And Then There Were Five

FIVE: McKenna

McKenna Macintosh
June 4, 2018

She stood outside of her apartment building, checking her phone for the fourth time in two minutes. He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago.

McKenna had finished eating dinner and cleaned up the kitchen just in time for her two roommates to walk through the door. McKenna held very strong viewpoints about her roommates. Addison and Paige were the most up-tight people she had ever met in her life. Addison was a neat-freak germophobe who had a tendency to lose her mind over a sink full of dishes. She was so strict about keeping the apartment neat and tidy that McKenna actually had nightmares about what would happen if, God forbid, she didn't clean up a mess.

Paige, on the other hand, was twenty-four but acted like a forty-year-old mother of three. She was always lecturing McKenna about politics and world issues, talking about irrelevant facts that McKenna quite honestly didn't care about. To McKenna's knowledge, neither Paige nor Addison went out and did things for fun. They woke up at 6 a.m., went to the gym, worked their nine-to-fives, then came home to a spotless apartment where they would read novels and complain about their co-workers all evening. The two of them had been best friends since middle school and considered themselves sisters. McKenna cringed internally whenever either of them mentioned it.

Perhaps McKenna's internalized hatred for her roommates came from the subconscious concept that she envied them. They were best friends, after all. They were there for each other through anything, always had each other's backs. McKenna wanted that. She longed for someone to call a sister. But unfortunately, she had no one.

Becoming roommates with Paige and Addison was luck of the draw. McKenna needed to move out. Paige and Addison needed a roommate. McKenna saw the ad posted in the paper and called them right away. They had loved her upbeat personality and ability to talk about almost anything. She moved in two days later.

The first few months were great, the three of them getting along splendidly. But it was after the honeymoon stage was over that McKenna realized how truly insane the two of them were. But she was unable to get out of the lease early, so now she was stuck with them for another seven months, at least.

Finally, after waiting for fifteen minutes outside, McKenna saw his car pull up. Carter Ford was here.

Since exchanging numbers in the bar three nights prior, McKenna had been conversing with Carter practically nonstop. He seemed nice, friendly. Although, she couldn't tell if he was interested in her in a romantic way, or if he truly was serious about being friends. McKenna often had a difficult time differentiating between the two when it came to men. Most of the time, they just looked at you and wanted one thing. Rarely do guys genuinely want a friendship. So McKenna was wary, yet still, she put herself out on a limb to see where this thing could go. Because what she wanted was friendship. A friend. Someone she could talk to and hangout with. That was all. She hoped Carter's intentions were mutual.

"Nice car," she remarked after getting into the passenger seat. It was a 2017 Dodge Charger.
Carter looked at her and smirked. "Why thank you."
"So," McKenna said, looking around. "Where are we going?"
"Wherever you want."
She thought about this. "Just drive. Let's see where the wind takes us."

And so they did exactly that. Carter drove around the city with the windows down, and McKenna took everything in. The skyline, the buildings, the landscape. She was constantly awestruck by it all, regardless of the amount of times she had seen it. He asked what kind of music she listened to, and she replied, "Everything."