Seven

2.5

"Hi, Ms. Johnson," I greet as Graham and I go into his house one evening.

"Hi, Mackenzie," She replies with a smile. "Always good to see you."

"You too, thank you for having me."

"What are we having for dinner?" Graham questions.

"Just burgers tonight," She answers. "I'll call you two down when it's ready."

"Thanks," Graham replies, as we go upstairs to his room.

Even though Graham and I have a recent friendship, we always have a lot to talk about. We spend a lot of time together and there's always a conversation that can go on. I think our friendship is good for the both of us. Clearly, I don't have many friends these days and Graham has a few, but I think that it's good for us to have each other always around. I know that it's good for me so I'm just hoping that it's good for him, too.

His family has also been very welcoming to me. Graham's parents are divorced, so he lives here with his mom. I think he told his mom that things weren't too good for me at home, because he invites me over a lot and she's always very nice to me. I am very thankful for it all; it gives me a place to occupy myself so I don't have to go home with Jared. It's only been a few weeks, but Graham has still been more than kind to me. It's probably all considering the circumstances, but it's still very nice nonetheless.

"Dinner's ready!"

"Good, I'm hungry," Graham mumbles as we get up and go downstairs. "So, what ever happened with Myra last night? You never told me." Last night was that party and I stayed over Myra's house, and after that I went home for about ten minutes and then came over here. Luckily, there wasn't much bad blood between Myra and I. It almost felt normal between the two of us. I know it won't stay that way, but at least it wasn't completely awful spending time with her.

"I don't know, she was kind of a mess," I respond. "It's the girl I know, though. She's always dramatic and a mess, but that's who she is. It went fine, other than that."

I nearly jump out of my skin as we reach the dining room table and a new person is sitting down with Graham's mother. Other than just any new person, it's Liam.

"What are you doing?" Graham asks me. I then realize I stopped walking and I'm kinda just standing here. "Sit down."

"Hi, Mackenzie?" Liam says, confusion displayed across his face.

"You two know each other?" Graham questions.

"Yeah," Liam replies. "We do know each other."

He has that hideous smirk on his face that I am too familiar with. I want it to go away. I want to go away. I would rather be at home than with this person right now.

"Oh," Graham mumbles.

"Are you two friends?" Liam asks. "I wouldn't expect someone like you to hang out with my little brother."

"We're friends," I reply softly.

"Liam, don't talk about your brother with that attitude," His mother commands. Everyone knows that Graham and I are different people, but it still works nonetheless. Nobody expects it to work, but it does.  It's not like it's something completely abnormal, either.  We're friends, just like so many people are.

I knew Liam was Graham's brother, but I never really associated the two of them. Graham is such a good guy, and Liam is just about the opposite. He's horrible. I never imagined something like this ever happening. Besides that, I expected myself to be dead before anything like this ever could have happened.