"Mason what the fuck are you doing to your room!?" Jessica yells as she blew open the door to Mason's bedroom. I can feel the anger radiating from her body as she took in the complete and utter mess that was inside. I stood there in shock, my eyes scanning the room. There were glass shards scattered all over from the broken mirror where his dresser laid before he knocked it onto the floor, the wooden drawers hanging out inches above the hardwood floors. His broken floor lamp lay beside the mess in pieces.

Mason had barely broken anything and still the room looked like a crime scene. I force myself to look up from the mess to find Mason pacing back and forth in the room. He was angry, I could tell by the way his hands were shaking as he repeatedly slid them through his messy hair.

"My room?" He laughed mockingly, throwing his head back to take another sip of the Jack Daniels that was gripped tightly in his hand.

"You think I wanted any of this?" He throws his arm out beside him and looks all around the room. "You think for a second that I actually give a shit? That I actually give a fuck about this."

He knocked the lamp off his nightstand with such an angry force the glass shattered in an instant.

"Or this." He said and flung the half filled bottle against the wall in front of him. I jumped slightly at every violent impact.

He looked like a completely different person, his eyes were nothing but black. His muscles grew tense as he cracked his knuckles, his blood boiling with every second that went by.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Jessica yelled, storming into his room and pushing him forcefully, her hands pounding against his chest.

He took both his hands and wrapped them around her wrists, his eyes narrowed as he clenched his teeth together.

"As far as I'm concerned, everyone in this fucking town can go to hell." He said, eyes never leaving hers. He dropped her wrists, and walked out of the room, never even looking at me.

My head follows his, thinking he might turn around and say something but he doesn't. He simply walks down the stairs, and slams the back door behind him on his way out.

"I can't deal with this." Jessica said, throwing her hands up as a sign of defeat. "I can't deal with him. Not right now. Come on, let's go." She said, walking towards me.

"I think I'm actually going to stay." I say, surprising the both of us.

I know Mason is angry, and I'm sure I'm the last person he wants to home alone with. But for some reason I think leaving right now will only make him feel worse.

I've never had violence in my house, so I've never been in a situation like this. But I have felt so angry before where all I wanted to do was yell, scream, and destroy everything in my path.

When my father died, and my mother left I shut out almost everyone. I lost more relationships than I can count. I know how it feels to be so angry with the world that all you want to do is shut down.

"Elle, Mason's clearly unstable. You shouldn't be alone in the house with him." Jessica says, eyes filled with concern.

"He won't hurt me." I blurt out. Although Mason and I don't have the best relationship, this is the one thing I know is true when it comes to him. I know he seems to frighten everyone else, but not me.

Jessica thinks about this for a moment before speaking up.

"If something happens, you'll call me?" I nod my head to assure her and she lets out a sigh.

"Be careful." She warns, before hugging me goodbye and heading downstairs towards the front door.

I understand why Jessica is worried about me staying alone with Mason, but I know it's what I have to do. I feel my palms starting to sweat, and I rub them against my leggings.

Hopefully I don't regret this later.

I head down the stairs and slowly walk out the back door towards the backyard. Even though it's dark out, it's still pretty warm outside which I'm thankful for. I've always loved this about summer nights; the clear blue skies and the comforting warm breeze that comes along with it. It was the perfect night, and here I am spending it alone with Mason.

One of many things I love about Jessica's house is the backyard. The large pool centered in the middle was surrounded by beautiful flower beds. There was a gazebo to the left of it, in front of the large stone fire pit that to this day remains unused. The thing about Jessica's house is that even though it's very big and welcoming, there's this lonely feeling of being here you can never escape.

I dart my eyes towards Mason sitting on the edge of the lounge chair by the pool taking a whiff of the cigarette in his right hand. I watched as he quickly inhaled the smoke, taking it in with ease.

"Since when do you smoke?" I asked, as I was now standing right beside him.

"Since when is it any of your fucking business what I do?" He answered, his voice tense. He made sure not to make eye contact with me as he inhaled a puff of smoke once more.

"Just leave."

"Mason, I-"

"Leave." He growled. "Why don't you go somewhere where you're wanted for a change."

I can see the irritation growing inside him, so I keep quiet. I can't deny that his words don't affect me because they do. Whether it's cruel or benevolent, his words always have an affect on me.

"You know, after all this time you still don't understand how little you mean to me. You try so hard, and yet I still don't want to talk to you, I don't want to listen to you, and I sure as hell don't want to be living under the same roof as you. I mean out of all of Jessica's friends, she had to pick the most mediocre of the bunch to sleep down the hall from me." He huffed.

I feel tears start to form from my eyes and I blink them away. It's clear to me now how Mason feels about me. He doesn't care about me at all, this whole time I knew but still his words hurt more than I imagined they would.

