psychotic; jmb

chapter sixteen

joey and mackenzie walk upstairs into his office as tayler pops out from behind a wall.

"is she gone?" he whispers while looking all around.

"who, mackenzie?" i spat out her name like it tasted bad in my mouth.

his eyes go big when he hears her name.  i nod "yes" and he walks to the fridge from where he was hiding.

i climb onto one of the chairs placed by the island and lean onto the countertop.  "what's your deal with her?"

he sets the beer bottle he'd just grabbed onto the counter and searched for a bottle opener.  he shrugs and continues searching.

"oh, c'mon," i sigh. "you shivered at the sound of her name."

he runs his hands through his hair and pops the cap off of the bottle, "she means nothing." he took a long sip of the beer.

"nothing doesn't just make you so scared you're gonna shit your pants."

tayler ignores me and goes back to his beer.

i wait a few seconds till he's drinking the beer to scream, "mackenzie!" and bang my fists on the table.

i laugh so hard when he starts coughing and liquid comes out of his nose.  through all that noise i hear, "what?"

i turn around to see mackenzie crossing her arms and joey standing behind her with a confused look on his face.  this only makes me laugh harder.

tayler looks up at her and coughs.  in a seducing voice she says, "hi tayler." and waves her fingers.

i turned towards tayler. in response his eyes narrow at me and glares. he grabs a paper towel to wipe the beer still dripping from his nose.

"what did you want?" mackenzie sasses at me.

"i just would like to," i pause for dramatic effect and it drives mackenzie crazy, "know what tayler and yours deal is."

"there's no deal," tayler blurts.

there was a long silent and painful pause when no even seemed to breathe.

joey broke the silence by saying, "okay, well, mackenzie i think we're done here. you can leave."

everyone in this house is so tense all the time. it's depressing, way more than all the trauma i've been in and seen.

mackenzie walks out the door swaying her hips in attempt to make the boys swoon over her. joey looks unamused, but there's something different about the way that tayler is looking at her. the way his eyes stayed on her till the door was shut and she was no longer visible; the way he kept staring at the door the same way for a few long seconds. it's very weird.

tayler left the room and i walked over to the couch. joey flops down beside me and slithers his arm around my shoulders. he tilts his head and places his soft lips on my neck.

"i think i might be falling in love with you," he whispers into my ear. every few words his lips graze my ear.

"joey. . ." i hesitate saying the next thing that came into my mind, "we both know you're incapable of loving me or anyone."

he grabs my face and looks into my eyes the way tayler looked at mackenzie.

"i think i'm in love with you and i'm terrified."

love leads to pain and crying. all things i don't want to feel or do. but i think i'm okay with that if it means i get joey.