Our story starts on a crisp, breezy day in mid-May. It was rather cool, especially for the small town of Dentech, California. Michaela was taking her time jogging and enjoying the beauty of the nature surrounding her, as she watched her son, Max, play in the middle of Dolph Park. She starts to jog faster, because she realizes that her best friends, Ezra and Angel, are starting to catch up. They've been running together since 7th grade, and now they are all in the middle of their junior year in Leigh High School. Ezra is exactly four months younger than the girls who share the same birthday of February 17th.
Michaela is wearing her teal exercise outfit teal leggings and a teal leotard with a black over-sized fishnet shirt. As Ezra and Angel catch up Michaela notices that they both look guilty, and that when they looked at her they both stopped talking.
"Hand it over, BOTH of you!", Michaela demands of her two close friends.
"C'mon Mickey, he's only got a dime for each of us, Please!", begged Angel as Ezra started to argue,
"Come On, I haven't had any in like 3 weeks."
"Ezra Clint Callawell, don't you lie to me, don't you dare.", Michaela replied in her stern, scolding voice, that she usually saved for when Max was naughty. More quietly she continued, "Brooke already broke down and apologized for lying to me about your drugs last weekend. So don't deny it! And you," she said turning to Angel, "don't you C'mon Mickey, Me. You told me that you wanted me to help you quit, so don't argue with me when I do."
Ezra and Angel looked at each other and both apologized to Michaela. Then Ezra handed her a red bag. He had put 'the stuff' in a red bag so that no one would realize what it was. Michaela just looked at him, waiting. When he realized what she was waiting for he handed her his last pipe. Michaela broke it and put 1/2 of it in her jacket pocket, and then emptied the contents of the bag into the dirt on the side of the track. She emptied the contents of the red bag, then buried it and the other half of the pipe with the toe of her white toed, teal shoes.
Michaela turned just in time to see Max climbing the 'big slide'. She ran to him and got there just in time to catch him, when he lost interest in climbing and decided to jump back down. Michaela scolded her son, and then brought him back to the 'ride along cart'. It was really a stroller but Max thought that he was to old for a stroller so they called it his ride along cart. Then, they all decided to leave and continue the discussion when they got back to Ezra and Angel's house.
Meanwhile. . . . . . At Matt's apartment, Matt and Nikos were bringing Linda up to the apartment. Matt was carrying her over his shoulder 'like a sack of potatoes' and Nikos was carrying her wheelchair and laughing at Matt's antics. Finally they reached the top of the staircase and Matt slowly set Linda down. Still not used to her being able to stand by herself.
"I'm fine Matt, the physical therapy is doing great, I can almost take steps again. Calm down, and that wheelchair isn't exactly light, you could probably help Nikos," Linda sarcastically scolded.
"I know I know, and Nikos is just fine aren't ya bud?," Matt commented.
"Yeah, right, I'm fine," Nikos said pretending to be all out of breath. Matt just gave him a playful punch on the arm and finished unlocking his door.
"Home Sweet Home," Matt said lamely, as he opened the door to his apartment. He knew it wasn't much to look at, but it was his. The orange and yellow striped wallpaper was wearing very thin and showing some of the not so well hidden pink walls. Off to the right there was an air conditioner that worked, sort of. And then as soon as you walked in the door was his big chair. The only way to describe his big chair was that it was big. It was a huge pea green recliner with big comfortable arms and a very cushy back. He didn't have a lot of furniture just a yellow-green love seat and his big chair. Other than that the apartment was great. The only thing bothering him now was his mom and her deteriorating personality.
"Thinking about your mom again, hun?" asked Linda quietly trying to whisper so Nikos didn't worry about Matt again. Linda remembered a little over a month ago when she and Nikos had found Matt sitting by his father's grave. He had been there for a little over six hours.
"No, no, no, of course not if she wants to. . .well, nevermind just never mind. I'm fine," he said without feeling while he picked her up and carried her to his favorite, big, comfortable 'cushy' chair. After setting her down gently he looked into her deep brown eyes that reminded him so much of another set of eyes. . . Mickey's . . . Shaking his head he let his mind return to what was happening now. "Yeah, right, and you expect me to believe that? As if Matt. But. . . I won't say anything else about it because here comes Nikos," Linda said slowly.
