ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ ɴɪɢʜᴛꜱ

𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚈-𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

After the song had finished Liam and Josh had come over to join them, swiftly followed by Ben and Harri, with Dec and Jack in tow they all danced away to a few more songs before Mason had slipped away from the group, tilting his head for Sophia to follow him which she did.

They were lucky that everyone had drank a little bit too much as well as the fact that people were so used to seeing them together as well to not spark any questions as to why they were heading outside together.

On the walk outside he had filled the time with basic questions about the night and Sophia laughed at his impressions of some of the boys, especially Dec's dancing to uptown funk. She told him about the fiasco Liam had when he said about bringing a date, having forgotten that he had actually asked 2 out of the 3 girls he is currently sleeping with, which none of them before tonight were none-the-wiser off. However, after both arriving at his at the same time he is now here dateless and has been blocked by both the girls.

"So yeah that's why he's here alone" Sophia laughs out as she finishes telling Mason.

Mason controls his laughter before he speaks, feeling the winter breeze almost still the second they step out onto the veranda "So how comes you're here alone then Soph?" he asks raising an eyebrow as the words leave his mouth.

"Didn't feel the need to bring someone" she replies back, which is right. She didn't want to have to aimlessly find someone to fill the position of her date for the night when that's all they would be.

Just filling a space temporarily.

"Could say the same thing to you?" Sophia continues as she thinks how Josh had showed her a photo from an early birthday night out for Ben this month, a blonde slotting in on Mason's arm, with his hand gripping tightly upon her hip. She was sure that he would be bringing her tonight, which was probably why she went to so much effort.

"Nope no one for me" he replies back, smiling at the flash of something in Sophia's eyes that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Was it jealousy that he may have been here with another?

Or was it a vulnerability that she had asked him something she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer to?

"Besides I know what I want" Mason lets slip as he looks Sophia up and down slowly, taking her in, feeling the liquid confidence surge through his veins as he has her finally alone.

"Mase we've spoken about this" Sophia starts to say, as his hand touches her hip lightly, reaching round to her back and pulling her body slightly closer to his. She finds herself smiling even though she is trying to stay strong, she really wishes he didn't have that kind of hold over her.

"I know but if we like each other then surely that should be enough" he replies back, standing up firmly on his feet, towering slightly above Sophia as he looks down at her fluttering lashes.

"But it can't be" she said as firm as she could, yet her voice wavered somewhat with the fact that not even she believes the words that leave her mouth.

Mason's spare hand comes up to Sophia's jaw, tilting her head so she looks at him fully "Maybe if you could stop being so stubborn you would see that we could actually be together" he smirks as she runs her tongue over her teeth, trying to surprise the smirk she could feel surfacing.

"My job Mase.." she starts to say as his finger comes to cover her lips, shushing her from continuing.

"I think you use your job as excuse Soph" he responds as she rolls her eyes at him, finding this new found cockiness, that she was yet to see tonight, a mixture of annoying but mostly a turn on.

"You know as well as I do that you are just scared to actually get with me" he smirked as he continued, his finger moving from resting over her lips to tracing her lips "you know that this could be something between us and you don't want to admit it to yourself" he raises an eyebrow as she just smiles at him slightly "what was the words you used, young star boy?" his smirk gets bigger now as she shakes her head, his fingers lightly brushing along her cheek "So you don't wanna be a cliché, you care too much about what others will think about you"

Mason is completely right Sophia thinks. She does care what others will think, she doesn't want to give someone the option to say 'I told you so' when it all goes wrong. Because in her head this can only ever go wrong.

She isn't meant to end up being the girl that gets it all.

She isn't going to be the one to be swept of her feet by some prince charming in a number 19 Chelsea kit and whisked away to another life that she doesn't belong to.

She is the girl who almost gets it all, who happily sits on the side-lines and watches as others achieve all their dreams.

She's the one left at the end.

He deserves to be with someone who can give him everything and more. A girl who is his equal, a girl who is so undeniably beautiful that she turns the heads of everyone when she walks into the room and that wasn't her.

However for Mason Sophia was exactly what he wanted and more. She was perfect to him but he couldn't get her to see things through his eyes. So, he decided to take a different tactic, without pushing her to do something.

"But all I am saying to you is if you actually took a chance with me instead of being so uptight" he smirked as Sophia laughed, knowing if anyone else had said it they would have been in her bad books "you would see that this between us could be something special" he gestures between the two of them with the hand that was once on her cheek, before moving it back to her waist "the sex is already insanely good so surely that's enough to sway you" he squeezes her hips slightly as she giggles.

"Just think about it Soph" he smiled as he looked deeply into her eyes "I know I could make you happy, but I will happily wait until you realise that yourself".