Mason gathered his courage to talk to her but at that exact moment when he had been prepared to approach her, someone called her name and she turned to see who it was. For a moment while she stood and scanned the masses, she looked directly at him and Mason could see a hint of recognition in her deep chocolate brown eyes, but in that moment someone sneaked up and hugged her from behind.
This surprise hug attack provoked a squeal followed by laughter from her and the girl who he recognized as her identical twin sister. They both sat down quickly and burst into gossip about whatever it was they were talking about. Mason chose this moment in time to make his getaway. He walked through the sea of people jostling each other while trying to get food or find their friends in the cafeteria. While Mason was standing in line trying to figure out what to get, he was almost knocked over by this random peppy red headed girl. Although he was the one who was bumped into, there was the pretty little red head sitting on her ass looking up at him.
Mason bent over and helped her up without saying a word because she was apologizing and making excuses for why it happened so fast that he couldn't understand what she was saying.
“Hey, it’s okay," he said. When he said this she finally stopped dusting herself off and finally looked up at him. He recognized her. And she recognized him.
"O.M.Gosh, Mason! OMG it is you! Do you remember me? I'm Mandie I saw you walk in to school this morning and I couldn’t believe it was you. You’ve changed so much. Did I hurt you? You look so hot now. I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Wow! I can't believe how much you've changed. How tall are you? Wow! Look at your arms! Oh you were in line for lunch. You should stay away from the Beef Stroganoff that stuff is nasty. Have the stuffed shells and the chicken. They taste sooo goo-" she stopped rapid fire speech when she noticed the smile on his face.
"What?" she asked while she twirled her fiery gold hair between her fingers.
Mason smiled as he spoke, "Mandie... Yes, it's me. Yeah I've been working out for the past few years. Yeah I'm okay. No you didn't hurt me. Thank you. And I'm 6'1. And where are the stuffed shells so I can have some... To answer all your questions."
Just then Mikki stepped in front of Mason and with a fierce glint in her eyes.
"We need to talk."
"Excuse you, but Mason and I were in the middle of a conversation -”
"Shut up, Mandie!" she snapped. "Why don't you go sink your slutty claws in some other guy?" As she whirled back around to face him, Mikki whipped her hair in such a fashion that it hit Mandie right across her face. “Mason, YOU. ME. TALK. Now."
"Whoa, Mikki. Slow your roll. What's up? Can whatever we have to talk about wait a minute, till I'm done catching up with Mandie here?"
"Fine. Enjoy catching whatever this slut has."
"Who you calling a slut, you eternal virginal prude?"
"Whatever, fire crotch! See you later, Mason. Hope tonight is great."
A moment of silence passed between them as they watched her walk away, then "How do you know that bitch, Mason? And what was she talking about?"
"Oh, I just met her this morning. Yah know, she just gave me directions to the office. And by the way in having a welcome new kid to school party at my place tonight. You should come and bring whatever and whoever you want. Help me tell people."
"Omg really! That's awesome! I will so be there. I can't wait! Here's my number. Text me the address. See you then. Got to go. Photography club meeting. I will text everyone on the cheer team to tell everybody about it. It will be awesome!”
Mandie picked up the food she had chosen and like a whirlwind she was gone. Mandie was right the stuffed shells were good, Mason was looking forward to trying the chicken tomorrow. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. The only highlight was that people were recognizing him as that awesome new kid who was throwing a party that night. As he walked out of the school and to his car to go home so he could prep for the party, Mason felt as if he had forgotten something. Then it hit him, that girl’s name. He couldn't remember it. Mason was not happy as he slid in to the front seat of his car and ran down the list of things he had to do before the party. While in the middle of his stupor, he did not notice that a girl was standing by his window. When she knocked on the glass, Mason felt like he almost had a heart attack.
He stepped out of the car wondering who this girl is. "What's up?" he said. Then he recognized her. She was his mysterious nameless girl.
"Hi, my name is Jenny and that is my twin sister, Sammy," she said pointing to an identical looking girl leaning on the car next to his. "We heard about your party tonight and we were wondering if we could come?"
“Yeah sure you can come. That would be great," he said smiling, overjoyed that he finally knew her name. "Here let me text you the directions to my house?"
"Aw, Thanks," she said as they exchanged numbers and got his address. "See you soon."
"My name is Mason, by the way," he called after her.
"We know," was their response as they walked off, without looking back.
A few moments later Mason was literally racing around the house getting it ready for the party. He knew his mom wouldn't be home since she had told his sister to tell him that she would be going on a business trip for the rest of the week and he knew Cara wouldn't be home until way past 2 am. So he knew he was in the clear.