"Thanks a lot Linda," said Matt sincerely right before Nikos interrupted. Knowing that he was keeping something from his best friend did make him feel bad but he didn't want Nikos to worry so. .
"Thanks for what?" said Nikos, wondering what everyone was talking about. He hated secrets, they always caused problems. Without waiting for an answer Nikos accidentally started thinking aloud, "I hate secrets and promises!"
"WHAT?!?!?!"Matt and Linda were looking at him rather funny. Nikos just shrugged his shoulders non-commitedly.
"Nope, your not getting out of this one. You keep accidently saying things out loud Nikos. What happened with promises that bothers you so much?" Linda asked, and some how you could tell she really wanted to know. Linda had a crush on Nikos, and he knew that, but today he could tell that she wasn't just looking at his 5 feet 9 inches, or his 165 pounds not even his 'beautiful green eyes, nice butt, and soft brown hair' and she always said laughingly. When he first got here he was amazed by her attitude about being in a wheelchair, but now it was just Linda.
"Nothing, listen I, oh alright I'll tell you, but you may never ever repeat any of this," said Nikos finally, giving in to his friends. Then he glanced at his watch, and saw his excuse for not telling them. "Oops, sorry, it's time to go. Howie expects me home tonight. Bye," he finished lamely, rushing out the door before his friends could argue. He turned his head only slightly enough to recognize the glares of his friends.
Nikos pulled his candy apple red camaro into the small apartment garage. He was parked next to Howie's 'baby'. Howie's baby blue 1969 Chevy Impala was his 'baby', he washed it at least twice a week and waxed it a minimum of once every two weeks. He knew that Howie was home, but since Lachelle's purple moped wasn't there Nikos assumed she's still with Brooke. Just then, Lachelle beeped at him, startling him and making him turn around. He stopped for a moment to admire his 'little sis'. Today, she had her black hair in a spider clip with little loose tendrils flying around her 'girlishly cute' features. She was wearing way to much make-up, which as of late had been becoming habit. She grinned at him and gave him the look asking him to please not tell Howie about the make-up; as she quickly grabbed a wet nap and wiped it all off.
"A little late, aren't you two?" asked Howie abruptly, startling Nikos from his daze.
"Of course not, you said 7:00, according to my watch it is 6:55, so we're both early this time," Nikos quickly replied.
"What are you doing over there, Lachelle?", Howie asked turning to his youngest sibling.
"Nothing, ya big worry wart. I'm home on time and my beautiful purple baby has been washed and waxed, courtesty of Matt.", she said, lying, in Nikos's mind way to easily.
Howie jumped on that tidbit of information. "Matt, huh, Nikos, didn't you say you were gonna be with Matt and Linda all day?"
"Yeah, I did. So, Linda and I sat and talked while Matt and Lachelle went to go wax the ugly little moped.", Nikos replied calmy. Then realized that Lachelle was staring at him with wide eyes. Nikos thought to himself that this was the first time she'd ever seen him lie to Howie.
"Alright, I give up, I made some Domino's pizza for supper, no sausage, lots of pepperoni, extra cheese, and no mushrooms and onions. Right?", Howie calmly changed the subject when he realized that he wasn't going to win this one. In response he just got a lot of nods. Which in it's self was strange because they usually picked on him for saying that he MADE Domino's pizza.
Back at Brad and Michaela's house. . .
Brad had been waiting for Angel to get there for over an hour. He was getting impatient. Finally, he picked up the phone and called the house where she and Ezra lived. Man, he didn't like that kid. Ezra was bad news and Brad just knew that Ezra was going to get Angel and Michaela into trouble. Just then he heard the phone ringing on the other end. Ezra answered the phone.
"Hello, Callawell residence, Ezra speaking. I'm out of it so you can talk to my friend Michaela. Just kidding. Hi Brad how's it hanging? Oh, a little small and to the left, sorry to hear it. Here's Angel", Ezra said all this before Brad even said Hello.
"Hi Brad, it's Angel. . . .Why are you calling? Not to be rude, I'm just wondering.", Angel said quickly.
