Chapter 7 Lee
Lee
The drive to the store was uneventful, but informative. Mason and I had a lot in common. We spent the time talking about Transformers, comic books, sci fi movies – a little bit of everything.
“Okay, so seriously,” I said, when we were just a few minutes from the store. “You’ve never watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer?”
Mason shook his head and grinned. “Nope, I didn’t watch much TV growing up.”
“Oh my god…you are going to lose your shit over David Boreanaz.”
“Boreanaz? Isn’t he the guy on Bones?” he asked.
I sighed and may have muttered something about his misspent youth as we pulled onto the street for the store.
“Okay, here’s an easy one,” Mason said. “Pop Quiz, hotshot. Hottest pickup line in an eighties movie. Go!”
“Um… Got it! ‘Come with me if you vant to live!’” I said, in what was probably the worst impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger ever.
“Oh god, that’s sad…” Mason said, shaking his head as he dropped it into his hands.
“Well, what do you think is the hottest pickup line?” I demanded.
“No question… ‘You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your liiips’,” Mason warbled.
I laughed. Of course, he was a Top Gun fan. We were still playing twenty questions when we pulled onto Market Street.
Twin Peeks was located in an area of Akron known as Highland Square, which was a wonderfully eclectic area. It was home to all kinds of great restaurants, quirky stores, and one-of-a-kind artisans.
The twins had been fortunate enough to get a community block grant to partially fund the purchase and renovation of a building that had once been a hardware store.
The area typically had a lot of foot traffic, but now there was even more than normal.
A line of people wrapped around the store front and down the block past the library.
The line was as long as it had been yesterday, if not longer.
From the variety of rainbow-hued clothing, skin and hair it was easy to guess who they were here for.
As we pulled in around the corner from the library, Mason looked around curiously.
“What’s the line for?” he asked.
I glanced back at him for a second, not sure if he was putting me on or not.
“You know what it’s for,” I said, turning the steering wheel as we rounded the block.
He shook his head, then his eyes went wide, his already-pale face went even more pale, and a squeak escaped his lips.
“…Me? They’re here for me?” he asked. I could see the pulse in his neck start to beat frantically.
I nodded and saw him reach almost automatically for his phone.
“Hey,” I said, grabbing his hand with mine. “You can do this. You don’t need an app to get through this,” I said, jerking my chin towards his phone. He seemed frozen for a moment, his hands gone ice cold under my touch, his eyes wide. I could see his pulse racing in his neck.
I drove around the block for a minute to give us time to talk. We parked in a side alley, the edge of the parking lot just out of sight of the line. Mason was breathing fast, his eyes shut, his lips pressed together. Shit, he was going to have another panic attack.
“Mason,” I said softly, but continued a little sharper when he didn’t respond, not quite my drill sergeant voice, but close. “Mason!”
He jumped and looked at me, his eyes so wide you could see the whites all the way around, his perfect pink lips flushed and slightly parted. Part of me wanted so badly to cover his mouth with my own and kiss away his fears. God, what was wrong with me?
“Look at me,” I said, snapping my fingers in his face to get his attention.
“Haven’t you ever done one of these before?” I asked, incredulous. I’d been going to cons my whole life, and my brothers had said Mason was super famous. How could he have never done something like this?
He sat still, then shook his head before he began speaking.
“I… No… never. We… we kept putting them off,” he shook his head setting his phone on his lap then running his hand through his hair. I loved how it curled as his anxious fingers wrapped and unwrapped it, the thick blue-black strands stretched and pulled between his anxious fingers.
“I’m… I’m kind of agoraphobic,” he admitted.
“Lizzie, she’s my manager, she said I had to start doing them,” he managed.
“She said the new publisher was going to drop us…me if I didn’t start holding signings and meet-and-greets.
I’ve always managed to beg off before, said I was sick, but she told me they’d given us an ultimatum, and that if I didn’t start attending, they’d drop us.
I thought I was going to be able to do this one trip to St. Louis a few weeks ago, but… I didn’t make it.”
“What happened?” I asked, my voice low and soft.
“I freaked out in the terminal of the airport,” he said, eyes on his hands. “Lizzie tried to bring me out of it, but she couldn’t.” Mason sighed. “That was really fun explaining to the TSA.”
