dead | ethan dolan

old friends

chapter three
——mackenzie's pov
september 1st, 2018

right. so this was a bad idea. i felt it the moment i stepped up to the imposing double doors of connor shales sprawling ranch-style house at the very back edge of the crest. the homes were newer here. more modern than the classic mansions my friends and my family had grown up in.

and connors was practically all windows. floor to ceiling, back to front. how anyone got privacy in this place was beyond me. the house was tucked away in the thick woods that formed the barrier between the crest and the garden state parkway a couple miles off, but if you got past the trees, you could see everything.

like kylie owens standing in the center of the sunken living room, surrounded by madeline taine, faith kirkpatrick and a half dozen other crestie girls, both younger and older.

like the backyard beyond, where the idiot twins had hook up some kind of zip line over the pool from which they were now swinging like monkeys from two opposite trees. as i watched, the two of them collided in midair. there was a groan. a splash. then a cheer. which meant, i supposed, that they had lived.

and then there was bedroom boy, who was pressed up against the far wall, a girl in a barely there minidress slobbering all over him. well, then. i guess he hadn't invited me here because he actually wanted to see me or anything.

i took a breath to quell the disappointment in my chest. this was not about bedroom boy. this was about seeing my lifelong best friends did the first time in a year and a half. i reached for the door, but my nerves took hold and atrophied my arm.

i couldn't do this. wait, yes i could. i had to.
if i didn't see them now, i'd see them tomorrow at school, and then our encounter might happen in front of my mom. which would just make it that much more intense. besides, if i stand here a second longer, someone is going to notice me and then i'd have to go in but i'd already be mortified because they had seen me hesitating. this was a total nightmare. i held my breath, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.

"mackenzie?"
The voice came from behind. i whirled around  to find hammond lidison standing there all long beach island tan, in a plain white t-shirt and cargo shorts. he was just as blonde as ever, but taller, broader, less doofy-boy and more hot -guy. also he didn't look unhappy to see me. which kind of made sense, but also didnt.

"hammond. hey."
his eyes flickered past me toward chloe and the rest of them. checking to see if they'd noticed him talking to me. my nervousness mounted.

"what're you doing here?" he asked, wrapping me in a brief hug.
"god i missed you." he smiled.
so i guess they hadn't noticed us here.
"i-" i started but he cut me off.
"wait, you're not gonna tell anyone about-"
"oh. my. god. she's. here."

i would have recognized faith's voice even if it hadn't been louder than every other one in the room. i moved form hammond and the wide-open foyer into the even wider-open living room, where all my former friends had turned around to face me.

bedroom boy somehow lost his hanger-on as he stepped away from the wall. he hovered a bit behind the rest of them, pushing his large and calloused hands sheepishly into the pockets of his chino shorts. even though he'd just been booking up with some drunken frosh and obviously didn't care one iota about me, my heart was not unaffected at the sight of standing there.

"hey guys." i lifted a hand awkwardly.
hammond closed the door behind me and went directly to kylie's side. so i guessed they were still together.

there was a prolonged moment of silence as the periphery people moved discreetly away, staying close enough of course to keep an eye on the impending drama.