Chapter Four

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Mason.

“Why are you asking me? You’re the one meeting them.”

“Oh yeah,” I giggled, clutching onto his arms and lying my head on it.

“Don’t worry,” he said, stroking the top of my head. “You’ll do perfectly fine, trust me.”

“And if they don’t?”

“They will,” he assured me. He saw the doubt shining in my eyes. “But on the very rare occasion that they don’t, it’s their loss.”

“You’re not going to leave me?”

“I already told you; you’re too important for me to ever let you go. I would never just leave willingly, Soph.”

I smiled and nodded. “Okay, Mase. I believe you.”

“Good. I haven’t given you a reason not to.”

I smiled. “I know you haven’t.”

A small beaten apartment building stood before me, well, barely. It looked like it could crumble any minute now. Some of the shutters on the windows looked like they were just hanging on by a hinge. They reminded me of bats hanging upside down. Strangely though, I liked it. It had character.

“I don’t understand why you don’t stay with your friends?” I sent him a questioning look.

He shook his head. “I’d rather be on the streets. They’re not really a safe group of people, very unpredictable.

I lifted an eyebrow doubtfully. “Yet you’re taking me to visit them?”

“It was your idea. You seemed over the moon when I told you we could see them today.” I blushed. “And besides, if anything goes wrong, I could probably take them.”

“I didn’t know you fought?”

“I normally don’t, but I’m not completely helpless. What do I look like to you? A wallflower?”

I laughed, shaking my head feverishly. “You? A wallflower?” I sputtered. I couldn’t picture Mason as a wallflower, but if I could, I’m sure it’d be a sight to see.

He pressed a button towards the bottom of a panel and was buzzed in almost instantly. I guess they really didn’t care who was coming in and out of the building. Or they were expecting him, but I don’t see how he could’ve told them ahead of time—he was with me.

Mason opened the chipped, black gate that was separating us from the evils that might lurk inside. The outside had their monsters too, but you could easily run. In a building, not so much.

The first thought that crossed my mind was that the inside was just as shady as the exterior, if not more. It was a painted a dark concrete color—the paint chipped and a few choice words spray-painted on. The elevator to the side of the building had an out of order taped to it—order spelled wrong. The stairs looked ancient and unreliable, like it would snap in half and we would all fall down to the basement. Part of the railing was broken, just loosely hanging by a tiny sliver of wood. The stairs were like a representation of the building.

I instinctively clung to Mason, which made me feel more secure. “If you want to leave, just tell me,” he whispered, rubbing the small of my back soothingly.

I nodded. “I’ll be fine.” And that’s what I was going to keep telling myself. Maybe if I said it enough, it would happen.

We climbed exactly two flights of stairs. The hallways smelled musky. The dim and poor lighting made the narrow hallways seem even thinner, scarier. He led me to a door labeled ‘413’ in golden lettering. The shininess was fading, leaving a more dull and rusty undercoat.

Mason knocked three times, pausing for two seconds before the next knock. The entire time my heart was rapidly beating. I took a deep breath, readying myself to meet his friends. I hoped they approve.

Mason squeezed my hand. “Don’t be so nervous.”

I plastered a smile on for him. “I’m not.”

He scoffed lightly and rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”

Before I could come up with a not-so-clever retort, the door swung open. We were greeted with a whiff of smoke that was coming from the cigarette of a tallish guy with ashy blonde hair. He looked older than Mason, maybe around twenty-five. He had some heavy stubble going on. For someone who had availability to a shower, he sure could use a bar of soap or two. There was a ring of dirt around his neck.

“Ah, Mason. What’re you doing here?” He looked around for any eavesdroppers and said in a low voice, “Need another job?”

Mason shook his head. “I’m just coming for a visit, Drew.”

The guy’s eyes averted to me. “Who’s the chick?”

“My girl.”

He looked impressed and a little shocked. “You have a girl?”

‘Don’t look so surprised.”

“Andrew,” he introduced himself.”

“Sophie.” Sophia just sounded so formal. And judging from their looks and from what I’ve seen so far, they weren’t formal people.

He nodded in acknowledgement. Andrew turned around and shouted, “Hey guys! Mason brought us a friend.”

