Exchange

Chapter 20

"Wait- what?" I asked, stoppingmomentarily with the coat I was trying to pull on.

Molly glanced up at me from the magazine she was flipping through. "I said enjoy the sight-seeing."

I frowned and glanced around the sitting room where everyone was currently lounging about. Chris and JT were arguing about which movie to watch, while Emily painted her toenails and Molly had her head perched on JT's lap, flicking through Vogue.

All in all, none of them looked ready to go gallivanting around the city.

"Are you guys not coming with?"

JT let out a short laugh and turned to look at me. "Dude, we've lived here our entire lives. If I step one more time into the London Eye I think I may die."

"Oh." I said a little dejectedly. I guess he had a point.

But then I was hit with a second realization. "So it's just Mason and I going sight-seeing?"

I bit my lip, not up to the idea at all. Not after what had just happened thirty minutes ago in my room.

Warily, I pushed a piece of hair away from my face. "But he said that we were going-"

"We." Mason interrupted from behind me, shrugging on a dark coat. "Me and you."

"Yeah well you could've been a little clearer." I muttered, feeling flustered under Mason's eyes.

"My apologies." Sarcasm dripped from his words like honey.

With a flash of indignant irritation, I decided that I wasn't going to let Mason get to me. Not on a day I had been looking forward to since I was a kid. Mason could go and screw himself.

"Let's go."

With that, I spun on my heel and marched to the door, not caring if Mason was ready or not.

"Ready to go?"

He followed a few seconds later, his eyes slowly appraising me.

"You're going to be shit cold in that coat."

I barely glanced down at the, admittedly, not very warm coat I had on. "I'll be fine. Can we go now Mom?"

Mason narrowed his eyes slightly at my tone but chose to ignore it. Instead he shrugged, before leaning forward and opening the door.

"Your pneumonia." He said with a bright smile, and gestured for me to walk.

I rolled my eyes and exited the apartment, already knowing that this was going to be one hell of a day. In the negative sense.

~~~

"Wait... just give it to me." Mason snapped in exasperation, snatching the map from my hands.

"I know where to go, you idiot!" I gritted out in frustration. I tried to snatch the map back, but Mason spun around, effectively cutting off my access to it.

"Oh really?" Mason remarked. "So does reading the map upside down usually work for you, or is this just a once off thing?"

I narrowed my eyes but not before my face erupted into a blush. "You just turned it around." I mumbled, knowing that I was lying through my teeth.

Mason barked out a loud laugh, his eyes still concentrated on the map, before he turned to me. "That blush right there tells me all I need to know."

During his words, he pressed two of his fingers to my cheek, and I gasped at the sudden proximity.

However as soon as his fingers were there, they left, and Mason was walking down the street, tucking the map into the back pocket of his jeans.