So we finally have a mission in this story! Trevor is coming soon, I promise. It's going to be great, I promise.
It didn't take the group of four long to get to their destination, as they were fairly close to begin with. Franklin gave Michael directions to the garage and Michael pulled into the entrance.
"So you sure you're good?" Michael asked, getting out of the car as Franklin moved over to the driver's side.
"Yeah, I got this." Franklin replied.
"Alright." Michael said.
"Ooh, I'm going to come up front." Jimmy said, attempting to climb over the seat.
"Get out and walk around." Michael growled.
Mack surpressed a snort at the dialogue between the father and son. After the ordeal they had just been through: Jimmy stealing his father's expensive yacht, getting kidnapped, Franklin jumping on to rescue him and the extensive violence, Michael was telling his kid to walk around the car instead of climbing over the passenger seat? This is the light hearted stuff she needed to hear right now.
Jimmy ignored his father and climbed over anyway, making Mack dislike him even more.
"Look, man. I'm gonna get the ride fixed, man and drop it back off at your house along with this dude." Franklin said to Michael.
"I'll move my car and go home the second Franklin drops us off back to yours." Mack added.
She had almost felt her presence was redundant today, and that she got in the way more than she helped out. Hell, she hadn't really helped out at all. All she had done was shoot a gun at the yacht and waste some bullets. She felt she should have just left when Tracey and Amanda started arguing and not have gotten caught up in the whole ordeal in the first place.
The taxi arrived and Michael hailed it over, turning back to the car to say goodbye.
"Alright. Listen, thanks for today. Appreciate it. You stop back at the house, we'll talk," Michael said to Franklin, but then turned to Mack "Sorry if I was a bit of a dick to you. Thanks for helping out. Hopefully those bullets you put in the yacht depreciate the selling price for those bastards."
"As an accounting student I can assure you it will. As an observer of crime I can also predict they'll try and pass it off as new, try to sell it to the wrong person and end up with some bullets in their stomachs." Mack predicted, beaming from the compliment, trying to cheer up Michael.
"Yeah, maybe." Michael replied gloomily, making it clear that Mack's efforts at cheering him up were wasted.
Michael then turned away and jumped into the cab. Taking no time to spare, the cab sped off, and Mack was guessing Michael threw money at the driver to get him home a little faster (and a lot more illegally)
"Come on, man. Let's trick this whip, homie." Jimmy said to Franklin, doing some weird hand gestures with his hand.
"Heya, Jim?" Mack said, trying to grab Jimmy's attention as Franklin approached the car to the garage.
"'Sup?" Jimmy responded.
"Is Eminem your favourite artist?" Mack asked him.
"Sure is! He's the mother fucking rap god. How did you know?" Jimmy replied enthusiastically.
"Just a hunch." Mack shrugged, earning a very hearty chuckle from Franklin as he entered the garage.
While they were waiting for the car to be repaired, Jimmy was trying to impress the mechanics. This suited Mack well, as she got to catch up with Franklin properly.
"So, yeah. Ben was the one before David, we only broke up a couple of months ago. We broke up because he lied about girls he was talking to, and his ex was all over him once she realised he moved on. Petty bitch." Mack hissed, summarising who Ben, the ex Jimmy knew, was.
"Man, you seem to know a lot of hoes." Franklin stated to Mack.
"Yeah... I'm kind of at the point in my life now where I'm moving away from my school friends. That's why I like Tracey, Jimmy's sister. She's a little misguided I'll admit, but she's a sweet girl." Mack said.
"Hey Ben you piece of shit, guess who I have here!" Jimmy shouted in the background on the phone, and Mack groaned.
"Doesn't help the quest to forget the past when you meet people who are connected to it." Mack sighed, as Jimmy came bounding over with the phone.
Franklin watched on amused. Growing up in Strawberry meant he was constantly around people of the same colour, with the same low socio economic status. He never saw upper middle class white people problems.
