9. Mason
Mason
It’s a new semester, but I plan on getting into the same amount of shit as I did last semester.
It took a little while for me to fully open myself up here and enjoy the perks of college, but I’m finally starting to.
I’m having fun. I’m not thinking about home or all the things I’m missing out on.
I’m not worrying about my future and the one I’ll be forced into.
I’m just…living for me right now. Day by day, fucking shit up and having a grand old time getting into trouble.
I won’t say the guys I’ve gotten close to in the fraternity haven’t helped a little with the chaos, but I’m enjoying it, as well as Bash, who’s always into some shit and dragging me along with him.
I’ve gotten pretty close to him since we met.
We party together a lot, and try to have real conversations when we’re both sober enough.
We have a core class together this semester, which gives us a little more of that sober time to bond over. He’s in the grade above me and hasn’t declared his major yet, so he’s kind of just winging it so far. He’s cool, the kind of friend you want having your back when shit goes down.
We’re on our way to class this morning, walking through campus, when I pull out a cigarette from my jeans. I take a puff and blow it in Bash’s direction.
He’s got his hood up and sunglasses on even though the sun is barely in the sky, which means he must have had a fun night.
He waves it away and shoves me. “Don’t get me in trouble because you don’t know how to follow the rules.”
“Lighten up,” I tell him. “I wish it was a blunt. I just need something to take the edge off before class.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have daddy’s money to get me out of trouble if security gets on your ass.”
I take another drag. “Well,” I say on the inhale. “Good thing my piece of shit dad has enough money to get us both out of trouble.”
He laughs and tucks his hands back into his hoodie.
We cut through the quad and through the students who are all still trying to wake up this morning to get to class.
“Kappa is throwing a big rager this weekend,” I tell him, “if you’re down to be around a bunch of frat guys.”
“I gotta stop partying with you Sig boys. Y’all make me question my life choices too much.”
I put the end of the cigarette out on a wall we pass by before throwing it in the grass. “Yeah, last one got a little wild, huh?”
“A little,” he says with a gaping expression. “You had like three girls on your lap at one point.”
I grimace at that memory. “Yeah, you know, sometimes I feel a little taken advantage of at those things.”
“Seemed like you were pretty resilient,” he teases, nudging my arm. “Is the harem still rotating them like players on the bench?”
I tip my head back and laugh. “I think you’re confusing me with yourself. I see the way girls beg to be taken home by Sebastian Perez.” I pretend to turn on my best desperate girl voice. “Ohh, Bash. Please, take me home and have your way with me, and then forget to ever call or remember my name.”
He tries to hold in a laugh and fails. “If there’s enough drinks in me, I can’t be held responsible for what…or who I do.”
“Enough alcohol…and coke,” I tease.
He shoots me a look. “Hey, low blow.”
I raise my hands and a brow. “You love blow.”
He shoves me, and I almost lose my balance laughing.
“Just save some girls for the rest of us,” he teases. “I only take home one at a time. You hoard them like collectibles.”
It’s so funny to hear the perception people have of me.
Don’t get me wrong, I like to party and have a good time with the girls around here, but that’s it.
That’s as far as it goes. I have football, school, and the frat house to focus on.
Distractions outside of a night of partying don’t interest me.
We head into our statistics class, and a guy calls out to Bash as soon as he sees him—tall, fair skin, dark hair, dark features, tattoos littering his arms, and way too excited for this time of the morning.
“The semester you don’t tell me your schedule, we end up in the same class.”
Bash nods his head in greeting. “I was gonna ask you this morning, but you had already left.”
“Morning run and then breakfast with the guys,” he tells Bash.
Bash turns towards me and nods his head in the direction of the guy he’s talking to.
“This is Erik, my roommate. And ‘breakfast with the guys’ means morning prayer meeting, so be careful with the topics you talk about around Bible boy. He will try to throw holy water on your heathen ass. He’s also my best friend, so be respectful. ”
I can’t help but laugh a little as I lift my fist for him to bump the side of in greeting.
“I’m Mason,” I tell him. “Freshman, Sig Chi frat, business major, and professional heathen.”
They both laugh.
“Great, another one of you to try n’ tame,” Erik jokes.
The professor walks in, and we all sit down by each other.
My phone buzzes, and I pull it out to see a name I’ve been avoiding for weeks.
POS Dad: You’re coming home for spring break right?
POS Dad: I have some meetings to set up with you.
POS Dad: I’m setting up your summer internship program to start while you’re still in school. We’ll work around anything with football so you can still keep up with the team.
My fingers hover over the screen, thinking about a response.
I’ve been avoiding thinking about going back home since I got here, but I miss the boys too much not to.
Mason: Sig house is going to Fort Lauderdale like they do every year, so I’ll be in town. I can use a couple of days to come by
POS Dad: Good. I’ll get something scheduled and get you a couple of new suits.
I lock my phone back as our professor starts talking, but I can’t stop the ache that’s now at the front of my mind.
I feel guilty for being away, leaving Asher and Easton behind.
I feel like I’ve raised those boys for the last almost four years, and then I just ran away without even looking back.
Every time I call them, it rips my heart out a little more, especially when they constantly ask me when I’m coming back home.