"No specific reason, I've just been waiting for you for the past hour. You were supposed to be here at 6:00, it's almost ten after seven now. Where were you, did you forget? Again?!", Brad said. He knew he sounded angry but this was the 5th time in two weeks that she hadn't shown up for one of their dates. Brad knew it was all Ezra's fault but whenever he brought it up he and Angel only ended up fighting and he hated fighting with her.
"Don't yell at me Bradley James Bates. I heard about your weekend with Mackenzie. And don't you dare deny it. Brooke told me all about it. She saw the two of you together at the dance club, dancing to a slow song and at the end of it she kissed you. Then, you don't even tell me. This may seem insignifigant to you but I don't like other people, especially MACKENZIE, kissing my boyfriend. If YOU want this relationship to work then you better ditch that Bitch!", Angel yelled into the phone as she hung up on him. Brad had to stop and think. Shit, she was right, Mackenzie had kissed him that night. Wait a minute, Brooke's only 15 how did she get into that dance club. His memory of that night was vague but still, . . . .Brad and Mackenzie were locked in an embrace as she told him why she was depressed all the time and since they were such close friends they went out to dance while she talked. He knew she loved to dance, so he did that for her too. At the end of the song, Mackenzie had been blunt.
"Brad, I care about you a lot. I want a relationship with you but you need to get rid of Angel. She's no good for you, besides you want this don't you.", she'd sounded so seductive. Then she'd kissed him, and he, being a man, had kissed her back.
Oh no, he had kissed her back. He had forgotten all about that. Brad quickly ran out to his black jeep. He jumped in, started the car with the key dangling off of the teal baby key ring Michaela had given him for babysitting Max after the first 6 months. All of a sudden he heard, THONG Tha THONG THONG THONG. Sisqo was jumping out of his system and of course it had to be the thong song. As he pulled into the Callawell driveway, he jumped out leaving the music going. Ezra met him at the door.
"What do you want, don't you think you hurt Angel enough? Your not welcome here, good bye!", Ezra stated, slamming the door on Brad.
"No, I need to talk to her. NOW!", Brad hissed at him, putting his foot in the door jamb before it closed. Then he heard someone tell Ezra to let him in, he recognized the voice of Michaela.
"Hurt her, and I'll hurt you.", this was said by his sister with great emotions. After he promised not to hurt her, they let him into her bedroom.
Brad stated calmly, "I have a lot to say, and I need your word that you won't butt in. And that you'll let me talk before you comment. OK?".
"Fine", she said and let him talk.
"Ok, first of all yes, Mackenzie and I did kiss, but I don't love her. I couldn't because I love you. No, don't say anything" he added when she looked like she wanted to say something. Brad continued, "I do love you, but we're just not working. I know you don't love me as I do you and that kills me inside. I know you say you do but it's obvious to me that you don't really. "That's all I have to say and I have to leave now. I can't listen to the lies you want to tell me anymore. I love you. Good Bye."
Angel watched him leave, and when she heard him pull out she jumped up and screamed. Ezra and Michaela came in wondering what was wrong, asking if they should go kill him. When she explained that he broke up with her all of them started laughing.
"Are you serious, Mr. Perfect broke up with you, before you could dump him.", Ezra said this laughingly.
"Wow, I didn't think my brother had the guts to do that. He took Max by the way. As he left he said,"Angel is going to need you now, I'll take him with me to Mackenzie's.". It was all I could do not to laugh in his face. Wow", Michaela said laughing while she spoke.
"You think you guys are surprised. He told me not to talk until he was finished. Then he sat and professed his love on my, oh what did he call them oh yeah, my 'deaf ears'." Angel and her friends just sat and laughed at Brad's expense, never knowing that he was standing behind them. When Brad heard all of this he just turned around and left and went to Mackenzie's. He left Max there and yelled from the front door that he had come back to drop off Max because he wanted Mommy.
On the drive to Mackenzie's house, he sat and cried. He stopped by the time he reached her house, and vowed not to speak of it; and to get his revenge, somehow, someday. As he opened the door, he turned around when he heard something. It was Mackenzie's neighbor, Julie. He looked at her, waiting to see what she wanted. She wasn't a good looking woman, but she wasn't all that ugly either. He watched her tiny, figure walking towards him. She wished him a good day, and asked why he was here so late at night. He just explained that he and Mackenzie had some personal things to discuss. Then he entered the house. . .
