“No.”
“That’s okay, I can—”
It took everything in me to say, “Michelle, I don’t want…I don’t want your help.”
“What?” She acted shocked.
“If I’m going on this date, I’m going as me.” That much I knew already. I wasn’t going to let Michelle play dress-up with me again, not going to let her put makeup on me and expertly blend my eyeshadow like you saw in those YouTube videos. I wasn’t like that normally. There was no point in trying to be someone I wasn’t, just for a stupid date that was nothing more than a pity date. Surely she could understand that.
“Fine, but I want your word that you’re going to tell me all about it. No more keeping things to yourself,” Michelle spoke, swinging her legs off the bed as she hopped up. “I want every detail. Every single detail.”
I agreed, which was the only reason my sister finally left my room. When I was surrounded by silence again, I let out a sigh.
I didn’t tell Michelle about what happened with Calum because it wasn’t worth talking about. He clearly didn’t like me. This second date was nothing more than a pity date, and I wasn’t stupid enough to believe otherwise.
Maybe I should cancel…
But how would I cancel if I didn’t have his number? There was no way I could tell Michelle to tell Kyle to let Calum know that I wanted to cancel. She wouldn’t do it. She wanted me to go out on dates, wanted me to get a boyfriend and be more like her, be normal.
I would never be like her, though. I’d never be normal, and I hated that she wanted that for me.
I’d kept Mason to myself, and I did wonder if I told her about how much time I had to spend with him if it would change her view on me going out with Calum. One guy taking up my time was enough, wasn’t it? Mason was a necessary evil; Calum was not. Calum was…well, I wasn’t sure what he was.
Ugh. Why did my life have to suck so much? I never asked for any of this.
I went to bed that night, unable to sleep, worrying about everything too much.
Mason was waiting for me just outside the classroom. He held onto his usual traffic mug, but he also held onto…was that a Dunkin Donuts cup? His light brown hair was swept to the side today, a black shirt snug on his chest, its sleeves rolled up. No jacket or hoodie. His bag hung off a single shoulder, and as he leaned there against the wall, he truly did look handsome.
When he spotted me, a wide grin broke out on his face, and he practically skipped to meet me. “Morning,” he said, far too awake and chipper this morning. “I stopped and got this for you. I know you don’t like coffee, but surely you like hot chocolate?” He offered me the Dunkin cup.
Hot chocolate? It wasn’t that cold outside yet…
He practically pushed it on me before I could say no. The cup was warm in my hands, and I didn’t know what to say.
“Come on,” he said, walking towards the classroom door. “Let’s grab our seats before someone else steals them.”
I could not stop my eyes from rolling at that. No one stole seats on purpose in college. Everyone had their routine that they stuck to, their chosen seats they’d sat in on the first day that stuck. No one switched it up purposefully…except Mason, who now had to sit directly beside me and glance at me every few moments, as if I didn’t catch him looking.
I did. I did, and I had no idea why he kept looking at me so much.
Mason walked in, and I headed inside the classroom shortly after. He sat down first, which meant I had to squeeze past him to get to my seat further in the row—pretty sure he did that on purpose, like he wanted to be seated to watch me walk by. The weirdo. There were much prettier girls in the room to ogle than me, so I had no idea why he insisted on being like this.
I got out my notebook and pen, my eyes on the cup of hot chocolate. When was the last time I drank hot chocolate? I couldn’t even remember.
Mason leaned over to me, and I could feel his breath on my face as he asked, “How are you on this fine, sunny morning?”
“Great,” I said, though I didn’t sound like it. I sounded like I was a bit cranky, a little irritable, like I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Which was true. I’d spent most of the night wondering how I could cancel the date I had with Calum on Friday.
His warm, amber eyes sparkled. “Somehow I don’t think you’re great.” He took another sip from his travel mug, and that made me realize that he’d swung by Dunkin Donuts to get me this hot chocolate.
Me. Just me. He brought his own coffee from home. He’d gone out of his way for me…why?
“You look tired,” he went on, able to read me too well. I didn’t like it. I liked having my walls up, no one paying any attention to me or giving me a second glance. Mason was just…I didn’t even know how to describe him. Too intuitive. Too watchful of me. Too caring?
I ran my finger around the lid of the hot chocolate. We still had about five minutes before class started, so there was plenty of time to talk. The problem was I didn’t want to talk to him, not about what kept me up at night.
“You can talk to me, you know,” he whispered as the room slowly got more packed. “About anything.
