How to Steal Mason's Heart

SEVENTEEN

“You’re going to miss this killer ride!” I exclaimed at Mason who was glancing from left and right as if someone was trailing behind him. I tugged the sleeve of his black shirt, feeling a little bit of his muscled arm. I squawked.

“Right,” he said, letting me go inside first, as he lent me his hand, guiding me to sit beside me. Our arms brushed when I sat, positioning myself comfortably, as my heart almost lost a beat.

The ride started, spinning in circles while I raised my hands in the air. Mason, on the other hand, was screaming like a girl, wailing like he had lost his mother in the store. He was gripping his hands tightly on the handle, his knuckles growing white. He looked so green he almost vomited in the air.

“Whoo!” I screamed. “Mason, come join the fun!”

“I’m afraid of heights!” he screamed back, his voice shaking. I restrained myself from laughing at him but I grinned in victory, poking his tensed arm.

“You’re going to buy me a corndog!” I shouted but he was more focused on his surroundings, his lips quivering in fright. I could’ve taken a picture of him but I decided not to, let my eyes print a photo of him inside my head.

“Buy me a corndog after this!” I shouted again, poking his arm. His blue eyes were masked with huge fright. He nodded hastily.

“Yes,” he cried, “but please let me hold you.” He held me by his arms, hugging me tightly like I was his life support. I could hear his fast beating heart against my ear. Mine was beating too loudly, too, but it was because of a different reason.

The ride was done—which was a disappointment for a first-timer—and Mason was struggling to go back on his feet, his knees wobbling as if he was new born deer caught in the headlights.

He ran and dismissed his guts out on a bush whilst I rushed to his aid and rubbed his back, struggling to hold back a laugh. When he was done releasing all of the contents, I let out a guffaw, clutching my stomach in pain.

“Very funny,” he said, rolling his eyes at me. I shook my head, a smile never fleeting on my lips.

“You just challenged me—a first timer—but you ended up losing to a bet,” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest, smirking. “I should’ve taken a picture with that priceless expression of yours.”

He rolled his eyes again. “You always do that.”

My heart stilled. “Do what exactly?” Please don’t say it, please don’t say it.

“Let me just buy you a corndog,” he managed to say, while I let out a huge breath of relief that I had been holding on for too long. It would be suffocating if he told me he noticed that I was taking pictures of him. And it would be the death of me as well. But was I really that obvious? I asked Courtney if I was discreet enough and she would always say yes.

We went over the stalls, our hands brushing against each other occasionally. I would shiver as our skins would make contact. Did he feel the same too? I knew he didn’t but there was a bigger part in me that hoped he would probably reciprocate his feelings, no matter how much he had taken an interest over Courtney.

“Two corndogs please,” Mason said, a light smile resting on his features. I always liked his smile for some reason because it always made him look younger, and make him more handsome than he really was. We were quiet for the whole time and it was pleasing, his presence fluttering my heart, the zoo animals stomping on my gut.

He gave me one corndog, and I reluctantly got it, my fingers shaking, his touch might paralyze me. Our fingers brush—and I didn’t realize I was too aware if our skins press each other—and my chest rushed out, catapulting to a fast pace.

I bit it feebly, my lips peeling their skin out, almost bleeding when I bit them as well. I softened my lips, the taste of corndog sending a horrid one to my tongue.

I threw it out, my tongue tickling the rough texture of the food.

Mason groaned. “Now you wasted a penny from me,” he murmured, but it was audible enough for me to hear.

I winked. “Come one Mason, you never wasted any of it because I’m here.”

“Your cockiness make you look a thousand times attractive than I really thought,” he said.

His words caught me off guard, causing me to choke on my own air, the saliva spitting to my lungs. Did he just say I was attractive? I could feel a warm feeling spreading across my cheeks. I hid my hair, making it a curtain to conceal my reaction towards his statement.

