Lukewarm

The rest of the night (or technically morning) was interesting for Mack. Franklin and Mack did their line, jumped into a cab and made their way to a dirty open all hours club that would let in high, still half-drunk people and they partied hard.

Franklin met a girl he was interested in and split up with Mack after they both snuck into a unisex toilet and did a line each, and Mack managed to find her way to the smoker's area where she managed to talk to heaps of random people. When Franklin and Mack met up again, they each had a group of people and they somehow convinced them all to go to brunch.

Brunch? Who would have thought it. Franklin thought brunch was a ridiculous thing that only white people with too much money did. Mack on the other hand believed brunch was an activity that middle class people participated in, to pretend they had more money than they did. So it was amusing they both went to it, and got other people to join in.

It was at brunch when Lara and Tiffany must have awoken, as Mack was sent abusive text messages from Tiffany at this time. They were accusing her of 'ditching' them and 'stealing her man' a few insults were thrown in such as 'slut' which made Mack laugh as she showed Franklin. Pot, kettle, anyone?

Mack just deleted both the texts and the contacts from her phone. She had the best night in perhaps years, and it had shown she could easily make friends. She didn't need to chase fake ones anymore. She also grabbed Franklin's number as she waited for her cab, they got along really well and could become great friends.

Tonight though, she was visiting her brother. Brandon Lancaster was ten years older than his younger sister, and in a different phase of his life. He partied even harder than Mack when he was younger, there was no other option for him. After all, the Lancaster siblings had good genes. Their father was a handsome banker with great charisma. Their mother was an ex-model turned housewife when she married their father. Therefore there was no escaping a non mediocre life for either of them. Both their parents were gone now, but they left behind two beautiful children.

Brandon was now married with a bit of cash, to a girl named Melody. Mack never knew if that was her real name or not as she was a bit of a hippie, but it was now at a point where Mack had known her for too long and it would be weird to ask. They also lived in a new home near the airport, which was a bit of a drive from where Mack lived, Rockford Hills.

Brandon and Melody were cute together in an unconventional way. At first glance you'd think they were not suited for each other. Brandon was a good looking conservative kind of guy. On his work days he was always dressed in a suit, and on his off days it was always a polo, and either business pants or khakis if "he was feeling lazy" (his words) his wife Melody on the other hand, completely different. She was beautiful, but alternative. She had long hair, a nose piercing and always wore odd coloured combinations. It was common to see her in long skirts all year round, and she never dressed formally.

So usually those two are "enemies" in the world, the capitalist and the anti-capitalist. However, although they both wore "uniforms" they were still people with real thoughts. Brandon had a sense of humour and personality, and Melody was able to be an independent thinker, away from the usual hippie rent-a-crowd bullshit. They actually both got along really well, which inspired Mack, at least in a way.

Brandon had also mentioned one time when he was drunk that "the success to a happy marriage is an open relationship" so Mack also knew they were in an open marriage. She didn't care to ask for the details and Brandon never provided them to her. Mack thought it was a bit rich he was dishing out marriage advice when he had been married for just over a year, but she would never say that to him.

Mack parked her red Dinka Blista on the side of the street. It was a small hatchback with only two doors, but that's all she needed. It was fuel efficient, if she never needed to give more than one person a ride that was their issue to move the front seat forward to get into the back. Mack also believed that any females who decked out cars and looked down on fellow females for not doing so (which Tiffany always did) were either trashy or compensating for something wrong with them.

She then made her way to the house and rang the doorbell. She also gave a weird look to the camera sitting next to the door. It had been there for a while but Brandon had never talked about it. Los Santos could be a rough city and it wasn't uncommon for people to have cameras monitoring their entire property in case any vandals were loitering around, but it was a little strange to have a camera monitoring who was at the door. What happened to the good old fashioned peep hole?

It didn't take long for Melody to answer the door, who gave Mack a big hug when she answered the door.

"H...hi." Mack stuttered out. Mack was a friendly person, but she was a little socially awkward. She also wasn't a touchy feely person, so this hug had caught her a little off guard and she didn't know how to fully react.

Melody let go eventually and led Mack into the house, where she walked into the lounge to see Brandon on the couch with a glass of scotch in his hand.

"Ah, little sister. Would you like a glass?" Brandon offered, and Mack could tell he was already a little tipsy. He drank a lot, but he always got up for work the next day, so Mack never said anything about his drinking. He was still managing to live properly.

"Nah, no thanks. Need to drive back to Rockford Hills, I'll probably pass a million cops on the way home." Mack grinned, dying inside secretly as she loved a good glass of Scotch just as much as her brother did.

"So tell me, how is university going for you?" Brandon asked Mack, taking a sip of his drink.

"Yeah, it's good. Four more weeks and I'm out for the summer." Mack stated, smiling brightly.

"That's great to hear. Maybe when you're on summer vacation we should go out again, do certain illegal activities, get hammered, just like the old days." Brandon said to her.

Mack gave him a weird look. It was Brandon who introduced her to that lifestyle and got her a fake ID when she was eighteen to do the stuff he just mentioned, similar to what her and Franklin had done last weekend. But when he got with Melody he stopped all of that, even though that's how he met her and she was okay with Brandon having that lifestyle. For him to suggest doing that stuff again, it meant something was off.

Mack nearly mentioned last week and how she met a guy she hung out with and partied with, but kept her mouth shut. She felt bad hiding something from her brother, but he was clearly hiding something from her, and she didn't like it.

"I'm fine! I swear! It was only a kiss on the cheek!" Mack complained loudly, as her uncle was dragging her out of a restaurant by her arm.

He stopped, and swung around to look at her.

