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“Why didn’t you tell me my finger was in my mouth again?” I hissed at Hadley, forcing a smile for Mason as he turned and waved at us.
“Oh, no. You can suck your finger as much as you like around him.” She flicked her curls out of her face and took a sip from my Coke.
I blinked. “What? Why?”
“Because,” Celeste said, “he wants you. But he’s shy about it, so he needs encouraging.”
“And Roman needsdiscouraging,” Hadley added.
“Oh, this again?” I huffed. “Roman isn’t…couraged enough to need discouraging.” Before she continued, I remembered what he’d said the day before. “He did ask if you needed his number though.”
“What? When?”
“On the way home last night. I told him I was supposed to let him down by offering up you and he asked.”
“Wait. Why were you letting Roman down?” Celeste asked scandalously.
I rolled my eyes. “It was a hypothetical. He was being a douche about Mason. Anyway, I told him you didn’t actually.”
Hadley huffed. “Trust you to ruin my chance at the best sex of my life.”
“You don’t know that,” I answered.
She shrugged. “I won’t now.” She grinned. “Mason’s watching you again.”
I looked down and saw him with his mates. They jostled him and teased him – probably for the fact that he was staring at me – but it didn’t seem to deter him.
I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked down with a smile.
“Why can’t a guy look at me like that?”
“Honestly, it’s worse than Tormund and Brienne. It’s disgusting, really.” Hadley snorted, but I saw she was smiling at me encouragingly.
And that was the thing about Mason Carter; he had girls literally hanging off him, begging for his attention. But, unlike some guys – see Roman for example A – it didn’t go to his head. In fact, he barely seemed to notice. He was only concerned with the girl he was interested in.
We saw it with Kristen before, during and even a little after they’d dated. We saw it with Amy before that. And with Nikki before that. And whichever other girls had come before her. None of his exes ever had a bad word to say about him and, likewise, he only had good things to say about them. We had no idea who dumped who in any situation and it all seemed totally amicable.
To a certain degree, it seemed awfully unlikely. But, Mason was just that nice a guy that it was believable.
And, every day was a testament to how damned nice Mason Carter was.
Every time we saw each other in the corridor, he smiled at me like I was the only one in the room. He’d stare at me in class to the point where even teachers teased him for not paying attention. He’d stop to talk to me. He’d hold doors open for me. He just made me feel ridiculously special. Every time I saw him, I’d be smiling and blushing and I barely knew what I was saying. He turned me into a blithering idiot, but my chest warmed and I didn’t hate it.
Lunch passed and he still hadn’t asked me out. A part of me assumed it made sense what with him going to Europe for the next couple of weeks with his parents; what’s the point of asking me out then going away? Another part of me wondered if he was actually going to get around to asking. Maybe everyone had the wrong end of the stick and we were just good friends.
When did dating get so difficult? Or, was it just me?
Some kids at school went on one date – or didn’t even get that far – and they just seemed to know that they were going together, officially boyfriend-girlfriend. Other kids went on a couple of dates with the same person and it was just understood it was just two people hanging out, with or without kissing – or more – involved. I was at a loss as to how you were supposed to know which was which. Everyone else seemed on the same wavelength as their crush or whatever.
Everyone, except me.
I felt like a complete weirdo. But, who was I supposed to talk to about that sort of thing?
Friday, and still nothing from Mason.
But, my thoughts from the day before placated me.
Then I wondered, why placated?
