"This love is taking all of my energy."

❀

After being in the treehouse with him for another two hours, Mason tells me he has one more thing he wants us to do before I leave. Surprisingly enough, whatever he has planned supposedly has to take place at Jessica's house. So after repeatedly reassuring me that Jessica isn't home I finally oblige.

At this point, I consider myself an expert in self control.

First we head over to Freddie's house to pick up his car that he left the night of the party. I still get butterflies everytime he gives me his keys to drive his car. I can't help but wonder how many other people he trusts enough to drive it.

Whenever I think about that, not many people come to mind.

I park Mason's car in the driveway, take the key out of the ignition and mentally shame myself for being so weak. I know I shouldn't be at Jessica's house with him alone, but it seems I enjoy torturing myself.

He got here before I did since he was riding his motorcycle, so as I walk up to the house alone I continually remind myself to not give into any temptations.

I have about an hour to spare with him until I have to get ready for my date with Aiden tonight. Which means whatever Mason wants to do, he better make it quick.

As I swing the unlocked door open and step inside Jessica's house, I see that Mason is nowhere to be found.

"Mason?"

I look around, my head spinning side to side slowly and then it hits me that he must be upstairs in his room. Of course he'd be in his room of all places, how much willpower does this man think I possess?

I sigh, dragging my feet up the stairs until I reach his bedroom. I haven't been here since the whole mishap in the kitchen with him.. I remember him telling me that what was going on between us was nothing more than sex.

I'll never forget that moment- the moment my heart shattered into a million pieces.

Even thinking about it now doubles the apprehensive feeling weighing down on my chest right now.

It's been weeks since that day, and since then I've found myself getting sucked deeper into the enigma that is Mason. The longer I stay with him the more I wonder why I'm here in the first place, and the further it hits me that no matter what I do, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to escape it.

I gaze at the closed door in front of me, ignoring the chill creeping down my spine as I bring my hand to knock. Right before my hand hits the wood, the door opens revealing Mason on the other side of it.

"Isabelle?" He asks, his tone of voice coming off a bit surprised, "I was just about to call you, I thought you weren't going to come."

"Why did you want me to exactly?" I can't help but ask, suddenly finding me being here entirely inappropriate.

I know it doesn't make sense considering all the things we've been doing recently, the words exchanged and the skin that's been touched. But me being here in his room just seems so risky.

Am I worried that I might find being here difficult without eventually trying to rip his clothes off?

Without a doubt in my mind.

An emotion I can't decipher curls on the corner of his lips. He steps back, tips his head a little to the side motioning for me to come in. I swallow my apprehension, and step my foot over the threshold.

His room is as it always is- neat and tidy. The only thing I'm able to really notice right when I walk inside is his laptop resting right on top of his bed.

Heavy silence hangs over us and I look over at him, my eyebrow raised slightly as I question what the hell is going on.

He brings his arm upwards slightly to roam his hand through his hair before bringing it down, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I thought we could uh... maybe watch some Friends?"

I can't help but blink at him as my mouth gapes open a bit in shock that he dragged me over here to do something we once did in the middle of the night together.

Just the two of us.

"Friends?" I can't help but clarify, just to make sure I'm not hallucinating.

He shifts his body as if this conversation is making him uncomfortable, "Yeah, um, if that's alright with you."

"Sure, alright." I say, letting out a nervous chuckle, hoping I don't come off as tense as I feel.

I take small slow steps to his bed feeling a mixture of eagerness and nauseous all at the same time. "Do you remember what episode we left off on?"

He follows me over to the bed, "I already have it pulled up."

I sit on the bed, kick my shoes off and lay down flat on my back, staring at the ceiling. My eyes travel over to see Mason propped up on his elbows, his gaze focused on the screen.

"So this is what you had planned?" I begin, and he looks over at me, "For a second I thought you brought me here to-"

"Fuck?" He interrupts, and I stare blankly at him.

Yes, that's exactly what I thought.

"Can't say the thought didn't cross my mind after the shit you've been pulling lately."

"Oh yeah? And what about you? Do you make it a habit of invading girls' personal space?"

He smirks, "Not every girl."

I roll my eyes dramatically so he's able to see just how much I don't find him funny, while also attempting to bite back a smile.

"Just play the damn show." I say to him, pretending to lose patience.

For the next thirty minutes we lie in bed, watching the sitcom play in front of us. I make it a point for us to keep our distance, and after Mason relentlessly whines about it, he finally quiets down and honors my wishes.

I'm fine with him caging me against a wall, but being in bed with him is a whole other story.

