Mackenzie could have sworn the world was standing still as she kissed Tatum, she felt warm inside, warm and safe. She could feel Tatum kissing her back and her stomach fluttered. She never dreamed that Tatum would actually kiss her back, and yet here they were. As quickly as the kiss started, it was over and Tatum was pulling away from her. She sat there slightly dazed as the redhead girl freaked out, she wasn’t really sure what to do with herself now. She had put herself on the line, let down her walls completely for the redhead. She felt emotionally raw, she wiped her eyes roughly, her tears had subsided slightly.
She stood up and walked over to where the redhead had collapsed on the bench. A whole new stream of tears began flowing down her face, the girl looked so sad. She knew how torn Tatum must be, she knew how much the little redhead tried to please everyone. She instantly felt awful all over again for putting Tatum in this situation. She just couldn’t keep it from her anymore, it was either tell her or have to fight her back.

She knelt down and wrapped her arms around the girls shaking form. Her frame shaking gently with her own sobs, she felt so extremely bad. She felt bad for putting Tatum in that situation when she had promised herself she wouldn’t. She felt bad for herself because she knew that she would tell Tatum to stay with Frankie. She pulled back slightly and brushed back the girls hair from her face gently.

“Hey,” she said softly, sniffing slightly. She kissed Tatum’s forehead softly, and rubbed the girls back. She wanted to ask the girl if she really did love her, but now wasn’t the time. “Please don’t cry Tatum, it breaks my heart to see you sad. It’ll be okay, you don’t have to choose, okay?” Her tears were back again, but they were silent this time. “You’re going to stay with Frankie if that’s what makes you happy, okay? I’m not going anywhere,” She rested her forehead against the other girls and took a deep breath. “You remember what I told you when we first became friends?”

It had been later on, after the detention incident had passed. Mackenzie had been trying to get the nervous freshman to relax around her, but it had proven more difficult than she had anticipated.

“You don’t have to keep hanging around you know,” She had told Mackenzie one day when the blonde had tagged along to the library. “I know you have all of your jock friends, and I’m not exactly popular. I don’t want to be like, your charity case.”

“I told you, that it didn’t matter to me who you were,” She reminded the redhead, her forehead still resting against Tatum’s, eyes closed. “That you would probably have to kill me to get rid of me, because I would always be there for you. I meant it Tatum, you don’t have to choose between Frankie and I because I’m sticking around either way. I love you and I just want you to be happy, even if it’s not with me.”

She could literally feel her heart shattering in her chest, but it was the right thing to do. As much as she wanted to push the situation to turn out in her favor, she didn’t want to lose her best friend in the process. This was why she didn’t do attachment, things always went to shit eventually. People got divorced, broke up, cheated on one another, or whatever. She didn’t want to feel the pain it caused, it was just too much.

She kissed Tatum’s forehead one more time, and squeezed the girls shoulder. She had to get away from the redhead, it was killing her slowly to be this close to her right now. Standing up shakily, she retrieved her sweatshirt and sunglasses from where she had tossed them earlier. She hoped that Hunter was in her room, she couldn’t be in hers, it had too many memories.

“I’m gonna go,” she said quietly, choking up all over again. She was glad she had her sunglasses with her. No one would ever believe that Mackenzie Dubinsky was crying over a girl. “Um…I’ll see you later okay?”