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  With his hands in the pockets of his coat, he snuck lazily up the sidewalk next to her, taking in every inch of the eerily blackened sky above him. It was ominous, not a single star was visible, and even the moon had taken on a few more shadows from the clouds above. He shivered and

  stared over at his sister while she followed his pace towards the house. Her fingers fidgeted against the lace of her dress. It was her tell. The one sure sign that something was bugging her.

  He waited for her to reply because she always told him everything, but it never came. He took it as a sign that she was just tired like he was.

  “So, did you guys, like, do it then?” Mason froze in place, his hand hovered high over the

  door knob. He looked back over his shoulder at her, a hating glare in his eyes.

  Oh hell no. She did not just say that.

  Her eyes and mouth widened in disbelief, and she giggled seconds later, “Not that, you idiot. I meant did you ask her out, as your girlfriend?” Mason let out a relieved breath. Thank God that’s all she meant. He did not want to have that talk with his fifteen year old sister.

  “Yes, I did as a matter of fact, but that doesn’t mean you can go around advertising it to

  the world.” The lock clicked open, and he held the door for her to go in first. She frowned at him, a weary look in her tired, blue eyes.

  “Well, I kind of thought after that incident with Toby in the hall on Monday that you’d

  want everyone to know your status.” She shrugged, slipping her shoes off and running her hand along the sole of her feet. Her eyes closed in that movement as if she was two seconds away from falling asleep in the standing position.

  Mason, on the other hand, was now more awake than ever. “What in the hell do you

  mean by that?” He tugged at his tie, loosening it from around his neck as she tossed the keys across the hallway table. “Harley didn’t mention anything about an incident with that dick head to me.”

  His sister glanced over at him but didn’t respond other than a tiny shrug. Freaking little

  sisters and their nonchalant, don’t-give-a-shit attitudes!

  “Maisy, come on. What the hell do you know?”

  She shrugged, sitting on one of the kitchen bar stools and swinging her short little legs

  underneath her with her lips pressed tight in a line. He was getting pissed. She needed to cut the crap. “Tell me otherwise I’ll hang all of your a-cups out the front window when the lawn guy you drool over comes around.”

  She gasped; eyes full of contempt, “You wouldn’t…”

  His eyebrows rose in challenge, “I would…”

  Her eyes narrowed further, and she flipped him off but still didn’t tell him anything.

  What was she hiding? “Come on, Maisy. Tell me.”

  “Fine, jeez. Lighten up, and get your man panties out of your ass cheeks, brother,”

  she chuckled. He smacked her alongside of her head; they just had that kind of relationship.

  Luckily for her, she had bobby pins up the ying-yang and didn’t seem to feel a thing. “Well according to Ava Duncan, who just so happens to share second hour with Harley, that Toby dude had cornered her outside of her class on Monday.” He pursed his lips in confusion. He’d been with Harley before first hour that day. What the hell? “And I guess he was pretty much trying to cop a feel on her right there in the hall.” He gripped the edge of the counter, his knuckles turned white as anger surged through his body. What. The. Hell? “Apparently, she kept trying to push him away, but he kept holding on. Then her little blonde friend pulled her away, and Toby just stood there laughing outside the door, calling her bunch of names like slut, whore, you get the picture.”

  Mason pushed away from the breakfast bar. His vision shadowed with red and white tiny

  spots of fury. Flames had to have been pouring from his ears as he shoved the innocent bar stool onto the ground. Maisy jumped. Her words were tentative as she stared up at him.

  “You okay, Mase?” He leaned against the door frame and nodded, but was he really that

  ready to run; ready to find that piece of dog shit and… Hell, he didn’t know what he’d do first if he found him.

  “I’m going to bed.” Mason gritted his teeth and pulled at his hair, but he didn’t look back as he stalked angrily from the room. Sleep would take the anger away. It always did. Otherwise, he’d probably go and do something crazy like hunt down that bastard down.