"Did you want him to kiss you on the cheek?" He asked Mack, rage still all over his face.

"Well…no. But still! If it was a criminal offense to make a pass at a woman, every man on this earth would be in jail. This is really overdramatic!" Mack complained, after fidgeting for a few moments.

"The guy is a serial pest, he hassles girls all over this city. You're doing all women in this city a favour by going to the police. In one night he has harassed an employee, and a family member." Mack's uncle said loudly, sending out a frustrated growl at the end.

"You don't get to claim both when it only happened to me!" Mack loudly said, sighing as her uncle pushed him into his car.

For the past few weeks Mack had been helping out in her uncle's restaurant. Her first job was working in a deli so she had a little bit of experience, but she wasn't a fan of this job. It was the first job she has had where she feels customers have treated her differently because she's a female, especially older men. While a handful were lovely, majority were either sleazy, or felt she shouldn't be working in a man's environment who would either ignore her and go talk to her male co-workers, or would be condescending towards her.

The deli was also fun work. She worked hard and long hours, even working her way to being a manager before she left two years ago, but it was still fun. All her customers loved her, all her staff loved her and she knew how to do every job really well. The restaurant wasn't as fun, no one respected her and she didn't have the knowledge to do most tasks, making it seem hard. Maybe she had just gone soft from working in an office, who knows. It also didn't help she went straight from her office to the restaurant three nights a week, and was always exhausted for that job.

The problem was that Mack didn't know how to break the news to her uncle that she didn't want to work there anymore. The only family that Mack and her brother Brandon had, was an aunt on her mother's side and an uncle on her father's side.

Brandon was close to their aunt, who had never warmed up to Mack. She was always civil to Mack, but usually laid back handed compliments thick on the young girl, whilst she would praise Brandon non stop. Therefore Mack usually stayed away, and it had been a while since she had seen Aunt Charlotte.

Her Uncle Steve on the other hand, she was really close to, more close than Brandon was with him. He had taken Mack under his wing, and at one point in her adolescence she had lived with him. He was really good to her, therefore it was real hard for her to quit on him.

Tonight a well known creeper had come into the restaurant, and greeted Mack with a kiss on the cheek. A little creepy and not social behaviour, but definitely nothing to go to the police about. Her uncle insisted however, feeling protective over his young niece.

"You don't deserve this treatment, come on." He said to her, as he grabbed her by the arm and forced her out of the car and through the police station doors.

"I want to report an attempted rape!" Mack's uncle bellowed loudly, the second they burst through the doors, gaining the attention of the police officer on the desk, and everyone else in the room.

"It's not a rape! It's nothing. Look, my uncle is being overly dramatic, I'm sorry we're wasting your time." Mack mumbled, her face red with embarrassment as she turned away and tried to escape but her uncle held her still.

"Sir, reporting attempted rape is a serious matter, and a very serious charge. Are you sure you really want to go ahead with this?" The policeman at the desk asked, looking very unamused, a huge scowl on his face.

"Does the name Charles Pewter ring a bell?" Steve asked the policeman, smirking as he knew the creep's reputation around town, all the police knew of this guy as many harassment claims had been made against him.

"Well, that changes everything. We have been trying to nail this guy for years, one more serious case against him might just do that. Please, come through." The policeman said, stepping away from the desk and went to open the doors.

"No, this isn't right. He's a creep and shouldn't have done that, but he doesn't deserve false charges pressed against him. I won't do this!" Mack argued, taking steps away from her uncle and got herself ready to bolt out the door, feeling hot and flustered, dazed and confused.

"It's okay. I'll deal with her." A new person said, joining the conversation as he walked over.

Mack's jaw dropped. In all of the haste, she hadn't noticed there were other policemen around. In front of her now was David, the detective she had gone on a date with the day her building was evacuated. Even though it was fairly late at night he was in a crisp suit, with his neat hair.

Mack should have been relieved there was a familiar face to help her out here, she could only feel shame. She really liked this guy, and now it seems like it was ruined. He'd either think she was a selfish, conceited bitch who thought every guy wanted to rape her, or she'd think her family were a bunch of psychos. This really wasn't a good look.

"Are you sure?" The uniformed policeman asked, looking disappointed he was losing a good case to a suited detective.

"Yeah, I'll have a chat to her, and drive her home. Come on, let's go outside." David said, opening the door for Mack and she quickly raced through to get away from the scene, and to get the awkward situation over and done with.

"So…where to begin?" Mack asked nervously, being the first one to make conversation once they were a while away from the station, as they walked down the main road together.

"Do you have a twin sister or did you get fired?" David asked, sounding amused as he motioned to her outfit. Her uniform for the restaurant. She had completely forgotten that David didn't know she had two jobs, so this could look really strange to him.

"I help out at my uncle's restaurant. Um, sorry about him. Look, nothing happened…" Mack began, her explanations rushing out but David stopped her before she could continue.

"It's okay. That kind of stuff happens a lot, actually. I just saw you were uncomfortable and jumped in to remove you from that awkward situation. It would be kind of neat if we could hang out, too." David smiled at Mack.

"Even after my uncle storms in being overdramatic and makes a fool of both himself as well as me, you still want to see me?" Mack asked, stopping in her tracks to shoot him a weird look.

"Yes. I'm growing quite fond of you, and your quirky little text messages you send me everyday." David replied, touching Mack's hair affectionately, making her blush and look down, all the while David could only think about how cute she looked.

"So, is this our second date? On our second date my uncle stormed in overdramatically and embarrassed both me and him. Most interesting date, ever." Mack stated, a small smile appearing on her face as she finally began to feel comfortable again.

"I suppose so." David replied, chuckling.