I have to remind myself that he's hurt. That's what this is, isn't it? When I was in my darkest years I lashed out on friends just like what he's doing. But still they showed me patience.

Patience.

"You're displacing." I say.

"And you're reaching." I watch as he takes a sip out of a metal flask in his hand, and continues to turn his head away from me.

"Just leave." He says, this time with no anger. His words were so soft, I barely heard it.

"No," I quickly respond, and take a step closer to him.

"I want you to leave me alone." He takes another hit from his cig, this one harder and longer than the rest.

"Fine," I say, he almost looks surprised that I agreed. "After today I'll leave you alone, I won't bother you, or try to ask anything of you. I'll stay out of your way if that's what you want."

"Oh yeah, and what's the catch?"

I thought about it for a bit, wondering what I'd say next. There were about a million things I wanted Mason to do for me, but at this moment I could only think of one.

"How about you give me those cigarettes?" He finally looked up at me, his eyebrow slightly arched with confusion. It was a simple ask, but I know it's more difficult than it seems.

"I could just buy more."

"I know you could, but I'm hoping you don't." A few moments pass before I speak up again, "They're only a temporary fix-."

"Why do you care what happens to me?" He interrupts, standing up from the chair before walking towards me.

"Because you're my friend." I reply, and he scoffs. "And because I know what it feels like to think the whole world is against you." His eyes connect with mine.

"You expect me to believe a Princess like you has something to be mad about? I'm sure everything goes your way, with your perfect little life."

"My life is far from perfect." I respond. We're now inches away from each other. Sometimes I forget that Mason knows so little about my past. But at the same time I wouldn't want it any other way.

"Is this about that phone call?" I ask. He huffs at my question as his eyes grow wide.

"You know nothing-"

"You're right, I-"

"You want your cigarettes?" He asks as his hand digs into his front pocket, pulling the full pack of cigarettes out. "You go get them." He threw the pack with such a violent force behind me, his arms so fast I felt a breeze on my face.

"Now leave." He steps closer to me.

"No," I put my hand on his chest, stopping him. The feel I get from such a slight little touch makes my hand tingle.

"I'm not leaving you." My words make his eyes soften, his jaw loosens up as his muscles relax. I continue to stare into his warm green eyes for a few more seconds before he looks away, taking a deep breath.

I look at Mason's chest, and my eyes run down his body until they get to his hands.

"You hands," I say, and take his left hand in my right, holding it up for me to see. They were all cut up, blood starting to dry upon the skin.

"Let me clean this for you." I say, looking up at his eyes.

"I'm fine-"

"I'm not taking no for an answer." Mason sighs at my response, and since he never replies, I take that as a yes.

❀

Mason's leg lightly brushed the side of mine while he continued to sit on the edge of the bathtub. He sighed impatiently as I opened up the First Aid Kit I retrieved from my bathroom. I'm surprised he didn't argue with me about this, especially since minutes before he was going on about how little he cared for me.

Funny, he flat out admitted he thinks of me as mediocre, and here I am trying to bandage him up.

This is the first I've been in Mason's bathroom. It was cleaner than I thought it would be, bigger too. I'd always assumed that guys were supposed to be messy, but Mason was the exact opposite.

When I had walked in I noticed how little he filled the shelves, and now that I think about it, his bedroom is the same. No pictures, keepsakes, nothing from his past, and nothing to prove that he's planning on staying long enough to put things here for the future.

I have so many questions I want to ask him, but I know it isn't my place. I can feel the awkward tension there is between us, but there's also a different kind of tension in the air that I feel as we are inches away from each other in his bathroom. It's a feeling I don't quite recognize.

The words Mason spoke keep replaying in my mind. I know he must be going through things, but that doesn't excuse his behavior. I meant what I said earlier about leaving him alone after all this, he's done nothing but show me countless reasons on why we shouldn't be friends. I tried to get along with him for Jessica, but I'm starting to feel like it may not be worth it.

I didn't want Mason to feel alone in whatever he's going through, so I stuck by him. But I've had enough. I shouldn't be treated like this.

"Of course you have a First Aid Kit, why am I not surprised." Mason said as he watched me take out a few disinfectant wipes.

"My mom packed it." I lie, knowing Amy was the one that put it in my bags. Ever since becoming a nurse, she's been 10x more paranoid, even when it comes to minor cuts.

I take Mason's hand in mind, and hold up closer to me towards the light. The bloody gashes looked painful, but it didn't seem to affect him very much.

"You don't need to do this." Mason said, as I started rubbing the damp disinfectant wipe along his skin, slowly wiping off the blood.

"Consider us even." I replied, looking him straight in the eye for a moment before turning my attention back onto his hand.

The blood wasn't coming off as easy as I anticipated since most of it has already dried. I brush the wipe a little harder against his skin, while still trying to be as gentle as possible.