  Maisy’s soft voice sounded from behind, and he paused, already half-way up the steps.

  He didn’t look back though. “Mason, don’t let this get to you alright? Harley’s tough. She can take care of herself.” She was right, but he couldn’t accept the fact that he wasn’t there for her like he should have been.

  He slammed the door to his room. He tossed the rest of his clothes onto the floor and

  threw himself onto his king sized bed. He rolled onto his back against his pillows and closed his eyes. He had to breathe. He had to get his shit together. Every emotion known to man was

  passing through him as he pictured Harley and that dickhead together as his sister had described.

  He clawed at his eyes, remembering too the nasty things he, himself, had said to her that same night on the phone.

  He was a fool.

  Then again, why would Harley keep this from him? What if she was keeping other

  secrets? Did she not trust him to help her? Did she think he was too unstable to deal with it all?

  God, he was worse than a girl! How in the hell would he ever survive a relationship with her if his emotions were always this crazy?

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Mason, don’t go. Please…”

  “You knew it was going to happen, Harley. You had to have known.”

  “But you said you loved me, and that you wanted to be with me!” She grabbed onto his

  shirt pulling him closer as her emotional pleas fell from her lips. The tears were streaming down her face at an unstoppable rate, but his eyes were filled with something closer to disgust.

  “Yeah, well, I say a lot of things I don’t mean. I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.” Mason backed away from her, hands outstretched in front of him. Her heart did a free fall onto the cement under feet.

  “No, you don’t mean that. Please, Mason.”

  “You don’t know crap, Harley. You’re too messed up in that head of yours to know

  anything.” She fell to the ground as desperation filled the air along with the sound of her sobs.

  Mason curled his lip and shook his head before turning away.

  He was leaving! “Nooooooo…” She wailed in desperation, arms outstretched at the boy

  who had just stolen her very soul.

  “Harley, wake up! You’re having a bad dream.” She gasped and sat up, her hand over her

  chest. She blinked before staring up at her brother’s concerned face. She exhaled heavily and shut her eyes to block any tears that still demanded exit.

  Oh, thank God. It was just a dream.

  “You all right, sis? That was a bad one. I could hear you from my room.” David threw a

  thumb over his shoulder, and Harley groaned, running a hand down her face.

  She glanced over at the clock. Holy hell, it was Sunday, and she was awake at seven.

  Looking down at her shirt and shorts, she realized both were drenched in sweat. She shook her head in disgust.

  “Sorry, David. I didn’t mean to wake you up so early.”

  “No prob. I couldn’t sleep anyways. My neck’s all cramped from sleeping in the same

  position all night. What brought that dream on anyways? I haven’t heard you scream from a

  dream like that since…” he paused and shrugged but didn’t finish his sentence. No need. Harley knew what he was thinking.

  Nightmares after Aiden’s death had plagued her for a long time, and it wasn’t until just

  recently that they had s
topped.

  David used his arms to pull himself closer to Harley’s bed. She watched carefully as he

  used his Hercules-like strength to move himself from his chair to her bed. “Scoot over, would ya?” She nodded as he plopped down on the pillow next to her. Harley smiled at the childhood memory of him doing the very same thing. He used to sneak into her room early in the morning so they could watch cartoons together. Their parents would scream at them if someone woke

  them before eight on the weekends, so it was always Mason and Harley’s secret little routine.

  She didn’t realize how much she had missed the simplicity of it all until that moment.

  “Are you feeling better today?”

  She nodded and stretched her arms over her bed. Her words came out with a yawn, “I

  think so, at least my fever finally broke and my head doesn’t feel as if someone is nailing it with a hammer.” David laughed, but it was temporary. She stared back at him, noting the sad frown on his lips.

  “Are you okay, D?”

  He turned his face towards hers and smiled half-heartedly as he shrugged. “I talked to

  Abigail last night about some stuff.” Her eyes widened in surprise, and she sat up to look down at him.

