The Wembly-Johnson Divide

5: mason wembly

Mason Wembly was good at a lot of things. Football, for example. Math, for another. But one thing Mason Wembly definitively was not good at was Willow. Willow had this habit of leaving him utterly perplexed.

School the next few days was painful. Willow avoided him like a wildfire. However, Chloe didn't. She spent the next few days reaffirming her position as his girlfriend, following him everywhere. It was three weeks and two days since Mason had last talked to Willow when he finally lost his patience.

"Hi babe," Chloe squealed. Mason was at his locker, grabbing books for his math class.

"Hi Chloe," Mason sighed.

"Are you free tomorrow?"

"No."

"Welllll," she drawled, "what are you doing?"

"Soccer practice," he retorted.

"All day?"

"Yes."

"What about Sunday?" she questioned.

"No."

"What are you doing Sunday?" she asked.

"I don't see how it's any of your business," Mason snapped, closing his locker door with a sharp thud.

"I'm your girlfriend. Duh!"

"Chloe, I don't really-"

"Is this because of Willow?" Chloe cut Mason off.

"How is this related to Willow?" he shot back.

"That bitch has been getting between us since the very beginning!" she yelled out, earning the attention of the remaining people in the hallway.

"She's not the reason this is happening," Mason challenged.

"She's not the reason what is happening?" Chloe cried out, tears starting to stream down her face. Mason rolled his eyes. Chloe had a tendency to be overdramatic.

"We're breaking up," Mason deadpanned.

"WHAT?" Chloe shrieked, dropping her books onto the cement floor.

"We're breaking up," Mason repeated, starting to walk away towards his math class.

"Come back here! You can't just break up with me! You asshole! I'm going to kill you! And that fucking bitch!" Chloe screamed, her voice echoing through the halls. The bell interrupted her tantrum, its pitch matching the sound of Chloe's voice.

Mason turned back to face her slowly, his face deadly calm. "Stop threatening Willow. She has nothing to do with this."

"Why are you protecting her?" Chloe screeched. Her voice was grating and Mason just wanted to leave.

"Because even though she's the most stubborn and annoyingly outspoken person I know, I love-" he stopped himself from continuing as he realized the words coming out of his mouth. "She's important to me."

There was a crowd around the both of them now, and although Mason didn't know, Willow was standing a couple of people behind him. Chloe's response to Mason finally walking away from her wasn't pretty. She started by beating her fists against the lockers next to her, screaming out in agony. It took all of her self-control to stop herself from chasing Mason out of the school. But someone else did follow Mason.

It was Willow.

The door closed with a loud clang behind Willow. Mason heard the noise and assumed it was Chloe. He turned to face her, his mouth opened, prepared to yell, but he stopped as soon as he caught Willow's black hair in the afternoon sunlight.

"Willow?" Mason called out. His tone was a mixture of shock and caution as he watched her approach him, a haunted look etched on her face. She stopped a few feet away from him, speechless and unmoving. "Willow, are you okay?"

"Did you mean it?" she murmured, her voice barely audible over the fall breeze. It was sweeping her hair across her face, leaving her blue eyes barely visible.

"Did I mean what?" he mumbled, taking a step closer to her.

"That you loved me!" she exclaimed, pushing her hands against Mason's chest. Mason stumbled back in surprise, unsure of how to respond.

"No, Willow," he confessed, his expression softening. "I still do love you."

"Then why?" She was crying now. She took another step towards him, pressing her hands against his chest again, to force him back. "Why did you break my heart?"

Her voice broke as she finished her question, her tears coming more steadily now. He didn't know whether telling the truth would even help in this situation.

"Willow, I can't-" he pleaded desperately.

"No!" she snapped. "Just tell me the truth! For once!"

"It was your mother. She found out," Mason admitted, running a hand through his hair with a sigh.

"What?" Willow rasped, her entire body going still. She backed away from Mason in disbelief, her footsteps staggered. "My mom?"

"She told me to leave you alone. That I didn't deserve you," Mason tried to explain. "And I believed her. I still do."

"I need to leave," Willow declared, searching through her pockets for her keys. After her hand finally clasped around the metal, she sighed in relief. "I need to leave," she repeated, chanting it like a mantra.

She finally turned away from Mason after that, walking towards her motorcycle, leaving Mason alone with his thoughts once more.