When Its Least Expected Read online

  “Could you handle a friendship with her? Because if you’re looking for more then –“

  “No,” he pushed his palm out, cutting her off, “…nothing more, I told you that. I just

  want to hang with her, take her to the dance. I don’t do anything other than friendships with chicks.”

  Abigail scrunched her eyes together. Irritating lines seemed to be appearing between her

  brows. Okay, maybe he was harsh with the whole ‘chicks’ things.

  Girls…

  “Listen, I just wanted to take the girl to the dance not get in her pants, alright? She hates me, and I need to get some advice on how to get her to stop hating me.” He jabbed a finger at her. “That’s where you come in.”

  The girl was all business when it came to Harley, there was no doubt in his mind.

  “You’re kind of a pig, you know that?” Mason grinned and shrugged, not denying her

  accusation.

  He threw his booted feet upon the desk top in front of him, locking his hands together

  behind his neck. And then he waited, gracing Abigail with his ‘I know I’m cute smile.’ He

  wasn’t against the charming route, especially if it got her to ease up. It didn’t matter who they were or how much they hated him, no girl could deny his lure, his charm.

  “Just give me some advice, Abigail. That’s all I’m asking for. If you don’t wanna help

  then fine, just tell me, so I can figure this out on my own.”

  “Don’t you wonder, Mr. Smooth Talker sir, why she could possibly have been so mad in

  the first place? Scratch that, you don’t. I know your secret.” Mason kicked his feet down slowly, raising one eye brow at her as he leaned towards the isle between them. What was this girl’s angle? “You have absolutely no clue what to do when it comes to girls, do you? Huh?” she

  clicked her tongue, her grin widening. “Who would have thought Mr. Smooth was not so smooth after all?”

  Mason frowned. Crap, so smooth wasn’t going to work. Maybe begging? He flinched.

  Yeah, girls liked it when guys begged, right? Or then again, maybe she was just being the girl version of a tool.

  “Listen up,” he paused, lowering his elbows onto his knees. “You have no idea who I am or what I’m like with girls. They love me. Your friend on the other hand must be the messed up one especially if she cries for no apparent reason in the middle of conversations.”

  “Hah, so you would say that it’s okay to ask a girl out and then tell her two seconds later that she was basically a date of convenience then, right? Because I can tell you one thing, if you would have said that to me, you wouldn’t be walking right now due to the simple fact that I would have knocked your nuts through your damn teeth.” She flicked one hand at him, and

  turned away.

  “Shit…” he knitted his brows, what had he done?

  “Umm, yeah, I’d say shit too, if I was a douchebag like that. Come on now, what were

  you thinking?”

  “Listen,” he paused, and sat back; his spine went ramrod straight against the seat. Damn,

  he did screw up didn’t he? “I didn’t mean it like that. It came out the wrong way. I’m not perfect, I’m a guy. I pee on the floor, and leave the toilet seat up. I throw my dirty socks on the couch and lose them in the cushions. I leave old plates of food in my room and don’t remember they’re there until they start to rot and smell! What do you expect? What does she expect?” He threw his hands into the air, slapping them down onto his thighs with a smack.

  “Oh wah, wah, boo, hoo. Poor, pity me. Save it for the choir, preacher boy, because this

  girl’s not buying your little sermon.”

  “Come on, she didn’t think that for real, did she? Besides, I’ve been nicer to her than any other girl I’ve ever been around.”

  “And that’s supposed to convince me, how?” She tightened her lips. Crap, she didn’t

  believe him. It was on to option two: begging and honesty … Mason style.

  “I wanted to go with Harley, and still do, even if I knew other girls at this school better. I told you, she’s … cool …” He sighed. Shit, being honest sucked and it made him feel like a

  wuss.

  “Yes well, she’s a little more forgiving then I am, so you should be very glad that you

  didn’t ask me to that stupid dance.” She shrugged, flicking a pencil between her fingers. He grinned. Yes, it was working. He could almost feel her complying as she sat there, fidgeting away. “Besides, you’re not my type. I need my boys with a little more um,” she gestured towards his arms. He frowned, “meat on their bones.”

