mine, urging me silently to go on.
“She was always blasted and hardly ever knew what was going on around her. This guy was confident he was going to have his way with me but I would have rather died. He came at me one night while I was sleeping and my mother was high on whatever it was she was taking. I broke a beer bottle and tried to stab him.” The words sounded odd coming out of my mouth. I felt like I was reciting lines from one of the television shows I’d worked on.
“That bastard cut you, right?”
I nodded. Mason let his head fall back on the headrest. He always reacted the same way when we talked about my life before him. He didn’t offer much of his opinion because it wouldn’t change anything and we both knew it. Mason was more of a silent support system which was okay with me. The less I talked about my past, the less the rip in my soul ached. Oddly enough, instead of thinking of my sister like I usually did, I thought about the medication tucked away in my bag and how badly I wanted to take a couple.
“Let’s go meet your friends now,” I said in a hurried voice.
“What?” He snapped his head in my direction and looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Fallyn, they can wait another day, come on.”
“We’re not going to do anything but go back to my place and sit around the table. Maybe we should get out and spend some time with your friends.” My stomach was doing flips. I had seen the group of guys before in passing, but I’d never actually spoken to any of them. I didn’t know what had come over me but Mason seemed to like it.
He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed the top of it lightly. “We’ll go meet the guys then. You’re right.”
I stopped the car at a random gas station and switched seats with Mason. He drove us back to the place I’d just picked him up from and parked outside. We sat silently for a moment. Mason was excited I wanted to meet his friends and I was nervous. They didn’t know the Fallyn who was homeless and broken. They would only know the Fallyn who was an actor and was broken. The latter was far worse than the first.
“They’ll love you,” Mason reassured me as we left the safety of my car and climbed a flight of stairs.
I stood behind him when we reached the door. I could hear laughing and just plain noise coming from inside as Mason turned the handle and led me in slowly. A chorus of voices welcomed him back but all attention went to me. I waved slightly and mumbled a hello. Mason pointed out everyone, named them and I was greeted with a hug each time.
“It’s nice to meet you, finally.” The tall one named Dave was his best friend and the roommate I’d always avoided like the plague.
I smiled. “It’s nice to meet you all.”
Dave threw an arm around Mason. “I’m so proud of you man…an actual girlfriend. I can’t fucking believe it.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. Meeting his friends wasn’t the big ordeal I’d made it out to be and they accepted me like I had been around for years. We stayed late in the day, just sitting around and talking. Dave had plenty of funny stories to tell me about Mason which was endearing and saddening all in one. I envied them mostly. I’d never had anything close to what Mason and Dave had until Lynn and still I felt like there was a part of myself that no one should ever know. The part that felt small and inconsiderate, the part that told me I couldn’t function without popping pills.
We left around dinner time after a round of hugs and goodbyes. Mason was in a state of euphoria the entire way back to my apartment.
“I told you they would love you,” he said smugly.
“Yes, you’re always right. Aren’t you special.”
He squeezed my thigh. “I detect a hint of sarcasm. Dave really likes you. He pulled me aside and told me so.” His eyes glittered in the street lights as we passed them.
“That’s good. That means you have to keep me around.”
“I wasn’t planning on letting you go anyway.” He smiled at me and it made me want to cry. He was beautiful, sitting in the