Mackenzie jumped, "What was that? Is someone here? Come on, I know I heard something. Who's here?" Maybe I'm just being jumpy, she thought to herself. She walked into the living room, her wet, light brown, blond streaked hair hanging wetly to her waist, was dripping little cold droplets down her back. Her towel, which she was holding tightly against her was slowly undoing itself in the back. Just then, she saw a movement, it was coming at her. She dropped her towel accidently as she screamed. . .
"Mackenzie, SHUT UP!. God, girl is that the greeting I get. Sorry, Mackenzie shut up. Wow, you have a really nice body.", Brad said all of this in one breath, the nice body part under his breath. This whole time he watched her body. That long hair, those perfect abs, and she had the cutest little butt. Then again, as far as he could tell there wasn't a bad part on her whole body. His bright blue eyes were searing into her nakedness. Then all of a sudden, out of no where, she smiled. She looked at him, not covering up at all and started to walk towards him. He was loving this.
She looked at Brad, he was cute. In his own, hot, sexy, football player look alike type way; but. . . he wasn't her Nikos. She and Nikos were broken up, but not by her chioce. She needed to see him, they needed to talk.
All of a sudden, out of no where, Mackenzie just picked up her towel, covered herself, and said something about coming back in a few hours and that he should wait for her and she'd explain everything. Then, she was gone.
She pulled her 85' Pontiac Grand Am out of her driveway and drove towards the small two bedroom apartment where she would find her one and only true love.
As he sat down for supper with his family when he heard a loud muffler. He excused himself, saying that he knew it was for him. As he got to the ground floor he opened the door.
"What do you want Mackenzie? You know Howie will call the cops if he sees you or your car here."
"We need to talk. Seriously, if you need someone else to be there, fine. Tomorrow is Sunday, we meet then. We'll meet in our old neighborhood, and we can make a day of it. I'll invite Ice, JJ, Lolita, Reezy. They know the story, and you'll get to see your friends."
"What story? Ours? I already know it, why go hear it again, but I am visiting with those guys this weekend, tomorrow at 11:30, if you wanna come their your friends still too."
"Thanks, not ours, well yes ours but. I'll explain tomorrow. Bye Nikos. I love you"
"Bye"
Nikos went back upstairs to find Lachelle and Howie waiting for him. They discussed their days and then the real conversation began.
Howie plainly asked, "What did Mackenzie want?"
"Nothing, she just wanetd to know what time to meet at the place where I'm meeting JJ, Ice, Lolly, and Reezy. Why?" Nikos answered in the same manner.
"Can't a man wonder. You know I don't like you meeting with them right?", this was said by Howie while he was pushing his food around on his plate.
"Yeah, I know, and it's only for one week. You'll live. Besides, I'm staying at Lolly's and you know her parents. God, I feel like I'm eleven talking about her parents. Ya know you could trust me to act like a normal teenager!"
"I do trust you to act like a normal teenage guy, that's why I don't trust you."
Back at Ezra and Angel's place, Michaela exused herself and went, with Max, home. Back at her house, she put Max down for his nap, and just sat and thought. ' Maybe I should tell him that he's the father. He really does deserve to know. . . . . I will. I'm going to do it' And with that thought she picked up the phone.
Matt's phone was ringing. He excused himself, and went into the kitchen to answer the phone.
"Hello"
"Hi Matt, ummm, we have to talk.", said a very sexy voice that he hadn't heard in a long time.
"Wow, hi Michaela, long time. How's everything?"
"Fine, it's all fine. Ok, now the reason I called was that we need to talk, now."
"Ok, when? About what?"
"Meet me at my house in about 20 minutes, ok?"
"I have company right now, how about tomorrow?"
"No, be here in 20 minutes, or I might chicken out", with that she hung up leaving Matt speechless. Michaela had never argued with him, about anything before. He went and picked up Linda and told her that something had come up and that he had to bring her home.
Michaela was kicking herself. 'Oh my god, how could I have done this. I have to tell him. No wait, I can't tell him. ooh I'm so confuzed. She sat there thinking about this for a good 10 minutes, and then there was a knock on the door.