I try as hard as I can to ignore the glances he sneaks of me, even though at times he would make it painfully obvious. I swear this man loves getting under my skin.

As the second episode goes on in front of us, I feel my heavy eyelids slowly start to flutter and I fight the urge to let them fall completely.

But then before I know it, everything goes black.

❀

I slowly open my glossy eyes and blink to adjust to the sleepy blur around me. The first thing I notice is that I'm no longer a few inches away from Mason. Instead my head is resting against his chest, arm slung over his torso while his is draped around my waist, our legs intertwined together tightly enough for me to feel the warmth radiating from his body.

What the fuck?

I tilt my head upward to find Mason staring down at me, a smile displayed on his lips.

"Hey, sleepy head."

I sit up abruptly, taken back by the change in position. The room looks different than it did before I fell asleep, it's gotten... darker.

Fuck.

I look around me, trying to quickly find my phone so I can check the time. It couldn't have been too late, my alarm would have gone off and woken me up before then. I mentally thank myself for setting it in the first place, I knew something like this would end up happening.

He watches me as I pat my pockets, lift up the covers and look over at my nightstand for my phone but unfortunately it's nowhere to be found. I look over at him, and out of the corner of my eye I spot it.

Only it's across from me, on the nightstand right beside him. Weird.

I lean over, reaching out in front of him and swiftly grab my phone. My index finger taps along the screen to turn it on but nothing happens. I do it again, and again, attempting to power it on but the screen remains black.

"What the hell..." I whisper to myself, confused on why this is happening.

My thumb presses down on the power button on the side, and in seconds the Apple logo appears on the screen. Why the hell is my phone off?

I look over at Mason, confused, and see that he won't even look at me. His neutral facial expression shows me that he's completely unaffected in my curiosity on why my phone was off.

And then it hits me.

"...Did you turn my phone off?" I slowly ask, hoping my suspicions are proven untrue.

"It wouldn't stop ringing."

My breath stills in my chest as I try to comprehend if I just heard him correctly.

Ringing?

Oh, no.

"It was Aiden." I say through my teeth, trying to keep my composure. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

He doesn't even need to answer, because the look on his face confirms it.

My phone vibrates in my hands and I look down at the screen. My eyes widen at the numbers in front of me, 8:17 P.M.

Betrayal, anger and regret course through my veins as I frantically stand up from the bed. I can't believe I let myself fall into another one of his traps. I knew me coming here was a bad idea since I had a date tonight, but I never imagined that he would go out of his way to keep me from it.

"What's your problem?" I hear him ask, and look up at him to find that he's already gotten off the bed.

"My problem?" I scoff, already raising my voice a bit.

"Don't be angry with me."

"I am angry with you! And I have a good reason to be angry with you because you can't do this!" I yell, and he takes another step toward me, throwing his hands into the air.

"Why not?" He almost shouts, and the blood boiling inside of me intensifies.

"Because I'm not yours!"

His face drops, eyes widening in shock briefly over the hard truth. I stand there, feeling everything that we've built, every little ounce of hope that we were getting somewhere crack piece by piece.

"You've made that perfectly clear to me all summer. God, even last week you were telling me just how much you don't care about me! And yet here I am, letting you crawl back into my life again!" I yell, feeling all the emotions I have tried so hard to keep in explode out of me.

I walk over to my shoes, quickly placing them on without losing balance as he speaks up.

"Letting me? No one forced you to be here Isabelle, you did that yourself! That is on you!"

"You're right, I made the stupid decision to think I could actually believe a word that comes out of your mouth. I was stupid enough to believe in the man who keeps making promises to me he can't keep!"

I watch as he clenches and unclenches his fists as his jaw tightens in front of me. I swallow the lump in my throat, my face tilting to the side in sadness as my voice softens.

"Turning off my phone? What the hell is wrong with you? You knew I had a date tonight, and you did this why? Because you were jealous?"

The frustration in him reaches its peak as he angrily threads his fingers into his hair, "What else am I supposed to be!"

"Nothing!" I shout back, "You're supposed to be nothing because you and I are nothing!" He looks at me with a flash of sadness hidden behind those green eyes of his, and all it makes me want to do is cry.

I have given so much to this man. I have forgiven him countless times, let him come back to me more than I should have and still he chooses to hurt me. I hate how he has no problem telling me how much he doesn't want me, but then keeps me from seeing anyone else. He makes me feel trapped, stuck frozen in place, unable to move.

Because I know he isn't right for me, I know he'll never learn.

And yet, I still feel so disappointed over it.

