Two Thousand Miles (16 page)

“Could you put a shirt on, please?” Mason asked, looking away.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Are my breasts offending you?” I snapped.

“Of course not!”

“Then
, no. What’s your problem?”

After a few seconds of me staring angrily at him, Mason stepped closer to me, his expression serious, forcing my own to go limp.

“You’re so beautiful,” he mumbled, touching my cheek. “You’re smart and brave and so many other things I never expected you to be. Being anywhere near you makes me crazy.” He said, pulling his shirt over my head. “You’re like a fantasy, Kat—or maybe mirage is a better word because you could disappear at any time. I’m moving to Baton Rouge in five weeks and you’re…undecided. You don’t know where you’re going to be in the fall.”

“But I’m not
undecided
,” I protested. At least not when it came to Mason. He was the one thing I was sure of.

“As much as I want to, I can’t get more involved with you than I already am. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us.”

“Wow,” I gasped. “So, you go from being two seconds away from sleeping with me to breaking up with me. Did you plan this? Is that why you brought me home with you—to break up with me?”

“No, I didn’t plan anything.
I—” “Bullshit Mason! We’re alone in an empty house. Your parents are out of town, so you can’t tell me that the possibility of us having sex tonight didn’t cross your mind.”

“Yeah, okay. I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t know until a few minutes ago that you don’t know if you’re
gonna still be here tomorrow. I can’t go to bed with you tonight not knowing if you’re gonna be here when I wake up. Like I said, it wouldn’t be fair. We’d only be settin’ ourselves up for heartbreak,” he said, quieter. 

“Seriously
! If you didn’t want anybody’s heart to break then you shouldn’t have gotten involved with me at all! But since you did, I’m glad that you were able to decide for both of us that now—tonight—would be the best time for you to dump me. I should have listened to Bit,” I said, feeling a lump form in my throat. “You suck!” I screamed, tears starting in my eyes. “You suck and the last thing I want is to be fucking stuck here with you for the rest of the night!” I picked up my phone, slipped on my shoes and started toward the front door.

“Where are you going?”

“Back to the Broussard’s.”

“It’s the middle of the night. Just stay. I’ll take you back in the morning.”

“You should have left me alone, Mason. You should have listened to your gut and left me alone,” I said, my bottom lip quivering, as tears rolled down my cheeks. I felt like an idiot for crying, but wasn’t that what people did when they were hurting?

“Kat,” Mason said quietly. Hearing the distress in his voice stung me. I wanted to dive into his arms and let him hold me, but
I knew if I did, I would never leave. And I needed to go. I unlocked the door.

“Let me drive you back.”

“No.”

“I’m
doin’ it anyway,” he said and scooped me into his arms.

“No! Mason, no.” I struggled my way out of his embrace.

“Please don’t be like that. You don’t know how hard this is for me,” he said, his voice pained.

“Feel free to stop explaining, I get it okay.”

“I don’t think you do,” he breathed.
And for a moment, I knew he was hurting too. But he deserved to. He’d made this choice. No one was forcing him to stop seeing me.

“Just leave it alone,” I sniffled
, and turned my back to him, my hand on the door knob. My insides ached. I felt more alone in that moment than I had the entire time I’d been in Louisiana.

As I turned the
door knob, Mason put his hand on mine. “Let me drive you back.”

“No,” I said
, and pulled the door open. Letting my hand fall away from his, I walked out. He followed me. “C’mon, Kat. It’s late and it’s too far for you to walk.”

I was so mad and hurt that all I wanted to do was hurt him back.
What happened next made me believe that the universe was on my side for once.

Garrett’s truck flew by us.

“Don’t worry, Mason,” I said, wiping tears from my face and standing up a little taller. “I won’t have to walk.”

After letting Dixie out of his truck, Garrett circled around the cul-de-sac and stopped in front of Mason’s house. “Can you drive me back to your house?” I asked Garrett
before he could say anything. “Sure.” His eyes cut from me to Mason, searching for an explanation.

I climbed in the passenger side of Garrett’s truck
, and he waved at Mason before driving away with me. Mason stepped out into the street and I watched him in the side view mirror as we travelled farther and farther away from him, until he had completely disappeared from my sight.

“What happened there?” Garrett asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

Garrett and I were quiet until we pulled up at the house. “Thanks for the ride. I’ll be in, in a little while,” I
said before he got out of the truck. “Alright,” he said, and left me alone.

When I thought I was ready to go inside, I slipped out of Garrett’s truck and walked around to the side of the house. It was so quiet, but it was also two in the morning. I stood there frozen, stalling, because I didn’t want to go in. I almost felt like I couldn’t.

The more I thought about the night, the more upset I became. It wasn’t just what Mason had done. It was everything. I collapsed to the ground and sobbed over things that were long overdue for me to cry about.

“I guess last night didn’t go so well,” Russ said. I opened my swollen eyes; he was standing above me, sipping from an oversized, lipstick red coffee cup. That’s when I realized I was still outside; sprawled out on the side lawn, moist with morning dew and wearing Mason’s clothes. I could smell him on my shirt, and it made me mad.

Russ bent down and helped me up. I muttered, “Thank you,” and bypassed him for the back door. Dana was in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee. I burst into tears again the second I saw her.

“What happened,” she gasped. “Did he do
somethin’ to you?”

I shook my head, unable to form the words to explain. I put my arms around her, and she hugged me.

“I’m so sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have let you go.”

