Your Secret's Safe With Me

Peter

Peyton sat down next to Mackenzie quietly handing her a tissue from her bag not saying anything. Mackenzie was still sniffling and wiping the stray tears off her face but Peyton didn't push her to explain, instead, they both avoided eye contact and stared out at the sunset.

Mackenzie was the first to break the silence, "what are you doing here, Peyton?" She asked in a hoarse voice.

"I wanted to see if you were ok," is what she wanted to say. But her ice queen persona decided on a different answer, "you're sitting where I want to take my picture," she says nonchalantly.

Mackenzie's face turned to anguish as she apologized and got up to leave but Peyton tugged her hand back down to sit. "Don't bother, the sunsets pretty much done."

She turned to look at Mackenzie who still had a solemn expression on her face. "So what's up? Why do you look like someone stole your cat?"

Mackenzie laughed softly, "I'm more of a dog person," she stalled.

Peyton gave her a pointed stare, "duly noted, now stop deflecting."

Mackenzie threw her arms in the air, frustrated, "why do you care, Peyton?" She snapped.

Peyton gave her an annoying grin, "because we're friends, remember?"

"I don't know, are we?"

Peyton took a moment to think about Mackenzie's response because it was what she was asking herself before she sat down. "I'd like to think we are," she said softly.

Peyton looked up to see Mackenzie's faint smile on her face. Seeing her smile made something in Peyton's stomach churn.

Mackenzie looked back at the horizon and sighed, "today's the first anniversary of my brother's death," her voice quivered.

Peyton sat next to Mackenzie shocked, she wasn't sure what was bothering Mackenzie, but she wasn't expecting that. "I'm so sorry, Mackenzie. I didn't know."

Mackenzie nodded her head, "I didn't tell anyone at school. This last semester was supposed to be my new start and having people know about it would've put me back at square one."

"I understand." The pair were silent for a while, but it was different from the silence during the car rides, this was comfortable silence. 

"Can you tell me about him?" Peyton asked. 

Mackenzie turned to her surprised, "you want to know about him?" She watched Peyton nod her head.

Mackenzie took a deep breath, "Peter was my twin brother but I was born 2 minutes earlier," she glanced at Peyton with a small smile, "he hated when I brought that up." She looked back at the sunset and continued, "but he was more than my goofy twin brother, he was my best friend and protector. In a way, he was my safe person." 

"He and I were part of the popular crowd at school, but when I came out to the school, I got side eyes, horrible notes in my locker, and the circle of people I once thought were friends, dropped me like a hot pile of shit." Mackenzie's eyes clouded and Peyton wished she could take away the pain. 

"Peter didn't think twice to drop our so-called friends and whenever he found a note in my locker, he'd rip it up before I got a chance to read it." 

Mackenzie stopped talking as her eyebrows furrowed and her bottom lip quivered. "Last year, he went out on a date with a good friend of ours. On his way home from dropping her off, some guy came up to him and stabbed him. Left him there to die." She turned to look at Peyton, "can you believe that? My brother was walking home, minding his own business and some lunatic comes and kills him. The police found the bastard that did it, but he took Peter away from me and it's not going to change that." She buried her face in her hands, "if I had known that was the last time I was going to see him, I would've given him a hug and told him how much I love him."