Fallen Crest High(101)

Becky peeled her head back in laughter and I struggled to keep from joining her.

He shook his head at us. "Are you drunk?"

More laughter peeled from beside me and I nodded as I bit my lip.

"Hell, you're probably having more fun than most of us." He sank down next to me and ran a hand through his hair.

I watched the movement and wanted to do the same. A wave of need rushed over me, but I breathed out and remembered we were in public. I tried fanning myself.

When Becky had stopped giggling so much, she sat up with glazed eyes and squinted at him. "Who's your girlfriend?"

I jumped next to him.

She frowned at me.

Mason sat stiffly beside me. He didn't look at her.

"Hello!" She reached over me and waved a hand in front of his face.

He looked away and took a breath. I felt the movement when his arm brushed against mine.

She fell back and heaved a sigh. "I can't believe it. I'm your best friend, he's going to be your brother, and he ignores me too. Everyone ignores me. I'm more beneath people than I realized."

I looked at her. "You're not beneath me."

She gave me a tight smile, but spoke to Mason, "I know you can hear me and I know you're not being cruel to me because of Sam, but who's the girlfriend?

I've never seen her before. She seems nice."

Mason jerked his gaze to mine. "Can you call your mom? Find me later to give me my phone."

He tore out of there and Becky shook her head as she watched him leave. "I must be really drunk because I know I shouldn't have talked to him like that, but I don't really care right now."

I shrugged and dialed my mom's number. "He's an jerk. You can talk to him however you want to."

Becky gave me a blinding smile. "Thanks, Sam."

I gave her one back. "Anytime." And then my mom's hysterical voice sounded in my ear and I cursed when I pulled it away. That was going to hurt. As I rubbed my ear, I moved away. Music, laughter, and the general shrieking sounds of a party were going to make this phone call last longer than I wanted.

When I found a semi-quiet corner, I lifted the phone again. "Hi, mom."

"Samantha!" She heaved out. "You're okay. I've been so worried. You have no idea. I thought about calling the cops."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because of what they did to me. I can't believe you didn't help me, but then I thought maybe you couldn't. Maybe you were too scared of them."

Alarms went off in my head and I sat back on my heels. "Are you kidding me right now?"

She got quiet. "Samantha, you were there. You saw what they did to me."

I sighed into the phone. "Mom, are you drunk again?"

A shadow moved over me and I spun around, my heart stopped for a second, but my shoulders dropped when I recognized Mason. He grinned and moved forward to curve a hand around my waist. As he bent close to listen in, he brushed against me and his breath caressed my cheek.

"Sam, are you there?"

I choked out, my throat full with desire, "I can't deal with this, mom. I'm fine.

We went away to Nate's cabin. I told you about it last night, but you were so crazy and drunk. I suppose I'm not surprised you didn't remember." I waited a beat.

Mason's hand started to rub circles on my hip.

I bit out, my voice rushed, "You haven't been saying any of this crazy stuff to anybody else?"

There was silence on the other end.