I saw through his disguise. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to save your leg," I said as a hot tear streaked its way down my cheek.
"You saved my life," he said, cradling my hand against his chest. "They told me the infection would have killed me if you
wouldn't have risked your own life going for help."
"It was a piece a cake. A walk in the park," I said, trying to smile through my tears.
"That's not what Rick told me. He said you walked on a sprained ankle with pneumonia and still, you never gave up."
"It was only because I thought I saw a Dairy Queen and I had a real hankering for a Blizzard," I teased.
"I thought so," he said, tugging on my hand until I crawled up on the bed with him.
"Is this allowed?" I asked as he slid his arm around me.
"Do we care?" he asked, dropping a kiss on my lips.
"Um, nope," I answered when we came up for air.
He kissed me on the head and switched on the television.
"CW, please," I said as he channel surfed.
He sighed dramatically, but switched to the channel I requested. We were onto our second show when Rick strolled in with a bag of takeout.
"Well, this looks cozy," he said dryly.
"The CW or us?" I joked as he divided out the food.
He raised his eyebrows at me without answering. "I saw your mom in the hall, she looked upset."
I nodded without answering as I munched on a fry.
"Why's your mom upset? She was fine when she visited me earlier," Mason said, taking a bite of his loaded burger.
"She's not happy about some of the decisions she thinks I'm about to make."
"And what would those be?"
"That I'm not going to UCLA," I said, finally coming to the decision I had been struggling with.
"What?" both Mason and Rick demanded at the same time.
"Sheesh, indoor voices," I said, making a production of cleaning out my ear.
"Why would you drop out of school?" Mason asked in quieter tone.
"I'm not dropping out. I just decided I might want to go to community college somewhere else," I said, feeling a little sick at his tone. What if he didn't want me to move here?
"Why community college?" Rick asked, clearly confused.
"Because, it's too late to enroll in a state college," I said, nibbling on my food. This was not the reaction I had been hoping for.
"Where?" Mason asked.
"I'm thinking Red Rocks."
"You mean you want to move here?" Rick asked.