Authors: Danielle Breeze
I turned to put my seat-belt on whilst talking and
still
not paying attention to anything else.
“Oh my god, I’m so grateful you could do this for me, honestly I’d be fucked if I didn’t get there on time, compl
etely forgot that it was even today. I’m ill, I guess I caught it walking back from yours in the rain and...”
I turned in my seat and stopped talking. I stopped talking because, to recap, I jogged down the stairs, got in the first car I had seen at the curb, didn’t pay attention to anything else, turned to put my seat-belt on without even saying hi, then started talking about how grateful I was for him helping me.
Then when I turned to look at Mason and realised...
I WAS NOT IN MASON’S CAR!!
I froze. Completely.
Body still, mind blank, mouth open.
Nothing.
I tried, really I did, a thousand thoughts running through my mind, not one of them stuck.
Sat next to me with a face saying she wasn’t sure whether to scream, cry, laugh or escape, was a white haired, pale faced, sixty or seventy year old lady.
Not, blonde haired, grey eyed, beautiful-faced Mason!
Oh no no no no! It was awful, so
so
bad. Instead of apologising, explaining the situation, and making sure that I hadn’t given some poor old lady a heart attack, I scrambled.
I threw open the door, so hard that it bounced back and almost hit me in the face but I put my hand out to protect myself, then swung my legs around, and darted from the car. I’d made it about five steps, when I heard a masculine chuckle from a few feet away.
I looked to the side, and right in front of me, leaning against the outside of a
red
car, was the person who was
supposed
to be giving me a ride to University...
laughing
at me.
I scowled at him and stomped over towards him. My scowl had the opposite effect that it was supposed to
,
seeing as his chuckle, morphed into a full blown outburst. He howled with laughter, throwing his head back and closing his eyes in the process. I stood and watched him, his mental reaction to my misfortune, mistake, mishap, whatever you want to call that god damn
situation
was, frankly, fucking annoying!
He didn’t stop laughing, not even slightly, but he did step forward, open the passenger side door and let me in. I watched him through the windshield as he walked around the car. Still laughing,
still shaking his head.
Asshole.
As soon as he was in the car, I snapped.
“It’s not fucking funny Mason! I could have gotten into the car of a fucking murderer for all you know....and you watched me do it!”
He took a few deep breaths, but was still almost panting, when he answered.
“Not at all babe. Saw that lady. She was already parked there when I pulled up. So I parked here instead.” He broke off into another quick chuckle. Then pissed me off even more.
“Oh come on Sunshine! You’ve gotta admit, getting in to the
wrong fucking car!
That’s class, amazing, you wait until people hear about this! That babe, is the best, funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time...if ever!”
But it wasn’t anyone else was it? Nope, it was me. I’m so bloody daft sometimes.
Wasn’t going to admit it to him though. I just held my scowl.
Mason
It was sooo fucking funny! I watched her run out of the building, not paying a lick of attention to anything around her, and I knew, straight away, I knew what she was going to do!
I couldn’t help it, I knew she’d be pissed, but how could I not laugh about
that?
She got into the wrong car! I didn’t even know it was possible to pay that little attention to the world around you.
It was cute though, the little scowl and strut she did towards me. She definitely needed to learn to laugh at
herself a bit more, guarantee if it was anyone else that it happened to, then she would have.
On the way to her exam, she refused to speak to me. She just folded her arms across her chest and stared out the window.
Childish.
But still funny.
She still had ten minutes left when we pulled up outside the exam building, so I shut off the engine, hoping she’d actually speak to me. I thought I’s start simple...
“So what exam is it?” I asked.
She sighed, but answered. “Child Language Acquisition.”
“There’s an entire exam, based on kids learning to talk?”
The thought baffled me, I couldn’t understand why people would need to learn that shit.
Kids just...start talking
, right?
“Don’t be so pigheaded!” She snapped, “It’s not just about ‘kids learning to talk’. It’s development in
general, there are stages, milestones, achievements. It’s giving them guidance. It’s knowing the difference between them learning to listen and speak while actually comprehending the language. There are so many more factors involved,
phonology
, syntax
…”
Ok so I was wrong, apparently there’s a lot more to kids learning to talk than them just…well…talking
.
But it was still boring, so I cut her off.
“Ok ok, I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about kids anyway
.
I believe you. But you’ve just wasted two minutes, and you’ve only got about five minutes until you have to go in. So instead, why don’t you tell me how long your exam is?”
“Why?”
“So I’ll know when to be here to take you home.” I answered.
Obviously!
“Um, that’s ok Mason, thanks, but I’ll be fine getting home.”
“I’m sure you will, but said your feet were hurt
and you’re ill. No offense babe, but you look and sound like shit. I’m around for a few hours, so I can take you home.”
“It’s a two hour
exam, you don’t need to wait around. Really, I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, you will be.
Because I’ll be here in two hours to take you home.”
She sighed, like I was actually putting her out for offering to take her home.
“Whatever, if you want to do that then fine. Thanks for the lift.” She replied, then huffed, and got out of the car.
I watched her walk into the building, wondering why she couldn’t just accept a favour and get on with it.
