My eyes scan over the face in front of me and suddenly my heart feels like it's beating once again, as if life has just been restored back into me just from his body standing so close to mine. 

He looks different, his dark hair is tousled around on the top of his head like he's been running his fingers through it. His face is masked with no emotion, the same as it normally is, but this time there's something obscure about it.

I hate how aware I am of him. How I notice every little change in his physical appearance that ties between his emotions. Most of all, I hate that even though I should be angry with him, I can still feel the electrical spark between us that I keep trying to diffuse.

He presses his lips together, his brows knitted as he waits for my response.

"What? No." I scoff at his absurd accusation.

He looks at me like he's about to call me out on my bullshit, and I swear the longer his eyes look into mine the more I feel my knees start to go weak. I haven't been this close in proximity to him in five days, and I can't deny the fact that it's been killing me.

Being around him makes me feel a different kind of hurt than I feel whenever I'm away from him. It's like a painful reminder that the man in front of me will never be mine.

"What do you want, Mason?" I dare to ask as I fold my arms across my chest and glare towards him.

"I take it by your tone that you're still mad at me." His tone is mockingly derisive and he looks at me like a code he can't decipher.

"Are you forgetting everything you said to me? Because I sure haven't."

"You're being emotional, it isn't necessary."

My heart sinks even further and I blink at him, stunned that he has the audacity to treat me like this after everything we've been through.

That he deliberately treats me like I'm a child, or someone he can just bark orders to without facing any repercussions of his own.

"Oh so now how I'm feeling is an inconvenience to you?" I let out a short humorless laugh. I can see the look of clear irritation cloud over his face and I continue. "This is what you wanted isn't it? To push me away? To make me want nothing to do with you? Well congratulations, you got it."

Either I see him wince at my words or I'm just imagining things.

"I don't get what the big deal is. You didn't actually think I had feelings for you did you?"

His words leave me stunned and I feel all the color drain from my face. Embarrassment swarms through my body, and the weight on my chest that I have managed to rid myself of has returned, only adding another thirty pounds to it.

I feel my body going numb, not because of my feelings towards him but because the thought of him having feelings for me sounds completely preposterous to him.

He studies the look on my face and I watch as every tense muscle in his body relaxes. Just as the realization hits him that I did in fact believe that it could have been possible.

"Isebelle, I-" he begins, but we're both caught off guard by Jessica's voice closing in on us.

"Elle, did you finish?" I tear my gaze off Mason and turn towards Jessica who's now standing side by side to Aiden.

I hear Mason huff beside me, "Yeah-yeah, I finished." I say, my voice a shaky mess.

The hurt I feel is trying to break free and I do everything in my power to keep it hidden under the surface. My heart feels achy and heavy in my chest and I swallow the lump forming in my throat.

"Great. Corey and I were thinking of maybe going back to the club tonight, you in?"

The club sounds like the last thing I want to do right now, all I feel like doing is curling up in my bed with my two favorite men: Ben and Jerry.

They never seem to cause me this much pain, maybe I'll just swear off all men forever and stick to those two.

"I can't, Aiden and I have plans tonight." I remind myself outloud and I can see Mason's head snap towards me before slowly looking at Aiden.

My stomach feels as though it's in my throat from the thickening tension between the two that Jessica seems to be oblivious to.

Everytime they're together they have their backs stiffen upright as if they're both trying to size up one another. I know Aiden's reasoning behind it all, but why does Mason reciprocate?

"He can come with." She looks over at Aiden with pleading eyes and I shoot him an apologetic smile.

"A club? Aren't we too young?" The disinterested look on his face says it all.

"Yeah but who cares? Elle will show you the ropes, it took her awhile to get used to it too. Well, until the alcohol kicked in." She playfully nudges my shoulder and I stand there suddenly feeling ashamed.

"You went?" Aiden asks me, surprise clear in his voice and I can't tell if he's disappointed or not.

"Just once." I say, already feeling myself growing defensive.

"So what do you say?" Jessica waits for Aiden to respond, instead he continues to stare at me with an unreadable expression all over his face.

"You decide." He motions toward me and Jessica snaps her head over to mine, hands folded together in front of her begging me to say yes.

I turn my head over, surprised that Mason hasn't said a word throughout this whole conversation.

But when I look at where he just was just standing I notice him gone, I turn my head back looking out onto the street and watch as he gets into his car across from us.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I return my focus back to Jessica and Aiden who are still waiting for an answer. Maybe going out and having a few drinks isn't the worst idea. I haven't been drunk since the last time I went to the club, and if there's one thing I could use right now, it's a shot of tequila.

"We're in."

❀

I hastily apply clear lip gloss to my lips before going over myself in the mirror one last time. The tight black bodycon dress feels snug against my waist but I chose to ignore it; the suffocating feeling of my black ankle strap heels feels much worse.

Although the dress I'm wearing this time doesn't show as much skin as the last one I wore, it is most definitely shorter. I'm afraid to even bend down because of the high risk of someone getting a free show. But, it's the only suitable dress I could find in Amy's closet.

Luckily she's the same size as me, or else I would have been screwed.

I really need to buy more club outfits, I feel like Club X might be a repeated location for us this summer, and my stomach twists at the thought of it.

"Where are you headed off to?" I turn around away from the mirror and find Sylvia standing in the middle of my doorway, eyeing my outfit closely.

"Oh, just uh, out." I give her a short answer and add some hairspray into my hair to keep my freshly curled curls locked in place. I thread my fingers through, trying to soften them a bit before double checking that I unplugged the curling iron.

"To a club I assume."