Matt knocked on the door to Michaela's house and then she swung open the door. He went in and she told him to sit down, and let her get this over with.
She started slowly, in almost a whisper, "Ok, I'm only going to say this one."
"Ok, go ahead"
"Max, is your son." She said this in a small voice, barely even a whisper.
Michaela is wearing her teal exercise outfit teal leggings and a teal leotard with a black over-sized fishnet shirt. As Ezra and Angel catch up Michaela notices that they both look guilty, and that when they looked at her they both stopped talking.
"Hand it over, BOTH of you!", Michaela demands of her two close friends.
"C'mon Mickey, he's only got a dime for each of us, Please!", begged Angel as Ezra started to argue,
"Come On, I haven't had any in like 3 weeks."
"Ezra Clint Callawell, don't you lie to me, don't you dare.", Michaela replied in her stern, scolding voice, that she usually saved for when Max was naughty. More quietly she continued, "Brooke already broke down and apologized for lying to me about your drugs last weekend. So don't deny it! And you," she said turning to Angel, "don't you C'mon Mickey, Me. You told me that you wanted me to help you quit, so don't argue with me when I do."
Ezra and Angel looked at each other and both apologized to Michaela. Then Ezra handed her a red bag. He had put 'the stuff' in a red bag so that no one would realize what it was. Michaela just looked at him, waiting. When he realized what she was waiting for he handed her his last pipe. Michaela broke it and put 1/2 of it in her jacket pocket, and then emptied the contents of the bag into the dirt on the side of the track. She emptied the contents of the red bag, then buried it and the other half of the pipe with the toe of her white toed, teal shoes.
Michaela turned just in time to see Max climbing the 'big slide'. She ran to him and got there just in time to catch him, when he lost interest in climbing and decided to jump back down. Michaela scolded her son, and then brought him back to the 'ride along cart'. It was really a stroller but Max thought that he was to old for a stroller so they called it his ride along cart. Then, they all decided to leave and continue the discussion when they got back to Ezra and Angel's house.
Meanwhile. . . . . . At Matt's apartment, Matt and Nikos were bringing Linda up to the apartment. Matt was carrying her over his shoulder 'like a sack of potatoes' and Nikos was carrying her wheelchair and laughing at Matt's antics. Finally they reached the top of the staircase and Matt slowly set Linda down. Still not used to her being able to stand by herself.
"I'm fine Matt, the physical therapy is doing great, I can almost take steps again. Calm down, and that wheelchair isn't exactly light, you could probably help Nikos," Linda sarcastically scolded.
"I know I know, and Nikos is just fine aren't ya bud?," Matt commented.
"Yeah, right, I'm fine," Nikos said pretending to be all out of breath. Matt just gave him a playful punch on the arm and finished unlocking his door.
"Home Sweet Home," Matt said lamely, as he opened the door to his apartment. He knew it wasn't much to look at, but it was his. The orange and yellow striped wallpaper was wearing very thin and showing some of the not so well hidden pink walls. Off to the right there was an air conditioner that worked, sort of. And then as soon as you walked in the door was his big chair. The only way to describe his big chair was that it was big. It was a huge pea green recliner with big comfortable arms and a very cushy back. He didn't have a lot of furniture just a yellow-green love seat and his big chair. Other than that the apartment was great. The only thing bothering him now was his mom and her deteriorating personality.
"Thinking about your mom again, hun?" asked Linda quietly trying to whisper so Nikos didn't worry about Matt again. Linda remembered a little over a month ago when she and Nikos had found Matt sitting by his father's grave. He had been there for a little over six hours.
"No, no, no, of course not if she wants to. . .well, nevermind just never mind. I'm fine," he said without feeling while he picked her up and carried her to his favorite, big, comfortable 'cushy' chair. After setting her down gently he looked into her deep brown eyes that reminded him so much of another set of eyes. . . Mickey's . . . Shaking his head he let his mind return to what was happening now. "Yeah, right, and you expect me to believe that? As if Matt. But. . . I won't say anything else about it because here comes Nikos," Linda said slowly.
"Thanks a lot Linda," said Matt sincerely right before Nikos interrupted. Knowing that he was keeping something from his best friend did make him feel bad but he didn't want Nikos to worry so. .