"Yep, hello Benjamin. It is me, your ex girlfriend." Mack stated, trying to supress a laugh.
Franklin couldn't hear what this "Ben" person was saying, so he had to try and guess based on Mack's answers.
"Yeah I'm quite well thanks, how are you?" Mack responded on the phone.
"That sounds like a pretty boring afternoon. Have anything else interesting on the weekend happening?" Mack asked Ben.
Jimmy, who was clearly unsatisfied with how platonic the conversation was going, began to whine as he snatched back the phone.
"Noooo! You need to tell him how we met. That's the funny part, that I'm hanging with his ex." Jimmy whined loudly.
"You are a faggot, Jimmy. My kill count is higher than yours constantly. You can hang with my ex all you want but remember, I've actually fucked her." A voice said from the phone, and Franklin realised that Jimmy must have put it on speaker.
Franklin watched Mack carefully, anticipating her to react negatively and lash out. The girls in his neighbourhood would not allow anyone to talk about them that way.
Instead, Mack began to laugh and smile, as she approached the phone.
"If I could high five you over the phone, I would right now. Hey you should re-add me on LifeInvader, we should have a shot at being friends, like we promised to when we broke up." Mack said to Ben.
"Sure thing amigo. I'm out, I gotta go to work. Catchya on the flip side." Ben said, hanging up the phone.
Franklin smiled at Mack. She was a white girl from a rich family, but he felt that she went alright. He enjoyed hanging out with her.
"Alright, all done. She's good to go." Hao stated, approaching the group sitting outside the garage.
They all hopped up and jumped back into the car. Mack was in the backseat again, while Franklin drove. Mack offered to drive considering Frankin had such an exhausting day, but Franklin said he was fine.
"I like drivin', but thanks." Franklin explained.
On the way back to the De Santa house Jimmy made small talk with Franklin. He completely ignored Mack's presence, she guessed that he was pissed off she didn't follow along with whatever point he was trying to prove with Ben.
She was shocked when Franklin pulled up, and he finally turned to her and said "I'll add you both on LifeInvader, we should hang another time."
"Sure." Mack shrugged, letting Jimmy say bye to Franklin as he jumped out of the car and headed inside the house.
"You coming in?" Franklin asked Mack.
"Nah, I don't really see a point. Tracey probably left the house, and I don't really need to say bye to Michael and Amanda." Mack shrugged.
"Alright. Nice seein' you homie. Catchya round." Franklin said to Mack.
"Yeah, you too. Have a good one." Mack smiled, as she exited Amanda's car and went over to her Dinka Blista which was parked next to where Franklin parked the Sentinel.
She unlocked the car and sat in it for a few seconds. She decided to think about the light hearted stuff today rather than the heavy violence, and smile. This was the best way to not let the ordeal affect her.
"Wow, I'm exhausted." Mack laughed, as she exited the dancefloor and sat on the wall.
David joined her soon after, laughing too.
The duo had met up on a Sunday night, as it was the best time for them both. David hadn't had time to see his family for a while, so he asked Mack if he could see her Sunday night.
Mack agreed, thinking the daytime would be perfect to confront Brandon on why Michael and Franklin think he's a criminal mastermind. However Brandon was avoiding her, and she wasn't sure whether someone had tipped him off or not and informed him that Mack was on the warpath.
Maybe it was Michael, she decided.
Her texts went avoided, so she ended up going around to his house. She didn't bother calling, and made the drive to the airport area from Rockford Hills to surprise him. But Brandon wasn't home, that's what Melody, his wife told Mack at the door. Mack decided to not read into it too much and assumed Melody was telling the truth.
Even though it would now be longer until she found out just what Michael and Franklin were talking about the previous day, implying her brother was a criminal, that was now far from her mind. Her and David were out having a dance and a drink, enjoying themselves.
"Uh oh, I'm a bit too tipsy for someone who has work tomorrow!" Mack giggled, grabbing David's arm and resting her head on his shoulder.
