Blue Letter Night

17. Beth is angry

I was standing with Macy and Mrs. Harmon when the intercom sounded though the gallery.

"Will the family of a Mason Carter please report to the front desk,"

Macy and I gave each other a look before finding Anne, Max, and Machelle in the crowd walking towards the front desk. Macy mumbled a few "What has he done now"s and when we found our way through the sea of people, everyone was already at the front desk.

"What's going on?" Macy asked the large man in the security uniform. He sighed when he saw me and looked sorry for what he was about to do.

"On account of your sons inappropriate behaviour, we are asking you to leave the building," he replied. My eyes went wide.

"Sir, are you sure there is no way we can stay?" I pleaded.

"I know your paintings are here miss, but there's nothing I can do," he replied. He pulled a punch covered Mason from behind the desk and walked us out the door. I walked in front of the group, stalking towards the car. My heart was pounding in my ear and I wanted to cry because my eyes were stinging.

"Beth! Hey, Beth," Mason was running up beside me. When he caught up to me and walked by my side I crossed my arms and looked at him with pure rage.

"What did you do Mason? Just tell me what was important enough to get me kicked out of my first exhibition in a real gallery," I chocked down my anger for a second, because maybe, maybe it was a mistake and really we shouldn't have been kicked out at all. I looked at him hard until he was uncomfortable under my gaze and looked down at the ground. He sighed.

"You can't get too angry though, okay?" He pleaded.

"Too little, too late,"

"I... I punched Sebastian in the face," he confessed. I stopped dead in my tracks, and turned my full body towards him. I could hear the rest of our groups shuffling foot steps on the gravely concrete stop, and for a second it seemed like everything was quiet.

"I can't believe you did that," I said harshly.

"He was being an asshole and— and," he was stuttering and tripping over his words.

"You have no idea how much this meant to me Mason" I told him, "it meant the world to me and you threw it away for a sucker punch?"

"I wasn't thinking— and I know this was important to you," he tried to defend.

"Clearly you weren't thinking! And you clearly didn't see how important it is, and god forbid you let it happen smoothly, you have to mess it up!" I walked away and left him standing there.

The ride home was a silent one. Anne sat between Mason and I in the back. Keeping my eyes skyward, I felt Masons eyes on the back of my neck.

Maybe it was immature to ignore him like this, but he was always getting mad at me for acting mature anyways. Every part of me hurt with anger and disappointment, not only for myself, but everyone in the car. Mason had embarrassed all of us, and he had ruined my chance of being there at the opening with potential college scouts and buyers that I needed for college.

Even though our time at the gallery only lasted for five minutes, I was exhausted. Anne followed me to my room, shut the door behind her, and flopped down on my bed.

"Scoot over," I told her. She shuffled her body in a worm like fashion closer to the wall so I could lay down next to her.

"So this was a disaster," she said.

"Yep," I sighed. There was a beat of silence, I started to pick the patterns out from the texture on the ceiling, my eyes finding faces and flowers.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to make it such a mess. Mason I mean," Anne said suddenly.

"I know who you mean. And I know he didn't mean to," I told her.

"I get it was a big deal, but if he didn't mean to why are you upset at him?" She asked me softly. She was drowsy and her tone was hushed and mumbled. I rolled into my side, my back towards the wall.

"He may not have meant to ruin anything, but he didn't think before punching Sebastian, he wasn't considerate enough to think about the consequences, not just for himself, but for me and the rest of us too," I told her.

"I guess I never thought about it like that,"

"He ruined my chances of college scouts seeing me there tonight, potential buyers. And Anne," I paused and wiped my tear with my hand quickly, "I wanted my Mom to be proud," it hurt to admit that, but it was true and it hurt so badly, like a twist in my gut. Resting her hand on my shoulder, Anne fell asleep, and though I was not alone, I felt lonely.

I laid on my side for an unknown amount of time, thinking about things I forgot as soon my trance was broken by a quiet knock on the door. I ignored it. It was 9:30 and if it was Machelle she would just walk in. I crossed my fingers, closed my eyes, and wished it wouldn't be Mason. There was another knock, and still, I stayed on my side. Anne was deep asleep by now and there was no waking her up.

"Hey," Masons voice called out in a hushed tone from the other side of the door, "Beth I know you can hear me," I took an exasperated breath in and slowly removed Anne's hand from my shoulder then stumbled towards the door. Mason was stubborn and probably wouldn't leave. Opening the door just enough so he could see my face, I saw Mason, changed out of his punch covered clothes and into pyjamas.

"And I know that you know that I'm trying to ignore you," I told him harshly.

"Look I'm sorry," he started.

"I'm not going to do this right now, I don't want to wake Anne," I opened the door a bit more so he could see Anne sound asleep on the bed.

"Then just come to the living room with me please," I felt a tinge of guilt rising in my chest, he looked as worn out as Anne and I. But instead I swallowed the guilt.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told him starting to close the door.

"Beth," he said. But the door was already closed. I sighed and could hear him sigh from the other side of the door too. Anne looked like a corpse, so I pulled off her shoes and put a blanket over her before getting ready for bed myself.