  Abigail was one tough bitch.

  “Okay, I’m gonna be honest here. I don’t think, as of this second, that I agree with the

  idea of you and my best friend hanging out, but I can tell already, that you don’t give up. I’ll give you props on that one at least.” She looked down and jotted something into her notebook. Then she ripped it out and handed it over. “Just stop with the whole I’m a god attitude, okay?” Mason rolled his eyes at the insinuation. He wasn’t a god. A ladies’ man maybe, but he was far from god level.

  He shrugged, reaching out to grab the sheet of paper she held out to him.

  “You’ve got your work cut out for you if you want Harley’s forgiveness. She’s pretty

  sensitive sometimes.” He grabbed the paper, and started to open it. “And you may have had the advantage there for a while, but your idiocy kind of messed that up. So now, you’re back to square one again. That’s her number,” she sighed, lowering her hands onto her desk. “Don’t lose it.” He grinned at the seven digits. Yes, he could call, easy. “Call her, beg for mercy, lay it all on the line, be a chivalrous guy and accept whatever comes your way. But please do me a favor before you take the Harley plunge and remember exactly what I told you.” He looked back up at her, his smile turned into a frown when he noticed her pursed lips. Maybe if she had that much baggage, then this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  But then her wide smile and those brown eyes popped into his head again, and he knew

  he wasn’t going to escape her hold anytime soon.

  “She’s been through hell, and she doesn’t need you to screw with her head anymore, got

  it?” He nodded. It’d be fine … for now.

  Four more months though … what will happen then?

  He shook the idea from his head. This was a friendship, nothing more. Four months from

  that moment on didn’t matter. “Weirdly though dude, I think she needs someone like you in her life, someone who doesn’t judge her past, someone who only lives in the present with her. And you’re not my number one candidate … but I can tell … she likes you.”

  He frowned behind his hand. Yeah, she liked him; he kind of thought that already. Give

  her a few months though. He’d screw up somehow. It was inevitable, but there again, the thought of hurting her made his chest ache. Now he had to figure out what the hell did that meant.

  “Thanks,” he murmured turning to face the front. His thoughts churned in his head. He

  couldn’t get in too deep with her or anyone for that matter. He was damaged goods. It was

  obvious now that Harley was too.

  “No problem. She’ll probably be pissed that I gave that to you, but she’ll get over it.” She shrugged and winked. He glanced down at the paper again, already memorizing the numbers,

  repeating them in his head. Unfortunately, apologies were not his specialties.

  Meeting Harley was not coincidental though. All of his instincts screamed that at him.

  They were two broken souls, with two wildly similar but still completely different personalities.

  Now, if only he could keep his heart and his mind in sync, otherwise a friendship with a girl like Harley might never be enough.

  Chapter Six

  As Harley lay in bed that night, hands tucked under her sof
t feather pillow, eyes glued to

  the glow in the dark stars plastered above her on the ceiling, thoughts of her earlier cry baby attitude haunted her. Mentally, she wanted to smack herself for letting Mason Daniel get the better of her, but physically, she only groaned, rolling to her stomach from due to her self-induced misery.

  She hardly ever cried like she had today and the scariest part of it all was the fact that

  there was someone out there who had that uncanny ability to control her emotions.

  She lifted her head and glanced at the looming red alarm clock, eyes narrowing as the

  numbers cleared in her vision. Yuck, eleven thirty. She’d be a mess tomorrow. Harley was a

  stickler for a ten hour night of sleep, but it obviously wasn’t in the cards. Resolved to her insomnia, she sat up, hung her long legs over the bed, and tucked her chin into her chest. Enough was enough. Lying in bed, and feeling sorry for herself, was so obviously not going to put her to sleep. She had to do something, anything to rid her brain of all the crap she had running through it.

