You Will Always be Our Little Girl

☆seven☆

Mabel's POV

I spin around in the chair and sigh again, "let it out, Mabel."

"Do my parents really not care about me?"

"Trust me, Mabel, they care about you."

"But your dad was right." I stand up, "they wouldn't have locked the door if they knew I was out."

"Mabel, you walked me home at 8 pm and didn't return until 2 am. They probably assumed you were staying here." I scroll through my phone through all my text messages, and I see one from my dad. I open it and sigh, "what is it now?"

"My dad asked where I was and he'd wait for me to return home.." I shut off my phone and plop onto the floor.

"See? You just didn't show up at an appropriate time." Mason puts down his book and crawls over to me on the floor, "they care about you, Mae."

"Mason?"

"Hm?" He looks over at me, "why were you so scared?"

"I don't stay up late, Mae." He looks up at the ceiling, "that's not it, don't lie to me." He sigh, "I'm not lying to you, Mae." We sit in silence as he gets up, "I'm just trying to keep you safe, Mae. It's my only job, and it's getting harder. I'm going to sleep."

"Wait, what do you mean 'keep you safe?'"

"I mean...sometimes you...you- uhm.."

"I'm perfectly fine by myself, Mase." He sighs, "Mabel, I don't think you notice everything."

"I do notice. I notice when you come to school with bruises on your face, saying you tripped. Like, how the hell does that happen!?"

"Mabel, be-"

"No, Mason! I want to know why that is? If you're protecting me from your parents, I assume you I'm- ngh-" I open my eyes in surprise before trying to push him away, "M-Mason-!" He turns away, "leave it."

"Mason you can't just kis-"

"Goodnight, Mabel." He shuts the door in my face and I feel my face warm up-

What the actual hell...

- - -

I kept my eyes on the ground as we walked in the silence, thank the lord there is is something called headphones. He still wore the big bulky ones, while I wore earbuds.

"Mabel!" I look up at take out my headphone and look around to find my friend, Akita. I wave at her and smile. I look over at Mason before I race over, "Hey, Mase?" He takes off his headphones, still not looking directly at me, "have a good day." He nods, "you too."

I race over and Akita grabs my hand and races me towards Daiki and everyone else, "hey, love." Daiki wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses my cheek. I smile awkwardly, "hi." I glance over at Mason who's sitting down on a bench and I sigh.

"What's up with you and that guy? You guys walk together every day." I look up at my other friend, Izuki, "oh, Mason? We just have the same home route."

"I was going to say, he's kind of weird..."

"Yeah, I heard that for his birthday, his dad and mom just went out to get drunk." I look down at the ground, "no way." Akita says.

It's true. For Mason's 13th birthday last year, his parents went out to drink with some friends. So instead, he came over to my house and we watched movies all night. Well, up until my dads said we had school the next morning.

"Yeah, you sure do hang out with him a lot, babe. I seen you walking with him last night. What's that about?" I look up at Daiki and smile, "him and I are friends, I just wanted to make sure he made it home safely."