David grinned at the attention he was receiving from Mackenzie. He was enjoying the light touches from her.
"I have an RDO tomorrow. I'm not tipsy enough." David teased, chugging his beer.
"I think I better head off. It's been fun, but by the time I get a cab and I get back to Rockford Hills from here, wow it'll be late." Mack stated.
"You could..." David began to say, but cut himself off as his cheeks brightened and he became to feel nervous and embarrassed at what he was about to propose.
"What?" Mack asked, cocking her head.
David debated whether to ask or not. Deciding she would probably bug him about telling her what he was about to say, he would spit it out. He figured saying it now would make it less of a deal than letting her bug him and him finally saying it.
"Well, I... live kind of close by. You can crash at mine, I mean I can sleep on the couch and you can take the bed... or you can have the couch if you'd prefer. It's up to you, just throwing the offer out there." David said, trying his best to hide his cringe as he successfully told Mack of his proposition without stammering.
Mack blinked for a second as she took in what he was saying. It took her a while to decide how to respond. Mack absolutely hated waking up hungover anywhere else than her bed. She absolutely hated commuting home hungover and avoided it where she could. But she really liked David, and wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.
"Sure. I guess we can arrange sleeping arrangements when we get to yours." Mack decided.
"O-ok, sweet! Well, let's head outside and get a taxi." David stated, grabbing Mack's hand and leading her outside.
David was able to get a cab easy enough, and was able to direct the cab driver to his home. The ride took about ten minutes including the lights, and then David and Mack were inside his apartment.
Mack looked around and nodded in satisfaction. His apartment was pretty bare, just the essentials such as a couch and a tv. There were nothing on the walls, and nothing but dvds and books on the bookshelf. It was however, very neat and tidy - unlike Mack's house which her and her housemate Callum would only keep the house tidy at the beginning of semester.
"So uh, did you want a drink?" David asked Mack, growing increasing nervous as it began to hit him that the girl he really liked was standing in his apartment. He felt like a high school kid again.
"Ummm... this is really weird - but do you have any vitamins? They're great for killing any would be hangovers the next day." Mack asked.
"Sure. I'll grab you some, and some painkillers too. If you want to use the bathroom it's that door just behind you." David said to Mack, pointing out the door he was referring to.
Mack thanked him as she ducked quickly into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
She looked at herself in the mirror. She still decided she looked okay, and was grateful that she bought a little bit of makeup with her, so she could use it tomorrow. She wasn't comfortable about being barefaced around David just yet.
After doing her business, washing her hands and fluffing her hair, she decided to go out and see David again.
He was standing in the kitchen with a glass of water, and Mack noticed a glass for herself with a few different pills.
She took no hesitation in taking the water and gulping down the pills.
"For all you know, that could have been cyanide." David joked, as he saw Mack hastily drinking the water and taking the medication.
"Yeah well, luckily it's almond tasting free." Mack shrugged.
David grinned widely at his date. He absolutely loved her sassy, intelligent personality, and she was cute to boot. He was absolutely smitten with Mackenzie, and had already told nearly everyone he knew about the cute, down to earth girl from Rockford Hills.
"So uh….sleeping arrangements?" Mack awkwardly bought up after she had gulped the water down. This was the first she had felt awkward since she stepped into the apartment.
"Well um, what would you like?" David asked as he scratched the back of his neck, feeling just as nervous as the pretty girl in front of him.
"I...I guess we can stay in your bed. I'm not going to put out so don't take this the wrong way. But if you're okay with that, there's no reason why we can't both sleep in the bed." Mack stated, trying her best to not stumble over her words too much.
"This is incredibly lame and I hope this doesn't make me seem like less of a man, but do you...do you maybe want to cuddle to sleep tonight?" David asked Mack, blushing as he anxiously waited for her response while he was putting himself out on a limb.
"Yeah, kay." Mack smiled, taking David's hand as he led them both into his bedroom.