  “And…?” She bit her lip, hoping for good news.

  “I told her I didn’t want a relationship with her.”

  “You what?” Outraged, she threw her hands out to the side and gave him her best evil

  eye. “Why in the hell would you do that?” She stood and shook her head in annoyance. She had to call Abigail. She was probably devastated! She tightened her hands into two fists so as not to smack her idiot brother in the head.

  “Harley, you know why. She’s going to be going off to college in a few months, same as

  you, might I add, and I don’t want to hold her back either.” He closed his eyes probably so they wouldn’t reveal his emotions. He wasn’t fooling her one damn bit.

  “Jeez, David. She’s going to cosmetology school a half hour from here. She’s not moving

  across the damn country! You know I’m not going anywhere either, at least not without you!”

  His eyes narrowed, rage made the brown turn black. “Don’t pull that crap, Har. You’re

  going to college whether you want to or not. You’re not waiting around for my sorry ass and neither is Abs.” He pushed himself in to a half-sitting position and scooted to the side of the bed.

  “The hell I am, David. You know as well as I do that college is not going to happen

  without you. We’ve talked about it!” Furious waves were rolling off of her as she moved to stand in front of him.

  Her stance softened when his eyes sympathetic, lost, and wet stared up at her. “Yeah,

  Har, we talked about it like ten years ago when we were kids, remember? It doesn’t count

  anymore.” She shook her head at his defeated tone. Now her heart hurt more than ever.

  “Listen, I’ve got, like, seven months until graduation, okay? Let’s not worry about it until then.” She smiled tightlipped, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Now, as far as Abigail goes, you’ve got some major ground work to cover in order to make up for your stupidity.”

  “Um, Har? I’m not going there. I told her I didn’t want a relationship with her, and I

  meant it.” He frowned harder and hopped one legged to his chair.

  “David, here. Let me help you, please.”

  “Dammit, Harley. I’ve got it,” he smacked her hand away, and she winced but obeyed his

  command. He was going to get hurt trying to prove he was capable. He was in a way, but if he would just get that stupid prosthetic. “Just let me do it my own way.”

  She knew without a shadow of a doubt, that he meant those words in more ways than

  one. “I’m sorry, David. I don’t mean to push a relationship onto you. I just know how much she loves you, and I see how you look at her too. You’ve been in love with her for years.” He glared up at her from his chair but didn’t deny the accusation.

  “Just leave it. Abigail and I are never going to happen.” Her shoulders sagged as he pushed himself from the room. She’d done it again. Her heroine complex was severely messing with all that was good in her life and with her brother’s life.

  “K …” Harley whispered under her breath, watching him wheel from her room.

  She was so tired of screwing up. First with David, then her parents, and probably next it

  would be with Mason. That foreboding dream had said it all.

  * * *

  “Are you going to get up sometime today, or should I just count you out of lunch and

  dinner too?” Ugh, his mother freaking sucked.

  “Yes, Mom. I’m getting up now.”

  “You okay, son? You’re not feeling sick, are you? You know you shouldn’t be around

  sick people without getting a flu shot. That Marley girl you’ve been hanging with might have had the seasonal flu and now–”

  “Harley, Mom. Her name is Harley.” She lifted her hand against his cheek and forehead, and he shook it off with annoyance. Her drama was the only thing making him sick at the

  moment.

  “Don’t you get an attitude with me, young man... You may almost be eighteen, but I am

  still your mother.” She stood in haste with a “huff” and walked from his room, slamming the door shut behind her like a child.

  He groaned, throwing his head back down under his pillow just as the door clicked back

  open.

  “Mason, what the hell? She’s only been awake for, like, two hours, and you’re already

  making her cry.” Maisy’s squeaky sounding voice echoed around him. Whatever happened to

  knocking? To privacy?

