FTB

"C'mon, Kay. It's been three days." Mack's voice whined through her voicemail. "If you want to break up with me, can you just do it?"

The message ended like that. She shook her head. She wasn't avoiding him to break up with him, she was trying to help him. She had spent the last three days working with Sam find ways Mack could still do schooling. She had just woke up to that message. She called Sam.

"He thinks I want to break up with him." She started.

Sam let out a grunt as he stretched. "Then go over today and see him. Talk to him about doing an extra year or booklets. Bring everything we've been looking up for him." He instructed.

She nodded. "I'm going to." She told him, and herself. "Thank you, Sam. I always knew there was a reason I liked you more than Reinhart."

He laughed. "Text me afterwards, alright?"

"Yeah, of course." She assured him before hanging up.

She quickly showered and tossed her hair into braids. She got dressed before grabbing the pile of pamphlets her and Sam had gone out to get Mack. She had a bunch of printed forms and such as well for him. It was just a bunch of alternate forms of schooling for him. She climbed in her car and drove to his house. She didn't bother to knock, knowing he would be the only one home at ten on a Saturday.

Mack heard his front door open and didn't budge. He was dozing back off and was truthfully fine with it being a murderer. Someone to put him out of this misery. He passed out after that.

Kaylynn opened his bedroom door and heard him snoring quietly. She smiled as she closed the door behind her. She walked over to his messy desk, looking for a pen. She found a marker and settled on that.

She wrote a note for him that she planned to leave with everything she brought for him. It said how she loved him and wasn't planning on leaving him and what she had done for him. She placed the forms and pamphlets on his bedside table with her note on top. Mack's eyes opened slowly at the feeling of her presence.

"Kaylynn?" He mumbled as she sat up.

"Hey," She smiled, walking back over to him. "I left some stuff for you."

"What is it?" He asked, reaching for it.

She handed it to him. "I thought maybe you could do something else if you're not gonna be in university." She said as his hand rested on her hip.

He watched as she showed him the things. "Are these like booklets and shit?"

"Yeah, and an application for maybe another year at Fairview. Or like community college or something." She shrugged. "I just don't want you to get in a funk because you have n,"

"I'll do one of them." He cut her off.

"Really?" She spun around and looked at him.

"If you want me to do one of these, I'll do it for you." He said, squeezing her thigh.

"Don't unless you want to. I just can't stand to think of you all sad because you have nothing to do while I'm at school." She frowned.

"I want to, Kaylynn." He told her.

Kaylynn stayed with Mack that night so they could go enroll him the next day. She let Candice know, while she struggled to get Aaron up. He had been missing way too much school lately. She was worried about him.

She would wake up to get ready earlier than he did, and at some point when he knew she had everything she needed from the room, he would lock the door so she couldn't get in and wake up. Today, she planned to not leave until he did. She sat next to him on the bed, rubbing his back.

"You need to go to school, Air. You're not gonna get into university if you don't." She spoke calmly.

"I'll be fine. You go to school." He said, rubbing her thigh before just letting his arm rest across her legs.

"How will you be fine? You're getting really behind." She raised her voice.

"I don't need school." He mumbled into his pillows.

"Excuse me?" She leaned forward.

"I'm going to play hockey for a living. I don't need good grades for that." He explained, rolling onto his back.

"You're playing high school hockey, Aaron. It's not like you're a top ranked prospect. You aren't going first at any drafts any time soon, you need to worry about your schooling in case hockey doesn't take you where you need to go." She hissed.

"Thanks for the support, babe." He chuckled, rolling onto his side with his back to her.

She growled, laying down and wrapping her arms around his waist. He didn't fight it but he didn't grab onto her hands. She rested her chin on his shoulder and pecked his cheek. He tried to contain his smile, to show his anger, but she saw it. She kissed his cheek for longer.

"You know I support you until the world ends, but you're being so unreasonable right now." She spoke quietly.

"I'm not being unreasonable. I know what I want." He spat.

She let out a screech as she pulled away from him, standing up. "I can't deal with you like this! I'm not dealing with you like this!" She hollered.

Aaron rolled into his back. "Candice," He sighed, knowing he had upset her.