I heard the clattering of footsteps. They sounded like elephants being herded. I could usually tell how many there were, but they were just too loud and clunky for me to even try.

Soon enough, four heads popped up beside Andrew’s. The one standing to the left of him looked like Andrew; perhaps they were brothers. The other two standing next to them shared similar characteristics, but not enough for me to determine if they were related or not.

The one to the very right, leaning against a beat-up wall, wolf whistled. He had light brown hair that was arbitrarily chopped—bits were short and long. There was no pattern or style put into that haircut, at least none that I’ve seen before.

I felt Mason’s hand give me a squeeze, as if asking me if I was okay. I squeezed back, letting him know that we were in this together.

“Well if it isn’t Mason,” a gruff voice muttered, almost mockingly. He had a cigarette in his hand, as well.

“And he brought us a toy,” another one growled, licking his lips. He had extremely dark hair and tattoos covered every inch of his body.

My eyes widened and I looked to Mason for guidance. He smiled warmly, almost lovingly, at me. Once he faced towards his friends, his face turned stony. “She’s not for you guys. She’s mine, only mine.”

I kind of loved this possessive side of Mason. It was way sexy to me. Oh, goodness, did I just think that? What was this boy doing to me?”

“Oh, look, she’s blushing,” the one who wolf whistled piped. “She’s obviously thinking R-rated thoughts about me. What, Mason? You can’t tame her womanly beast?”

“Shut up,” Mason snapped.

“Would you stop, Chris? You heard him. This one’s his,” the last one said forcefully.

“Maybe he wants to share,” the tattooed one suggested hopefully. I grimaced at the thought, but knew that Mason would never let such a thing happen to me. I had faith in him.

“She’s not for sharing,” Mason said, pulling me closer, showing them that he meant business. “I thought I made that clear.”

“Alright, man. We won’t touch her,” Andrew said.

They invited us in. I watched Mason converse with his friends, occasionally answering a question that was thrown my way. I liked observing and listening to their crude banters. It was nice to see Mason interacting with people. He seemed like an anti-social to me.

“Hey, Mason? Will you go grab the lighter off my dresser?” Andrew asked, although his tone was saying that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Mason seemed a bit reluctant to go, but after being called ‘whipped’ by Mr. Tattoos, he left the room, leaving me alone with the horny, rowdy boys.

“So, babe,” Andrew started. “Are you homeless as well?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You could leave here with us and be our live-in girl. You know, do the cooking, cleaning, and the more-than-occasional special favors, if you know what I mean,” he said suggestively, waggling his eyebrows.

“I’ll be okay. I’m actually staying with Mason,” I told them, beaming.

He elbowed Chris. “Isn’t that cute? Mason has himself a little girlfriend.”

Chris guffawed, slapping him on the back. “I bet they do it every night. Dirty freaks.”

Mason came back, thankfully, and handed off the lighter to Andrew. “We should get going. Bernie’s going to be wondering where we are.”

I nodded, standing up quickly, finally happy to be out of the place. After saying the required goodbyes and having the door slam shut, Mason asked me in a low voice, “They didn’t hit on you, did they?”

“So what if they did?”

“I’ll kill them.” He looked completely serious.

“Don’t!” I laughed. “I don’t want you taken in for murder.”

“So they did?” he asked stiffly.

“Don’t be so jealous, Mas. You’re the only one I have eyes for.”

He let out a breath and pulled me in for a hug. “Good.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, looking adoringly into his eyes, feeling the butterflies starting to flap their wings. “I’m so glad to have you,” he murmured kissing my forehead.

“Me too,” I agreed, nuzzling closer to him.

A few moments later, I pulled away and looked at him curiously. “So what are we?”

“What do you mean?”

I gestured between us. “What are we? A couple?”

“Do you want to be?”

“It depends.”

“On…?”

I grimaced. “On your answer.”

“Okay. We can be a couple.”

I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“You’re supposed to ask!”

“Miss Sophia, will you be my girlfriend?”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

“You, devil, you,” he chortled, tickling my sides.

I swatted his hands away. “Stop it!”

“Give me a more appropriate answer!”

“Yes?”

“Don’t be so unsure of yourself.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

“There we go.”

Who knew such a spectacular moment could happen in such a…peculiar place? It would be memorable, that’s for sure.