  “Get out, Maisy. NOW!!” His booming voice was likely to explode like a bomb if she

  didn’t turn around. With nothing more than two hours of sleep, he was unwilling to care about anyone else’s feelings but his own.

  “No, you jerk. You do not get to speak to me like that. I’m not mom, and I’m not going to

  take it,” she walked over to him and repeatedly laid a smacking palm upside his shoulders. Out of all the emotions he was having, laughter was the one that bubbled up in his chest at her move.

  She finally stopped with her incessant wailing, and he peeked over at her from under his

  pillow. She was cracking a smile and fighting tears at the same time. She had sat down on the edge of his bed and was focused not on him but on the picture sitting next to his bed.

  She ran her finger over the glass and spoke wistfully, “I love this picture.” Mason didn’t

  need to look at it to remember. He was ten, and Maisy was six or seven. They had just moved into their house in Santa Cruz and were standing outside on the deck. Their grandma Josephine snapped the shot, and in the back ground you could see the sun just about setting over the ocean.

  It was serene, and Mason kept that picture with him everywhere he went.

  “Don’t you have a copy?” he questioned as Mazie sat up. He brushed his straggling hair

  from his eyes.

  “No, you have the only one...”

  “Take it then.” Her head snapped up, and her eyes met his. A look so hopeful, loving, and

  young, passed through her eyes. “The memory is all I need,” he smiled and shrugged, tapping his head with his finger.

  Tears escaped her eyes, and she smiled. “Thanks. I miss him too, Mase.” He nodded,

  wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She leaned in and sniffled. “Can’t you and Mom just get along, at least until you decide to leave to go back to Santa Cruz?” He dropped his arm and rubbed a hand over the suddenly tight feeling in his chest. Leaving. He was leaving sooner rather than later. “Yeah, mouse. I’ll try harder … for you.” Her face brightened, and she smiled,

  clutching the frame tight to her chest.

  After a few more minu
te of silence, she stood and walked to the door. With one hand on

  the door frame, she looked back over her shoulder at him. “I know things here are not like they were back home, but I’m okay here. I think you are too. Am I wrong?” Mason had to think

  before answering. The first thought that popped into his head was Harley’s freckled face and beautiful smile. Yeah, he was okay, better than okay actually.

  “You’re right. Nebraska isn’t so bad,” he grinned at her goofy smile, but it wavered as he

  finished. “But I can’t help but think about everything I left behind back home. The surfing, my friends, Dad…” Maisy nodded, and tucked her chin into her chest before turning to leave.

  One lingering statement filled the air as she headed to the hall, “If you do decide to leave, Mason, then please make sure that’s it’s for the right reasons, not just because you feel like it’s a duty for Dad, okay?”

  Mason marveled at the strength of his little sister. A proud, strangling feeling throbbed in his chest. He pressed his palm directly over his heart. She was wiser than most grown-ups and stronger too. What he lacked, Maisy provided.

  Jumping out of bed with a new found plan, Mason threw on his favorite jeans and t-shirt.

  He grabbed his favorite Dodgers cap and threw it on to cover his greasy hair. He zippered up his coat, and was out the door in the span of two minutes.

  He needed to see Harley. She was the only person who could possibly make things clear

  for him right now.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sunday dinners were a tradition at the Anderson house. A table full of fried chicken,

  mashed potatoes, corn, and cranberry sauce covered the paisley cloth on the table. It was the perfect end to the weirdest weekend of her life. She was surrounded by the people she loved and had a boyfriend for the first time since Aiden had died.

  Life was strangely … good.

  The familiar sound of the doorbell halted their random conversation about some PBS

  show her parents were completely obsessed with. Her father dropped his napkin onto his table while his ever adoring wife placed her hand on his shoulder to stop him from getting up. She leaned in, kissed his cheek, and he smiled up at her in response. Harley rolled her eyes at their tenderness, but at the same time, she secretly prayed that she would have a relationship like theirs someday.