Before class was over, I drank the entire hot chocolate Mason had bought for me, and as I finished it, I realized it’d been far too long since I’d drank any hot chocolate. Warm and sweet, it tasted good. Who said it was just for warming up your bones after a few hours spent outside in the snow, like my parents had told Michelle and me when we were growing up?
Hot chocolate was for any occasion.
Mason brought me yet another hot chocolate before Friday’s class, and this time I made no qualms about waiting to drink it. I’d spent my time trying to focus on Mason and his strangeness instead of my impending date, since Michelle had made it clear she would never forgive me if I canceled on Calum.
I was being forced to go on this date tonight, and I knew it would be yet another shitshow—only this time, Calum and I would be alone. No Kyle or Michelle to watch over us and keep us talking. We would drown in the awkwardness tonight, that’s for sure.
When class let out, Mason followed me in the hall, hurrying to walk beside me. “So,” he said, eyeing me up. “Still going on that date tonight?”
We headed down the stairwell. I wasn’t sure if he’d walk with me to my next class, or if he had someplace else to go, but judging from how intent he was on me, it looked like the former.
“My sister wouldn’t let me cancel, so yeah,” I said, squinting as I pushed outside. The sidewalks were jampacked with other students hurrying to and from class, but I took my time walking. Mason stuck by my side the entire time, never slowing or looking as if he wanted to leave. I tossed a curious glance at him. “Why?” He’d mentioned him and I getting together to work on the questionnaire, but surely he had something else he’d rather do on a Friday night?
His shoulders shrugged. “No reason. Just wondering.”
Seemed fake, but okay. I wasn’t sure why the hell he would just wonder anything about me. Then again…I had no idea why Mason did anything he did. He was very insistent on me, and I didn’t know what to make of that.
Something occurred to me then, something that hadn’t occurred to me before. My feet stopped walking, and I nearly caused half a dozen other students to walk into me as I darted off the sidewalk to get out of the way. My Vans hit the grass, and I watched as Mason followed me, grinning at the students who’d smacked into him during his sudden change of direction.
He smiled at everyone else the same way he smiled at me, didn’t he? He wasn’t doing anything special for me. No. No way. That just wasn’t possible.
“Mason,” I started, not feeling nearly as courageous as I should be to ask what I was about to ask. I couldn’t let this, whatever it was, continue, unless I voiced my worry, my concern—and my concern was whether or not I was being played.
Never thought I’d have to worry about that, but I guessed what they said was true: there was a first time for everything. It could be that Mason just wanted into the freak’s pants. He was a guy, after all, and guys were all about sex.
He instantly knew something was up. His brown eyebrows furrowed, and he looked at me worriedly. “What’s wrong? Did I do something? I know I might seem over the top sometimes, but I—”
“That’s not it,” I said.
“Is it because I asked about your date?” he guessed. “If you don’t want me to talk about it, I won’t. I just—”
I knew he would go on and on unless I stopped him and told him exactly what this was about, so I cut in, “Why are you doing this?”
That made him stop and give me the most bizarre look I thought his face could muster up. “What are you talking about? Why am I doing what?”
“Why are you acting like…like you want to be more than partners? Like you care about my dating life and what I do on my weekends.” The more I rambled, the crazier I sounded, I was well aware. “Like you’re jealous that I have a date tonight?” When I saw the expression on Mason’s face, I instantly stopped myself from saying anything more.
The way he stared at me told me I could not be more off-base, that everything I’d said was