When class ends, the room comes back to life, everyone zipping up their bags and hurrying out of the room.
Bash yawns dramatically. “I need food to survive right now. Who’s down?”
Erik nods. “Down.”
They both look over at me.
“Yeah, I’ve got nothing else to do,” I tell them.
We settle into one of the outside tables with our food, and I try to muster up an appetite, but it’s been harder to take care of my body lately. I know I need to for football, but it seems like my head is taking over the logical side and replacing it with a bunch of emotional roadblocks.
“You coming to the Kappa party this week too, Erik?” I ask.
Bash laughs. “Erik doesn’t party unless it’s in a pew.”
I raise my hands. “My bad. I forgot.”
Erik waves us off. “I’m not allergic to parties. Let Bash tell you, I’ve had to be his DD a time too many.”
Bash gives him a silent salute in gratitude.
“Trust me, I’ve done enough in my days,” Erik continues. “I just don’t drink or anything anymore, so…”
Bash squints over at Erik, propping his legs up on the empty chair next to him. “You’re my closest friend here…yet you keep so much from me. It hurts,” he says, pretending to be offended.
“You never ask,” Erik retorts.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s hear it then. I’m the newbie…so share with the class your mysterious past.”
Bash points over at me. “I knew I liked this kid. Yeah, what he said. Tell the class all about bad boy Erik turned campus saint.”
Erik rolls his eyes at both of us. “I’ll give you the cliff notes.”
“We’ll take it,” Bash says, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“I’m from the IE, my dad runs an auto shop that runs with the Saints of Ash—”
“You’re a biker kid?” I ask, cutting him off, shocked.
“What the hell is Saints of Ash?” Bash asks.
I look over at him, jaw almost on the ground. “Literally the biggest biker gang in the world!”
“Like leather and beards and shades and tall handlebars?” Bash asks.
Erik rolls his eyes. “Yeah, kinda.”
“Sounds like some white people shit,” Bash tells him, leaning back in his chair.
I can’t help but laugh at that.
“Anyway,” Erik continues. “I grew up heavily around all of that, even did some time in juvie—”
“Juvie?” Bash spits out, shocked. “I’ve been rooming with a criminal for the last year?”
Erik just rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but you’re not getting any more details on that one.
I’ve tried to block a lot of that time out of my memory.
But like I was saying, I guess…I eventually got to the age where I had to decide if I wanted to continue down that path or go another direction…
because once you’re in, you’re in. You don’t get out. ”
“That’s why you don’t talk to your parents?” Bash asks him.
Erik nods.
I feel a pang of sadness for him, ‘cause I see the pain behind that nod.
Looking at him, you would never guess any of this. Actually, you would. He looks exactly the part. But talking to him, I would have never known.
I guess that’s the thing about life, you learn pretty quickly, the more you talk to people, that everyone has a story, everyone has a past, everyone has pain that has shaped them into who they are.
“I got tangled up with this girl and a bad situation before I left for college that kind of pushed me to figure out what I really wanted in life, and I just had this moment of realization…like I wasn’t supposed to be in that life. I knew I had to leave it all behind and start over.”
“What happened to the girl?” I ask.
“It was…complicated. And I was kinda…in love with someone else.”
“What happened to that girl?” Bash asks with a smirk.
Erik pauses for a second. “I…hurt her. Plus, I wasn’t really allowed to be around her because her family is from a rival club. So…that tore us apart, and then I did something in the end that pretty much ruined it all for good.”
“Sounds like some Romeo and Juliet shit,” I joke.
Erik huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, but I sadly don’t get her back, so…”
“And now you’re here, exiled and saved.”
Erik gives Bash a look, and Bash apologizes under his breath.
I just laugh at them.
I never would have expected to get along with guys like them. We’re all so…different, but that’s kind of the appeal, I think.
Erik turns to me. “So…you had me lay it out. What’s your story?”
I pause, thinking about what I want to say. I don’t talk about my life with people. Not since Jackie forced my walls up permanently. But I feel comfortable with them.
“Um…well, the cliff notes are pretty short, actually. I have a shitty father who never loved me, my mom died when I was thirteen, my piece of shit dad remarried a year later, and now I have twin brothers back home who I miss very much, even though I hate everything else about that place. Oh, also, my dad runs a huge real estate investment company that I’m expected to work for and take over, that I don’t want any part of. ”
“Geez,” they both say at the same time.
“Your turn, Bash,” I say, trying to move the attention off of me.
“I mean, Erik already knows my cliff notes…but I had a pretty normal childhood—”
“Boring,” I tease, pretending to yawn. “Where’s the trauma?”
Bash shakes his head. “It came my senior year…when my sister committed suicide…”
“Shit…”
Erik just rubs the back of his neck, feeling the awkwardness.
“My bad,” I say, feeling like shit now for putting my foot in my mouth. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay,” Bash reassures. “We all have our stories.”
“Yeah. Why do they have to suck so badly, though?”
“Ask Pastor Erik,” Bash says, trying to lighten the mood.
“I don’t have all the answers, sadly,” Erik says. “I’m still trying to figure it all out, too.”