not as strong as you think i am (i'm no superman) [dalkenzie]

Chapter 5

MacKenzie was hardly approached for the rest of the day save for his usual circle of friends. He knew all too well that his near-outburst had likely given the crowd something else to talk about. They're both crazy, birds of a feather, why else would they be drawn to each other? Ugh. If there was one thing he couldn't wait for besides Dalton to be out of the hospital, it was to graduate and get away from that childish mindset. Too bad both of them felt like light years away.

When the city bus was about five blocks away from MacKenzie's house, he got off to walk the rest of the way and continue cooling his head. What Mr. Owen had said made sense on a fundamental level, that it was all right to be confused and none of this was his fault, but the other concerns still weighed heavy.

Halfway through his walk, his phone rang and he was breathless to answer. "Hello?"

"Hey there MacKenzie, Kiva and I just thought we should check in. Was everything all right today?"

Mack felt himself deflate. He could've been happy someone was actually asking about him, but- "Um, uh, not completely," he fumbled.

Fran's "hmm" on the other end said enough.

"Can Dalton come home yet?" Even if the crying was out of his system (for today at least), he knew he still sounded selfish at that question. Jesus, maybe I really am horrible.

"I'm sorry, son, but there's still his medication to adjust. But it looks like he had a good session with the therapist today, so it might be a little sooner than we first thought."

So he was talking to someone to feel better. Thank goodness. "All right. Thanks for letting me know."

"Anytime, son. Say, once Dalton's out and settled, you think your parents and you would like to come over for a dinner?"

"I'm sure asking them will be just a formality," Mack smirked. Had to keep his sense of humor somewhere.

***

Saturdays were typically sedate for MacKenzie unless he had an upcoming game or test to be stressing over, and with Dalton not around there was certainly no date to get ready for. After getting some homework out of the way, he went over to his grandmother's to help her with her weekly grocery run since she wasn't as completely mobile as she used to be. Mack and his parents had moved here in the first place to be closer and help her out, and besides the friends he made, her presence made the new situation easier to adjust to. She had the best hugs and a kind listening ear, and she could still make her way around the kitchen a bit so MacKenzie's senses would be greeted by a homemade treat instead of just something ordered.

Dalton had met Nonna quite a few times and was just delighted by her, even if it'd taken a while for her to get used to that yes, her grandson was sweethearts with a boy and yes, such things were more common nowadays. Thankfully her confusion had never been out of bigotry.

MacKenzie didn't want to go into details about the hospitalization when she asked him why he seemed so quiet today, offering the standard 'not feeling well' story. Nonna's sympathetic smile and pats to his cheek brought back that simplistic feeling of childhood, even if total regression wasn't really a good idea. You just had to take your comfort where you could.

Afterwards it was heading to the mall and hoping to run into any friends there to kill a few hours. Much like the majority of Dalton's friends were in his music and drama classes, Mack's circle of friends mostly ended up being other guys on the basketball team and in shop class. There were a couple who had totally dropped contact after he came out, but those losses hadn't left him as broken as he'd initially feared.