  She popped off her mattress and meandered towards her new shiny pink laptop. She ran

  her hand over the smooth surface before lifting it up to type in her password. But as she stared at her inbox full of spam galore, while unconsciously tapping away at the same key over and over, Harley still couldn’t manage to shake her idiocy. Why in the hell did had she let that boy get to her? No boy, except for one in particular two years ago, had ever had her so messed up this badly! But that in itself should have been a warning sign.

  The tell-tale ring of her cell phone wailed at an alarm clock volume from her dresser. She

  hurried, reaching for the loud contraption as she tripped and stubbed her toe against her bed frame.

  “Holy shit balls!” she cried out, grabbing onto the phone, as she hopped up and

  down one footed, only to then land her butt on a metal clothes hanger lying murderously at the foot of her bed. Damn. This wasn’t her day. Good thing it was almost over. “Hello?”

  She flopped onto her back as she waited for a reply, bending and flexing her now, most

  likely bruised foot. She leaned the majority of her body onto her uninjured side. She’d be

  avoiding that butt cheek for a while…

  “Um, Harley?” Her entire body went rigid. The voice was lulling and deep, way too

  familiar. It was the voice of an angel and a devil all rolled up into one too-cute-for-his-own-good package.

  “Yeah, who’s this?” She bit her lower lip, playing dumb. There is no way in hell

  she wanted Mason Daniel to know that she’d already analyzed the sound of his voice. Now that would have been stalkerish. And Harley was not a stalker.

  “Err, it’s um … its Mason,” he stumbled with his words, and Harley grinned at the sound.

  Wow! Was he actually nervous?

  “You weren’t sleeping were you because I can let you go…?”

  The fact that this guy could even act vulnerable wasn’t a good thing. Vulnerable meant that he had a decent, sweet side hidden somewhere in his body, and that wasn’t a good scenario for her heart.

  “No, I’m awake,” she paused, biting her lip even harder as all pain in her toe was

  replaced by the harsh, uncontrollable beating in her chest. “What’s wrong, Mason?” she snapped at him, unintentionally of course. She cringed at the silence that followed, but seriously, she couldn’t exactly forget his pity date proposal from earlier so easily.

  “Nothing’s wrong, little beast, I just wanted to hear, uh…” Mason cut himself off and

  cleared his throat, “... I mean I just wanted to, uh … see how you were feeling, that’s all.” A grin made its way to Harley’s lips as she listened to his rushed words. The calm, collected surfer boy was so anxious, that it was damn near adorable.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I called though. Abigail gave me your number earlier today

  because I felt I needed to um,” he paused again, clearing his throat once more, “apologize for earlier, you know, with the whole asking you to the dance the way I did, thing.”

  Harley narrowed her eyes as she stared at the dark shadows of her fingers. “So … you’re

  sorry you asked me at all then?” she snapped. Her hand gripped her comforter so as not to throw something. Once again, she was a basket full of moodiness, all because of him. She was also being dumb, ridiculous, and a whiny girl too, but that’s just how he made her feel. It sucked, but it was the truth. “Because you certainly didn’t need to bother me if —“

  “Damn it, little beast,” he groaned. “Quit putting words into my mouth, you stubborn

  girl!” His muttering filled her with an instant sense of relief, and Harley felt her shoulders relax.

  Okay, so she was a little over spastic tonight. She had to get over that.

  “Okay, fine, Mason. Jeez, don’t get you man panties in a bunch.”

  Secretly, she was the one with the major wedgie; it just felt good to put in on someone

  else for a change.

  “I do not wear man panties!” Harley giggled at his not-so-cool-now comeback. He sighed, her humor vanished. A teensy bit of guilt crept into her chest. He was obviously doing something he wasn’t comfortable with apologies, that is, so she should have been nicer. But on the other hand, making him squirm wasn’t so bad, especially since he’d been so jerk-ish earlier in the day.

  “Fine, I’m sorry. Totally listening now.”