He bit his lower lip, his teeth worrying at it.
“I started a new counselor, who was helping me work on it. Agoraphobia, I mean,” he said, glancing at me.
“I’m not afraid of big open spaces. I just…
I don’t do well with crowds.” He sighed.
“I’ve been getting better, but this was supposed to be my first quasi-solo role…
” he hesitated. “Lizzie was going to come with me, but her mom got sick at the last minute,” he paused, suddenly seeming to notice I was still holding his hand, and a red tinge crept up his formerly pale features.
“She thought… She thought I could handle it.”
He pulled his hand loose, then grabbed his other arm with it.
“I guess she was wrong,” he was looking anywhere but at me.
The defeat I saw written on his face tugged at my chest. This man had survived things that would have broken most other people. There was no way I was letting him feel like shit for no reason.
“Mason,” I said softly. “You can do this. I know you can. Just take it one person at a time.”
Mason snorted at me.
“How? What makes you so certain I can do this?” he asked, annoyance at my optimism sneaking into his voice. “I don’t even think I can do this!”
“I have faith in you,” I said simply.
“Why?” he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
“You’ve known me less than twenty-four hours, and in that time all I’ve done is be a total freak.
I barely handled the flight here. I couldn’t even manage to get to the store on my own.
I couldn’t walk into a hotel room without spazzing out.
Fuck!” he yelled in frustration, his palm slamming down on the dashboard.
“Why did I think I was going to be able to do this? All I do is write stupid stories and draw stupid pictures.” Tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
“That doesn’t sound like you talking… that sounds like…
” I hesitated, thinking it sounded like Ricky, but not ready yet to acknowledge our history.
“That sounds like someone who is small, nasty and mean. Someone envious of your talent and abilities. Someone may have put those thoughts in your head, but they aren’t yours. ”
I touched his chin and tipped his head back until he was looking directly at me.
His bright blue eyes were gorgeous. Somehow being a bit red from the tears he was holding back made the blue deepen and the gold ring around his pupils extra prominent in the morning sun.
God, he was beautiful! I shifted in the seat, my cock thickening uncomfortably.
I cursed myself, because dammit, this was not about that!
I tried desperately to rein in my libido as I looked into his eyes.
I leaned toward him, hoping to distract him so he wouldn’t see the bulge forming in my pants, and my hand slid around the back of his neck and did something I’d been wanting to for a while…
I brought our foreheads together until they were touching.
I could feel his breath coming hot and fast against my skin and felt the leap of his pulse under my touch.
I wanted desperately to brush my lips against his, but I knew I hadn’t earned that right.
My eyes were drawn to his lips, and I noticed how dry and chapped they looked, like he had been worrying them with his teeth.
Mason glanced down at my lips, and I saw his tongue dart out to wet his own.
Fuck, he was killing me. The air was electric, the car suddenly too hot despite the air conditioning still blasting from the vents.
“You…” I finally continued. “You are anything but small. You are kind. You are compassionate. You inspire people to do good. You help people see the best side of themselves. You inspire them to be the best side of themselves. You… You are a Hero.”
We sat there a few minutes, eyes locked on each other.
I felt the muscles in his neck clench tight at first, as his eyes seemed to search my face for something.
After a time, I saw a change in his expression.
Some resolve seemed to coalesce in his eyes and he nodded.
I released the hold on the back of his neck, my hand tingling where I’d held him
“Now just go in there, take it one person at a time. Find out their stories. Once you know most people, it’s kind of hard to be afraid of them.”
I turned back in my seat, put the car in drive and pulled around to a side alley that led to the back of the store.
I parked in the employee parking area and we went in the back door of Twin Peeks.
The funny logo the boys had made stamped on the back door.
It was two boys, their heads together, their eyes peeking out from behind the comic they held in their hands.
It was so much like a picture we had of the boys when they were young that I figured they must have used it as a model.
I helped Mason get his things into the store. I thought for a minute that Sonny and Hicks were going to jump up and down like schoolgirls when we walked in, but they managed to play it cool. Just barely. When Mason shook their hands, I thought I heard Sonny squeal.