how serious it was. He hated that nobody in his family could admit their faults and forgive and forget like a normal family. They never forgave. They only learned to forget.
Chad entered his room and went into his walk - in closet, which was white as can be. The colour of the closet could be manipulative but the dark coloured clothes that hung on his left and his right and the fancy shoe rack full of black shoes told the full truth.

Instead of asking his closet to hand the clothes on hanger 138 to him, Suburbs Boy manually went through his clothes.
When he finally settled on a grey button up shirt, a black suit jacket and trousers, a dark purple tie and a pair of black pimsoles, he tried them on and stood in front of his wide floor length mirror, observing how he looked.

"I think you look absolutely gorgeous."

His mother had walked into his room while his mind was occupied and had sat down, watching him. She was dressed in a long layered black dress with white pearls laid heavy on her neck. She was wearing a pair of 5 inch white heels and her hair was packed into a donut.

"You don't look half bad yourself." He turned around to face her and she stood up and walked to him gracefully - which was a wonder because the carpet hadn't tripped her yet - and adjusted his tie.

She kissed his lips and he turned around to face the mirror. She took this as an opportunity to wrap her arms around him front his back and begin to kiss his neck. He moved away from her grasp and walked into his room.
After a few seconds, she followed him into his room and stood at the door frame, rubbing her neck and sighing.

"I'm sorry."

He kept quiet, adjusting his tie and then walking out of the room. He walked out to the front of his house to find his dad standing at the foot of the stairs, waiting for the chauffeur.
His dad was dressed in a white suit jacket with black collars and white pants with a white shirt and a black tie. His dad's black hair was combed out and it looked completely moisturized. His blue eyes stared into the horizon and his eyebrows were furrowed. His lips were pursed and he looked basically annoyed.

"You should let your grey hair show father." Chad coughed into the silence.

His dad turned around and looked at him and his face suddenly became more relaxed.

"You should wear glasses Chad. They'd look nice on you." He smiled.

"Okay fine, fair point." They both laughed.

"What's so funny?" His mother descended the stairs with grace and confidence, standing next to his father and placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Chad thinks I should stop dyeing my hair and let it be natural."

"Oh really? Did you tell him to stop wearing contacts?"

"Yes I did."

At that moment they all laughed and Chad wished with all his heart that this moment was frozen in time forever. This moment when they were all happy. When they were all - truly - happy. The moment went as quickly at it came and he wondered if his parents wanted the moment to remain like that as much as he wanted it to. He considered asking them but before he could get the words out of his mouth, the long black limousine had finished driving from the garage to the house and was waiting for them.
And as quickly as his parents were with him, they left.

●●●

Apart from the fact that they were held up late, before they couldn't even get into the building, Chad had to sign over a hundred pieces of paper given to him by different fans and he had had his clothes almost torn off.
When they got inside, his father was immediately whisked away my a blond haired man in a blue suit.
His mother was dragged away by one of her fake friends who only talked to her because she was rich and her husband's business wasn't collapsing soon.
Chad walked to the bar and ordered a drink and when it was placed in front of him, he immediately payed. He sipped his drink and watched as the blue jacket man whispered into his father's right ear. He soon found out what they were talking about when his father took the microphone from Taylor Swift and he started to give a speech about Mackenzie Enterprises.
He started to talk about bout how it was beneficial to the community and Chad felt like punching him in the face again - but he still gave a standing ovation when the speech ended.

"Any questions?" His father half smiled when half a dozen reporters hands went up. "You." He pointed at a reporter that looked like Barry Allen on Earth 2 of Flash.

"How do you feel about the vents of yesterday - your son punching you in the face?"

"Well that - where is he..." His father's eyes scanned the room until they met his and asked for silent approval. "Chad come up here please." Chad felt the entire room turn to face his and he swallowed the rest of his drink before getting up on stage to stand next to his father. "What happened yesterday was nothing more than just a social experiment. Isn't that right Chad?"

Chad nodded.

"Exactly. Since that has been said, you can all put away your phone's now and stop tweeting about #JusticeForMackenzie."

The room burst into laughter and Chad laughed as well, scanning their faces. It was only then that he saw her.
Her red eyes stared back at him and burned unto his soul. She didn't look away and he didn't either. Chris Otoño tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and took a sip from her cup which looked like it was full of vodka.
The only person he had started to begin afresh with finally knew his true identity and all Chad could think about was if she had been tweeting about the #JusticeForMackenzie trend.

And if she had, which Mackenzie was she tweeting for?