stoic

Extended: Chapter 42

Ryder's POV
I knew I shouldn't have snapped at Mackenzie but she caught me at my worst possible mood. I had just got injured, nothing too bad, but Coach didn't let me play after hitting my head.

My dad was watching and I could see the disappointment in his eyes as we made eye contact. This was the last thing I wanted to happen. I quickly grabbed my bag and stormed out of the locker room. I pushed through the crowd trying to find my dad and he was already half way to his car.

"I didn't raise you to be a quitter." He said. My dad was a large man. He towered over me and he was very intimidating. He was a businessman who was worth a lot - but he left my mom and I until she died when I was 15, that's when he came back from the city to look after me, but that didn't last long either. He left me with a large sum of money and went back to the city.

"I didn't quit." I spit,

He scoffed before unlocking his expensive car, "don't bother coming home." He said, getting in his car. As if I'd come home anyway.

I walked to my car, kicking the side in frustration.

I needed to get my mind of it and the only way I knew I could was Mackenzie. I knew she would be at the after party, she rarely misses them and I felt so bad for yelling.

*
*
*

When Brendan and I arrived at the party, it was already busy and there were a lot of high schoolers getting drunk. I saw Jeremiah and Ella on the porch talking deeply and they stopped when I approached them.

"Have you seen Mackenzie?" I ask them and they shake their heads. I hadn't seen Lindsay around in a while so I doubt that I would see her tonight to ask her.

Brendan, Axel and I did a few shots and had a few beers making us do stupid things. Brendan took off his clothes and crowd surfed, which did not end well.

"Mackenzie!" I see her, her back to me. Her brown hair flowing down to her mid back in a bouncy curls which she always wears to school. She didn't reply to me so I pulled on her arm, making her turn around and I connected our lips. She kissed back but it seemed unfamiliar, it wasn't the same. Her lips didn't move in sync with mine and I didn't know if it just because I was intoxicated.

I pulled away in confusion, a slight part of me thinking it wasn't her. And when I looked down, it wasn't.

A hot wave of guilt suddenly washed over me as I took a step back and pushed through the crowd. I had cheated on Mackenzie. My baby.

I spent the weekend thinking of how I was going to tell her. I was going to go to her house on Sunday but I got caught up in business. I could hardly focus on anything, I was guilty and ashamed.