Chapter 19 #2
I grabbed Mackenzie’s hand, pulling her into my side. I wrapped my arm around her and strolled to the campfire, shielding her with my body.
We sat near the fire, and I rested my arms on my knees. Her voice broke through then, soft and barely above a whisper. She wanted only me to hear her. “Max… how much do you know?”
I could feel her hesitation, the quick hitch of her breath, the way her fingers pressed against mine. She looked incredibly vulnerable, and seeing her in this state stirred something dark and protective within me.
I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I squeezed her hand, my voice low.
“All of it. Okay? Don’t be mad. Just know that it doesn’t change anything. You got that?”
Her eyes widened with terror, pupils darkening, a shiver running down her spine. I sensed the tremor in her, the shock that I could care this much, that I could see this. A flicker of relief passed over her face, and I watched her finally take a deep, steady breath.
I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to be scared. That I had a plan, a fucked up one. But a real plan to protect her.
I let my grip linger, the heat between us palpable. We could finally bury all this bullshit behind us and move on. She didn’t need to know how far I’d gone—about my hacking history. She just needed to know that I was hers and that nothing and no one would take her from me.
Heather crept over and settled beside me, her presence suffocatingly close. Mackenzie froze entirely, her eyes dark with growing jealousy that threatened to consume her again.
Fuck, babe, please don’t do this right now, I thought. I’m fucking yours.
But I was too pissed to say it out loud. I watched Jackson sitting across the fire, looking at Mackenzie with a grimace. He looked like a predator. Good thing I was worse.
Megan pulled out a cooler filled with drinks and handed me a beer. I cracked mine open and knocked it back so quickly I heard Mackenzie groan in disapproval beside me.
“Max… can we go somewhere in private?” Mackenzie whispered next to me.
I was about to say, “fuck yeah,” when Megan interjected.
“Okay, so here are the rules,” Megan called out. “You pick the never have I ever prompt. If you’ve done it, you drink. But here’s the thing, I play this game dirty. If things get a little raunchy, I’ll start calling out some dares.”
“That’s so stupid,” I snapped, a heat of irritation rising within me. A part of me was itching to leave with Mackenzie. I wasn’t interested in wasting time with this pointless game.
Mackenzie coughed, her eyes narrowing as Heather’s hand rested on my knee. A flicker of envy crossed Mackenzie’s face, and her expression darkened with rage. I immediately shifted, and Heather’s hand dropped.
“I think it’s fun,” Heather said, dragging a finger down my arm. I flinched, scooting closer to Mackenzie. I didn’t know why Heather was still fucking trying.
“Okay, never have I ever… had sex in a public place,” Megan said.
Jackson drank, Heather drank, and I took a sip. Mackenzie’s eyes snapped to mine. The moss on clover that I loved so much was shadowed, darker. She was trying to hide just how jealous she was, but she was failing.
“Seriously?” she said, her voice tight.
“It didn’t matter, Trouble,” I said, shrugging.
Fuck.
This was going to be bad. I might as well jump into my grave now.
“That’s the thing about Max,” Jackson grinned. “You probably have no idea how many girls he has run through.”
“Shut up, Jackson,” Mackenzie snapped. But she eyed me like she didn’t know me.
My jaw clenched. I was fantasizing about how I would kill him. Baseball bat to the head? Yeah, that was it.
“Oh, c’mon, it’s a game, Kenz,” he sneered. “Let’s be honest here. Never have I ever had a threesome.”
Heather and Jackson both took a sip. I held onto my beer and noticed Mackenzie hadn’t taken a single sip of hers yet.
“No? Not yet, huh?” he taunted her.
“Fuck you, Jackson. I should’ve known you were doing all that shit when we were together,” she said icily.
Heather leaned into me, brushing her hand down my arm again, and I wanted to puke. Mackenzie was so pissed that I could feel the heat radiating off her body.
“Never have I ever had sex more than five times with the same person,” Heather purred, her eyes locking onto mine with a chilling intensity.
Heather and Jackson exchanged a look, and something inside me went cold. It wasn’t just a glance—it was an understanding. A secret. They were working together. Something was going on, and I knew, whatever it was, it wasn’t going to end well for me.
Both Jackson and I took a sip. I kept my eyes on him the entire time.
“More than five times? Who?” Mackenzie interjected, her eyes wild with untamed jealousy. She was losing her shit now.
“It’s nothing, Trouble. I promise. It didn’t mean anything,” I said uneasily.
It hadn’t.
“How many girls, Max?” she snapped.
I didn’t answer right away. The silence said it enough.
