Fallen Crest Alternative Version (Fallen Crest High #2.1)(80)

His hand tucked some of my hair back and lingered there, his thumb rubbing over my cheek. He murmured, softly, “What’s really going on?” He was tense. The anger lingered, but it was dampened for now.

I was going to make it worse again. “You came back.”

“Your friends are gone. I kicked them all out.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to think about that. “What about Logan?”

“What about him?”

“Where’d he go? He said he was going to kick some ass.”

He shrugged, stroking his hand down my back, and then lifted me to his lap. “I know you lied before. Will you tell me what’s really going on?”

I took a breath. It was going to get messy. Then I spilled, “She knows.” I felt him hold his breath underneath me. He tensed, but I said more, “She knows everything, Mason. She knows Logan didn’t date her to protect me from her. She figured it out that he was set up by you. That you did it because Logan has feelings for me and you didn’t want another girl to get in between you guys. She knows.” My heart was pounding, and pain sliced through me. It was out now between us.

Everything would change. Mason. Logan. Me.

“You know?”

My heart broke. He said it so softly. I nodded.

“When?”

It was my turn to shrug now.

“Sam.”

I let out my breath. “A while.” Probably from the beginning, but I didn’t tell him that part. “I don’t really know when I knew. I just did.”

He cursed under his breath. His hand fell from my back. I was sitting on his lap, but he was no longer holding me there. He cursed again, his voice rising. “She figured it all out?”

I nodded.

“He went after her.”

I nodded again. My whole world was crumbling down. “She’ll tell him. He’ll put two and two together.”

“SHIT!”

I flinched but closed my eyes. I wanted to burrow back in his chest. I couldn’t. That would’ve been pointless.

“I have to tell Nate. Maybe he can head Logan off. I can figure something out.”

“What good would that do?”

“I don’t know,” he bit out. His eyes raked me over, frustrated and helpless at the same time. “I have to try something. I set him up. That’s what she’s going to twist it as. He’ll know that I manipulated him and Nate did too. We do this to others to protect ourselves, but not to each other and now,” he fell silent. His jaw hardened. “Shit. Now he knows.”

“Mason,” I started. Logan had feelings for me. It had been said. I couldn’t undo that.

“No.” He shook his head, holding a hand up. “I can’t deal with that right now. I have to deal with what I might be able to control.” He lifted me back to my feet and got up, pulling his phone out as he went into the bedroom.

My knees shook so I sat on the toilet, but I could hear him through the opened door, “Nate? You know where Logan is?” A pause. “Find him.” A second pause. “He knows, Nate, or he will. She figured it out. She’s going to tell him.” He sighed, “Yeah, I’ll figure something out.”

I couldn’t move. It felt like an eternity before Mason came back. His eyes were bleak and he rested his head against the doorframe, holding my gaze.

“What are you going to do?”

“Wait.” He looked down, but I saw the pain. It flashed in his eyes. His shoulders were slumped down. His entire demeanor was defeated. Then he murmured, “I can’t do anything else right now.”

We stayed there like that. It seemed like an entire night passed us by, but then he came over and carried me to his bed. We didn’t bother with the blankets. He laid me down and then got beside me. We didn’t cuddle. We didn’t even hold hands. We just stayed there and waited.

That was the longest night of my life.

Logan never came back.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

We didn’t hear from Logan that night or the next day. Happy birthday to me. When I woke up, Mason was gone. He stayed away most of the day but came back in the late afternoon dripping from sweat carrying a basketball. Nate trailed behind him, plopping down at the table as Mason disappeared up the stairs.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” I frowned. What does one say in the aftermath of an earth-shattering revelation? Apparently, it was ‘hey.’ I stored that away for future use. “You guys were playing basketball all day?”

“Yeah.” Nate bent down, untied his shoes, and kicked them off. He jerked a thumb in Mason’s direction. “When he’s stressed, he doesn’t talk.”

I gritted my teeth. I was his girlfriend. I should’ve known that. “That’s good to know.”

“Yeah.” Frowning, he craned his neck. “Is Mousteff in there? Mason said we could eat here before that party tonight.”

“What party?”

“Dumbshit’s party. That one that your dad’s wife is catering for, you know, that guy?”

“Do you really not know his name?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Wanker.” Nate flashed a grin. “That’s all Logan calls him and Mason doesn’t talk about him. He doesn’t care, so yeah. I guess I don’t know his name. What is it?”