"Thanks for what?" said Nikos, wondering what everyone was talking about. He hated secrets, they always caused problems. Without waiting for an answer Nikos accidentally started thinking aloud, "I hate secrets and promises!"
"WHAT?!?!?!"Matt and Linda were looking at him rather funny. Nikos just shrugged his shoulders non-commitedly.
"Nope, your not getting out of this one. You keep accidently saying things out loud Nikos. What happened with promises that bothers you so much?" Linda asked, and some how you could tell she really wanted to know. Linda had a crush on Nikos, and he knew that, but today he could tell that she wasn't just looking at his 5 feet 9 inches, or his 165 pounds not even his 'beautiful green eyes, nice butt, and soft brown hair' and she always said laughingly. When he first got here he was amazed by her attitude about being in a wheelchair, but now it was just Linda.
"Nothing, listen I, oh alright I'll tell you, but you may never ever repeat any of this," said Nikos finally, giving in to his friends. Then he glanced at his watch, and saw his excuse for not telling them. "Oops, sorry, it's time to go. Howie expects me home tonight. Bye," he finished lamely, rushing out the door before his friends could argue. He turned his head only slightly enough to recognize the glares of his friends.
Nikos pulled his candy apple red camaro into the small apartment garage. He was parked next to Howie's 'baby'. Howie's baby blue 1969 Chevy Impala was his 'baby', he washed it at least twice a week and waxed it a minimum of once every two weeks. He knew that Howie was home, but since Lachelle's purple moped wasn't there Nikos assumed she's still with Brooke. Just then, Lachelle beeped at him, startling him and making him turn around. He stopped for a moment to admire his 'little sis'. Today, she had her black hair in a spider clip with little loose tendrils flying around her 'girlishly cute' features. She was wearing way to much make-up, which as of late had been becoming habit. She grinned at him and gave him the look asking him to please not tell Howie about the make-up; as she quickly grabbed a wet nap and wiped it all off.
"A little late, aren't you two?" asked Howie abruptly, startling Nikos from his daze.
"Of course not, you said 7:00, according to my watch it is 6:55, so we're both early this time," Nikos quickly replied.
"What are you doing over there, Lachelle?", Howie asked turning to his youngest sibling.
"Nothing, ya big worry wart. I'm home on time and my beautiful purple baby has been washed and waxed, courtesty of Matt.", she said, lying, in Nikos's mind way to easily.
Howie jumped on that tidbit of information. "Matt, huh, Nikos, didn't you say you were gonna be with Matt and Linda all day?"
"Yeah, I did. So, Linda and I sat and talked while Matt and Lachelle went to go wax the ugly little moped.", Nikos replied calmy. Then realized that Lachelle was staring at him with wide eyes. Nikos thought to himself that this was the first time she'd ever seen him lie to Howie.
"Alright, I give up, I made some Domino's pizza for supper, no sausage, lots of pepperoni, extra cheese, and no mushrooms and onions. Right?", Howie calmly changed the subject when he realized that he wasn't going to win this one. In response he just got a lot of nods. Which in it's self was strange because they usually picked on him for saying that he MADE Domino's pizza.
Back at Brad and Michaela's house. . .
Brad had been waiting for Angel to get there for over an hour. He was getting impatient. Finally, he picked up the phone and called the house where she and Ezra lived. Man, he didn't like that kid. Ezra was bad news and Brad just knew that Ezra was going to get Angel and Michaela into trouble. Just then he heard the phone ringing on the other end. Ezra answered the phone.
"Hello, Callawell residence, Ezra speaking. I'm out of it so you can talk to my friend Michaela. Just kidding. Hi Brad how's it hanging? Oh, a little small and to the left, sorry to hear it. Here's Angel", Ezra said all this before Brad even said Hello.
"Hi Brad, it's Angel. . . .Why are you calling? Not to be rude, I'm just wondering.", Angel said quickly.
"No specific reason, I've just been waiting for you for the past hour. You were supposed to be here at 6:00, it's almost ten after seven now. Where were you, did you forget? Again?!", Brad said. He knew he sounded angry but this was the 5th time in two weeks that she hadn't shown up for one of their dates. Brad knew it was all Ezra's fault but whenever he brought it up he and Angel only ended up fighting and he hated fighting with her.
