31. Mason
Mason
I’ve been up for an hour while Simone is still peacefully sleeping in my bed.
I hate how much I like her there.
No sir. Pack that bullshit back up.
As cute as she looks, I’m getting a little impatient. I want her to have a fun day today and get her mood back up from yesterday’s shit-show. Plus, I’m taking her to a party tonight, so I want her to have enough time to do whatever she wants before then.
I pull a chair out from the desk in my room and set it in front of the bed, sitting on it backwards as I take my phone out and connect it to the Bluetooth speaker near the head of my bed. I press play, and “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crue rings out at max volume.
Simone shoots up, scared shitless, hands braced behind her on the bed as she sits up.
I smile at her while playing the air guitar.
“Mason! What the fuck?”
“What? Not your taste?” I look around and grab my phone again, scrolling for another choice.
I finally find something else and hit play.
“9 to 5” by Dolly Parton fills the room as Simone just glares at me from the bed.
I get up, pushing back the chair dramatically, and grab the covers off of her as I sing. She deadpans at me, trying so hard not to laugh as I run around the room, finding my bag and keys, acting out the song as it plays.
I look over at her, and she’s still trying to keep a straight face. “No? Still not doing it for you?”
I grab my phone again and find the song on my playlist that I know will make her crack.
As soon as the song starts to play, I snap my arm in the air as I sing it.
“I have one thing to say, Simone. You. Better. Work!”
That does it. She almost chokes laughing.
“Mason! Please don’t ever do that again.”
I look at her, offended. “Am I not fabulous enough to embody the great RuPaul?”
She shakes her head, still laughing. “If you want to keep the respect I had for you before I woke up this morning…please, don’t make me answer that.”
I reach my hand out for her to take, bowing my head. “It’s your Yes Day. How would you like to start the day?”
She takes my hand and stands up.
“First thing I would like…is for you to turn this loud ass music off.”
I laugh and grab my phone, pausing the music. “Okay, Grinch. What’s next?”
She rolls her eyes and shoves my arm. “I need to go back to my dorm.”
“To change?” I ask.
She looks down. “Yeah…and to check to see if…Lydia came back.”
“You still haven’t heard from her?”
She shakes her head. “No texts, and no calls.”
“Dorm it is. And then we get to some fun stuff, okay?”
She gives me a small smile. “Yeah, then the fun stuff.”
After we go back to her dorm, don’t find Lydia, and she changes, we head out for breakfast.
“Thank you,” she says softly from my passenger seat.
“For what?”
“For trying to make me feel better. You didn’t have to waste your only free weekend day stuck with me.”
I look over at her while still trying to pay attention to the road. “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend it.”
She squints over at me. “Kiss ass.”
I just shrug and give her a smile.
“Okay, turn right here,” she says, pointing to a strip mall. “It’s the last shop down there.”
“I’ve never been here before.”
“They have the absolute best breakfast in the entire world!”
I laugh. “That good?”
“That good.”
“What should I get?”
She gives me a little mischievous look. “I think we should order the whole menu. You know, so you can just try everything.”
I nod, impressed. “I like the way you do breakfast, Edwards.”
After we can barely move from eating too much, she tells me she wants to go to the bookstore.
We spend several hours in there with her telling me about different books she’s read and loved, and other ones that she really wants to read soon. She doesn’t buy any because she’s too indecisive, and when I tell her I’ll just get them all for her, she refuses—stubborn as always.
Somehow, she spots a tattoo shop near the bookstore and drags me over to it, telling me she has an idea.
And now I’m scared.
Rightfully so with this one.
“No…wait! I don’t think I can do this, Simone!”
She laughs at me and walks closer, taking my hand. “Shh. Squeeze my hand and stop thinking about it.”
I squeeze her hand and shake my head. “How did I let you convince me this was a good idea?”
The lady walks over with the needle, and I start shaking.
“Mason, calm down,” Simone says, laughing. “I just got mine done. It wasn’t that bad.”
“You have like ten piercings in your ears…I’ve never done this before.”
“You’ll be fine, I promise. You have tattoos. I’ve seen a couple.”
I look over at her, squinting. “You been checking me out? All my tattoos are hidden.”
She shakes her head, ignoring me. “Aren’t you supposed to be some big macho football player who gets tackled all the time and loves to get into fights on and off the field? You can’t handle a little needle?”
I glare at her, and she giggles.
“It’s gonna make you look hot, I promise. The ladies are gonna love it.”
“I’m already hot,” I tell her.
“Well…more hot then.”
“Not possible.”
She shakes her head. “You’re insufferable.”
