Some Kind of Wonderful (sequel to Give Me the Greenlight, Mr. Clifford)

Ch 5 - You Kind Of Suck

Mason was outside waiting on me when I arrived at his house. He rushed over to the car and opened the door for me. "Hi, thank you," I said.

"Hi yourself," he said, and actually leaned down to kiss me on the cheek quickly. I felt myself blush from the unexpected gesture. "Have you eaten lunch yet?" he asked.

"I had a late breakfast, but I'm always down for food if you're offering."

He chuckled, "Yeah, come on, Mum is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Is that okay?"

"Heck yeah, that's my favorite."

"Oh, hey, Katesby. It's good to see you again," Mason's mom said. She had of course met me before.

"Hi, Mrs. Simpson. It's good to see you, too."

As we settled down at the table with our lunch, Mrs. Simpson said, "So, Mason says he heard you sing the other day and he thinks you're quite talented."

"Mum," I heard Mason mutter under his breath. I saw that his face was as red as mine probably was.

"I'm not horrible I guess," I chuckled nervously. I was never good at accepting compliments.

She asked, "So are you going to be part of their band?"

"Oh, no. We already kind of had that discussion. I'm not interested. And I don't think they want a girl to cramp their style anyway," I gave another nervous laugh. Well, I was nervous knowing Mason had been talking about me to his mother.

"Mum," Mason said, louder this time. "You don't mind if we finish these in my room, do you?"

"Oh, um, well that would be okay." Mason was standing and gathering his lunch before she even answered. I followed Mason's lead, picked up what was left of my sandwich and water, and followed him out of the kitchen, waving at his mom.

I found Mason's room to be unusually immaculate. I couldn't help but ask, "Is your room always this neat, or only when you're giving guitar lessons?"

Mason laughed softly and replied, "I keep it fairly tidy, but yeah, I made sure it looked extra nice before you got here."

"Dude, Ryder is such a slob. It drives me crazy. I clean up his room more than he does."

As I was trying to make small talk, Mason walked over to retrieve his guitar from the corner of the room. He sat it down on the bed, and patted the bed next to it, motioning me to have a seat. He pulled a chair over from the desk and sat down in it next to the bed.

We sat silently for a couple of minutes, finishing our sandwiches. Then Mason broke the silence, saying, "Speaking of Ryder... you're definitely not... together, right? I mean, it's really none of my business, but I've always thought you guys seemed, I don't know, more intimate than friends."

I sighed at the all too familiar question. "No, we're not together. I understand how people get that impression, but we've never had that kind of relationship. We were pretty much raised together. He's kind of like a brother. Except I'm way closer to him that I'll ever be to my real brother. It's hard to explain."

"Again, this is none of my business, but do you know what happened with Ryder and that girl at Jaxson's party?" I had no idea why he was bringing that up, but I nodded my head. "You know, most guys would have been celebrating, but when we were outside waiting on you, and Ryder told me, he was almost in tears. He just kept telling me how let down you were going to be. So I wasn't sure that you two were really just friends."

"Really? Hmm. He was right. I think Ryder is better than that. That's what happens when you get drunk and don't think with the correct organ." I still didn't like to think about it.