  “Thank you,” he barked back. “Anyways, I never meant to ask you to the dance that way.

  I guess I don’t seem to have a filter with my words when it comes to you.” He was quiet for another second; the weirdness between them was seeping through the phone.

  Harley fidgeted with the end of her night-shirt and decided she’d be the bigger person.

  She’d accept his apology, move on, and end their little friendship once and for all. Well, at least that’s what she’d planned to do. “Listen, Mason, It’s no big deal. I know that you probably didn’t mean anything by the way you asked me anyways.” But it still hurt. She let that thought go. For some reason, being mad at Mason and arguing with him was too exhausting. “Can we just forget about it?”

  She had to get over her major emotional malfunction when it came to guys, so the best

  way to do that was by getting this boy out of her life permanently, and quickly, without losing any more emotions along the way.

  “It’s really not okay, Harley. I know it, and I know you know it too. I want to go to this stupid dance with you even if you don’t think I want to.” The nervousness in his voice was thick, accompanied by an unexpected confession. “You are whole hell of a lot different than any other girl I’ve ever met, and I want to get to know you,” he hesitated. Harley held her breath as she waited for his words to come. “As a friend of course. That is, if you don’t mind.” Just friends, yeah that was what she wanted. Yes, totally.

  But the other unthinking part of her body, the one not connected to her brain was

  saddened by his request. Maybe it was because she wasn’t the one who initiated the idea. Yeah, that was it. Maybe…

  No second thoughts, Har. This is what you wanted, remember?

  Ugh! This sucked! These constant rollercoaster emotions were draining. It was going to

  be one hell of a year. “No, Mason. I don’t mind.” Her voice screeched, going for a seriously high C note. She was nowhere near believable. “And as far as the dance goes,” she paused and held her breath in anxiousness as the words spilled out, “I’ll think about it, okay?”

  She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose.

  God, now she was thinking about accepting his invitation to the stupid dance? This was not her.

  Little pea brain aliens had to have crept into her ears and implanted those thoughts. Yeah, that was it.

  But then another idea hit her, and she smiled. Sure,
she’d go to the dance with Mason …

  Then Abigail and David would go too. She was a genius! “Are you still there, little beast?”

  Mason chuckled, and the sound of his laughter crept into her spine. Tingling sensations did sprints up and down her back. She wiggled; it was a failed attempt at easing the unfamiliar sensation. Damn the boy for having a laugh like leather, smooth and rough at the same time and so addictive too.

  “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, I’m just a little tired tonight.” She sat up and scooted back

  against her pillow, letting her hair spray all around her. It brushed her bare shoulders, and she shivered as she closed her eyes waiting on edge for his reply. She sure as hell hoped that he’d tell her goodbye so she could get the ridiculously goofy grin off her cheeks. It hurt to be that happy.

  Her face wasn’t used to it.

  The quiet gave her more time to think, and time was definitely not her friend. As the

  unfiltered words left her lips, she realized that even thinking could get her into some serious trouble. It was a well-known fact. Harley was an idiot. “Okay, fine. I’ll go with you to the dance.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and stiffened.

  Oh crap! What’d she do?

  “You will? That’s great, awesome, but I thought I was going to have to do a whole lot of

  groveling and begging. You surprised me, little beast,” his voice went low, sweet. “And I like surprises.” Harley’s heart dipped into her toes and she suppressed a longing sigh. Damn, she’d gone all hearts and butterflies with those words.

  “I’ve got one more question.” Harley’s eyes squeezed shut, worried that whatever else

  he’d have to say would send her over the edge. “What are you doing Friday night?”

  Oh no. Not a date. This was so not a date. Well, maybe it was. Would that be so terrible?

  Yes, yes it would.

  “Well, I’ll have to check my ever exciting social calendar and see,” she giggled, actually

  freaking giggled. Harley Anderson did not giggle over boys. Not ever. “…but most likely I’ve got nothing planned.”

  Okay, so the dance was one thing, but a date? Oh, God. That was a completely different