How to Steal Mason's Heart

THIRTEEN

Tom’s voice interrupted the heated conversation of us, the trio. He was already finished eating his chocolate chip cookie ice cream while Jase just groaned at his cousin who had a large smile on his face, standing up and getting another order of ice cream.

“For a small guy like you, you sure have a big tummy,” I commented.

Tom stood up from his seat and flexed his arms, a little bicep forming on the four-year-old boy. “I’m a big man! I am strong,” he insisted. Courtney laughed at him while I chuckled, pinching his cheeks at his adorability.

Jase was already back with two pints of Ben & Jerry’s throwing the other one to me. “I know you love ice cream Alexa. You have a big appetite,” he said, smirking at me while I caught the cold container perfectly onto my grasp, glaring at him.

“I take that as a compliment,” I said, sticking a tongue out at him in which he returned by following my actions. Courtney laughed at the side lines. I spooned an ice cream towards her direction, smearing her working clothes with a large Ace Hardware printed at the left side of her breast.

“Stop dragging me into your childish arguments,” Courtney complained, smearing me with the remnants of her melted cookie dough ice cream. Jase’s jacket that he lent me was now stained, thanks to Courtney’s good hand and eye coordination.

“Don’t drag my jacket into this!” Jase roared, throwing an ice cream courtesy of Tom, hitting Courtney’s hair right on the spot. My mouth let out a guffaw, cackling at the scene unfolding in front of my eyes. Jase wasn’t the kind of person to give back violence—except for me because he had done it multiples of times—most especially it was his crush we were talking about.

“I want to join! I want to join!” Tom exclaimed, throwing an ice cream onto himself and Jase’s and my face paled at what he had done. Blood was drained out from Jase’s cheeks as if a ghost had sucked his soul.

“I’m so dead,” he muttered, snatching Tom’s ice cream from his grasp. He wailed loudly, people’s attentions from different directions directing towards us. They glared with annoyance clearly etched on their faces as they stuffed the cold ice cream into their mouths. Jase dragged his cousin towards the bathroom, leaving Courtney and I exchanging looks.

“Tom’s mother is going to kill Jase for allowing him to get dirty,” I told her, sneering at Jase’s impending doom.

“How sweet,” she cooed, tapping my head slightly. “Are you on a nickname basis now?”

My face turned sour. “Nope. His name is just long.”

“Jason is not a mouthful,” she asserted. “I just think that you’re starting to have feelings for him.”

“Can you stop it? I don’t like Jay. Son. Okay?” My mouth was set into a thin line while Courtney had gone silent. She nodded her head, drinking the melted ice cream into her throat. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m still on this raging period.”

“It’s also my fault too,” Courtney admitted. “I provoked you into something I know you don’t like. But to be honest.” My eyes gazed at her dark orbs, masking them with nothing but her honesty. “I actually like Jason more than that, more than as a friend.”

I stood up from my seat, jumping up and down, letting out a squeal from my lips. I was happy that they felt the same way for each other and now was the time that they should tell their feelings together.

“You know who his crush is, right?” she asked timidly, tucking a stray strand behind her ear, her hair sticky in ice cream. “There’s just something about him that makes my heart flutter and all that weird shit.”

I sat back on the chair and looked at her. “I can’t tell you who he likes but it would be best if you ask him yourself,” I answered, my lips curling up into the largest grin I could ever pull off.

Jase and Tom were already back after a few minutes. Tom was surprisingly neat I had no idea how Jase had managed to clean his cousin without leaving any traces of dirt on his face. Tom looked like the time he got out of the Ward’s residence, except his shirt had a gruesome stain on it.

“I should probably go,” Courtney suddenly interrupted, her words spewing out like the speed of lightning. She did not meet my gaze nor Jase’s and before I could stop her, she disappeared, leaving Jase who had no idea what had happened to her. It was as if she was on fire.

“Is she alright?” he asked, his blue eyes looking over towards me. I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.

“She’s actually going to s**t so she needs to go home or else the poo would—“

“I get the picture Alex,” he interjected, raising his hand up in the air. My heart fluttered at the way he called my name, my stomach rampaging inside, although he had called me that multiple times. “I don’t like to picture her going inside the bathroom taking a dump.”

I let out a throaty laugh. “I got to go home,” I told him and Tom, whose eyes were wide at me as they were going lustrous, a tear straying his cheek.

“But I want you to go with us when mommy picks me up,” he cried, tugging Jase’s jacket around me.

Jase’s blue eyes looked at me before bending down towards Tom and said, “She has to go home though. It’s getting late for her.”

“But I want her to go with me,” he insisted, puckering his lips and making googly eyes towards Jase and I. We walked towards the exit, my breath letting out a huff against the cold air which made me shiver even though I was wrapped around Jase’s jacket which smelled good on my senses.

“I’m sorry Alex,” he told me, an apologetic look on his face. I shook my head.

“It’s fine, Jase. I like hanging out with your cousin.”

And I like hanging out with you, too.

