Marrying My Best Friend

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Mason Erwan Ashmore

10 years old Kitty has been lying on the grass for so long I was starting to get bored. She was there, lying, whilst staring at the sunny sky and she looked like a little kid who is lost inside the mall, finding her mommy. I knew there was something bothering her, so I quickly laid beside her, joining her to her little world. Keeping a straight face, I grabbed her hand and we both stared at the sky.

She stared at me, and my heart was beating so fast, pounding against my ribs it hurt. We were 10 years old, and here we were, holding hands like a couple. But, I hardly knew love at that time. She got back to staring at the sky, who was beginning to dim, revealing some stars.

The orangey sky was making me feel at ease, at a comfortable state. This time was rare, only peace filling the winds, letting us feel it. I looked at Kitty, a worried expression was plastered across her face, and it was making me feel unease. I leaned on my elbow so I was facing her, her eyes flickered for me in a moment, then looked back at staring.

I hesitated, "What's the problem, KitKat?" I was 100% sure that Kitty would lie, but I didn't care. I wanted to ask her, see if it she'd tell the truth, trying her.

"It's nothing," she mumbled, her lips twitched into a frown, but then diminished into a thin line. I remembered her telling me when we were 9 years old, she said she'd tell me everything. No lies. Just the truth. This was the first she'd lied to me. A sigh escaped my lips. On the corner of my eyes, I saw her eyes looking at me, though, I wasn't sure. Then she licked her lips then looked away. A cold wind ran pass me, and it gave me a chill running through my spine.

She lied to me. But I didn't care. If she didn't want to talk, then fine, it's okay. But she'd would have to tell me sooner or later. I wanted to help her. But she never did. She never told me. She stood up, followed by me. She brushed her skirt with her hands, taking off the dusts that were on her butt. I did the same, brushing the dusts on my butt and followed her when she started walking across the street. We were in Portland, Maine, and it was super cold.

We entered inside her house. Mrs. Paris was cooking for dinner and didn't give a damn about us, so we just passed her and I knew that pissed Kitty off. Her mother was supposed to say, "You're home, where have you been?", "Are you okay?", "Dinner's in an half an hour!" but nothing came out of her mouth. And I knew I was pissed, too. What type of mother was—is—she? But I ignored hair anyway and still followed Kitty. Once we were in her room, she shut the door gently as a sigh of frustration escaped her mouth.

I sat on her mattress, and she sat beside me. She put her face in her hands and I felt bad for her, for having a cruel, or bad, or whatever family. Same as me. I felt ungrateful because of my stupid father.

Silence filled the air, and I broke it, "What's really wrong, Kitty Evans Paris?" I used her full name as to emphasize what I've been dreading to her: answer, or plural, answers. She looked at me and her purple eyes were staring straight at me, her black hair was on her right shoulder. Her eyes were shimmering, but there was sadness in it. I wanted to take her in my arms, but I didn't. She grabbed my hand but jerked it away, as if she's realizing something forbidden.

She looked at anything but me, then bit her lips. "Really, nothing." I grabbed her hand and she stared at it, her eyes were twinkling with joy. I didn't know why. "I can't tell you, Mason. You'd hate me. I swear." I shook my head but she wouldn't want to tell me anything about her problem. I'd hate her? What did that mean? She couldn't tell me? Was it really bad that way she couldn't trust me enough to tell me about her problem she's been keeping all by herself? Was it her mother? No, of course not, it's about me, I guessed.

I can't hate her, she means too much to me, I thought.

I let her to keep it. Someone came into the room and it's Lily, her evil sister. They looked—look—like twins. But Lily has chocolate eyes like her father, Mr. Paris. Dark hair like her mother. She looked at me, arching an eyebrow, her arms were crossed across her chest. She told me and Kitty that dinner would be ready in 5 minutes and told us to get down now. Lily had a big crush on me, but I didn't like her. And I never would. She hated—hates—Kitty very much to the point she wanted her gone. I talked to her once but she didn't want to make amends with Kitty because of their stupid fight because of... me. Lily said Kitty has always been with me ever since. She was extremely jealous. Kitty just nodded and stood up, smoothing her white skirt.

We both went dowstairs and saw they were already eating. Kitty sat on a stool, beside her father. And I sat beside Lily, because she insisted. What made me really mad was they were eating without bothering waiting for us. But I just made myself cool, not wanting to make a scene because I knew Kitty wouldn't want that. She doesn't want violence. She'd say, "I really hate violence. Stupid Mars. Or Ares. Or any Gods of War." And she'd make me laugh in order to stir my mind away from a fight or violence. Then we'd both run whilst laughing.

Lily has been pushing my limits ever since I sat beside her, she'd lean down and show her flat chested chest on me and I'd just ignore it, but she'd take my hand and would give it a squeeze. I never like her. She was becoming a total slut, considering she's 10 years old, like us. But she's older than me and Kitty, at least two months before us. Yes, Kitty and I have the same birthday. I'm older than Kitty. When I was born, it was 9:34pm. When Kitty was born, it was 10:11pm. I looked at her birthday certificate, and so did she. That's why we know.

When I was done eating, I excused myself because I didn't want Lily putting her filthy hands all over me, and I just sat on the couch, waiting for Kitty to be done. Kitty would take a glance at me and I'd just give her an approving thumbs up and she'd smile and would go back to eating. Then Lily would shoot her an evil glare and would give me a lusty smile. Yeah, I don't like you, I thought.

I was watching TV when someone took a seat beside me, I quickly hugged her because I knew it was Kitty, and gave her a squeeze. Only it's not Kitty, it's Lily. I quickly pulled away but she took my arm, grabbed it and kissed me on the cheek. Kitty saw it all and she stared at us in horror.