“W-What?” I stuttered, finally recovering from what he just stated. “D-did you just s-say—“

“Sure,” he nonchalantly answered. He grabbed my arm, leading me to a long line of people, the Ferris wheel ride looking quite in demand for couples. But I wasn’t sure what the purpose was of him bringing me here because you know, we weren’t a couple. But the thought of that sounded one thousand times appealing in my head.

It wasn’t necessary that we should be a couple but I still asked. “Why did you take me here?”

“Because this is my favourite ride,” he simply replied. His lip quirked up into a smirk. “Are you afraid now of heights?” He lifted a suggestive brow.

“Me? Never. I should be the one saying that you.”

He chuckled. “My mother used to ride with me when I was a kid. Before she was gone,” Mason said wistfully. “I was afraid of falling but she encouraged me, so every time I go to that ride, I cry not because I was afraid but because of the memories she gave.”

I touched his arm. “I’m sorry she left.” I didn’t know what else to say and that was the only sentence my brain sent to my nerves.

“Don’t be sorry for something you aren’t involved.” He lifted his eyes that were masked with a hint of guilt and regret but he looked sad overall.

It was our turn to ride the Ferris wheel, my first time to ever step one, the wheel rotating in a counter-clockwise manner. It was slow but wasn’t slow enough to send myself to boredom. The night was pretty old, a little hint of stars blinking in the atmosphere. I stared at it, while Mason looked at his own window, distant, melancholic and sad.

Ferris wheels were supposed to be a romantic place where couples kiss, or confess they loved each other. But it was actually supposed to mean that no matter how much you go up or you go down in life, the same people would stick by your side and that would be your family, no matter where you go or if the person who cared for you would be gone. It wasn’t just about kissing, falling in love and falling out of it. It was sticking to something you agreed to.

There was a gap between the two of us. I never saw Mason so aggravated in life. He was all smiles but he wasn’t a joker. He loved smiling but he wasn’t cheery. He held a smile so people would stop asking if he was okay.

I closed the gap between us, and his gaze brought towards me.

I neared my face towards him and he did not move, did not look away, and did not push me.

I placed a kiss on his forehead and that simple gesture I gave him meant a thousand untold feelings. But overall, it meant I cared for him even though we spent in only a short span of time.

Which was scaring me a whole lot. Liking Mason was always fine but getting attached to him was scary.

Because I was afraid that he would leave me.

+ + + +

“Where have you been?” Those were the first words mother had uttered once I stepped foot in the house. Father had gone to work, it was nearing ten in the evening. She sent me ten missed calls and five texts, all in caps lock.

Mothers and their maternal instincts.

“I was out with a friend. He took me to an amusement park,” I answered, placing my bag on the plastic chair, sitting beside it. Mother sat across me, flipping through channels that might make her interested.

“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked, curiosity filling her brown eyes. She ran her fingers through her straight hair—which was artificially done—keeping it in the right place.

I shook my head vehemently. “He is my boy. Friend,” I said. “There’s a difference.”

“And that space is called the friend zone?” she queried, lifting a brow, smiling at me.

I rolled my eyes. “What part of the internet are you on again?” My tone was kind of stern. I told her the internet was a weird place but she took an interest in it, getting hooked up with it every night.

“I was just browsing through i********: and saw a picture of a person I followed post about getting friend zoned. Is that how kids are these days?”

“Kids these days are so inspirational at night,” I quipped.

“Your father was cheating on me again,” she said out of the blue, her voice nothing but cold. She was a little hurt but she got used to it. Father had a lot of escapades way back when we were living in the Philippines. I thought he would get over his womanizing ways. He didn’t.

“Why can’t we just leave him?” I asked angrily. I now noticed she had a little bruise on her arm but she concealed it immediately when I squinted my eyes over it.

“Because you know what will happen,” she said lividly. “I told him multiple times to leave us but he wouldn’t.”

“How did you get that bruise?” The bruise reminded me of Jason’s, his body tattooed in almost all of the places.

