Half a Heart

20. Mason Riley!

The past few days have been kind of a blur. Between getting my squad ready for state and planning Julie's baby shower, I have been so busy that I have barely had time to shower. I can't even imagine trying to juggle a boyfriend on top of everything that is going on. No thanks.

I have been starting to slowly come out of my fog. With so much stuff to do, I don't have time to even think about Peter. Even if thoughts of him start to creep up on me, I busy myself doing something else that needs to be done. I went ahead and deleted all the pictures that had him in them. I unfollowed his Instagram. That one had been a reflex. He posted on his story a picture of him and Savannah partying. My first reaction was to remove it. I unadded him on Snapchat for the same reason. I didn't block his number, but he hasn't tried to call me. I consider that a blessing in disguise.

Carter and I have been getting along quite a bit better. Neither one of us is always home, so when we make appearances, we're pleasant. He had gotten a promotion at work and it was going to be good for when his kid came. I was glad he was about two and half months from being done with his schooling. I wouldn't have to worry about him dropping out. College had never been in his plans like it was for Isaiah or me. Isaiah had been deadset on becoming a doctor. He loved everything about it. By the time he had started his senior year, he was two classes away from having an associate's degree. He always encouraged me to do good in school. It was because of him that I was at the top of my class.

Dad and Eden were doing well as far as I knew. I hadn't had a chance to hang out with her so I promised that we would go shopping when I got back from state. She was happy and that made me happy too. Eliza hadn't really been talking to me and that saddened me. If I texted her, it took almost twenty-four hours before I got a response. It happened twice before I realized that it was on purpose, so I quit texting her. As I told Peter, I'm not interested in one-way relationships. I simply do not have the time.

Someone I had grown closer to was Mason. Once he found out it was me who told his mom what he was doing, he came up to me and gave me a big hug whilst thanking me. His parents were monitoring him closely and he was glad. He didn't want to slip up like that again and restart his progress. They recently started letting him eat lunch outside of his dad's office. He mostly ate with Jae, Grant, and I. Mason has always been super sweet to me, but he was being extra charming these days. He made it easy to like him.

Mason and I had been hanging out after practices and things. I stopped driving as much since he took me home most days. I had taught him our cheer routine and he was going to try and convince his dad to let him perform it with us. I think with a little persuasion, he could make it happen. He was good like that.

When I got home that night, Ace and Carter were sitting on the couch watching a movie.

"Hey Peach," Carter said looking over at me, "and Mason," he dragged out the word when he realized I was not alone.

"What are you doing here?" Carter asked, coming over to shake his hand.

"Your sister here is forcing me to watch Moana and Zootopia with her. She was absolutely stunned when she made references I didn't catch. Now, we have to watch them apparently."

I nodded along with his story. It was one thing to have never seen all the romance movies, but it was a crime not to have watched Disney movies, especially those two. We needed to fix the problem ASAP. I told him we could order pizza and watch movies all night. As soon as I said pizza, he was all in.

"You guys want to join us?" I asked.

I was always happy to give people a movie-cation.

"Actually," Carter started but got cut off by Ace.

"We would love to."

So that's what we did all evening. By the time it rolled around to nine o'clock, we had watched both movies and were getting bored. I decided that we should play a game where you have to feed your partner something and they have to guess what it was.

I got two of my scarves. I was partnered with Mason and Ace and Carter was together. I agreed to be blindfolded first. Ace and I sat on the couch while our partners got us things to try.

"What happened to Peter?" Ace asked.

"It didn't work out how it was supposed to," I replied.

"Why's that?"

"He wanted something I wasn't willing to give him."

"Was it your soul?"

I laughed, "Something like that."

Our conversation was interrupted by our partners returning. Mason's knees popped as he squatted down in front of me. We had already prepared bowls and cups of water in case we didn't like what they were feeding us we could spit it out. Mason held something cold and damp to my lips. I opened my mouth enough that he could put it in and bit down. I cringed at the taste. Then I noticed the seeds and almost gagged. I grabbed my bowl and spit it out.

"You fed me a strawberry?!?"

The boys were all dying with laughter as I tried to get all the nasty seeds off my tongue. A few minutes later, we were composed enough to move on to the next item. Ace and I talk about random things until Mason and Carter come back.

We heard the boys laughing in the kitchen and we were anticipating the next food. I hoped Mason picked something good or else I was switching partners. They came in and squatted in front of us. The next thing I knew, I had foamy stuff all over my face.

"Mason Riley!"

I wiped some of it off and licked my finger. It was whipped cream. Carter and Mason were laughing as Ace and I took off our blindfolds and looked at each other. I swiped some off Ace's face and he got some off of mine and we rubbed it on Mason and Carter's faces. They gasped. Mason looked at me with a glint in his eye. He started to tickle my sides. I hopped up and ran away. He stood up and chased me. 

@NoelleAnn397 I forgot to mention last chapter, but thank you for doing that.