"You know you really shouldn't be punching mirrors. You could break your hand." I say. The wipe I'm using has already gotten blood all over it, so I toss it aside and grab another.

"It'll heal." He says. He doesn't seem the least bit interested in my advice, which isn't very surprising. Mason always does what he wants.

I can feel his eyes watch me as I clean off his cuts while his hand rests on mine. Every single move I make, his eyes follow.

What feels like a few minutes pass in complete silence. The actions that took place moments ago are still racing through my mind. I can't get over how different and violent Mason seemed; how his temper can boil over that quickly. I can tell he still isn't in the best mood, but he's definitely not as angry as before. I wonder what the switch was to make him calm down so quickly, because whatever it was, it worked.

"I'm sorry about earlier." I speak up, looking up from his hands, "I didn't mean to pry, I guess I was just trying to show you that I'm here for you."

"Why?" He asked me, his voice calm and back to normal.

"Because I care about you." The words slipped out of my mouth before I could let them. My eyes move back to his hands as I slowly start to apply ointment onto his cuts.

"And because you're Jessica's cousin, I know it's what she would want." I finished, and he continued to watch me, my fingers gliding over his spliced open skin along his knuckles.

I'm interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing next to me. Mason's head turns toward the sound as I swiftly pick it up, and look at the name on the screen.

Aiden.

I notice the expression on Mason's face change as I hit the ignore button and shove my phone into my back pocket.

"Trouble in paradise?" He asks me, as I let go of his hand. I shake my head at his question and toss the two wipes in the trash beside me.

"Then why did you ignore his call?" I didn't really have an answer to his question, I just did.

"He'll probably want to meet up or something-"

"And you don't want to?" He asks me, suddenly seeming intrigued.

"No it's not that, it's just-"

"You're not thinking I want you to stay, are you?" I can see how defensive he's getting in his voice, and I stand there shocked that he actually assumed I declined because of him.

Why did I ever think that Mason and I could get along for a few moments at least? I know who he is, I know he doesn't care about me and everything is just a game to him.

"Is it so hard for you to believe that me and Aiden's relationship has nothing to do with you?" I shoot back.

"Relationship, huh?" Of course that's the only part he understood. He stands up from the bathtub, his body hovering over mine.

"That's not what I meant-"

"It's hard for me to imagine that he's capable of giving it to you the same way I did." His eyes continue to stare into mine as the words roll off his tongue.

I feel my anger starting to rise as he yet again, compares Aiden to him. I scoff at his words and roll my eyes.

"Don't make fun of him, Aiden is twice the man you'll ever be." I say back, crossing my arms against my chest.

His jaw tensed at my words as his demeanor changed into a consuming amount of anger. I could see it in his eyes. I gulped at the intensity of his stare, but never broke contact.

"Well you would know about that, wouldn't you? So tell me, how does it compare? Or let me guess, he's too afraid to touch you? I would be too if I knew I was the last person who fucked you."

His words send me fuming. I hate the way he talks to me like I'm some easy to get whore. I don't understand why I keep doing this. Every single time we talk he makes me feel this hatred I've never felt towards anybody. But the only thing that makes me forget about all of that, is the feeling I get when his skin touches mine, when our eyes connect, and for a split moment I forget about everything bad he's ever said to me.

But not this time.

"How do you do that?" I ask, "Act like you don't care about anyone, or anything. Act like you don't want to feel anything?" He pauses for a moment from my words, taking in everything I said.

I know he assumed for me to snap, or yell at him. But instead I want him to feel guilty, I don't want to stoop down to his level. I won't give in.

"Does it ever occur to you that maybe you have no idea who I really am?" His words send shivers down my spine, as his eyes darken while they're looking into mine. I sucked in a harsh breath, while trying to maintain my anger.

"You should go," he continued. "At least one of us should have sex tonight, and I don't know about you but I'm thinking Sofia might be the one to call. She really knows how to use that body of hers."

It's taking everything in me to keep calm. Of course he would bring Sofia into this. The thought of Sofia coming over to do God knows what with him is starting to make me feel sick. I can only imagine the things they do in his room, a few feet away from mine.

The thought of her touching him, kissing him, pleasing him, makes me feel a little more hurt than I would like.

Who am I kidding, they'd be perfect together. They're just what each other needs.

"You're right, I should go meet up with Aiden. See what he has planned for tonight." I keep my gaze at him, holding my ground.

His breathing starts to get heavier, and I watch as his hands tighten into a ball, turning whiter every second.

"Well good luck with that," he says, and looks around the room before he angrily walks past me, heading towards the bathroom door before saying one more thing.

"Don't forget to clean up your fucking mess before you go." 

A.N.

Today I just saw that I'm ranked number 42 in romance holy shit! 

Thank you to everyone taking the time to read my story :)