Chasing Daylight

Chapter Sixteen

I could go back to every laugh

But I don't want to go there anymore.

-Taylor Swift

Maria

The next day Becky was fluttering around excitedly as she got the house ready for homecoming. "Did you two go to homecoming?" I asked the boys as we ate breakfast.

"Not a chance," Max laughed.

"No we didn't," Mason said shaking his head. "I assume you went."

"Yeah, it was always so fun," I smiled letting the memories of my friends and me dancing the night away flutter through my mind. Thinking about my friends was hard though, so I quickly pushed the thoughts away. They weren't who I thought they were.

"Do you have pictures?" Mason asked and I nodded. I pulled up the photos from my senior year. I scrolled past the group shot and found one of just my sister and me. I had on a short black dress and my sister was wearing white, it was fitting.

"No you have to show us the embarrassing ones," Max chuckled as Mason stared at the phone. "Freshman year come on."

"Alright," I groaned. "I was so ugly though."

I pulled up a photo of my sister and me. I was in a hot pink dress with big glass mirrors and my sister was wearing a teal high low dress. We were both holding up peace signs and I couldn't help but cringe as I showed them the photo. You don't realize how much styles change until you look back almost eight years.

"That's more like it," Max smirked. Mason laughed shaking his head. "Look at those braces."

"Oh gosh," I blushed taking the phone away hoping that my face wasn't turning red. We finished breakfast and went to get dressed.

"Do you want to go on a drive?" Mason asked. "I can show you the town."

"Sure," I smiled. Mason told his mom where we were going and then I followed him to the car. I took notice as Taylor Swift played softly through the speakers when he turned on the car. At least I had converted someone.

"I like seeing those pictures of you from when you were younger," he said as we pulled out of the driveway. "You were so happy."

"My sister and I loved dances and so my dad pretended to love them too," I replied. "My dad used to come dress shopping with us every year. He could have dropped us off with his credit card, but he knew my mom would never have done that. He made a whole day of it. We shopped and got lunch and then when we got our dresses he made us wear them to dinner that night."

"Your dad sounds like such a good guy," he said seriously. "Honestly, I didn't know dads could be that good."

"There aren't many," I replied feeling guilty at the knowledge that Mason's was not great.