Shattered Tears mxb

Chapter 8

Riley’s POV

I woke up Monday morning feeling like shit. I hadn’t seen Ruthie since she showed me to my room on Friday and I was hoping to have some company. I officially start my first day of college today and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I took little comfort in knowing that Leo would be there to guide me around the campus.

On top of that I keep dreaming about my night with Mason leaving me with a raging boner every morning. He’s been occupying my thoughts more and more lately which is really inconvenient.

The drive to university was beautiful. Giant pine trees surrounded the entire town. You could see the morning fog gradually disappear into the sunlight. It was quite the view. The university itself was pretty small and resembled a community college. All the students seemed to know each other and stopped to chat with one another.

I could see Leo waiting at the entrance along with two other boys and one girl. They were all gorgeous and tall too which seemed to be a pattern in this town. I felt like a midget among these over 6ft giants.

I parked my car near the front already getting stares from people walking by. I waited a moment trying to calm down my erratic heart rate. I began walking up the entrance feeling hundreds of pairs of eyes on me every step I took. You would think they never saw a boy in their life given how intensely they were staring.

“Hey Riley over here!” Leo shouted from the top of the stairs. When did I tell him my name? I could’ve sworn I never mentioned it.

“Um hi Leo.” I muttered still feeling the stares of everyone on my back.

“Alright enough staring people, get back to class.” His voice held a weird sense of authority that made everyone instantly listen to him.

“Thank you, I really hate being the center of attention.” I looked at his friends who were still staring at me with curiosity.

“I would get used to it because we haven't had someone move here in over 40 years.” The dude with ginger hair stated. He was smoking a cigarette slightly glaring at me. He sort of reminded me of Mason with his overly pissed off nature. I have never met him and already he doesn’t like me.
“Don't listen to him. His ma-girlfriend and him had a fight last night.” Leo explained. “Let me introduce you to everyone. The rude ginger is Garrett, don't mind him he's always in a bad mood. The brooding girl next to him is my sister, ironically her name is Sunny.” She rolled her eyes at him still looking down at her phone. “And next to her is Jason.”

Jason didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything around him. He glanced at me briefly but went back to staring at the forest line surrounding the campus.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” I said, ready to head to class and immerse myself in studying.

“Riley you give me hopeless romantic vibes,” Sunny commented moving closer to where I was standing. “Do you think me saying ‘And if flowers are what you want I will travel the world to find every last seed. I will grow you a lovely garden that will remind you of every second I spend thinking of you,’ is too corny? I need to be more romantic according to my girlfriend.”

That is pretty corny. “It might be a little, but words should be accompanied by actions. You should also be consistently romantic with your actions.”

Garrett stood up and crushed his cigarette. “People are always asking for so much. I shouldn’t have to prove I love her.” He commented full on glaring at me now.

“Fuck off Garrett I actually love and care about my partner. If she’s not feeling happy I want to change that.” Sunny rolled her eyes at Garrett. “Plus Riley here seems wise and like great company.” She smiled at me, linking her arm through mine.

“Thank you? ” I wasn’t sure how to respond. I’ve never had friends so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say or how to act, but it felt good to not be completely alone for once.

Jason got up with a pained expression on his face, “Not everyone can find someone like Sunny, Lily is lucky to have you.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“His boss with benefits dumped him after he developed feelings, and he’s been down all weekend.” It appeared Jason and I were on the same boat aside from the boss part.

“Anyways we should get to class. Let me see your schedule Riley.” Leo asked. I handed him my schedule not worried about finding my classes as I had a campus map printed out. “It seems you have the same classes as Sunny.”

“Yay! If you’re up for it we can go to the ice cream shop across the street after class.” She started walking with our arms still linked.

“Sure.” I said letting her drag me. Her long legs carried her way faster than my short ones.

“You know there is this festival we throw at our big family house, do you think you’d like to come?” Calling her home a big family house sounded quite odd, and how does one host a festival in a house? It didn’t really sound like my kind of scene.

“I'm not much of a crowd person.” I mentioned while sitting down on the desk. Jason was seated in front of me with his head resting on his hands. I felt for him because I feel the exact same way about Mason even though it makes absolutely no sense.

“You should come, it's really beautiful. Plus there's free food and music, I can also introduce you to Lily.” She kept on excitedly stating different reasons on why I should attend, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Maybe I could find Mason somehow. He seemed pretty rich and there might be something about him on google. I could go see him and tell him how much of a jerk he is.

“I’ll have to get Alph- I mean Mr. Mason’s permission first but-”

I cut her off, intrigued “Who is Mason?” I know there’s absolutely no way it was my Mason, but maybe just maybe.

Jason turned around at the mention of his name. “He’s our boss and he’s smoking hot.” Jason sighed, still looking gloomy. “We used to fool around until he got tired of me. If his dick wasn't so big I would probably be mad. Well that and he has a huge temper problem that I do not want to be at the receiving end of.”

My heart began racing as he talked about him. I know logically it couldn’t be him, but something told me that it was. I get the same weird strange feeling that I did when I got here, the one that made me feel like I belonged here. “Wow, do you have a picture?” My voice trembled slightly.

“No, but let me pull one up from google. He’s the CEO of a pretty important financial institution.” While Jason was looking for a picture I couldn’t stop the knot forming in my stomach. I felt like I wanted to puke.

“But yea he’s a great man, but he’s been through a lot with his family.” Sunny said. My heart broke a little hearing that. The thought of Mason being sad didn’t sit right with me.

Jason turned his phone around, “This is him, he’s hot right?”

It was the same Mason.