Open When • JO MFZ COMPLETED

Chapter 14 • Porch Swing

Mackenzie's POV

"Hey Kenz."

I look up and smile at Carson. He takes a seat next to me on the bench swing on my porch. We started to swing back and forth on it, staring at the street watching as the cars drove by.

"How're you feeling?" Carson finally asks, looking over at me.

"Better," I answer.

It ended up being a cold, with a stomach bug. I was given medication to take for a few weeks since it's still flu season, and I haven't gotten my shots.

"How're you feeling without John though?" Carson questioned.

I take a deep breath and shrug.

"Some days I'm okay. Other days I'm not. It's like a piece of me is missing," I admit. "What about you? How're you doing without Lauren?"

He shrugged, "I could be better. It's hard without her here. I miss everything about her, she was my whole world."

I nodded and wrapped my arms around him. Letting him rest his head on my shoulder.

It was quiet between the two of us. Both of us were sad, we knew it too. Yet, the silence between us, the sounds of the cars passing and watching them as they passed seemed to smooth us.

"Hey sad sacks."

We jumped out of our trance and look to our left. Seeing our friends standing there. Somehow, we both seemed to have not seen their car pull up.

"Oh hey," Carson mutters.

They gave us a sympathetic look, sitting down next to us. Brynn and Lexi wrapping their arms around me, while Hayden and Jacob patted Carson's back.

"What's wrong? I thought you guys were doing better," Ruby asks.

"We were it's just, you don't know what it's like. It feels like apart of you is missing," I explain.

"We're fine some days, other days we're not," Carson adds.

"Well, we don't like seeing either of you like this so, we are going to make you happy again," Annie smiled, determined on her statement.

"Ya, it feels like we lost four friends, not two," Mark adds.

They pulled the both of us up from the swing and drag us to their cars. I personally would've rather stayed on the swing than anything else but, that's just me.

"What are we doing? I questioned annoyed.

"Making you happy again. Girls have their mission and the boys have there's now let's go!" Lexi explains.

-

I looked down at my food as I picked at it. Their way of making me happy again is taking me to the mall and shop. Granted, I did get some cute clothes but, it didn't help me at all.

"Come on Kenzie, there has to be something," Brynn insists.

I shrugged, "I don't know guys. It's nice that you care and all but, it's not going to help me. I would've liked to be alone right now."

"But, you're always alone now. Kenzie, we don't want you to be alone. We love you Kenz you know that. But, we can't help you if you won't help us by telling us what we can do to help," Annie lectured.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes.

They are right. They're doing this because they care. It's nice to know that they'll do anything to make me feel better.

"I'm sorry," I mutter, opening my eyes again. "You're right, I should at least try and put a little effort in."

They smiled at me. Happy that my attitude has done a complete 360.