I should’ve lied. I was fucking this all up now. I looked over at Jackson and watched as he greedily devoured it. This had been his plan all along.
“Yeah, Trouble, you thought you were ‘The One’?” he said mockingly.
“You have no business talking to her,” I snapped.
“You cheated on her. Then you stalked her as if she were something you could hunt. Don’t think I don’t know about the messages; the ones you send at three in the morning.
I’ve seen how you stand across the trail and watch for us.
You don’t get to act like you know anything about this.
You’re a fucking parasite. A psychopath who doesn’t understand ‘no’ unless it’s carved into you. ”
“Oh, I stalked her, yeah? Why don’t you tell her about all your online activity?” he grinned.
Fuck.
“Okay… guys, stop it. Seriously. You’re ruining the game,” Megan said. “Here, everyone, Jell-O shot break.”
She handed out some Jell-O shots from the cooler, and we all started taking them. I managed about five before Mackenzie took two. I cracked open another beer, gulping it down so quickly the aftertaste felt unsettled on my tongue. I had to pause, my hands trembling slightly from the adrenaline.
Mackenzie finished her beer, her eyes flickering with something unspoken, as if she sensed the shift between us.
Before I knew it, I’d lost count of how much I’d drunk.
My vision blurred, and disjointed voices echoed around the campfire.
Everything around me seemed louder. I felt a sudden heat blaze through my body, the alcohol scorching my throat.
We had been stuck in this ridiculous game for over an hour, and I was intoxicated, feeling reckless and numb, but also deeply unstable.
My limbs felt heavy, my thoughts spiraling into chaos, my senses fraying at the edges as I lost my grip on reality.
And Mackenzie?
She was drunk. Not sloppy, but loose. Jackson was sitting next to her now, leaning into her like they were together. I was fucking spiraling watching the two of them because all I could think about was slitting his throat.
I grabbed her waist and pulled her in closer to me. Her head snapped up, and I could see it, the pure anger in her eyes. She pulled away from me.
She laughed loudly at something Megan said and avoided looking at me again. The alcohol only complicated things further.
“Alright—my turn!” Heather called. “Never have I ever given or gotten head at a party.”
I took a sip and looked away from Mackenzie.
“Wow,” she scoffed quietly. I noticed she hadn’t taken a sip of her beer, which thrilled me. I was a dick. But the thought of her doing anything with anyone pissed me off beyond belief.
“Mackenzie. It’s your turn,” Megan said.
Mackenzie stared at me, a subtle smirk on her lips. The expression in her eyes was crushing. She wanted to end me. I just wanted to stand up, take Mackenzie back to the cabin, and be the two of us again.
Every single time I felt a resolve with us, like things were going to go our way, it all went to shit within minutes.
Mackenzie lifted her beer with a glint in her eye.
“Never have I ever… cum on someone’s face.”
The fire cracked as Mackenzie downed her entire beer, holding eye contact with me the whole time. She dropped the empty bottle to the ground, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Oh shit! Damn, Mackenzie!” Heather shrieked. “That’s the fucking energy we need!”
My vision went black.
I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t jealous. I was fucking feral; crazed; wrecked. My fingers clenched into fists in my lap, my nails carving crescents into my skin.
And before I could stop myself, the words came out.
“It wasn’t him, was it?”
The group fell quiet. My voice didn’t even sound human. It was pure gravel, the sound of someone about to snap.
Mackenzie seemed utterly unfazed by the tantrum I was about to throw. She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, McKinnon.”
Ah. McKinnon.
She only used my last name when she was mad at me. I twisted the beer bottle in my hand, messing with the paper wrapper on the side.
“Cute. Practicing your last name?”
She smiled, but it was malicious.
“Don’t hurt yourself thinking too hard about it. That’s a pipe dream.”
“Mmm… okay. Well, here’s something for you to think hard about,” I leaned forward slightly, my entire body tight, my stare locked on hers like a sniper.
“You can hate me. You can lie to yourself. You can even fuck somebody else. But you’ll never belong to anyone but me.
Not really. Not ever. This fake relationship is now officially real, so don’t fuck with me. ”
She scoffed, but I saw it, the flicker of hesitation in her eyes. That split-second where the air lingered heavy between us shifted from playful to dangerous. And then Jackson, the fucking ghost of every bad decision, opened his mouth.
“Still dreaming about her, huh, Max? Shame you’ll never know what it’s like to have her screaming with her thighs locked around your face.” He leaned back on his palms. “It gets me hard just thinking about it.”
And there it was.
Fuck this. Fuck. This.