| torn up

~ chapter 35 ☁️

Despite Mason saying he would be right back, I end up finding myself sitting alone for quite some time waiting for him to hurry back. Getting a little worried as to where he could have ended up, considering he is supposed to be getting a drink from the kitchen that is literally just over there, I am about to stand up and go searching for him when I see his familiar figure emerge from the back door.  
Huffing in relief at this and shaking my head, I lower myself back down to the bench as I watch him slightly stumble over, now with a bottle of beer in his hand.

'Mason! Where were you, it's been like 10 minutes.' I ask with a sigh once he finally settles himself down next to me.

'Hey, hey. I'm sorry. I bumped into some of the boys and they talked me into doing some shots with them.' He drawls, wrapping his arm around my shoulder as he tugs me in closer, a guilty and sheepish grin appearing on his face.

'More alcohol? So are you even more dunk now than before then? Should we do the 'how much fingers am I holding up?' quiz again?' I sigh with a teasing smile, not being able to resist cuddling into his side as he leans down for a second to rest his bottle next to mine on the ground.

'I think I'll pass. Besides it's only been like 5 minutes, I doubt they've even kicked in properly yet.' He shrugs with a laugh, now facing me so his breath fans over my face a little due to our close proximity.

I hum in agreement, scanning his appearance for a second to see he looks just as messy and slightly as all over the place as he did before he left. He's definitely still as drunk as he was some minutes ago, and I doubt the latest shots he did are going to do little to help his overall drunkenness from the accumulation of all the alcohol he's drank tonight.

Stopping myself from further acting like his Mum and analysing his drunk state however, I allow my mind to go blank as we sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes- both of us taking in the sheer beauty of the scenery around us.

'You know I didn't mean to get this drunk.' Mason muses a couple minutes later, quiet hum of his voice breaking the calmness that had settled around us.

'Really?' I ask in a curious tone.

'Hmm.'

'Why did you then?' I continue softly, interested as to why he had allowed himself to get wasted when he hadn't actually intended to in the first place.

'I don't know...' He begins in a thoughtful tone, a short silence following his confession as I force myself to remain mute so he can get everything out. 'I guess I was just getting all up in my head about something I've had on my mind for a while now. And-and then once I started drinking, I kind of let myself get carried away, you know.'

I drink in his confession, a small frown settling on my lips at this thing that had apparently been stressing him out. I bite my lip, unsure of how to exactly respond to his ambiguous words and wondering how seemingly serious this conversation had gotten out of nowhere.

The slight tension I can feel in the air between us is smoothed a second later however by Mason releasing a sudden, funny sounding hiccup. I find myself jumping slightly in my seat at the unexpected but albeit cute noise that had escaped his lips.

'Have you got the hiccups?' I observe with a giggle, lifting my head off his chest slightly to send him a big grin.

'Yeah. I get them sometimes when I drink too much.' He shrugs, and I can tell he's embarrassed by this habit when he proceeds to gently push down my head so that I am once again leaning against him and can no longer see his pink cheeks or his awful attempt at avoiding eye contact.