Tom and Jade had been able to clear up all their problems over a phone call not an hour after the one that had caused their riff. McKenzie and Jeffry, on the other hand, hadn't talked for weeks. The time difference played part in that, but it still that shouldn't prevent a married couple expecting a child to be without communication for days on end. It didn't really bother McKenzie, though; she had plenty to distract herself with. One more thing was added to the list when she went out to get her mail.
Tom noticed McKenzie seemed very interested in the envelope she was holding and watched over his coffee cup as she opened it. Inside seemed to be a normal card, and it wasn't until she flipped it up to read what had been written inside that he saw it was an RSVP to a movie premiere after party. The invitation to the actual premiere probably went to her manager, Devon. What surprised Tom the most, though, was that this invitation was to the Breaking Dawn premiere.
"What's that?" He asked.
"An invite to a premiere."
"Which one?"
"Breaking Dawn."
"You going?"
McKenzie paused. She had no idea if she would go or not. She had been dating Rob for the Eclipse premiere, but now they hadn't talked since their break-up. But Ashley would want McKenzie to go, despite the fact that Rob's face would be plastered around them on movie posters.
She looked back down at the invite to see what the date was. November 18. Jeffry wasn't set to get home until the twenty-third. That meant she would have to go alone if she went at all. Unless...
"I'm going and you're coming with me."
"What?" Tom exclaimed, jumping out of his seat and backing away from McKenzie and her semi-crazed smile. "No, no, no, no-"
"Oh, come on, Thomas. It can't be that bad."
"Right now it doesn't seem that bad, but when we get photographed together because I'll be your date-"
"Back-up date," McKenzie corrected.
"-everyone is going to assume the worst. Then both of our relationships will be ruined and we won't be able to get together because then it'll be looked at as a rebound and then everyone will criticize us more."
"Why would we get together?" McKenzie asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Tom with a sly smile.
"We wouldn't."
Tom wasn't quite sure why he had assumed that he and McKenzie would ever get together if their relationships failed since the odds of that happening were slim to none especially with the baby on the way.
"Then there's no problem with this. Just explain to Jade that I don't want to go alone and I'm sure she'll understand. She was there that night, after all."
"What about Jeffry?"
McKenzie shrugged. "He won't care, and even if I did try to contact him, he wouldn't pick up." Tom knew that was the truest statement she had said in this whole conversation.
"Okay, then what about Rob?"
McKenzie knew that question would come eventually, and, really, she didn't know what to say. The reason she needed Tom to come with her was so that she wasn't alone while Rob was all kissy with Kristen Stewart, his current girlfriend. But at the same time, she knew Tom was right. People would instantly assume things and that was the last thing she wanted. And then there would be the ideas that she was using Tom to make Rob jealous which... weren't entirely wrong. It would be awesome to see Rob's face when Tom was hooked on her arm. "Oh hey, Rob. Yeah, Tom and I are friends again. So you can go suck a big one, asshole." That would be great.
"What about him?"
"He'll be there."
"So what? It's not like I lost my virginity to him then he cheated on me and caused to have constant anxiety with men for the rest of my life."
"You lost your virginity to him?" Tom suddenly became more interested in the conversation.
"Maybe..." McKenzie back-tracked. "You had to know that we were... you know, right?"
"Well, I figured that much, but I thought you would have lost it sooner."
"Nope, I was twenty. What, do you think I'm, like, a whore or something, Tom? I care about those kinds of things."
"I'm aware."
McKenzie realized that she shouldn't have said anything like that. After all, she had almost lost her virginity to Tom when they were seventeen. In the back of her mind, she kind of wished she would have. It would have been so much nicer to know that she had lost something so special to someone who she cared about. Obviously she hadn't cared about him for the past five years, but now she did so all past hatred had been erased.
"I'm assuming you and Jade..." McKenzie muttered after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah," Tom replied, simply.
A few more seconds passed.
"Was it nice?"
"I guess?" Tom laughed. "How did Rob perform?"
Tom hated the fact that McKenzie had fallen for Rob's tricks even after all these years. It was obvious that all those years ago he had been after her to get in her pants and now he finally had. Tom knew that there was no way that McKenzie and Rob weren't involved sexually during their most recent relationship, but he tried not to think about it - he had almost forgotten about the idea entirely until it was brought up a few minutes before.
Little did he know that McKenzie was crushed that he had lost his virginity to Jade. That made her wishes of what could have happened five years before even more prominent in her thoughts. But the past was in the past. McKenzie had fucked up and now she paid the price.
"He performed quite well, actually." McKenzie could at least try and make Tom as jealous as she felt. "But Jeff is better."
Tom had no idea how to respond to this. How do you congratulate your ex-girlfriend on having found an acceptable sex partner? "That's nice."
"Yeah." McKenzie paused. "So the premiere is on November 18. Make sure you're free that day. I mean, you have, like, two months to decide if you actually want to go with me or not, but I would really appreciate it. Good moral support, you know?"
McKenzie threw the mail down on the kitchen counter, grabbed a canned lemonade from the fridge, and popped it open as she exited the room, all the while Tom was watching her. He glanced at the stack of mail on the counter and saw the invite, Rob's face staring back at him, all pale and taunting. As much as McKenzie made it seem casual, Tom knew that she needed him there. If he knew anything about McKenzie, it was that she was a nervous wreck in awkward situations. She had been that way since they were teenagers and it had still been apparent at the Deathly Hallows part 1 premiere when they saw each other for the first time in five years. Tom sighed.
"I'll go with you," he called after McKenzie.
He heard her footsteps stop then begin to sound closer as she made her way back to talk to him.
"Do you mean it? Like, you won't change your mind in a month?"
"No. I'll go. You need someone there aside from Ashley."
"Thanks, Tom," McKenzie smiled. "And you don't mind Twilight? Some guys would never go to this premiere with me. I know Jeff would fight me to the death about having to go."
"No, no, I love it." But only for you...
