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Chapter 6: Fall from grace

He was completely oblivious. Macy was convinced of it before the end of the school day and way before the volleyball game started and she spotted him in the stands.

While her stomach swam with nervous butterflies every time she saw him, Kevin seemed completely unaffected. He hadn't said a word about their parting the night before. He had talked about the food and the movie and the fact that she was now apparently going to teach him to ballroom dance, but he hadn't said a single word about their parting when she had been so sure that their lips would finally meet. And he seemed so chipper and normal, that Macy couldn't help but think that he truly didn't have a clue as to the effect he'd had on her.

Unfortunately, Brooke wasn't as oblivious as Kevin toward Macy's distracted state.

"He probably came to see me," she told Macy as they warmed up on the sidelines.

"Kevin comes to the games all the time. He used to be a cheerleader before he decided he didn't have enough time, and he couldn't always cheer at away games and stay safe from the fans. He's probably just here to see the team."

"Sure, plus one very special member of the team."

"His friend, Macy?" the girl suggested with a smug smile on her lips.

"Don't think that your little outing yesterday meant anything. I mean, sure he talked about it at lunch and during history and when I saw him before the game, but that's only because you have home field advantage. You knew what he would want to do. It doesn't mean you're any further ahead in this competition than I am."

Macy smiled as she rose to stretch her arms. "If I don't have an advantage, then why are you sounding so threatened by me?"

Brooke said nothing, but narrowed her eyes at Macy. "The race isn't even close to over, Misa. Don't worry. I haven't begun to fight yet."

There was nothing to fire Macy Misa up like a little healthy competition, especially when she was the one winning it. Before she could even realise the game had started, she was heating up the scoreboard, making play after play and volley after volley. She was pretty sure that she kept getting better every time she looked over at Brooke and saw the venom in the girl's eyes.

She didn't think she could feel any better about her performance, until she heard her name called from the crowd by a voice that she was usually cheering for. She barely had time to find Kevin on the bleachers and give him a smile when she suddenly felt the pain.

"Macy, would you stop flirting and look where you're going," Brooke yelled as she moved around the girl. "You could have really hurt me."

There was certainly a comeback somewhere in Macy's mind that she could have used at that moment. There was certainly something she could say that would put Brooke in her place, but there was too much pain at the moment for Macy to think of it. She hurt, and looking down at her ankle and seeing the weird angle it now held did nothing to help.

She had fainted before because of a Jonas. As she saw Brooke's smug smile grow blurry on the sidelines of her pain, Macy knew she couldn't blame them this time as well.

"You are one tough cookie, Macy."

"Thanks, Kevin," Macy said as she moved away from him as much as she could without shifting too much of her body to keep herself from unnecessary pain.

"I mean, anyone else would be out of commission for a long time, but not you, you're just going to be out of commission for a little while, and then you'll be right back on that court, showing those people what they don't know they don't know."

"Right." She nodded uncomfortably.

It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since she had hurt herself, and in that time it had already become more than apparent to her that there was no getting rid of Kevin. He seemed to have appointed himself her nurse and while she normally wouldn't have minded having a member of her favourite band fawning over her, she was a little suspicious as to his motivations.

"Kevin?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"What?"

"Why are you here taking care of me? I mean, I know my parents had to leave for the afternoon, but I can handle a few hours without them, and if I couldn't, Stella would have been more than happy to come over and help."

"I want to."

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend."

She rolled her eyes at the sound of his voice.

"You're lying."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. You forget that your voice gets all high when you lie. You can't pretend to be telling the truth."

"Fine."

"So, what is the truth?"

Kevin let out a loud breath. "I shouldn't have yelled out your name."

"What?"

"I shouldn't have yelled out your name at the game. You stopped paying attention to what you were doing because of me, and then you got hurt. It's my fault."

Macy shut her eyes at the confession.

"Kevin, this is not your fault. I did not hurt myself because I wasn't paying attention. It would have happened even if you hadn't been at the game, trust me."

It wouldn't, Macy thought glumly to herself, have happened if Brooke hadn't been there to trip her, though. She had felt herself tripping over something, and it was only when Brooke's bouquet of flowers with the "kind" note apologizing if her feet had gotten in Macy's way that the smaller girl realised that she'd been played by her opponent.

"No. You're always clumsy around us, and I should just have known better. I'm sorry, Macy. I promise I'll make it up to you."

"But you don't—"

"I'll start by getting you another pillow," Kevin told her, quickly leaving the living room.

"Great, and now I'm back to the clumsy fan," Macy mumbled to herself letting her head fall back. Out of commission from sports for at least two weeks and back to crazed fan in Kevin's eyes. That would apparently teach her to get overconfident.

"Back to the drawing board."