𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑡𝑎𝑙 [𝒍𝒓𝒉,𝒄𝒕𝒉]

ɴɪɴᴇᴛᴇᴇɴ - ᴍᴀꜱᴏɴ - ʜᴏᴡ ᴅɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ?

Song of the chapter

The underground – palaye royale

19 | Mason | how did you know?

Monday

This day had been horror. The three girls coming up to him during lunch sadly weren't the only people who tried to come and talk to Mason. About two other people had walked up, one of them being a guy he knew from calculus who said he was okay with it as long as Mason didn't try to make a move on him.

But the worst part about it was, that he felt like everyone was staring at him. He walked through the corridors of their school, his hoody torn down to his face, straightly looking down, but still he could feel the burning eyes on his back.

It was just like it used to be, when he was bullied. For once again too many people bothered about him but yet he felt so goddamn lonely.

What if everything was going to change even more? What if people would start calling him slurs again?

He had never gotten to a point where he could stand over it. Jade had been the one to save him in middle school, she had dragged him out of the insults and finally brought all the humiliation to a halt.

Mason never learned to stand up for himself and he was scared that he was now forced to learn it.

Mason glanced back at the laptop screen in front of him. He was laying in his bed, rolled up into his blanket like a sushi roll. His feet, also wrapped in the cozy blanket, were propped up on his pillow while he lay at the foot of the bed with his chin resting in his hands.

He had been watching Demon Slayer for a few minutes now but he hadn't paid any attention to it.

He liked that anime a lot so far, although he had only been a few episodes in. The anime itself wasn't why he couldn't bring himself to pay attention, it were his thoughts alone which kept him from accompanying Tanjirō on his adventure.

He only hit pause when he heard his mom screaming for him. "Mason, there's someone for you at the door!"

He rolled over, wanting to free himself from his blanket, but ended up going a little too far, falling out of his bed and hitting the ground.

He grunted as he pulled himself up, wondering who it was who could be at the door.

His safest bet was Maureen. Jade probably wouldn't come to him just now, she would wait a few days and would then either come over to talk about everything or to apologize.

It's just who she was. Whenever she messed up she just needed a while to reflect, think about it and realize how stupid it was. So far, she had always done a good job reflecting and could see her mistakes if you just let her.

He was also glad that she wouldn't just come over right now, because she was the last person he wanted to see at the moment.

Mason wasn't good at showing people when he was mad at them.

And hell was Mason mad at Jade.

It didn't take a long time for Mason to walk to the front door, as his room was on the ground floor.

But when he had reached it, and caught a glance of curly dark brown hair, instead of Maureen, it staggered him.

"Hey", he smiled weekly at Mason.

Mason didn't know what to say. Why was he here?

"Calum. What are you doing here?", he wondered.

Calum and Mason got along great. Even when Jade and him still dated, Calum had always been more than just his girlfriend's brother. They had inside jokes and banters and he had always viewed him as a friend.