SHOT !¡ MASON THAMES

26. ❝ candles for jéne ❞ ✰

LIV LAY WITH her head on mason's lap as she scrolled through her fanpages on tiktok, liking edits of herself. they were in the backyard on the hammock, swinging slowly back and forth. she came across a ship edit of her and mason and it caught his attention, causing him to look down. he grabbed her phone and watched the edit.

"we're so cute," he smirked, handing her phone back to her. she giggled, adding the edit to her favorites. "mason?" she mumbled, looking up. "hm?" he looked down at her. "what are we?" she asked him, biting her lip. "what do you mean?" he furrowed his eyebrows. she huffed and sat up, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"we're not just friends, i know that," she spoke. "yeah..." he nodded slowly. "so, like, what are we? what are we doing?" she looked into his eyes. mason had never been put on the spot like this. he broke the eye contact and looked at his shoes. "um— i... don't know," he shook his head. "what do you want to be?" he asked. "isn't it obvious?" the corners of liv's lips lifted slightly. he peered down at her lips and blinked. she suddenly got the biggest boost of confidence as she put her hand on the side of his neck and began to lean in.

"yo, liv, mason!"

the both of them jumped apart as miguel came towards them with nayah clung to his arm. "we set something up for you, liv. come see it," nayah smiled. "oh— yeah," liv nodded, her chest rising and falling. "y'all good?" miguel furrowed his eyebrows. "yeah!" liv nodded.

miguel and nayah exchanged confused looks as they began to walk back up to the house. "um—" liv turned to mason and his face was exceptionally red. "come on," she stood up, him following and they went with miguel and nayah into the house.

all of the lights were turned off as they walked into the kitchen, the only light source being the bathroom light. there were tons of unlit candles set on the counter. liv's heart fell as she realized what this was. malia rushed towards her first. "we didn't want you to do this alone, babe," she grabbed liv's hands. tristan walked over to liv and handed her a lighter.

"how did you guys know?" liv asked tristan and stared at the rest of the black phone cast, breathless. "are you kidding me? you really thought we wouldn't tell them?" shay playfully rolled her eyes. liv mustered out a laugh, walking up to the candles. she felt so many emotions.

she didn't realize tears were gathering in her eyes until one fell down her cheek as she picked up a photo of her and jéne that was leaning against a candle. in the photo, liv was sitting down in a chair with a huge cake in front of her, jéne was standing behind her with her arms wrapped around her little sister. it was the last birthday liv had with jéne there.

she wiped the tear off her face as mason came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. he leaned down, kissing the top of her head. liv took a deep breath, pressing the button to light up the lighter. she proceeded to light up all the candles, filling the house with light.

"your sister was so beautiful, liv," maddy rubbed liv's shoulder as becca agreed with her. "yeah, like, if she was still alive, i would definitely hit her up," miguel nodded, causing nayah to gasp and smack his arm harshly. "mikey, you can't just say that!" becca scolded him. but to everyone's surprise, liv laughed at miguel.

"oh, yeah, we got a bunch of balloons, too," miguel opened the closet as a bunch of white balloons started floating out. everyone acted quick to grab them and make their way outside. sophie handed liv a sharpie as she wrote "jéne rose aoki" on her balloon. they all let the balloons go up into the sky. liv had never felt more happy. she didn't need her mom to do this, it was better with her friends and the boy she loved.