Inferno Part 3

~101~ Changing It Up

Josie's POV

I go downstairs, and Mason is printing something out on his fancy mini printer. I go to the fridge and get a soda, trying to ignore him.

"Have a seat," he says coldly as he motions to the chair that has a pillow on it.

"I don't need the pillow"

He shrugs. "Suit yourself. Sit down."

I sit down, and immediately regret not taking the pillow. My butt is flaming so hot, I swear I'm about to catch the wooden chair on fire.

He watches my face hard, and silently hands me the pillow. I swallow my pride and take it, instantly feeling better.

He hands me an insane amount of forms, and gives me a black ink pen.

"Get started."

"Mason, you're wasting your time. I'm not going to go."

"And you're wasting your breath. Fill it out now."

I decide that there's no point in fighting, and I fill it out. All I have to do is bomb the auditions if they decide to contact me.

He sits at the table grading, and I sit at the table working on my application, for a long time. Suddenly, he sighs and puts his red pen down.

"If Dylan would've stayed, would you have even given Aiden the time of day?"

"What kind of a question is that?" I hiss.

He gets a faraway look as he stares at the wall.

"I promised him I'd take care of you while he was gone. I'm not doing such a great job," he says as he stands up and goes into the other room.

That night, once he FINALLY approves my essays, I hand him the insane stack of papers and go to bed. This sucks ass.

The next morning my alarm goes off at 4am. I get up and go to the bathroom, starting the long job of straightening the crazy.

Around 4:30, Mason comes in, wearing only pajama pants. He squints and rubs his eyes, trying to adjust to the light.

"What are you doing?" He asks, his voice sounding funny as he tries to wake up.

"Running a race. What's it look like?"

He blinks several times, sniffs, and stares at me for a second.

"Why are you up so early, straightening your hair?"

"Because I want to."

"I have a hard enough time getting you up at 6:30."

I ignore him as I spray more heat protectant on my hair.

"Josie....."

I look at him in the mirror, and I can tell he wants to say something. Finally he shakes his head. "I'm going back to bed for an hour or so. Why don't you too?"

"I'm good"

"It's not picture day today, right?"

"Nope"

He nods and scratches his chest.

"Ok. Don't burn yourself," he says as he leaves.

Don't burn myself... how dumb. I use curling irons every single day.

Once it's time to leave and I go downstairs, he looks at me hard.

"I had no idea your hair was so long," he finally says as he gently touches some hair.