“Yeah,” I say, warmth spreading through my chest. “We did.”
“So, can I babysit her?”
“She’s asleep, so as long as you make sure you’re here if she wakes up and needs anything…”
“I’ll bore her right back to sleep with the history of Honeycreek’s historical gala.”
I couldn’t help my laughter; it burst out of me, utterly uncontrolled and free, even around Mason. I caught him looking and didn’t want to think too hard about why he looked at me like that. Like… like there was only warmth in him for me, where once it had only been a cold, horrible hatred.
“All right,” I said to June. “But you’ll call me immediately if something happens?”
“Of course. This is what best friends are for. I can do more than let you copy my homework.”
“You did not copy June’s homework in school,” Mason smirked, looking me up and down. “Damn, Bryce, I didn’t think you were the type.”
There’s a lot about my type that you don’t know.I held the flirty quip back, my grin matching his, and only shrugged, letting myself feel bolstered.
“Wherever you go, have fun.” June winked at me as I passed her on my way out the door. She leaned in close, murmuring, “Remember, he’s a good guy, Bryce. Give him a chance.”
I stiffened, but something in me melted when Mason moved closer, herding me outside as June shut the door. His scent got stronger. Leather, smoke, and pine, as if he were the very town itself. I bit my lip, trying not to breathe him in too strongly.
“What did you want to do?” I asked.
“Well, I wanted to originally suggest dinner, but I want to respect your boundaries,” he said, once again surprising me.
“I’m surprised you know what that word means,” I muttered, more out of habit than anything with true bite. Still, he flinched. “I’m sorry—”
“No, no, I deserve it,” he said quickly. “No dinner, then. I know you like dancing, but… I remember you running track back in school.”
“You donot.” Despite myself, I gasped at him. “I thought you, of all people, would have conveniently forgotten that about me. You know what they say about fat people and sports. Nobody believes it.”
“Well, I do.” He shrugged. “There’s no rule to sports.” Mason paused, grinning at me for a moment before he started to jog. Not down the road, where I feared we’d be seen, but towards the back of Jackson’s house, into the woods. “Come on, track girl.”
Track girl. The name jolted something in me. Mason, on the bleachers of the town’s small high school, one elbow propped on his knee.How fast can you run, track girl? He’d called that out to me.
Faster than you, quarterback, I’d called out, rolling my eyes, heading for the locker rooms.
Not a quarterback,he’d quipped.I’m on the—
I’d not found out in that moment that he’d actually been on the wrestling team in high school because some of the pack had approached, slinging bags and jackets to where Mason sat. All of them had hooted, laughing at me.
How does a fat girl make the track team?One of them, a faceless, nameless man I couldn’t remember anymore, but the words had never faded, had shouted.Tell me, do your thighs jiggling everywhere only serve as propellers, or do they slow you down? More surface area, and all that.
I’d walked away, humiliated, crying as I stormed into the locker rooms. I remembered my mom trying to get me to eat that night, and I refused. The next day I had, too, until my stress had barrelled through me the following day again, sat in my car in the meadow, eating my way through a pizza and an extra-large chocolate pie.
It had always only made me feel more miserable.
“Bryce?” Mason prompted.
Did he remember that day? Was he doing it on purpose?
“We don’t have to run,” he said, and he didn’t look at my body, as if thinking of my size, as if wondering if I was capable of it. He said it as if he recognized something in me, in the same way, he’d offered not to go to the meadow.
But I couldn’t live in the shadow of my past torment forever.
I wanted to live. The pack’s past ways had taken enough from me already. I needed to be unapologetic.
“Yeah,” I said, determined. “Yeah, let’s goddamn run.”
