Grace Under Pressure (Grace Walker Series Book 1)

Chapter 40:

The next few weeks were drawn out the same. I'd pick Mason up for school every morning, we'd have school and I would either take him home or we'd go hang out at Sherry's. Every once and a while, he'd come home with me to study and I'd cook something quick to eat or Mom would be home and cooked.

Mason finally got rid of the crutches and his bulky plaster cast and got to wear a walking cast now. I didn't have to necessarily wait for him by his classes anymore, but he still asked me to.

The talk of school was Valentine's Day and who everyone was taking to the dance the weekend before the actual day. I'm not a dance person. I've gone to a few with a group of girls, but just ended up sitting at a table half the night, watching everyone else dance.

I walked out of Spanish and Mason was supposed to be coming out of Geometry and I didn't see him. Maybe he went to the lunch room already I thought to myself.  I headed for the cafeteria when I seen him standing against the lockers, talking to Bailey Mitchell, the sister of Landon Mitchell. She was the best girl athlete we had at Preston. She played basketball, softball and even was a terrific swimmer. She was beautiful.  And Mason seemed to think so too. I made eye contact with him as I walked past and went into the cafeteria.

"Were you not going to wait for me?" He asked, with a puzzled look on his face when he caught up with me.

"You looked busy, I didn't want to interrupt."

"I'm sorry" , he said.  " I hadn't seen her in a while so I stopped by her locker."  He looked hurt by what I said. I didn't realize I had sounded so irritated.

"It's fine, what line do you want to go in?" I asked changing the subject.

"Let's go in the a la carte line, I want to see if they have nachos." He said.

That did sound good but I settled for a baked potato and a carton of chocolate milk. Oddly enough, I lost my appetite.

We sat down at the table with Reni and started to eat. Reni turned to me and asked if I thought about going to the Valentine's Day dance.

"Are you kidding? I laughed. "with these two left feet, I'm better off at home where I'm not a danger to myself or others."

"Oh, well I was going to see if you wanted to go with me and Gretchen. She and Ashton are on the outs right now and I told her I'd go with her."

"Aaw, poor Gretchen and right before Valentine's Day. I said." No, you two go ahead without me. "

Mason sat back and was quiet, eating his nachos and didn't really say much.

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"So, you really won't be going to the dance?"Mason asked later on that afternoon when I was driving him home.

"No, most likely not. I don't do dances really. Are you going?" I asked, not sure what I wanted to hear him say.

"Well, I hadn't thought about it much, but Bailey asked today if I wanted to go as friends and I told her sure." He said.

Why did that cut like a knife when he said that?

"Well it should be fun for the two of you." I said. The rest of the trip to his house was quiet.

"Thanks for giving me a ride home. Did you not want to hangout today?" He asked.

"No, I've got some stuff to do around the house and I'll probably just do my homework and hang out with Mom."

"Alright then, I'll talk to you later." He said. He got out of the Jeep and waited for me to leave. I could see he was waiting for me to wave from the rear-view mirror but I didn't look at him. For some reason I was hurt and I just wanted to go home.

I got home a little while later. Mom wasn't there. I knew she was still working, but just didn't feel like company much. I did do my chores and finish my homework. I went to the kitchen and searched the cupboard for a snack and didn't see anything that caught my eye. My phone chirped. It was Reni.

Hey Gracie, I was worried about you today at lunch. Are you okay?

I texted her back and asked her to call. It was too much to type in a text. She called as I was walking upstairs to my room.

"What's going on, Gracie?"

I proceeded to tell her about seeing Mason talking to Bailey today in the hallway and how irritated it got me.

"I don't want to lose his friendship, and I am afraid I will. We lost touch over the years and I don't want that to happen again." I said.

"Gracie, are you sure that's all it is?" She asked. "I love you, but it seems like you're a bit jealous. Especially how you acted as if he wasn't sitting at the same table as we were today at lunch."

"No! Why would you think that! Mason and I are just friends. If there was more, don't you think he would have asked me to the dance and not accept Bailey's invitation?"

"You told me today, in front of him, you didn't want to go. That's probably the reason he accepted her invitation. Do you want to go to the dance with Mason?" She said.

"I don't want to go to the dance at all, regardless of who it's with. I'm a klutz." I said.

"Then you can't fault him for telling her yes."

She tried her hardest to get me to see her point of view and I just was too irritated at the moment. I let her go and texted Mom.

What time you gonna be home?" I wrote.

I'll be home in about an hour, hour and a half. You okay? She wrote back.

Yeah, I'm fine, just trying to figure out dinner.

Just go ahead and fix yourself something. I'll do the same when I get home.

She told me she loved me and she'd see me later.

I looked in the fridge and made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What a dinner. Just didn't really feel like eating, but knew I needed to.

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The dance was tomorrow and I couldn't have been more happy that it would finally be over and forgotten about. I didn't understand why it seemed to have become a big deal to me all of the sudden.  Thank God it was Friday and I could stay away from school and it's drama for a couple of days.