Chapter 15

School the next morning went by quickly and before I knew it, the four of us were sitting down at lunch. 

“So, Sera, are we still good for after school?” Mason asked. I almost choked on my pizza, I had forgotten about that. Quickly swallowing the bite of pizza I had almost choked on, I nodded.

“Yeah, we’re still good.” He nodded a smile on his face. He was rather excited for this project. 

“Here, hand me your phone.” Grabbing my phone out of my pocket I handed it to him. I watched as he opened it, I never put a password on it, and pushed a couple of buttons before handing it back to me. On the screen, my contacts were open and there was a new contact titled Savior with a knight emoji. I looked up at him with a confused smile on my face, while he was smirking. 

“Why Savior?” 

“Because you’d be lost without me.” For what felt like the millionth time, my cheeks grew bright red. But before I could reply, Kevin interrupted with a loud mocking laugh. 

“Wow, Mason. Who knew you could be so smooth?” Both Kevin and Isiah burst out into laughter, Mason’s cheeks tinting pink, something I couldn’t help but find adorable. Kevin and Isiah launched into a bunch of different ways to insult Mason as he tried to defend himself. I simply sat and watched, laughing along. They continued all the way until the bell rang and finally Mason turned to me as we went to leave. 

“Text me your address. I’ll meet you at your house around 3:15.” I was barely able to nod before a couple of his other friends dragged him away. As soon as I got the chance I texted him my address, adding my name at the end so he knew it was me. And he texted back saying okay. 

At the end of the day, I hopped into James’ car with a smile on my face, excited for Mason to come over, but I was nervous too. This would be the first time I would be alone with him. James’ earlier words came to mind. I didn’t really think Mason was the type of person to take advantage of me like that, but still… You never know.

James asked me how my day was and I told him that I had a good day, but my voice was laced with nerves. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Well, it’s just that, Mason’s coming over to work on the project.” It was silent for a little as if James was expecting something more. 

“And?” he asked. I huffed not wanting to explain. 

“And, well, this will be the first time I’ll be alone with him. So, I’m kinda nervous.” 

“Well, you’ll be in the living room right?” 

“Yeah.” 

“I could hang around in the kitchen if you want. That way I won’t be in your way, but I can kinda watch over you in case anything were to happen.” 

“You’d do that?” 

“Of course I would.” 

“Thank you…” 

Then we pulled into the driveway and we went into the house. I set my bookbag on the couch digging out all of my English stuff and setting it up. It only took a few minutes and when I was done it was only three. So I headed to the kitchen to grab a snack. I found some Chex-mix in the cabinet and grabbed that, grabbing a bowl to pour it in. 

Since Tessa was an author, she was almost always home. She enjoyed working at home rather than in a stuffy office. It was strange when she wasn’t here, but she was away today because she had a meeting with her publisher. And the reason why James could always pick me up is because he went to work after dropping me off for school and then left when he had to pick me up. If he ever had extra work, he just did it at home. Perks of being the owner. 

Taking the bowl with me, I headed back to the living room and right as I was setting the bowl down, there was a knock on the door. Before I could even move, James appeared out of thin air and was at the door before I could even blink. He opened the door quickly and there stood Mason a polite smile on his face. I watched with a smile as he offered his hand to James to shake. 

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Allen.” James shook his hand and gave him a small smile. 

“Nice to meet you too. You must be Mason. Sera mentioned you were supposed to be coming over.” 

“Yes sir, we’re going to work on our English project.” 

“Yes, well, come on in.” 

Mason walked in, James shutting the door behind him and then walked to the kitchen as promised, shooting me a smile as he went. Mason slowly walked over and set his stuff on the floor beside mine, sitting on the couch next to me. 

“So, do you wanna just dive right in?” he asked. 

“Yeah, sure.” He grabbed the book and opened it to the death scene. “So, first we need to just look at the scene and figure out what we want to do.” 

So, for the next hour or so we wrote down our lines and movements creating our own scenes for the video. We were going to record them at the school so Isiah and Kevin could help film. Plus, our teacher had the costumes we needed. And yes, unfortunately, we had to wear costumes. 

After we were finished, we put our stuff away, but Mason said his brother wouldn't be picking him up for another two hours because he had work. Since it was so cold out, I didn’t want him to walk home either, so Mason suggested that we watch a movie. I let Mason pick out the movie, while I grabbed a blanket and popcorn. Coming back to the living room, I watched as Mason put the movie in. 

“What movie did you pick?” He turned around a mischievous smile on his face. 

“It’s a surprise.” 

“Ugh, fine.” Trying to figure out what movie he could have picked I sat down and got comfortable. After shutting off the lights, Mason sat down beside me. 

“Hey, where’s my blanket?” 

Sitting up, I shot him a frown, apologizing for not getting him one. 

“That’s okay,” he said, “we can just share.” Without more of a warning than that he slid closer, lifting the blanket and pulling it over him. We were so close our thighs were touching, but in all honesty, I didn't mind. In fact, I really enjoyed the warmth that was coming off of him. I couldn’t help but lean into his warmth and then his arm lifted and wrapped around me. Mentally shrugging, I leaned over even more and laid my head on his shoulder. Finally, I watched as the title screen appeared. 

“The Secret Life of Pets?! That’s seriously the movie you chose?” He chuckled not at all offended. 

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t like this movie?” 

“No, it’s a good movie,” I whispered back, oddly embarrassed. 

We watched the entire movie with his arm around me and my head on his shoulder. Right as the credits rolled, a horn blasted and made both of us jump. 

“That’s my brother. Sorry for the scare, he always does that.” 

How come you didn’t warn me then?

“No, that’s okay.” 

He grabbed his stuff, placed a quick kiss on my cheek, and walked out the door saying, “See ya tomorrow!” 

Once the door closed, my face turned bright red as I realized what had just happened. I lifted my hand to my cheek in disbelief. He just kissed me.