While Mason, finished setting out the Jack, Aristocrat, Heineken, Budweiser, Corona, UV, and the other drinks both alcoholic and not, he set out chips, popcorn, other foodstuffs. Once he was done with that ran upstairs to take a shower, change clothes, and lock up his room, his sister's room, and all the valuable and breakable items up in his mother's room, taking time to set up a little barricade at the foot of the stairs to keep people from going up. Then after quickly completing his homework Mason and started his leg day workout. After finishing his Spartan like workout regimen, Mason took another shower and finished changing just as the first guests arrived.
***
It was a little before ten and many people had already had come to party. It was amazing, Mason could not believe that all these people came to his party. Most of them he had seen in at least one of his classes that day, but the rest were just plus ones or twos or even plus threes that people had invited for him. As he was passing through the kitchen to grab his favorite drink Starr African Light Rum and talk to some of the people he didn't know, Jasmine walked in, looking frighteningly gorgeous as usual, with her boyfriend, followed by Mandie. With all the alcohol already in his system, the fear he usually felt in Jasmine’s presence was completely numbed out.
Mason wrote himself a mental note: Keep Mikki and Mandie apart.
Just then Mandie made a straight beeline towards him pulling Jasmine along with her leaving James behind. By the time the two of them cut through the crowd and got to the kitchen, Mason had already poured out some cups for them.
"We're finally here! James took a few wrong turns."
"Well we still got here didn't we?" Jasmine cooly replied.
"We would have been here sooner if you didn't distracts him by fucking blowing him while he was driving. You know that was why he missed the turn," Mandie fired back.
As much a Mason wanted to hear Jasmine's response to that he cut in saying, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Ladies! Here, drink up," he said with a smile on his face while handing them the cups. "Everyone here has at least an hour head start on the wasted wagon. You got to catch up"
"Thanks, Mason," Mandie giggled.
"Mason... Mason Shaw?" Jasmine said as peered at him smirking as hint of recognition slowly filled her eyes.
Mason started. She had recognized him. He had often acted out this exact same situation in his head, but this was the real deal. Here she was in the flesh standing in front of him, all while he was reliving the many terrible memories and the accompanying emotions from his experiences with her. Then right before he was about to revert back to his scared submissive self in front of Jasmine, Mandie spoke, snapping him out of his daze.
"Oh, you two already knew each other?" she asked.
Brought back to the present, Mason lied, saying, "Nope, never met you before. Hi, my name Mason Willis," at least that part was true, "Not unless you count seeing you get your ass slapped by your boyfriend this morning. Where is he anyway?"
"Oh, you saw that? Well, my name is Jasmine, nice to meet you," she said, then scanned the room with a suspicious look on her face, "I don't know. I'm going to go look for him, come on Mandie."
"Aww, okay. See you later, Mason."
"Enjoy the party, you two."
"We will," they said simultaneously over their shoulders as they walked out back towards the pool.
"He has a pool?" he overheard Jasmine whisper in disbelief to Mandie, “and a Hot tub!”
Smiling he took a shot of tequila before pouring himself a cup of Jack and Coke. Mason decided to walk around his party and chill for a little bit with some of the people who seemed popular. Turning his charm and suave attitude to the max, he flirted with some of the single ladies and got ten of their numbers. Though with the guys, he talk about last Saturday's football game and if it was too late to try out for the Basketball team this year.
Mason was enjoying the party, until he saw that the small barricade he had set up to keep people from going upstairs was not there anymore.. He forced his way through the crowd and up the stairs to check on his sister's and mother's rooms. Seeing that their rooms were ok, Mason breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he got to the top of the stairs to head back down to the party, he heard a girl's muffled screams of protest coming from his room. He ran back to his door and jiggled the door knob but it was lock.
"Get another room, this one's occupied!" a man's voice yell out. Which was followed by a quieter, more muffled female's plea for help. Without hesitation Mason kicked his door down and what he saw blew his mind.
Mikki was on his bed, being forcefully kissed, with her arms held down by some guy, with tears streaming down her cheeks, dress torn open, struggling to free herself. Holding her down was... James?
"What the fuck, man? I told you to get another room!" James yelled, jumping up in a in a panic.
"Mikki, please close your eyes. Everything is going to be okay. I'm here now. I'm going to take care of everything," he said in a calming voice as he slowly put the door back on its hinges. After that he picked up Mikki from the bed, carried her into his bathroom, and closed the door. Then turning back around again, Mason squared his shoulders, set his feet firmly, and faced James with a look of absolute and uncompromising rage and softly spoke two words.
"Get out."
James tried to walk out the door, Mason stopped him and said, “Not that way the door is locked."
"But you just kicked the-"
"I said not that way! Here, let me help you out." Mason said grabbing James by the back of his neck leading him back towards his bathroom door.
"What the fuck man the door is right there! What the hell is wrong with you? Let go of me-"
He cut James' complaints short by punching him hard in the solar plexus. Then Mason kneeled James down right in front of the door. Behind which both of them could hear her still crying.
"Apologize to her," he said.
