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All I know is it’s a bad fucking idea.
“Hey,” I say, quickly stepping in front of her. “Are you okay?” I smile wide, and probably look cracked given the circumstances.
Her brow furrows, and her gaze cuts behind me to where I hear footsteps quickly retreating.
“Great,” I say. “Have a lovely day.”
Whirling around, I chase after the guy as he guns for the exit up ahead, the one that opens into a fenced in backyard.
Blaring sunlight sears my vision when I quickly follow him out, catching the door with my shoulder just before it can close.
Blinking to adjust my vision, I look around, relieved when I find Shawn just standing there with his back to me, rather than scaling the white fence. I don’t even know him, but that spooked look in his eye…
Yeah, I’ve seen that before.
In Waylon.
“Hey,” I call out.
The guy’s taller than me by a couple inches. And he’d probably be wider too, if he wasn’t skin and bones under his baggy long-sleeved black shirt and gray sweatpants. You can just see it in the tendons scoring down his neck. In the way his cheekbones press against his skin. In the knobs of his long fingers just as he clenches them into fists before turning around.
“What?” he bites out.
I hold up a hand, showing him I’m not here to hurt him. “You good?”
He takes a step back, but I don’t match it.
Crossing his arms, he gives a jerky nod.
“I’m Mason.”
Nothing.
Clearing my throat, I gesture at his arms. “I know this is weird and random, but can I see your bracelet?”
His face hardens, and he shakes his head. “No.”
I roll my eyes, and again, can’t shake the thought that he reminds me a certain six-year old petulant little brat I’d met so many years ago.
“I just wanna look at it.”
“It’s mine.”
Jesus Christ.
“You don’t have to take it off. I just wanna see it.”
His jaw works, and there’s something in his eye—some emotion I can’t define. It’s calculative—suspicious—but it’s also more.
With a muttered curse, he unfurls his arms, and shoves his sleeve up just enough to reveal the bracelet. Holding his fist up, he lets me get a good eyeful of it.
“Happy?”
I cock my head, brow knitted with confusion. “I have the same one back in my room.”
He gives me a flat look. “Cool.”
And with that, he storms back the way he came, being careful not to come anywhere near me, slamming the door behind him before I can so much as figure out what I want to say.
