59. Lydia #3
“Mase!” he shouts, jogging up to Mason. They dap up so hard their wrists clapped. He was bright-eyed and impossible to ignore. “Dude. You played so good out there. You better be proud of that win.”
Mason is still grinning, saying something I can’t hear, and then, without warning, tilts his chin toward me.
The tiniest nod in my direction. I stiffen instantly.
The group chatter thins, and it’s ridiculous, but I can feel everyone’s eyes—curious, kind, harmless even—turn and settle on me, like someone brought a flashlight to a museum and decided I was the exhibit.
Bash follows Mason’s nod, turning his head and finding me.
He freezes, locking eyes with me. We both just stand there, not moving.
Bash studies my expression, probably reading the anxiety on it, and then looks around at everyone staring at us before looking back to me.
He lets go of Mason’s shoulder, giving it one last pat before stepping closer to me. “Hey,” he says softly. “Can I—would it be okay to…talk over there? Just for a second.”
I look to where Lani and Simone are both standing, watching.
They both have huge grins on their faces and nod quickly, nudging me with their eyes to go talk to him.
I turn back to Bash, giving him a little nod, and then he just waits for me to start walking.
We move a couple of feet away from everyone, where it was slightly quieter.
And up close, I can’t help but take in the way he smells.
It’s probably the best I’ve ever noticed a guy smell before.
It’s smooth and comforting, and smells like confidence.
It isn’t obnoxiously strong, just him. It fit him so perfectly, and I want to bottle it up to store away like a creep.
Is that weird? That was a little weird, right? Don’t be weird, Lydia.
“So, um,” he starts. “I just wanted to…check in on you. I know we don’t know each other well or anything, but I thought about how you were doing a lot over the summer and…I don’t know, I guess it’s just good to see you here. Didn’t know if you’d be back.”
“Yeah…it was a pretty hard summer, but I wanted to be back for the fall semester.”
“That’s good,” he tells me like he’s almost proud. It makes something stir inside me. “Really good. So, you’re um…how are you doing now?”
I nod. “Doing good….I think. Sober now. Ever since…that night.”
He just nods and doesn’t rush in to fill the silence.
“Thanks, by the way,” I tell him. “You helped give me a second chance.”
He shook his head immediately. “You don’t owe me that,” he says, quietly. “You did all the hard parts.”
“Thank you anyway.”
His posture relaxed a little as he kept his eyes on mine. “If you ever need a quiet place to hide,” he says, half-smiling, “I’m usually good at finding the perfect exits.”
I huff out a small laugh. “Noted.”
We stood in this comfortable silence for a moment, just taking in each other, taking in our words to each other, taking in everything that had happened and where it had brought us now.
Down the lawn, Simone’s laugh cut through the mix, a sound I could easily find in the dark. Lani was playfully arguing with someone in a tone that made it clear she was right, and there was no other option.
“I should—” I say, tipping my head toward them.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll…see you around.”
“Hopefully.” And I wanted that to be true more than I wanted to admit.
We walked back over to everyone together until we split in different directions. He veered back toward Mason with a clap on the shoulder, and I fell back into orbit with the girls. I didn’t even have time to brace before Simone and Lani were on me like they’d waited as long as they could.
“Okay,” Simone says, hands on my upper arm, eyes wild. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” I say, which is the truth. “We just talked.”
Lani’s grin is feral. “He’s cute.”
“He is objectively not ugly,” I give in, deadpanning at them.
“He’s objectively hot,” Lani shoots back. “Even if he has bad taste in friends,” she adds.
Simone side-eyes her. “Erik—”
Lani fake-gags. “Please don’t say his name.”
“I’m going to keep saying his name until you give us the tea on why you hate him. Mason says he’s a really good guy.”
Lani pretends to zip her mouth closed. “Let’s talk about the tall, hot one who is obsessed with Lydia.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like that. He just asked how I was doing since…
everything, and I told him I was doing good…
because I am,” I look between them both.
“I am.” I let that sink in for a moment.
A small reminder to them that I’m okay. I always like to use small moments to relay that message instead of making it a whole thing sometimes.
“And then I just told him thank you for being there that night, for helping me get a second chance at all of this. That’s it. That’s all the conversation was.”
“Okay, fine,” Lani sighs. “We can be normal about it, even though he so has a thing for you.”
“No, we can’t,” Simone admits. “But we can be supportive and annoying in equal measure.”
“Deal,” I agree, shaking my head and letting them loop their arms through mine, tugging me back into the stream of people and heading home.