The lady laughs at me when I scream as she pierces my ear, and I glare at Simone the entire time.
Back in the car, Simone looks over at me and smiles. “It looks so good.”
“This was a ‘Yes Day’ for you, not a ‘put Mason through pain and laugh about it for some sick pleasure day.’”
She pats my thigh. “You’ll be okay. Plus, now you’ve got this little edge to your surfer boy look. It’s really working for you.”
“Are you trying to tell me you think I’m cute, Simone?”
She waves me off. “You don’t need your ego boosted by me. There are enough girls who already do that.”
“Eh, they’re just trying to use me to get in my pants,” I tell her. “At least with you, I know the compliment is genuine.”
Back on campus, Simone somehow talks me into taking her up to the press box above the football stadium. We have to sneak in there, and I tell her that if I get in trouble, there will be a lot of fans coming after her.
We sit up there talking for a while about anything and everything—about her dreams, what the future could look like, how much of an escape college has been, and how lucky we both feel to be here.
“So…” she starts, staring out of the glass window. “If you could paint the perfect picture of a day in your life in ten years…the way you’d want it to be, what would that look like?”
I think about it for a moment.
“Um, I guess I’d probably wake up with my super hot wife beside me…have some hot married morning sex—”
She shoves me, laughing. “Ew, gross. I don’t wanna picture that.”
I laugh, continuing. “We’d get up and make breakfast with our six kids—”
“Six!?” Simone chokes out. “Damn.”
“We’d have help, of course, her family—definitely not mine—and maybe a chef, some nannies—”
“I forgot what a luxury the rich life is,” she teases.
“What’s the point of having money if you don’t get to live a soft life? Nobody is raising my kids but me. I’ll always be present, just…some help never hurts.”
“Sounds a lot nicer than being shipped off to your grandma’s every time your mom has to work late or having to miss out on sports and your friends’ parties because there’s no one to take you.”
I stop and look at her for a moment. “Having money will never be worth more than growing up with real love, though.”
“Why can’t we just have both?” she asks, smiling a little.
“Why can’t we just have both?” I repeat back, agreeing.
“Okay, finish your day for me.”
I think about it a little more. “Maybe it’s the weekend, so the kids aren’t in school, the wife isn’t working, or she’s a stay-at-home mom, whatever she wants to do. Then…maybe I take them to the lab I’m working at or on the research boat, show them what their dad does for a living.”
“In this dream future…you’re a marine biologist, right?”
I nod. “Yeah…yeah, I think so. I don’t think I could see myself doing anything else.”
“I wish you could do it,” she tells me. “I wish you could say screw him and follow your own dreams.”
I look over at her. “Yeah, me too.”
“Okay…then what? How do you end your day?”
“Pizza…lots of pizza. And ice cream, of course.”
“Of course,” she says, smiling.
“Play with the kids after dinner, watch a movie with the whole family, make a bunch of junk food…
‘cause it’s the weekend, and then get them all in bed and spend the rest of the night with my wife.
Hopefully we love the same shows, and she likes UFC and football… ‘cause there will be a lot of that on.”
Simone laughs. “She sounds like a lucky woman.”
“Oh, I’ll probably be the lucky one. I plan on marrying up. You know, someone way out of my league.”
“So humble,” she laughs out. “But I’m sure you’ll find her. We’d better still be friends so I can be friends with her and come over with my family to schmooze off of yours.”
Picturing that makes me smile. “I hope we’re still friends too…no matter where I end up in life.”
“Me too, Sinclair.”
After grabbing lunch and going to a nail salon, we head back to campus again.
Yes, she convinced me to get a pedicure. No, I will never admit that to anyone.
I think that girl could get me to do just about anything she wanted. That’s how much I enjoy being around her.
I drop her off at her dorm to get ready for the party, then I pick both her and Lani back up and head over to the Sig house.
“Your friend’s not coming tonight, right?” Lani asks from the back seat.
I smirk. “Erik? No. He’s not really a party guy.”
I hear her huff under her breath. “He used to be.”
“So you’re the girl he’s always talking about?”
“He talks about me?” she asks.
“He never says a name, but he’s always talking about the girl from his past that he regrets losing.”
“Hmm, must be another one of his many girlfriends,” she says, spitefully.
I look over to Simone in the passenger seat and raise my brows. She just shrugs and smiles back, not knowing anything.
“I haven’t seen him with any girl since I met him my freshman year. He’s too holy and all pure now.”
She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Yeah, that shit’s an act.”
I just put my hands up. “Hey, that’s all I’ve seen at least.”