You might be wondering why I felt punched in the gut. That wasn’t a good way to feel, after all, but it was the only way I could describe how I felt hearing Michelle say that. It couldn’t be true. Calum must’ve known Kyle was only spying for Michelle, who would come home and tell me everything. He was just being nice. He didn’t really want to see me again.
Michelle got up, climbing onto my bed with me. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said, “but he does. Calum wouldn’t say he wants to see you again and not mean it. He’s not like that.”
I shook my head once. “He’s going back home sooner or later, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Dude, a few hours away isn’t that far. Now, if we lived in California and he lived in New York, that would be different. Come on, Bree. You have a car. He’s got one, too. A few hours is nothing. Plus, you know, cell phones have been a thing for a while now—” She stopped when I whacked her with my pillow, giggling.
“I just…” I trailed off, once again hugging my pillow. “Why would he want to continue to see me when there are tons of women closer to home that are better than me?”
Michelle responded to that by yanking my pillow out of my hands and hitting me on the back of the head with it. “Shut up,” she said. “Don’t think like that. The worst that could happen is you try to go long distance and it doesn’t work. Sometimes things happen. That’s life.”
Getting a lecture from my eighteen-year-old sister again. Wonderful.
What she did not understand was that I’d rather not go through that heartbreak. I’d rather not try and fail.
My phone buzzed, and before I remembered who it could possibly be, I went to pick it up, to glance at the screen. Mason’s name appeared, along with a snarky and jealous message about how, if he was miserable last night thinking about me on my date, I should be miserable, too. That it was only fair.
Dear God, that one was ridiculous.
Michelle watched me, saw my reaction to the message. “Who’s that? Is that Calum?”
I met her inquisitive stare, suddenly realizing I was smiling. Oops. I set my phone down before I responded to him. “No, it’s…it’s someone else.”
“Someone else? Another boy? Please tell!”
I shushed her, not wanting Mom or Dad to hear. “No one,” I said. “Just a boy I have to work on a group project with.”
“You were smiling at your phone,” she said. “You don’t smile like that to just another boy. You like him. Is that why you’re hesitant about Calum?”
“I do not like him.”
Michelle smirked, as if she knew something I didn’t. “What’s his name?”
“Mason.”
“Is Mason funny? Tell me about him.”
I knew my sister would not leave this alone until I told her everything she wanted to know about him, so I heaved a long sigh and did just that. I told her how we’d met, how he’d been late to class one day. I told her how insistent he’d been about sitting beside me after that, how he’d basically forced himself to be my partner. She was not too thrilled to hear that we’d already met outside of class, that I’d kept him from her for this long.
I did not tell her what Mason told me, though—that he was jealous of my date, and everything else he’d said. I also kept the morning hot chocolate routine to myself, too, figuring it’d be best. This way, it would sound like Mason and I were just classmates trying to do a stupid group project.
“Sounds like he likes you,” Michelle remarked with a sly grin.
Ugh, it sounded like that, even with me keeping a few choice things to myself? What the hell.
“He does not,” I said, even though a teeny, tiny part of me hoped it was true. I had no idea why Mason and Calum made me feel these things, but they did. I hated it, because I knew, eventually, I’d be let down, destroyed, my heart torn out of my chest and ripped into a dozen pieces, whether they were purposefully cruel to me or not.
I was more fragile than most people, I think.
“Why don’t you invite him over here to work on that project of yours, then?” Michelle suggested. “Be alone while you two work and see what happens. I bet I’m right.”
I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide from my know-it-all sister. “And if you are? What about Calum?”
“What about him? You’re not exclusive yet, so as far as I’m concerned, you can date anyone you want right now. Maybe it’ll make him jealous. Maybe it’ll make him want to ask you to be his girlfriend officially before he goes back home.” Michelle shrugged. “Or maybe you’ll realize you really do like this Mason. Either way, you have to try.”
I did not agree with her there. Personally, I didn’t think I had to try anything, but I knew, now that Michelle knew about my recently complicated life, she wouldn’t let me hear the end of it. For both our sakes, it would be easier if I did as she suggested.
Damn it.
“I guess,” I said, glancing down at my phone again. Having Mason come over would mean I’d have to ask Mom and Dad about it, which would then mean I’d have to spend the day cleaning the house, because heaven forbid we had someone new over and a hair was out of place.
Really, it would be so much easier to not have Mason over, to just continue as we had been.
That’s…that’s not what happened, though.
Chapter Ten – Mason
I knew I probably shouldn’t have texted Bree last night. Talk about sounding desperate. And jealous. Very, very jealous. So jealous I hardly got any sleep because I was so wrapped up in my own head, wondering if she was having a good time with him.
Not that she could only have a good time with me, but…
I texted her way too much last night. Probably came off sounding like a huge idiot, an idiot who did not know when to shut the hell up and take a seat. Oh, well. If there was one thing I was good at, it sure wasn’t shutting up. Anyone who knew me would say that I liked to hear myself talk.
I went to work early on Saturday, doing a six-hour shift and getting off at twelve. I came home and showered, changed out of my work uniform. There were a few things I had to do for my classes, some online quizzes I had to take and another paper to start drafting, but all of my plans went out the window the moment I got a text message from Bree.
Another one. I’d seen the one she’d sent earlier—I’d been working, so I didn’t respond. And then I went home, trying to keep it cool, keep it together. Basically trying not to sound like an idiot yet again.
But it seemed now that Bree did want to talk to me. She wanted to talk to me so much she was inviting me over to her house to work on our project.
I mean, how the hell was I supposed to say no to that? Maybe her family would be home, or her roommates, but we’d be more alone than we were at the library, that’s for sure. Could I handle being alone with her? I mean, of course I could. I wasn’t going to go apeshit and make a move she didn’t want me to make, but that’s not what I meant.
Being alone with Bree would test me, that’s for sure. It was easy to talk and laugh when we were surrounded by other SCC students, when we were walking together on campus. But to be alone with her, in her room…I might say some things that would get me into trouble. Talk about things I shouldn’t.