I decided right then that even if I couldn’t have her, which I wanted to, I was definitely going to keep her in my life.
It had been a long time since someone could make me laugh, piss me off, turn me on and confuse me, all at the
same time.
Ok so yeah,
I’m glutton for punishment. Nothing about it was going to be easy, she seemed fairly determined to push me away. But if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s easily deterred.
I’m not spoilt exactly, I just want what I want and Jackson always told us that there was nothing we couldn’t do if we put our mind to it.
He may have been talking about careers at the time, but I figured the same rules applied!
I decided to drive back to the exam building fifteen minutes early, thinking maybe she might finish early, and knowing the little amount I already knew about Harper, she probably would have done that just to avoid me.
I was not wrong.
I had only just pulled up at the curb when she walked out of the building. She threw a quick glance around, but didn’t notice my car,
then I watched as her shoulders fell, not in disappointment, in relief! She just started walking in the opposite direction.
I didn’t get it. Not even a little. Why would she suffer, through pain, rather than take a lift from me?
I followed behind her, which was not an easy job considering the traffic in London is a nightmare. But her walking, quickly deteriorated into a limp, then mere minutes later, she slumped down onto a bench and put her head in her hands.
I’d had
enough, I couldn’t watch her be in pain anymore, even if she was causing it herself. I pulled over, jumped out of the car and strode to stand in front of her. She didn’t notice me at first, I know that for sure, because when she did, her shoulders tensed and I heard her whisper ‘
shit!’
under her breath.
“Come on. Just get in the car Harper, you’re a mess. You can’t walk home like that. You don’t even have to speak
to me
.
Just let me take you home.” I held out a hand to help her up and she stared at me for a few beats before reluctantly taking it and standing up.
I knew she must have been in more pain than I’d originally thought because she leant into me, supported her weight on my forearm and
limped the few steps to the car.
On the drive back to her house, she was silent again, but not
in a strop like on the way, no, this was like she was thinking about something.
“What are you thinking about over there?” I asked.
She let out at almost wistful sigh before speaking.
“I don’t know. I’m confused Mason. Why did you come back? Why did you even come in the first place? I’d have told me to fuck off, after the way I was with you the other day.”
Well I didn’t expect that, but I already knew the answer.
“It’s not confusing Harper. I like you, and I think you already got that. But I’m a good guy. You want or need something, and if I’m in a position to give it you, I’ll do it. It’s that simple. I don’t know why you’re so against it. It’s not free though, I wanna get to know you better, you let me in,
then we’re even.”
“I can’t,
no, I
won’t
get into a relationship with you Mason. I don’t do that.” She declared. It was fierce, no room for negotiation, but there’s a reason that I organise everything at Blaze, I can be persuasive without the other person even knowing it.
With this in mind, I replied.
“Who said anything about a relationship? I hardly know you! I wanna get to know you, it’s always good to have a new friend. I’m a good friend to have!”
She looked stunned.
“You...you’re okay with just being my
friend
?” She said
friend
like it was a foreign concept she’d never heard. But I was playing this my way.
“Yeah.
Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
She didn’t reply. I smiled to myself. Poor girl didn’t have a clue.
Chapter Five
Harper
He wasn’t lying.
He really did seem ok with just being my friend.
...
If being my friend meant turning up outside of my apartment every morning when I was due to go to university, just to give me ride, as well as being there when I was finished for the day. Or for the same reason he would randomly be in my home with Jase, even when I wasn’t there, cooking at my place, sleeping on my sofa. He was invading my entire life.
Including e
very single one of my thoughts, my dreams…everything.
Then yeah, he was a great friend.
The damn man just took over! He brought his own food over to keep in my fridge, he left a spare uniform in
my
wardrobe, he made dinner, he bought a new coffee machine because ‘ours wasn’t good enough’...well of course it wasn’t good enough, we were students! Students are poor!
Did he ask my permission for any of this? Nope!
He just did it.
It was annoying, to say the least, he really did think he owned everything, the floor he walked on, the people he walked past, the sunshine, the rain, the wind,
literally
everything. His sense of entitlement was unrivalled.
I’d never known anything like it
.
Worming his way into my world, in less than a month! Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t exactly
mind
him being around. He was great, he was funny, he cleaned up after himself...and me...and Jase. He cooked dinners for everyone, he obviously had upgraded our coffee machine and he saved me from having to walk to and from university when I had to go. But I just wanted him to
ask
once in a while
.
Damn frustrating man!
But I finally found myself with a few hours of free-time, time by myself, no Taylor, no Jase...and definitely no Mason. I liked my own company. I enjoyed the silence. I loved just doing...nothing!
I lay in the bath planning things in my head. Taylor’s birthday was only two and a half months away and I needed to start organising. Now I know what you’re thinking, two and a half months is a long time just for planning a birthday day...but with Taylor? Not the case.
I’m sure she’d be happy to just have a few drinks or something, but her birthday is one of the days in the year that she thought about her parents and got truly upset. I had never, not since the first birthday when they were gone, let her spend a single minute of her birthday alone. I always made a huge deal out of it.