Grace Under Pressure (Grace Walker Series Book 1)

Chapter 28:

Hey

That's all the text read. I wiped my eyes to see what time it was and who the text was from. It was 6 o'clock! I sat up in my bed and flipped my bedside table lamp on, looked at the message again. It was Mason.

Hey

I wrote back. I got up out of bed, grabbed my robe and was going to walk downstairs when my phone chirped again.

Mrs. Salmon told me when I come back to school, you're going to help me adjust back into things.

Right now,  the only thing I wanted to do was grab a fresh drink. The one on the table was flat by this point. I walked down the stairs and didn't see mom. She must have been in the study. I walked to the fridge and seen a ice cold bottle of water and grabbed that instead and walked to the study.

"Hey honey, how you feeling?" Mom asked.

"I actually feel a little better. My head stopped hurting for now. What are you working on?" I asked as I sat down on the old loveseat we have in there with our stuff.

"Oh nothing major, I noticed when I got your soup earlier than we have dust bunnies in the cabinets." She laughed. " Not literally, but they may as well have them. I'm making a grocery list. And since I have the day off tomorrow, I'm taking full advantage of it and getting it done. Is there anything you want me to put on here honey.?" She asked.

"You can get me some cereal and stuff I can eat for the nights you have to work late. It doesn't always have to be canned food Mom. I can cook." I teased.

"Alright she said, I'll try and get you some simple things you can cook. And maybe a fire extinguisher." She cracked herself up on that one.

"Gee thanks Mom. I love you too." I said acting insulted, but then smiled.   "If I feel better tomorrow morning when I wake up, is it okay if I go back to school?"

School. I almost forgot Mason had texted me back.

"Punkin, that's up to you. I took the day off regardless, so if you stay home I'll be here."

"Okay Mom, I'll see how I feel in the morning then. "

I walked back upstairs and texted Mason back.

Yeah Mason, I'll help you adjust to school and getting back to normal, but only because I promised her I would. I don't know what the hell happened at LE and why you felt you needed to ghost me, but you did and I'm still kind of pissed.

I waited for a response. Meanwhile Reni called.

"Hi, how are you feeling? Mrs. Salmon flagged me down after lunch to tell me you had gotten sick." She said.

I filled her in on everything that had happened this morning and that it just so happened after Mrs. Salmon asked me about Mason.

"Gracie, if you are upset and you don't want to do it, tell her why. Don't force yourself to do it if you have mixed emotions."

"No, it's not that. I'm just confused as to what he was thinking. And I at least want him to tell me why he did what he did. And if I don't help him, I won't get an opportunity to have that happen. I don't even know when he'll be back. It could be a month from now and I've calmed down by that point."

"True. Well, are you coming to school tomorrow?"

"Not sure." I said. "Mom took another day off from work just in case. I'll let you know if I don't."

"Okay, Mom" I heard her say to someone in the background. "Gracie, I gotta go, it's time to put my phone on silent for the rest of the night. I'm beginning to think I'll never get ungrounded. Love ya"

"You will and I love you too." She hung up and I went back to my messages to see if Mason responded. He had.

Look Grace, I'm sorry. Ive got a lot going on right now. I pretty much lost the one thing I look forward to the most, and that's football. I was stuck in a place with old people for God's sake. The only thing that helped was talking with you. Then all of the sudden, Olivia comes in and tells me if I stop talking to the "hired help", she'd tell Dad to let me come home. I don't even know how she even knew you and I were hanging out.

His words cut like a knife. "Hired help?" Who the hell does she think she is. And better yet, I was curious as well as who told her we were hanging out. It's not like we were laying in his hospital bed together, we played cards, talked and walked around. I was furious at this point.

Mason, I've got to go. I'll talk to you later.

I was so pissed, I didn't know what else to say.

Okay, good night. I'm sorry.

After his last text, I put my phone on silent and went back to sleep.