I'm Trying ||m.z||

Chapter Sixteen

          “Are you sure you want to go to the dance?”

          Mackenzie let out yet another sigh as Maddie pulled her into a hug.

          “Yes,” Mackenzie huffed.

          Maddie leaned back against their kitchen counters and let her crutches rest beside her. “I just don’t want you getting upset over stupid stuff like this. Dances and boyfriends,” she shrugged. “It’s just not worth it.”

          Because Mackenzie could tell that Maddie was still seething over her recent breakup, she decided not to listen to too much of what Maddie was saying. Instead, she just nodded and said. “I’m going to go to the dance regardless of what you say, okay?”

          Maddie smiled and patted Mackenzie’s head. “I know.”

_____________________________________________________________

          Because Mackenzie arrived at the dance a bit late, it was kind of in full swing when she arrived. On one side of the gym, the boys played basketball and on the other, girls stood in small clumps either talking of dancing. It was basically everything she had expected.

          The first thing Mackenzie did was scope out the gym for Grace, and within a few seconds she found her friend and Ryan leaning against the wall and talking. Neither of them were the type to dance, and it was likely that they would be cracking jokes all night long.

          “Hey, Grace!” She called over the music.

          Grace turned to face Mackenzie and waved her over. “Hey, Mackenzie!” She handed Ryan an empty plastic cup. “Can you get me more soda?”

          He raised an eyebrow at her. “Now why would I do that?”

          Grace glared at him, hands on her hips, for a few seconds before Ryan cracked a smile and said, ‘okay.’

          As soon as Ryan left them, Grace turned to Mackenzie and grabbed her arm. “Ava didn’t come so if you want to talk to Tyler you’d better do it now.”

          Mackenzie narrowed her eyes at Grace. “What?”

          “Ava bailed, okay? Tyler’s over there playing basketball. Go talk to him.” She gave Mackenzie a small shove.

          So Mackenzie crossed the gym over to the boys playing basketball and tapped on Tyler’s shoulder to get his attention.

          “Hi,” she said.

          “Oh, um, hi, Mackenzie.”

          Just kiss him, was Mackenzie’s first thought when she looked up into Tyler’s eyes, but instead of doing anything of the sort, she only said. “So Ava didn’t come to the dance?”

          Tyler stuffed his hands into his pockets and nodded; it was kind of obvious he was nervous, “Yeah, but…I didn’t really want to go with her anyway. You came without a date right?”

          “Yeah, why?”

          “It’s just, um, I need to talk to you.”

          The two went to go sit at a table covered with hearts towards the back of the gym. Mackenzie picked at the red tablecloth that covered it. “So…what do you want to talk about?”

          Tyler ran a hand through his hair and gave Mackenzie a small smile, “I’m sorry about all of this, really sorry. I thought that after the day you met my mom and brother…well, I thought you’d never want to talk to me again. So when Ava asked me to the dance, I just said yes, so, uh, sorry.”

          Even though this wasn’t necessarily something to be laughed at, Mackenzie found herself doing exactly that. “You don’t have to be sorry. I mean, I guess it’s not a big deal right. We’re only in eighth grade.”

          Tyler nodded at that, and in a moment Mackenzie could only describe as cliché, one of Mackenzie’s favorite songs began to play.

          “Wow,’” Mackenzie muttered and rolled her eyes before glancing back over at Tyler who seemed to be watching her with a small smile on his face.

“So, um, Mackenzie,” Tyler said, holding out a hand. “Would you like to dance?”

          Mackenzie, of course, accepted.