The Burn

Chapter 6

Mackenzie

MY NEXT CLASS WAS CHEMISTRY. I arrived a little after the bell rang, but the teacher, Mr. Brophy, seemed relatively cool about it. He even teased me about being “fashionably late.”

“Class, meet Mackenzie. Mackenzie, meet the class,” was his introduction.

There was a murmur of unenthusiastic replies.

“Forgive them. They’re used to replying with emoji faces,” the teacher said. “Or, eggplants. Especially, Mr. Monroe over there. Apparently, he’s a vegan. He uses them a lot in his texts.”

The class burst out laughing and the guy he was referring to turned beet-red but also smiled.

“So, as a reminder to everyone, I don’t want to catch you using your phones or I will confiscate them. I could use some extra reading material during my lunch hour.”

There were a couple of snorts and murmurs.

“Now, Mackenzie, why don’t you go over and sit with Mr. Adams back there. Feel free to elbow him in the ribcage when he falls asleep. He does that quite a bit.” He frowned and shook his head. “Take off your sunglasses. We’re not at the beach, Romeo.”

It was then that I noticed he was talking to Chase, the guy from the hallway. Mattie’s boyfriend. The one I was going to sit with.

Chase put his sunglasses on his head.

I walked back to the lab table and sat next to him. He smelled faintly of alcohol.

Was he drunk?

I stole a quick glance at him. His eyelids looked heavy. He probably had been taking a nap.

“Okay, everyone. Open up your books to page nineteen,” Mr. Brophy instructed.

Chase didn’t say a word the next hour, although he did a lot of yawning. When the bell finally rang, he cleared his throat and I thought might say something, when the teacher called out from his desk.

“May I see you before you head out, Mr. Adams?”

Chase swore under his breath and then picked up his backpack. He walked around me and headed toward the teacher’s desk.

Wondering what that was about, I walked out of the classroom and headed toward my locker. That’s when I found, in dismay, that Mattie’s was only a few doors away from mine.

Groaning inwardly, I ignored her and opened it. As I was shoving my Chemistry book onto the top shelf, I heard her call Chase’s name.

He approached her locker. “What’s up?”

“Where were you last night?” she asked him.

It took him a couple of seconds to answer. “Changing the oil in my car.”

She snorted. “For four hours?”

“The guys stopped by and we hung out.”

“You could have at least called me back or texted me.”

“By the time they left, I was exhausted.”

She sighed. “Are you going to Jason’s party Friday?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“I’m going.”

“I figured.”

“I want to see you tonight.”

I glanced over and saw her clinging to him. He didn’t seem to be comfortable with it. In fact, looked a little perturbed. Or, maybe it was wishful thinking on my part.

“I’m racing.”

“Who?”

“Gus.”

“That guy from Lancaster?”

“Yeah.”

“How about afterward?”

“We’ll see. I gotta go and grab s**t from my locker.”

“See you at lunch.”

He walked away and apparently, I made the mistake of watching him.

“What the f**k are you looking at?”

I jerked my head around to see Mattie in my face. Or, at least above it, considering she was about three inches taller than me. “Excuse me?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Dream on, though, bitch.” She wrinkled her nose as her eyes trailed down my body. “Even if we weren’t together, he wouldn’t touch trash like you.”

Trash?

I closed my locker and glared at her. “I’m not interested in your boyfriend, so f*****g relax.”

She looked a little surprised at my reaction. Maybe it was because she towered over me and I hadn’t cowered in fear.

“Then keep your eyes to yourself,” she warned.

I laughed coldly. How juvenile. “What exactly is your dysfunction? I haven’t done anything to you and you’ve just been a royal b***h to me.”

“My dysfunction? f**k you.” She shoved me so hard, my back hit the locker with a loud clunk.

Furious, I pushed her back as hard as I could.

This time it was Mattie who stumbled and fell, landing in the middle of the hallway. Everyone stopped and stared.

“I’d trade those boots in for something without heels,” I said, shutting my locker.

She got back up and was about to come at me again when Mr. Brophy appeared and moved in between us.

“Stop it right now or you’ll both go to the office,” he said angrily.

“She started it,” Mattie snapped.

I glared at her. “That’s a lie.”

“I don’t care who started it, both of you are finishing it. Right now.”

Mattie started babbling again.

Mr. Brophy held his hand up. “Save it. I don’t care what you do off of school grounds, but touch each other again here and you’ll both see the principal and your parents about it,” he said angrily. “You’re just lucky it was me who caught you. Anyone else would have sent you to the office, no questions asked.”

I noticed Chase standing in the background with some other guys. One of them said something and he smirked.

“The show is over, people. Everyone, get to your classes,” Brophy ordered, clapping his hands together. “Go on.”

With a final dirty look in my direction, Mattie grabbed her stuff from her locker and stormed away.

“Don’t let her get to you,” murmured the teacher. “It’s not worth it.”

Easy for him to say.

He left and I kept my head down as I headed toward my next class. As much as I wanted to walk out of the school that very moment and never return, I refused to give the b***h the satisfaction of being the reason.

THE NEXT HOUR was English Lit. Fortunately, Sara was also in the class. She waved me over to an empty seat next to hers.

“What happened between you and Mattie?” she asked as I sat down. “Were you just getting back at her from earlier?”

I let out an exasperated breath. “No. I was just minding my own business when she decided to f**k with me again.”

“Wow. I knew she was a b***h but, damn. You two just met, right?”

“Yeah.”

She frowned. “It’s so crazy that she’s targeted you so early. Are you sure you didn’t do something to piss her off?”

I snorted. “Apparently being the new girl is all it took.”

Another girl, who’d been listening in, turned to look at me. “Robbins is a total basket case. Last year she started s**t with me just because Sonny Delfoy asked me out and I turned him down. I mean, talk about a crazy b***h. Why does she care if I told him ‘no’?”

“It’s because you said ‘no’ to an A-squader, Lucy. She’s kind of like their den-mother or something,” Sara murmured and looked at me again. “Anyway, just ignore her. She’ll get tired and move on to her next victim soon enough.”

“I hope so. She gets in my face again and I don’t know what I’ll do...” My voice trailed off.

“I couldn’t believe you stood up to her. No offense, but I was shocked when you pushed her and she fell in the hallway. I think everyone was,” Sara said.

Lucy’s eyes widened. “s**t, I missed that?”

I shrugged. “She started it. Anyway, I’m not afraid of her,” I replied, although I’d been trembling afterward. Mattie was a lot bigger than me, and I didn’t know if I could beat her, but I’d put in one hell of an effort.

Lucy smiled. “I wish I would have seen that. She deserves to get her a*s beat.”

I agreed, although I didn’t want any more conflict with her myself. I had a feeling that Mattie was just getting started with me, though. Especially now that I’d humiliated her.

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