Mackenzie | √

Chapter 17

"Kenzi, I got your call yesterday. That conversation was the longest I'd had in my life."

I got the sarcasm immediately, considering I didn't even call him yesterday, "I'm so sorry, Ryan. It's just that yesterday turned out terrible and-"

"What happened?" Ryan asked and Bambi looked at me.

"Mom and I are talking and next thing she starts coughing, at the end of the day, I had to leave the hospital. As if that wasn't enough, I went to Tanner's house and he was being as usual, a jerk-"

"I thought he apologized," Bambi said

"Yeah. A jerk would always be a jerk, I guess. Anyway, I had to leave his house in anger. I got home tired and angry so I had to go to bed immediately," I explained.

"Damn. I'm sorry," Ryan said.

"Maybe we could all visit Mom another day?" Bambi said

"Yeah. That'd be nice," I nodded, "Thanks, guys."

*

I walked alone in the hallway, already walking to class even if the bell hadn't rung. I didn't think I'd be praying for the bell to ring this much, because I'd never done so before. Bambi had followed Ryan to grab some stuff from his locker and I'd told Ryan I would see him in class. I brought out my timetable, to check if I did have a free period today. Those were the best classes, anyway. I looked up just in time to realise I was about to bump into a body, but the time I had wasn't enough for me to walk in another direction, so I ended up hitting the body, holding my timetable firmly in my hand. No. I wasn't ready for those movie scenes where the stuff in the girls hand fell and she and the guy had to go down to retrieve whatever fell.

"Hey, are you alright?" The guy asked and I could swear I'd heard that voice before.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I-" I looked up at him," It's you." I smiled brightly.

"Yeah!" He smiled back as he looked at me, "Hey."

"I can't believe you're here!"

"Well, I can't believe we met again." He dug his hands inside his pocket.

"So, you're new around here or something?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Where are you coming from?"

"New York," he smiled.

"You're welcome to our school, then," I  stretched out a hand which he took, chuckling. "What class do you have this morning? Can I take a look at your timetable?" I looked at him

"Sure," he handed it to me.

My eyes read through it, "You've got the same timetable with my best friend. She's Bambi."

He nodded, "Right. We're not having any classes together?"

"We are, but a few, I guess."

"Oh, okay. He looked around, "Well, I gotta go to the principal's office."

I chuckled, "It's no problem. I'll see you around, then."

"Sure," he smiled and turned to leave, but then, he stopped and looked back at me. "I'm Darren."

"Mackenzie," I smiled and he walked away.

"Who was that guy you were just talking to?" Bambi appeared behind me.

"That was Darren. He's new here and he's got the same timetable as you. I met him yesterday at the supermarket Ryan dropped me at."

"He's cute," Bambi said.