"Don't yell at me Bradley James Bates. I heard about your weekend with Mackenzie. And don't you dare deny it. Brooke told me all about it. She saw the two of you together at the dance club, dancing to a slow song and at the end of it she kissed you. Then, you don't even tell me. This may seem insignifigant to you but I don't like other people, especially MACKENZIE, kissing my boyfriend. If YOU want this relationship to work then you better ditch that Bitch!", Angel yelled into the phone as she hung up on him. Brad had to stop and think. Shit, she was right, Mackenzie had kissed him that night. Wait a minute, Brooke's only 15 how did she get into that dance club. His memory of that night was vague but still, . . . .Brad and Mackenzie were locked in an embrace as she told him why she was depressed all the time and since they were such close friends they went out to dance while she talked. He knew she loved to dance, so he did that for her too. At the end of the song, Mackenzie had been blunt.
"Brad, I care about you a lot. I want a relationship with you but you need to get rid of Angel. She's no good for you, besides you want this don't you.", she'd sounded so seductive. Then she'd kissed him, and he, being a man, had kissed her back.
Oh no, he had kissed her back. He had forgotten all about that. Brad quickly ran out to his black jeep. He jumped in, started the car with the key dangling off of the teal baby key ring Michaela had given him for babysitting Max after the first 6 months. All of a sudden he heard, THONG Tha THONG THONG THONG. Sisqo was jumping out of his system and of course it had to be the thong song. As he pulled into the Callawell driveway, he jumped out leaving the music going. Ezra met him at the door.
"What do you want, don't you think you hurt Angel enough? Your not welcome here, good bye!", Ezra stated, slamming the door on Brad.
"No, I need to talk to her. NOW!", Brad hissed at him, putting his foot in the door jamb before it closed. Then he heard someone tell Ezra to let him in, he recognized the voice of Michaela.
"Hurt her, and I'll hurt you.", this was said by his sister with great emotions. After he promised not to hurt her, they let him into her bedroom.
Brad stated calmly, "I have a lot to say, and I need your word that you won't butt in. And that you'll let me talk before you comment. OK?".
"Fine", she said and let him talk.
"Ok, first of all yes, Mackenzie and I did kiss, but I don't love her. I couldn't because I love you. No, don't say anything" he added when she looked like she wanted to say something. Brad continued, "I do love you, but we're just not working. I know you don't love me as I do you and that kills me inside. I know you say you do but it's obvious to me that you don't really. "That's all I have to say and I have to leave now. I can't listen to the lies you want to tell me anymore. I love you. Good Bye."
Angel watched him leave, and when she heard him pull out she jumped up and screamed. Ezra and Michaela came in wondering what was wrong, asking if they should go kill him. When she explained that he broke up with her all of them started laughing.
"Are you serious, Mr. Perfect broke up with you, before you could dump him.", Ezra said this laughingly.
"Wow, I didn't think my brother had the guts to do that. He took Max by the way. As he left he said,"Angel is going to need you now, I'll take him with me to Mackenzie's.". It was all I could do not to laugh in his face. Wow", Michaela said laughing while she spoke.
"You think you guys are surprised. He told me not to talk until he was finished. Then he sat and professed his love on my, oh what did he call them oh yeah, my 'deaf ears'." Angel and her friends just sat and laughed at Brad's expense, never knowing that he was standing behind them. When Brad heard all of this he just turned around and left and went to Mackenzie's. He left Max there and yelled from the front door that he had come back to drop off Max because he wanted Mommy.
On the drive to Mackenzie's house, he sat and cried. He stopped by the time he reached her house, and vowed not to speak of it; and to get his revenge, somehow, someday. As he opened the door, he turned around when he heard something. It was Mackenzie's neighbor, Julie. He looked at her, waiting to see what she wanted. She wasn't a good looking woman, but she wasn't all that ugly either. He watched her tiny, figure walking towards him. She wished him a good day, and asked why he was here so late at night. He just explained that he and Mackenzie had some personal things to discuss. Then he entered the house. . .