Oh no.

She ran upstairs and I got out of Lily's grip and ran towards upstairs, into Kitty's room. Ignoring the stares of the Paris'. She was hurt. And it was because of me. No, not because of me, but because of Lily. I guessed she thought I was into Lily. But I wasn't. And like I said before, I would never be into her, mark that, even the sky refuse to shine. When I entered her room, she was watching on her TV, gripping the sheets, covering her eyes. I knew she's been crying, so I quickly took a seat beside her and smoothed her hair. That's the first time I smoothed her hair, combing her hair using my hands.

We stayed just like that, watching TV, ignoring the world. We swore to ourselves that only Kitty and Mason would be best friends forever. We wouldn't add some friends to our list. Only Kitty and Mason. I just chuckled because she was pouting at me, her eyes were puffy and red but were now smiling. Everything she does is super duper cute, I thought.

After we watched, we took a sleep and it made us very comfortable with each other.

• • •

We were playing hide and seek. Me, Kitty, Lily, Giovanni, Rico, and Macy. I was the one hunting them. I saw Giovanni hiding in a bush. Not that I was cheating, I just—accidentally—saw him going and hiding there. So I hunted him first then I got back on the tree, where I did my counting 1 through 100. Then I hunted Lily, who was hiding underneath his father's car. When she saw me, she pouted and got out of the car and I ran towards the tree. I pretended not to know where Lily was, because I didn't want her to be the hunter. In fact, I wanted us to hide together. She was on a branch of a tree, next to tree where I did the counting. She was giggling silently. I could tell. I hunted Giovanni and Rico, who were hiding behind a big oak tree. I heard them laughing so I didn't hesitate going there, I just boo'd them. Lastly, I hunted Lily and she was laughing hysterically, saying I was an idiot not finding her because, according to her, she was in a sight. But I just shrugged it away, dealing with her teasings. I liked—like—looking at her like this. Happy, not being bother by some—shit—one. Someshit. I called them like that, especially Kitty's family.

When we were done playing, Kitty and I headed in an ice cream store. I chose Double Dutch, and she chose Plain Chocolate. We were laughing on something her mother had said. She was telling the story with an amusement in her eyes.

"It was really funny!" She said whilst laughing, a bead of tears was on the corner of her left purple eye. And I brushed it away and she stopped laughing. I didn't know what I was doing because I continued brushing her cheeks and then pulled it away quickly because it was starting to get on my nerves. I remembered the blush creeping up on my face, flush rising up inside my chest. I just laughed it off and she gave me a smile. Then we got back to eating our ice creams.

"Hey, remember? We're going to play Play Station!" I said, remembering our play day. She stood up and grinned at me. Her ice cream was already eaten. "Oh, you're such a heavy eater. You little piggy." She only giggled at me and ate the ice cream cone. I ate mine, too, and we both ran towards my house. We headed to my room and she placed herself in front of the TV, setting up the Play Station. Today, we were going to play 'Tekken'. Yeah, we're both badass. I have a 52 inch TV that is pinned against the wall. My room walls are painted blue with white stripes. A queen size quarter-round bed is pushed on the corner.

We played Tekken. I chose Jin and she chose Xiao Yu, the asian—chinese—girl who is good at Kung Fu, or whatever. She managed to beat me twice just by making a combo on me. In our third game, I beat her using Nina. Payback time. We were both laughing because we were moving whenever we move our characters. She was giggling when she manage to combo kick me and I'd kick her. She'd pout at me and would try to beat me again, as a payback. But she couldn't anymore. So she said, "This is boring. I want a new game."

"Aw, poor Kitty. She wants to change the game because she kept losing." I mocked her, and she rolled her eyes at me. "How unfortunate of you."

I was laughing real hard when she rummaged my cabinet, searching for other games. So I ran towards the cabinet, pushed her away, and closed it. I guarded it. She narrowed her eyes at me whilst crossing an arms across her chest. "Get out of there, Mayonnaise."

"No, Kitten. No!" I burst out laughing. She pushed me hard and when she couldn't. She let it go and went outside of the room. That's so Kitty Evans Paris. I followed her and when she wasn't in sight. I heard her giggling. She was outside with... Giovanni! The guy had a big crush on my best friend, Kitty. I trudged towards them, ignoring the look Lilly has been giving me. I grabbed Kitty without much hesitation and walked till our feet ache. "What were you doing back there?" I hissed.

Kitty glared at me. "What is your problem, Mason?" She gave me a look and then sigh. "Giovanni was flirting me. So I flirted back. It's pretty awesome, you know." She giggled and I glared at her. She never flirted. Until our little misunderstanding. I scoffed and she said, "What?"

"You don't flirt, Kitty!" I burst.

"You're jealous, aren't you?" She teased me, arching an eyebrow. Of course, she, Kitty being Kitty Evans Paris, was finding this clearly amusing and spectacular.

I gaped at her, "What? Ye— no!" Blush was going its way towards my cheeks, spreading apart and putting a tint of pink on it.

"Oh, Mayonnaise, mayonnaise. Don't be jelly." She said to me, her eyes were twinkling with happiness, as if teasing me was making her happy. Which I didn't doubt. Because it clearly was. "You know I love you very much, right?"

You know I love you very much, right?

Damn right. That's when my breath hitched, like I find breathing hard. Like, I couldn't find some oxygen to inhale for me to breathe. There were some butterflies doing somersaults, flip-flop, tumbling inside my tummy that made me want to burst out giggling. Her words kept replaying inside my head, like it has been left on a replay. I turned around because I kept blushing. My face was redder than a tomato.

That's when I realize something... I like her.