All Because Of Him

sixty seven.

  "Mason... Where are you taking me?" I ask him, my eyes focusing on the road ahead of us.

We've been in the car for about ten minutes now, and I swear the whole time I've been clinging onto the edge of my seat.

He's still managed to remain on his best behavior, but the look he's been giving me the whole ride is enough to put me at my worst.

His elbow is resting on the centre console, his body leaning back a bit as he drives with his one free hand beside me. And here I am, thanking the gods that all the windows are rolled down because if that wasn't the case I would have suffocated from all the heat in this car by now.

"Freddie's." He answers simply, looking at me for a second before turning his attention back onto the road.

"But we've already passed Freddie's." My nerves spike when I see his lips slowly curve up. "We're not really going to Freddie's, are we?"

He makes a right turn and it dawns on me that we're now in a residential neighborhood. I wait for him to turn back around but he never does, instead he only keeps driving forward. I look around us as he does so, taking in the houses as we pass by them.

What the hell is going on?

He remains silent, and my anxiety only grows when he pulls into a parking spot right beside a two story house. I can feel his eyes on me as I take in my surroundings, fully examining the array of picturesque homes around me.

The house right beside us strikes me in particular, especially once I narrow in on the front window facing out onto the street and notice just how many people are inside.

My eyes widen at the sight and I whip my head back towards Mason once I realize exactly where he's taken me.

"He uh..." He begins and clears his throat, "He sort of invited us to this dinner he's having tonight with his family."

I nearly choke on my own breath from what he's telling me. I can hardly ever get Mason to acknowledge me when we're out in public with other people, and yet here he is trying to take me out to dinner with Freddie's entire family.

I barely have time to wrap my head around all of it because he opens his mouth to speak again.

"We've already missed dinner. But I figured we could stop by, have a couple drinks maybe?"

He looks at me, his body tense and I get the feeling that he's asking me for permission.

I sink further into the passenger seat. When I told Mason that we shouldn't see each other anymore, I never imagined the first time we do he'd take me to something like this.

I know he told me he'd try, and I can see that this is just one of those instances. I know he has issues, issue's he still hasn't opened up to me about. And I don't want to immediately shut him down the first time he actually shows me some change.

He has a good heart, he's shown me multiple times today in the last hour alone.

He's just injured; bruised by whatever's happened in the past.

And all I want is for him to see what I see and that I'll be there to guide him every step of the way, even if I shouldn't be. So I swallow my nerves, take a deep breath, and look back up at him.

"Alright, let's go inside." His brows quirk, like that was the last thing he expected me to say.

"You're not mad at me for not telling you?"