Broken But Strong

CHAPTER 4

Leah's POV:

"Damn it!" I cursed under my breath as another ball hit me in the head. I hated having to pretend that I was bad at sports but I felt comforted knowing that kept all attention of me.

I knew that the balls didn't just hit me in the head. It was MacKenzie who kept 'accidentally' hitting me with the balls. Today in gym, we were playing dodgeball.

I couldn't help but smirk in my head as I thought of the many books that had a girl called 'MacKenzie' as the head cheerleader and bitch. It may be a stereotype, but in my case, this was definitely true.

MacKenzie used to be my best friend. We met in Kindergarten, and when she offered me her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we immediately became best friends.

Being the naive self I was, I thought we were like those best friends in books who sticked by each other no matter what. As I grew older, we grew closer. Or so I thought.

When my mum died, Samuel just could not take it. Samuel was- and still is- a successful businessman, but he used to have a character trait that died together with my mum- compassion. I used to receive two hundred dollars a week as pocket money, and that was why MacKenzie stuck with me as we grew older. When she wanted to buy something, she would play the pity card and say that her parents did not give her pocket money for the week. I would then buy her whatever she wanted. Stupid, I know.

But ever since Samuel stopped giving me pocket money, I had to work everyday after school to earn my own food expenses. I worked at a run-down cafe, where only the lower-class go to. When MacKenzie found out, she literally just distanced herself from me. I guess the only true friendship we had was during Kindergarten.

Flashback:

"MACKENZIE!" I said as I ran into her house, crying. As we had been best friends for many years, I knew where her parents kept the spare keys.

It has been a month since mum died, and I had been working since then as Samuel would not give me food to eat or money to spend. Since I started working, MacKenzie has been distancing herself from me, avoiding me in school and ignoring my texts and phone calls. I kept on trying to attract her attention, but she just keeps ignoring me. I think its her way of giving me space to get over mum's death.

Since mum died, Samuel has been giving me the cold shoulder. He hardly comes home and he buries himself in work. Its my fault mum died. Its all my fault. If I hadn't been so selfish and self-centered, mum would still be here. She wouldn't have died if I had just followed her advice.

But never in my whole life would I think that Samuel would slap me. Today, when he came home from work, I tried talking to him. Yet, all I got was a slap to the face and a few kicks to the stomach.

Tears ran down my face as I ran into MacKenzie's room. She was the one I needed right now. She was the one who would comfort me, the one who would tell me everything was going to be alright.

MacKenzie was lying on her bed, using her phone. When she saw me run into the room, she just laid there and continued using her phone, like I wasn't there. I didn't understand. I had red eyes, puffy cheeks and tears running down my face- and she just blatantly acted like I wasn't there?

"MacKenzie?" I whispered.

"What do you want?" She said coldly.

I recoiled back with hurt and shock. Convincing myself that she was like that only because she had a bad day, I continued talking.

"Do you know what happened? I was going home from work, and dad was there, and he-"

I was cut off when MacKenzie snorted.