“He got mad I did not cook dinner for him. But I accidentally raised my voice because I was pissed that he was insulting me again, calling me that I was a whale,” she replied, anger masking her eyes which was the same as mine right now. I clenched my fists in anger, and unclenched them again, the nails digging on my palm. “He would not even allow me to go out of the house to exercise early in the morning because he’s afraid that I will be in an accident.”

“f**k him,” I told her, even though I was cursing in front of her. She did not mind the language. She was mad like I was, the television sounds running as a background. “f**k for the bullshit he had done.”

“When you graduate in college, leave immediately, and never turn back,” she said.

“I will, of course.”

“Did you know his mother will stay here? And I was assigned to take care of his filthy gross lazy mother who did nothing to help us when we were crawling in poverty! His sisters, his four f*****g bastards of sisters, did even try to get her there. So I’m going to be out for about a week to come get her,” she said and now I was starting to see red spots everywhere, anger clouding my vision.

“What the f**k!” I cursed loudly. “Why can’t Aunt Lily get her? She lives in New York for Chrissakes!”

“That’s what I kept telling Theodore,” she answered. “But he wouldn’t listen.”

My phone beeped, the Justin Bieber song surrounding the room. Mom had gone quiet and she laughed, a genuine sound echoing in the whole house. I would do that again if that would only make her happy.

I loved my mother and seeing her suffering like this was the least of the things I would do. But I couldn’t help her. We were both strapped in the neck by father.

“You ought to take that call really quick,” mother said, winking mischievously at me. I rolled my eyes, walking upstairs to my bedroom. I pressed the green button.

“Yep?” I responded.

“Alexa.” My heart literally missed a bit for two seconds, contracting my breathing. Butterflies fluttered on my stomach. What was wrong with me?

“Jason,” I said. “Why are you calling me?”

“We will practice tomorrow for the Winter Musicale,” he said sheepishly, I could imagine him rubbing the back of his head. “I was planning to send you the manuscript but we aren’t friends in Facebook.”

“Why won’t you add me?”

“I added you but you did not confirm my friend request.” He sounded dejected and I had to roll my eyes at him.

I opened my laptop and turned it on, looking over to see if Jason was telling the truth.

And he was. I hovered my mouse over the blue button which was now read as cofnrim for me. But the colour was helping me click it.

There was a ping sound at the end of the line.

“Thanks Alex, I will send it tonight and read it okay? We will practice the song tomorrow,” he said over the line and that was when I realized I missed him, a lot. “Alex? Hello? You there?”

I did not notice I was spacing out. “Yeah, here.”

“Can we, after the practice, maybe hang out and cook tomorrow?” he offered and I was taken aback. “Courtney can’t make it because she has a Mathlete training tomorrow and she was immersing herself in it. She can’t lose, she said,” he added in a lightning speed.

“You know, you could always call me to hang out, Loser,” I said, sticking a tongue at him and making a sound on purpose. “Courtney is like the biggest Math nerd I’ve known.”

“I know but I just miss hanging out with you,” he admitted.

“Wow, I did not know my presence is such in dire need of you,” I replied sarcastically, biting back a laugh.

“Come on, don’t you miss my handsomeness?” he joked. I could feel a smug smile tugging on his lips.

I gagged. “Mason still looks better.”

“Ouch, you hurt me right there sis.”

“Shut up Ward. I still have homework for Lit. I hate Romeo and Juliet.”

Jason gasped. “How could you hate those two?!? They were in love and pure.”

“They married and had s*x at such a young age,” I answered bluntly.

Jason chocked. “It sounded so horrible from your mouth. They are my favourite literary couple by the way.”

“Wow. I’d rather see Hazel Grace cry over Augustus.”

He chuckled lightly. “Hazel Grace and Augustus made me cry in The Fault in Our stars! Did you cry too?”

“No,” I strongly replied. “Now go away, shoo, I will answer my homework.”

“Can I copy your homework?”

“No.”