Once I see the iron unplugged I return my focus back to her. Her arms are folded across her chest and I let out a tired groan.

"Please spare me the lecture."

"I have no lecture to spare. I was a teenager once too, you know."

Her words only confuse me. I remember the first night she was here she got mad that I went out with Aiden for a couple hours, and now she's standing in front of me telling me it's okay to go out clubbing?

I must be imagining things.

"You're a lot like her when she was your age, so full of wit and stubborn."

My stomach churns at Sylvia comparing the similarities between me and Nora. She hasn't said much about her to me, but I always knew she would eventually.

"Yeah and look how she turned out." I mutter to myself and my eyes grow wide when I realize that it was much louder than I intended. I clamp my hand over my mouth, feeling guilt crawl it's way back into my body.

"I'm sorry." I apologize, "I didn't mean that. I don't want to argue tonight."

A few seconds pass before she responds, "Me neither."

I can see how tired she is just from looking at her, her face is pale and eyes are droopy with exhaustion.

It occurs to me that I wasn't the only one who lost someone important. I lost a mother, but Sylvia lost a daughter. I can't even imagine the pain she must have felt not knowing where her own child is, if she's safe, if she's okay, happy.

It opens my eyes to this whole new person filled with such resilience and strength.

"How are the renovations coming along?" I attempt at making conversation until Aiden arrives.

"Renovations?" She questions, her eyebrow quirked up with confusion written all over her face.

"Yeah, for your house." I remind her and her mouth parts open as she nods her head.

"Oh, right the uh, the renovations." She takes her eyes off mine as she continues, "They're coming along."

"Well I can't wait to see it once it's done. I could use a vacation or two." I lightly joke, and all she does is slowly nod her head at me, not saying a word.

My phone chimes on my bed and I walk over to pick it up and look down at the message displayed on the screen.

"Aiden's here."

"Aiden?" She asks me and I turn around back towards her. "Your boyfriend?"

"Ex." I say firmly, making it known that Aiden is only a friend. "Anyways, when Amy comes back from work, tell her not to wait up for me, I'll probably get home late." I tell her and I walk out my bedroom door, not waiting for a response as I make my way out the house and towards Aiden's car.

After I hop inside his car I look over to find him eyeing my outfit just as Sylvia did earlier. I tug on the hem of my dress which is already riding up my thighs and find myself growing more self conscious by the second.

"You ready?" I ask him and he tears his eyes off me and towards the road before he starts his car and drives off.

The first couple minutes we sit in silence, and I can't escape the thought that he's angry with me. I tap my fingers against my bare thighs, growing bored of the awkward tension in the car as I keep my gaze focused out the window.

"So you've uh, been clubbing before?" He finally speaks up and my thoughts questioning if he's disappointed in me is confirmed. "When?"

"About two weeks ago."

"With who?" He keeps his eyes on the road and even though he's trying to hide it, I can see where he's going with this.

"Jessica, and we met up with Corey and his brother Felix once we got there."

I feel myself growing a bit irritated with his questions. I don't like being interrogated and I just wish he'd ask the question I know he's dying to.

"Was Mason there?"
Bingo.

"Yeah he was. We didn't go with him, it was just a coincidence." I answer honestly, and he presses his lips into a firm line. "But he's not coming tonight, it'll be just us I promise."

He takes his eyes off the road for a split second to look over at me and shoots me a smile. It doesn't reach his eyes, and it's gone almost as quick as it came.

He reaches his hand over the center console and intertwines his fingers with mine. My body tenses once our skin makes contact and I look down at our hands locked together.

At the beginning of the summer this act alone would make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world, and now I feel as though all the air is being sucked out of the car and I'm finding it hard to breathe.

I use my free hand to roll down the window, close my eyes and breathe in the fresh air from outside.

This is going to be a long night.

❀

Once we pull into the parking lot, Aiden's eyes immediately widen when he sees exactly what club we're going to. Mortification floods his face and I lean further back into the passenger seat, watching his mouth gape open in horror.

"Wait, we're going to Club X?" He asks me, disgust laced in his voice.

Did I not mention that?

"Yeah, is something wrong?"

"Isn't that some sort of sex club?"

"Those are just rumors." I dismiss his thoughts and can't hide that the look on his face isn't the best thing I've seen all day. I can see just how much he's hating the idea of going to a club tonight, but who knows, he could end up enjoying it if he'd just give it a chance.

After he parks we make our way up to the front to find Jessica and Alec already outside waiting for us. She gives the bouncer Felix's name, and he immediately lets us in, just as he did last time.

"They're not going to check our I.D's?" Aiden asks me, and I shake my head.

"Corey's brother works here, so we just tell them we're with him." I respond and walk through the double doors.

A drop of excitement spurs inside of me from being here again. It might have to do with all of the memories flooding back to me of the last time I was here. I remember all the drinking, dancing, even all of the chaotic things towards the end of that night too.

But even with all of that, one thing I do remember is how free I felt being here.

It's the complete opposite of how I feel now with Aiden's body clinging onto my side. I feel him wrap his hand around mine again and am glad he isn't able to hear me groan because of how loud the music is.

We make our way through the sea of intoxicated people, trying to find Corey.

"It smells like sex in here." Aiden says loudly to me, scowling at everybody around us.

Well at least some people are having it.

I think to myself just as Jessica yells through the music, "They're in the same spot, come on!"
They?
I follow her through the crowd, Aiden tugging on my arm through every step of the way until we arrive at the same VIP section as last time.

I stop in my tracks when I notice the one person I prayed not to see tonight.

The one person who melts my insides from giving me a single look alone.

Mason.