Mason (Fallen Crest High 0.5)

for whatever I wanted, whether I did all the work or she did, like today. I closed my eyes when she bent down and felt her mouth close over me.

An hour later, I dropped her off. As she shut the door and started for her house, I opened the passenger door’s window and called through it, “Kate.”

She turned, flashed a grin, and propped her hands on the door. I got a good view of her rack as her shirt was baggy and fell low from her neckline. She was cocky as she asked, “Yeah?”

“We’re done.”

She straightened abruptly. Her hands shot from the door as if she was burned. “What?”

“This. You and me. Your jealousy crap. It’s over.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You hurt a friend of mine.”

“Are you kidding me?” A storm was brewing in her eyes. I was giving her the boot and she knew it. “We just screwed, you asshole.”

Yeah, I was. I was a complete and utter dick, but Kate was a problem I didn’t want to deal with anymore. “You got rid of Tate. That was my thank you.”

She began shaking her head. If steam could’ve left through her ears, it would’ve. She was flashing back to our conversation before. I grinned. Yes, honey, that was my foreshadowing.

”I’m going to make you pay.”

“You can try, but if you hurt anyone I care about again, you and I are going to have problems.”

“Really? What are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.” She saw I was being honest and paused. “But I’ll figure out what I can do and I’ll do that.”

I laughed. “You can’t do a damn thing to me.”

“Well, I can stop fucking you. That seems to be a good way to punish you since you always come back, panting after me.”

Another anguished scream came from her, but she clamped her mouth shut and flipped her middle finger in the air. “I’m going to finish you one day.”

I laughed. “You can try. I don’t think you’ll get it done, but it’ll be fun to watch you try.”

“AH!” She kicked at my door. As she fell back and I saw that she was winding her leg up to kick at my mirror, I sped off. She kept screaming, but I drove away. I never looked back and I knew I wouldn’t. As I went to pick Logan up, it felt right. Kate was behind me now. As I sat there and sent him a text, my phone buzzed. Assuming it was him, I read it absentmindedly, but the name startled me.

It was from Marissa. Paige told me what she said to you. I’m sorry. You weren’t to blame for what happened.

A weight fell back on me. I was to blame. It happened all because of me and because I hadn’t reigned Kate in a long time ago. I typed back, I’m sorry. I’m finished with Kate. I didn’t know what else to say so I just typed again, I’m sorry.

There wasn’t even a second before she replied. It’s not your fault, but thank you.

”Yo.” Logan jumped in the car and he frowned, looking from the phone to me. His eyebrow curved up. “Not Kate still?”

“No.” I shook my head and tucked my phone away. Marissa would keep texting. I knew she liked me, and we were friends. Somehow I would make it up to her. I didn’t know how, but I would try. “You cut it short with whoever’s house this is?”

He laughed, glancing back at the house. “That chick is pissed. I told her it was a guys’ night tonight. She threatened to find Kate and the girls and have their own girls’ night.”

I swore. “They can do whatever they want.” I shot from the curb and peeled through traffic, taking a wide turn into the next lane.

Logan cursed and reached for hand strap on the door. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing.” I careened over two lanes, cut off a car, and took a quick right turn down the road to Nate’s house. When we got there, I told him, “You stay. I’m just going in to grab Nate real quick.”

Logan looked at me as if my head fell off. “Are you nuts? Nate’s mom hates you, but she loves me. I should go in and you should stay here.”

“Good point.” I clapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the door. “You go. I’ll text Nate quick so he knows what’s going on.”

“Wait.” Logan had opened the door, but he shut it. “What is going on?”

“Just grab him. We’ll figure it out as we go.” I leaned over and shoved him out. He sighed, shaking his head, but went inside. I sent Nate a quick text, telling him Logan was there to get him. I didn’t say anything else, but it was then I saw the missed call from our dad. I was calling my voicemail when Nate texted back, K. Be out soon. Then I heard my dad’s voice, “Mason, I know you’ve met Analise before, but I would like for you and Logan to officially meet her.” He paused. “Please be polite this time. She’ll be staying at the house the whole weekend. Again, I am aware that you don’t like her, but this one is different. We’d like to have dinner brought in tonight. I know this is short notice, but what are you and Logan doing tonight? Could you please come home and spend an hour with us? It would mean a lot to me.”

I tossed the phone as anger rolled over me. He wanted me to play nice? He wanted Logan to meet her now? She’d be at the house the whole weekend? When Logan and Nate came out, they both took one look at me and grew cautious.

Logan got in the front seat. “What’s wrong?”

“Dad wants us to meet her.”

His eyebrows shot up.

Nate said from the back, “Whoa.”

“That bitch you told me about?”

I nodded, my jaw was clenched tight. “Yeah.”

“She’s married.”

“I know.”

Nate said again, “Whoa.” He leaned forward and his head popped in the space between our seats. “This is the one you caught him with at the house?”

I nodded. I couldn’t talk. I was so pissed.

He glanced at Logan. “You’ve never met her?”

He shook his head, watching me the whole time. I felt his own tension as he continued to wait for what I was going to do.

Nate asked again, “How do you know she’s married?”

Logan smirked at him. “We googled her. Mason knew her name and get this, her husband’s the football coach at Academy.”

“For real? No way.”

“She’s got a kid too.” Logan looked back at me, and we shared a look. A kid was a weakness. It was one we could exploit.

I frowned, knowing what he was thinking.

Nate looked in between us. “What are you guys thinking? You’re doing the silent conversation thing again.”

I shook my head. I said to Logan, “I don’t know. We don’t know who she is.”

“Wouldn’t be hard to find out, just ask a couple people.”

“It’s a daughter? Your dad’s married girlfriend has a daughter?” Nate kept looking between us. “I’m playing catch-up here. You never told me that before.”

I said to him, “Because we don’t know how old the daughter is.”

“She’s in my grade,” Logan informed us. We both turned to him. He had been watching me the whole time. “I don’t know what she looks like, but I asked Decraw and he told me.”

“Who’s Decraw?”