Mackenzie jumped, "What was that? Is someone here? Come on, I know I heard something. Who's here?" Maybe I'm just being jumpy, she thought to herself. She walked into the living room, her wet, light brown, blond streaked hair hanging wetly to her waist, was dripping little cold droplets down her back. Her towel, which she was holding tightly against her was slowly undoing itself in the back. Just then, she saw a movement, it was coming at her. She dropped her towel accidently as she screamed. . .
"Mackenzie, SHUT UP!. God, girl is that the greeting I get. Sorry, Mackenzie shut up. Wow, you have a really nice body.", Brad said all of this in one breath, the nice body part under his breath. This whole time he watched her body. That long hair, those perfect abs, and she had the cutest little butt. Then again, as far as he could tell there wasn't a bad part on her whole body. His bright blue eyes were searing into her nakedness. Then all of a sudden, out of no where, she smiled. She looked at him, not covering up at all and started to walk towards him. He was loving this.
She looked at Brad, he was cute. In his own, hot, sexy, football player look alike type way; but. . . he wasn't her Nikos. She and Nikos were broken up, but not by her chioce. She needed to see him, they needed to talk.
All of a sudden, out of no where, Mackenzie just picked up her towel, covered herself, and said something about coming back in a few hours and that he should wait for her and she'd explain everything. Then, she was gone.
She pulled her 85' Pontiac Grand Am out of her driveway and drove towards the small two bedroom apartment where she would find her one and only true love.
As he sat down for supper with his family when he heard a loud muffler. He excused himself, saying that he knew it was for him. As he got to the ground floor he opened the door.
"What do you want Mackenzie? You know Howie will call the cops if he sees you or your car here."
"We need to talk. Seriously, if you need someone else to be there, fine. Tomorrow is Sunday, we meet then. We'll meet in our old neighborhood, and we can make a day of it. I'll invite Ice, JJ, Lolita, Reezy. They know the story, and you'll get to see your friends."
"What story? Ours? I already know it, why go hear it again, but I am visiting with those guys this weekend, tomorrow at 11:30, if you wanna come their your friends still too."
"Thanks, not ours, well yes ours but. I'll explain tomorrow. Bye Nikos. I love you"
"Bye"
Nikos went back upstairs to find Lachelle and Howie waiting for him. They discussed their days and then the real conversation began.
Howie plainly asked, "What did Mackenzie want?"
"Nothing, she just wanetd to know what time to meet at the place where I'm meeting JJ, Ice, Lolly, and Reezy. Why?" Nikos answered in the same manner.
"Can't a man wonder. You know I don't like you meeting with them right?", this was said by Howie while he was pushing his food around on his plate.
"Yeah, I know, and it's only for one week. You'll live. Besides, I'm staying at Lolly's and you know her parents. God, I feel like I'm eleven talking about her parents. Ya know you could trust me to act like a normal teenager!"
"I do trust you to act like a normal teenage guy, that's why I don't trust you."
Back at Ezra and Angel's place, Michaela exused herself and went, with Max, home. Back at her house, she put Max down for his nap, and just sat and thought. ' Maybe I should tell him that he's the father. He really does deserve to know. . . . . I will. I'm going to do it' And with that thought she picked up the phone.
Matt's phone was ringing. He excused himself, and went into the kitchen to answer the phone.
"Hello"
"Hi Matt, ummm, we have to talk.", said a very sexy voice that he hadn't heard in a long time.
"Wow, hi Michaela, long time. How's everything?"
"Fine, it's all fine. Ok, now the reason I called was that we need to talk, now."
"Ok, when? About what?"
"Meet me at my house in about 20 minutes, ok?"
"I have company right now, how about tomorrow?"
"No, be here in 20 minutes, or I might chicken out", with that she hung up leaving Matt speechless. Michaela had never argued with him, about anything before. He went and picked up Linda and told her that something had come up and that he had to bring her home.
Michaela was kicking herself. 'Oh my god, how could I have done this. I have to tell him. No wait, I can't tell him. ooh I'm so confuzed. She sat there thinking about this for a good 10 minutes, and then there was a knock on the door.
Matt knocked on the door to Michaela's house and then she swung open the door. He went in and she told him to sit down, and let her get this over with.
She started slowly, in almost a whisper, "Ok, I'm only going to say this one."
"Ok, go ahead"
"Max, is your son." She said this in a small voice, barely even a whisper.