Protecting Zoey

Chapter 10: Homecoming

It only took fifteen minutes for the driver to get them back to the house, but the ride felt much longer than that as the deafening silence was only broken by the occasional sob from one of the girls. When they pulled in front of the house neither of the girls tried to move off from Mason, the driver anticipating his issues jumped out and opened the door for him.

"I'll pay you through the app once I get inside with them," Mason told the driver as he fumbled his way out of the car.

"No rush, I can see they had a rough night." The woman said with a kind tone as she put her hand on Mason's back steadying him. "Have a good evening."

Mason carried both of them up the path after exiting the car, which was a massive feat in and of itself made all the more difficult with the girls alternating which one would strangle him more. It wasn't nearly as difficult as when he carried them down from the apartment which was strange since he had to bring them downstairs. Mason was fortunate that Zoey decided to pull her phone out and unlock the front door when they arrived otherwise, he would have had to find a way to juggle the girls and his phone while already feeling exhausted.

He made his way slowly through the dark hallway and into the living room sitting down on the center of the couch with both of the girls still thoroughly attached to him not bothering with the lights or the TV. The girls continued to rotate through who would cry at which time causing Mason's anxiety to skyrocket as he simply held them not knowing what else he could possibly do.

After a few minutes, the girls finally started to calm down and loosened their grips enough for Mason's breathing to return to normal as well. It was Mason who finally broke the silence as they sat in the darkened room.

"Are you two going to be all right?" Mason asked in as calm a voice as he could, still unsure of anything that occurred before his arrival at the apartment and desperate to know more.

"We're fine," Zoey replied leaning back enough to look into his eyes before forcing a small smile. "You showed up just as they were starting to..."

Zoey stopped abruptly as a chill ran down both the girls' spines in unison as they recalled the incident again. Things could have ended very poorly for both of them had Mason not shown up in time and they both knew it. Zoey separated from them and stood up forcing an extreme smile across her face.

"Food, I'm hungry. You two must be hungry as well, right? Right?" She rambled quickly before walking out of the living room.

Mason attempted to move but Olivia held him tighter for a brief moment. "She needs a few minutes, cooking calms her down, just let her process things for a little bit."

"Okay, and what about you?" Mason asked as she finally pulled her head out of his shoulder and forced a small smile of her own. "Do you need anything? Something to help you process?"

"Can you just hold me for a few minutes?" She asked as she put her head back on his shoulder.

"That sounds easy enough, I think I can manage it for a while at least." He said with a kind chuckle shifting his grip slightly and holding her tighter. "I really hate to ask, but can you tell me what happened tonight?"

"Like Zoey said," Her voice shook a little as she began recalling the events from earlier yet again. "Nothing ended up happening, you showed up just after we got there, and Jason put his hand on my shoulder."

"Why were you two there in the first place Olivia?" Mason asked with more frustration in his voice than he intended. "You two could have talked to me about going somewhere you know? I'm not a prison guard, I'm a bodyguard."

"We didn't think you'd let us go." Olivia's entire body shook as she spoke. "I just wanted to spend some time teasing Jason, he had been flirting with me all week at school and for whatever reason, he decided to invite that other guy instead of being alone like he said he would be. Things got weird and you showed up like a superhero from a movie."