"No! I'm done with," She paused. He felt his heart stop. "This bullshit! I'm not talking about this anymore and I'm not talking to you until you get a fucking clue, Aaron! I will not be coming home after school today. I promise you that."

"Babe," He called, standing up.

"Don't, Aaron." She hissed, extending a hand to him to keep him to stay away.

"Candice, can you wait for one fucking second?" He said as he walked over to her. "You're just gonna leave me over this?"

"I am not leaving you, I am leaving the warzone. I'll be back when you figure it out, Aaron." She breathed, turning to walk out of the room before she turned back around. "I moved here to go to school with you, and be with you, and you're doing everything in your power to spend less time with me."

"That's not it at a,"

"That may not be it, but it feels like it." She cut him off. "I'll see you eventually."

"Candice, don't be like this. You know I love you." He groaned.

"I know you say you love me." She shrugged before she walked out of the room and down the stairs.

At school, Candice bumped past everyone. She got to her locker beside a smiling Kaylynn. She glared. Kaylynn noticed, closing her locker with a frown. Candice grabbed what she needed before she slammed it shut.

"What's up?" Kaylynn asked as they walked to their class.

"I'm not gonna down y,"

"Candice, just fucking tell me." Kaylynn rolled her eyes.

"Aaron is convinced dropping out of school is okay because he's got hockey to take him places." Candice summarized. "We got in a huge fight about it today."

"Sounds like me and Mack." Kaylynn sighed.

"So what do I do about this?" Candice asked for some advice.

Kaylynn shrugged. "Mack agreed when I told him how important it was to me that he didn't get in a slump."

"Yeah, well the great Ekblad only cares about himself." Candice snapped.

"Go home and sleep this off. You don't need to be here like this." Kaylynn cut her off. "I'll get anything you need from your classes."

"Did you forget that the bed I sleep in is the same bed Aaron is in?" Candice laughed.

"Go sleep in my room." Kaylynn rolled her eyes. "I have a lock on my door and everything."

Candice sighed. "Alright. Thanks, Kay, for everything."

So that's what Candice did. She snuck into the house, not wanting Aaron to hear. She grabbed some snacks and a couple drinks so she wouldn't have to leave the room often. She crept up the stairs and froze. His door was open and he was staring right at her. He stepped forward and she ran into Kaylynn's room, locking the door behind her.

"Candice, honestly? Ignoring my calls and texts and now this?" He knocked on the door.

She hadn't even checked her phone. 96 text messages and 12 missed calls. Shit, eh? She just settle down into Kaylynn's room. She set her food on the bedside table and laid back in the bed. Aaron continued knocking and talking to her through the door.

Aaron was mad. And sad. He was just frustrated and upset at everything. He and Candice never fought. Ever. This was the first major fight of their entire relationship. And they had been together a long time. He rested his head against the door.

"Baby, come on. I love you and I want to make this better." He breathed.

Candice raised her brows. "Then start going to school." She replied.

He huffed and smacked the door, causing Candice to jump. "You're being a total fucking bitch about this!"

Her eyes widened as her jaw dropped. She stood up and stomped over to the door. She yanked it open and everything in her tiny body shoved the giant, 6'4, monstrosity she called a boyfriend, into the wall behind him. He looked shocked.

"I'm only being a bitch because you're being a complete fucking idiot! You're throwing all your hard fucking work for some pipe dream that majority of people in the world never fucking reach, Aaron!" She screeched. "You're a smart, talented, boy and I know you could get into any school based on either, but what will help you in the long run?"

He grabbed her hands off of him and dropped them. "This is not your concern." He hissed.

Her brows furrowed. "Then how about you stop being a concern in my life in whole?" She crossed her arms.

His face fell. "Are you breaking up with me?"

She nodded. "I think it's for the best."

"Because of one fight? Candi,"

"Because of how I'm treated, Aaron." She felt herself getting choked up. "You can't put all thoughts and feelings to the side."

"I didn't mean to." He whispered.

"You didn't push me away but you didn't fight to keep me either." She said before the tears rolled down her face. "I'll leave here by tonight. Thanks for giving me a place to stay."

With that, she turned into Kaylynn's room and closed the door. She locked it before she dropped face down into the bed and cried her eyes out.

Notes