"And the way you're looking at me now," I begin, feeling tears fall from my cheeks, "Makes me believe that somewhere deep down you care about me. But you don't-."

"-Of course I do-"

"When? When have you shown me that?"

He flinches at my words and presses his lips into a thin line. The ominous silence hangs over us, threatening to suffocate me.

"Then why are you here, huh?" He takes a step closer to me and I step back, maintaining our distance, "If you think I don't care about you then why hell are you here!"

"Because I care about you!" I shout in a heartbeat, feeling my voice crack a little as tears stream down my face.

My lips tremble and I look down, trying to hide just how much he affects me. These were the moments I didn't miss; the days that start out like a dream, and end in a nightmare. He turned off my phone, keeping me from seeing Aiden and here I am shouting about how much I care about him.

If only I was strong enough to keep it all inside.

And for the millionth time today, I'm unable to read the expression on his face. He just stands there a couple feet away from me, his body still, eyes dark, every feature on his face alleviated.

"But I am not a toy for you to play with when you're bored or horny, Mason! You can't just manipulate me into staying with you and you can't fuck with my mind and my feelings in any way you please because it hurts me, which is exactly why I'm done!"

He grimaces and looks at me silently. His green eyes flicker back and forth between mine as he stares at me with a frozen expression, seeming at loss for words.

I wipe my fingers under my cheeks, trying to get rid of the tears soaking my skin and sigh deeply. I don't know why I'm still standing here. Why I'm waiting for him to say something, anything to me that can fix this.

"Well then, don't let the door hit you on your way out."

I know I should be angry with what he says to me. I know I should scream, and shout, kick, and hit him but I can't, because at this point all I feel is numb.

Like he pulled my heart out from my chest, and squeezed it dead in front of me.

So I decide not to say anything, I just storm out of his room, forcing myself to never look back.

The walk back to the Shake Hut where my car is is about ten minutes, and I try to go as quickly as possible to cut the time in half. Once I reach my car I quickly slide in, praying to the gods that the tears streaming down my face doesn't impair my driving ability. I keep replaying everything that happened in my head over and over again.

I don't know what to do to make my heart and my head catch up with each other. To let me make the right decision for once so I don't have to feel this way anymore.

I calm myself as much as I can as I close my car door behind me and walk up towards my house. My feet come to a halt when I see Aiden sitting on my porch holding a bouquet of lilies in his hand.

An unbearable amount of guilt creeps its way into my body, and just when I thought I was able to control my emotions, he looks up at me.

"Aiden, I... I'm so sorry." I make my way over to him, apologizing as tears fall from my eyes.

He stands up from my porch step, striding over to me, "Elle, what happened to you?" He asks me, genuine concern written all over his face, and it only adds to my guilt.

"I fell asleep, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I missed it." I try to speak as well as I can through the tears, breathing over my hiccups and wiping my cheeks.

His face falls, "You fell asleep?"

"I'm so-"

"You were with him weren't you? You were with him this whole time?"

There's nothing for me to say, no lie to come up with or apology to erase all the pain I've caused him tonight. I don't know what I'm doing. This night only reminds me of that. The guy in front of me is one I deserve, one who's loved me since as long as I can remember.

So why can't that be enough?

"Do you see what he's doing to you? How much he's changing you? He's trying to break us apart."

"Please don't be angry with me." I beg him, controlling the tears falling free.

"Of course I'm not angry with you. I saw how tired you were this morning, and if you say you fell asleep then I believe you. It's him I'm angry with, I shouldn't have let you go off with him when I knew he couldn't be trusted."

"Aiden, I-"

"I can't keep doing this, Elle."

No no no no no

"I can't keep sitting back and letting him do this to us- letting him turn you into him." He brings his palms up to hold my wet cheeks, tilting my head up to meet his gaze. "I would never make you change for me. I would never hurt you the way he has."

I shoot him a small smile, feeling grateful that he's here to lift my spirits when I need him.

"I don't want to play games anymore. I'm sick of it. It was stupid of me to tell you that I want to take things slow between us because I don't. I know what I want, Elle, and it's you."

"What-what are you saying, Aiden?" I breathlessly whisper, trying to decipher the true meaning in everything he is telling me.

Everything stills around me. It's so quiet that the only thing I'm able to hear are our slow breaths, and I try to focus on him and ignore the amount of hurt and anger I feel inside me.

I hold my breath, my own heart racing for what's next.

"Be with me, Elle. Be my girlfriend again."

A.N.

In NINE days I've gotten 17k more reads! I'm now at 107K reads and I couldn't be more happy. Thank you to everyone who reads my story, I appreciate each and every one of you.

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