“No,” I blubbered. “It would have happened anyway—no matter where we were.”

“Did he force you to do somethin’?”

“No,” I said and let go of her. I used the bottom of Mason’s shirt to wipe the tears from my face. “He doesn’t want to be with me,” I said brokenly, staring at the floor.

“Oh, sweetie,” Dana breathed, looking sorry for me. I hated that she was looking at me that way. It made me feel even worse; something I hadn’t thought possible.

“Can I get you anything? Are you hungry? Do you drink coffee?” Dana rattled.

“No thanks.” I knew she meant well, but the only thing I wanted was a quiet place to hide. “I’d really just like to lie down,” I said.

“Alright
.” She gave me a loving smile. “I’ll get some fresh sheets.”

Dana took a stack of linens from the closet in the hallway and carried them to Garrett’s room. “He’s in with the girls—on the pullout.”

The bed was made and looked like it hadn’t been slept in at all. Dana stripped it down anyway and made it back with the clean linens in her arms. I thanked her, crawled beneath the bleach-scented sheets, and closed my eyes. They stung beneath my lids and began to leak. I felt numb, but thought that was better than hurting.

I thought of Mason as I drifted off to sleep. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t been able to keep him out of head since we’d met and I knew it would be a long time before I didn’t think of him anymore.

During the following week, I kept to myself. I didn’t hang out with the Broussard kids when they went out, out of fear of seeing Mason. He hadn’t been at their house all week either. Bit and Shelby tried to get me to tell them what happened a few times but I didn’t. They knew Mason and I weren’t together anymore; the rest was none of their business. Besides, I didn’t feel like dishing the embarrassing details.

Today, even though I didn’t feel like it, I had to go out.

I was in the kitchen searching for a cab company on my phone when the screen door creaked open.

“There she is!” Garrett said.
“Out of hiding.” He held his hands up like he was animating story time at the public library or something.

“And where have you been all week?” I asked, sarcastically.

He gave a bright smile. “Entertaining.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You’re not a total prude, are you?”

“I’m not a prude at all,” I said.

Garrett studied me a moment before taking an apple from a bowl of fruit sitting on the island that I was positive Dana had bought with me in mind.

“
Whatcha lookin’ for?” he asked.

“A phone number for a cab company.”

“What do you need a cab for?”

“I’m out of tampons.”

Garrett laughed, “I’m pretty sure cabbies don’t sell tampons. Pot maybe, but definitely not tampons”

“You know what I mean,” I snapped.

“Ouch,” he playfully growled. “Put your phone away, I’ll give you a ride.”

“To buy tampons?”

“It’s not like I’ve never made a tampon run before.”

“A tampon run, really?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I’ve had girlfriends who’ve asked me to pick up a box before
. It’s not a big deal.”

“I’m not sure what I find more surprising about that statement—that you’ve had girlfriends or that you’ve bought tampons for them.”

“Oh, so you’re a judgmental prude.” He took another bite of his apple.

“I already told you, I’m not a prude. What you do is your business. Hump the entire world, I don’t care.”

“What I do is my business, but you still judge me.”

“I do not.”

“Do too.” G gave me a look that said
don’t lie
.

I shrugged. “Well, maybe a little. The Dixie thing was pretty rude.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too.”

“Then why’d you do it?”

“You mean why did Mason and Dixie do it? She and I dated for almost two years before they hooked up.”

“The two of you…dated? Like seriously dated?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“I guess not,” I shrugged, deciding I was done traveling down memory lane with Garrett. I didn’t really care anyway. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on that ride to the store.”

“Slick change of subject there, Kat,” Garrett said, and bit the last chunk out of his apple. “Absolutely seamless,” he confirmed.

“Never mind, I’ll call a cab.”

“Judgmental prude with no sense of humor,” he accused.

“And you think calling me names is going to encourage me to think differently of you?”

“Oh, so you do think of me,” he winked.

“I think you’re a douche.”

Garrett surprisingly didn’t argue with me.

“C’mon, let’s get you to the store.” He tossed the apple core into the trash and put his arm around me. “You’re a good sport,” he said.
“Kind of.”

“You’re a slick subject changer yourself, Broussard.”

In the store, Garrett studied the different boxes of tampons, picking them up and putting them back as I scanned the shelves for my regular brand.

“So, heavy flow?
Deodorized? Slim?” he rattled. “Whattya prefer?”

My face turned red
. “Would you stop, please?”

“Sorry, I was only trying to help speed up the process. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll hurry,” I grumbled.

“You sound hungry, too,” he grinned.
“Or maybe just crampy. You want me to grab a bottle of Midol?” The fact that he was serious almost made me laugh. I held up a hand. “Ten seconds of you being quiet will help me hurry.” Garrett looked at me and drew an imaginary zipper across his lips. I snickered.

“Holy shit!
I made you laugh,” Garrett gushed, holding his chest. “I can now die happy.” I shook my head, deciding not to teach him the difference between a laugh and a snicker.

I found what I was looking for and grabbed a bottle of lemon infused water from the cooler next to the checkout.

“You want anything?” I asked Garrett.

“I’ll just have a sip of yours,” he said.

“No you won’t.” I grabbed another bottle of water from the cooler and sat it next to mine.

“I don’t have cooties,” Garrett protested. I figured cooties would have been the least destructive of the diseases he’d most likely been exposed
to.

“I don’t like to share,” I said. Garrett gave me a look that was a cross between a smirk and admiration. I couldn’t decipher it.