I did not tell him that though, because I was sure it would inflate his ego and he would never stop at anything until he would tick me off and make me throw a punch on his face. I would never desire a repeat of it again, seeing his bruises made me flinch, my curiosity heightening towards its peak. He was not opening up anything about it and I never asked that matter or else he would close himself off and that was scarier than his angry self.

I never saw him getting angry either.

“You heard that Jase?” Tom made a face at him. “She likes me, not you.”

My throat made a sound. “Because you’re handsome and Jase is not.”

“Hey!” he yelled, slapping my shoulder, an electricity jolting through my veins. “I’m actually quite a looker.” He wagged his eyebrows at me, smirking as realization dawn on his features, his eyes widening. “And did you just call me Jase?”

“I did you stupid Loser,” I answered in defeat, tired of arguing with him. My body was suddenly exhausted from today because I was woken up early by some loser whose name was Jason Ward. The sight of my bed was more appealing than a tub of ice cream and I really wanted to crash my body onto the soft cushion, bouncing a little as I closed my eyes.

My body was staggering as I remembered, my head spinning round and round.

“Alexa?” Jason asked but I wasn’t responding, my eyes closing as my frame was about to collide on the floor but someone caught me, his arms encircling around my waist but he was on the ground, my body lying on top of him.

My eyes squinted, my eyeballs almost falling out from their sockets. I could see the light dusting of his freckles, his lashes peculiarly longer and thicker while his nose was a little expanded on the sides, his blue eyes staring at me with intensity. We were on that position for a moment, our heads almost inches apart, our breaths mingling together.

His gaze flickered to my lips then back at my eyes.

“You’re so heavy,” he grumbled. I immediately pushed myself up, helping myself back onto my feet, my heart palpitating faster than intended. I kicked him on his feet and he growled.

“Aw!” It was a blood curling scream echoing on his lips and I had to laugh at his distress. He glowered at me, his eyebrows drawing together. “I’m the one who caught you and you have the audacity to throw a kick on me!” he cried.

I sneered at him. “That was for the insult you pulled back there.”

“Well you always insult me and I don’t even mind!” he exclaimed, ruffling his hair.

“Are we going home, yet?” We almost forgot Tom was there and maybe he saw what happened between the two of us.

“Yes,” Jase and I answered in unison.

“Jinx,” we said together at the same time.

“Jinx again!” we exclaimed and then laughed like maniacs as if we did not have a brawl recently.

“Our mental synchronization can have but one explanation,” we sang, our voice harmonizing. I wasn’t the best singer in town but I was decent enough to carry out a tune.

“You,” Jase sang.

“And I,” I completed the song for him.

“We’re just meant to be.”

We stopped singing the moment we realized what the lyrics were. We gagged at the same time, both having horrified looks on our faces.

“Can you stop that terrible singing and go home?” Tom whined for the last time, sounding like the most mature person in the group. He let out a huff as Jase escorted him inside the cab, while I waved them goodbye.

It took a while for Tom to realize that I wasn’t going with them—and I was never going to—because he was about to open the car door and grab my hand but the cab was moving too fast for his liking, which was too late for him to do.

I walked my way towards home, where the comfy bed would be waiting for my presence. It was the only place that was occupying my mind right now, and also a little bit of Courtney’s unexpected confession.

+ + + +

“Your dad was looking for you,” mother said with a stern look on her face with her hands on her waist while she was knitting a sweater for Christmas. She sold them during the season when everyone had no time to knit sweater or look for gifts. The designs were unique, the sweaters resembling differences. “And I could not contact your phone,” she added with her lips thinning in annoyance.

“I’m sorry, I was just catching up with Courtney,” I told her, a tired look settling on my eyes.

Mother let out a sigh. “I don’t want your dad to pester me about you. You know how he is when you’re out in the dark. Are you sure you’re not alone as you got home?”

“Yes,” I lied perfectly, my brown eyes directly looking at her. It was better to not tell her the truth or else I would receive another long lecture of how I should go home with a buddy—Courtney for example—because criminals might be roaming around.

She nodded with satisfaction. “Good,” she said, her eyes tuning to the television as she watched the local television we had when we were still residing in the Philippines. She giggled at the romantic gesture of the guy and I rolled my eyes, hating that the television series that the media produced in my country were always clichéd, not even innovating it into a newer light. They always gave happy endings which was bullshit, giving false hopes to viewers who were watching them every night.

My body landed on the bed with a soft thud, as I moaned in content. My phone rang, Justin Bieber’s song Baby annoying the tranquillity in my bedroom.

“Hello?” I placed the phone beside my ear, groaning under my breath.

“You forgot to give back my jacket.” It was Jase’s voice at the end of the line.

“I’ll just return it to you on Monday,” I told him. “I will wash the mess.”

“Rose was not mad when we got back although she was shocked that Thomas had a large stain on his shirt,” he said while I drifted myself into dreamland, droning whatever he was saying.

“Alexa?” he called, several times specifically.

He sighed, even though I was not responding I could hear him, my eyes closing but my mind was not put into rest.

“Good night Alexa.”

And the line was cut off.