Then There Was Maverick

Chapter 14

He was here. But why? And how did he find me? As I looked at the familiar face that had recently become difficult for me to read and understand, I once again felt the butterflies in my stomach. The same ones that I had felt throughout my early teenage years. I could feel my heart rate quickening as his eyes raked over my overly exposed body.

"What are you doing here?" I stammered, "You need to leave."

"Why would I do that?" he retorted, "I just got here, honey. Thought a little lake time would do me some good."

"Oh, so you just had to come down here this weekend, of all weekends," I rolled my eyes and let out an aggravated breath.

Turning off the faucet that was attached to the other end of the hose, I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around my body and rushed past Mason and into the house. I attempted to shut the door, but the presence of Mason's foot served to be a hindrance to that idea.

"Katie," the boy called as he followed after me, "Can we please just talk about this? About everything? I think it would do us both some good."

His words sparked a sudden burst of anger and sadness inside of me, forcing me to stop in my tracks and turn to face him from my position on the staircase. As I looked down upon the boy in front of me, I recognized the same look of innocence that he used all throughout our childhood to play our parents like a fiddle. At one time, I might've found that quality admirable, but now it was something that only angered me more. I couldn't figure out what angle he was trying to play at, but I knew that I didn't want any part of it.

"I think you've said all you needed to," I stated firmly as I fought back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes, "I think we're on the same page now."

Over the past few weeks, I had become one of the most emotional people I have ever known. I've never had this problem before, and I didn't know why it was happening now.

"I'm going up to my room, and I'm going to take a shower," I explained, "Please, do us both a favor and show yourself out."

After I shut and locked the bedroom door and closed the curtains over the French doors, I turned the shower on to its hottest setting and began to remove the soaked bathing suit from my body. While waiting for the water to warm up, my mind wandered back to Mason and his intentions for coming here this weekend. Had he really just wanted a break, or did he know that I was going to be here? The only person that knew I was here was Max, and I was certain that she wouldn't've told him where I was. Letting out yet another frustrated sigh, I grabbed my phone from the counter in the bathroom and texted my roommate: "You didn't happen to accidentally tell Mason where I was, did you?"

"NO! Absolutely not! Why do you ask?" she responded immediately.

"Um he just showed up at the lake house," I typed frantically.

I saw the three dots appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, but the disappeared just as quickly as they came.

            As I opened the door and stepped into the steamy shower, all of my thoughts began to fade to the back of my mind. I stood under the showerhead for what seemed like an hour, just letting the water wash over me. I stared at the wall in front of me and noticed all of the cracks that adorned the tiles. This house truly was a time machine. My mom grew up spending her summers here as a little girl, and she met my dad on this very lake. I guess they just followed in suit with us and continued the family tradition. As I reached up and traced the cracks in the wall, a soft smile began to tug at the corners of my lips because I knew that when I moved on from this world and onto a better life, someone else would look at these cracks and know that another person had been here before them and, in a way,  I would be remembered.