From Enemies to Enemies

Chapter 11- Finding Out More

His shirt looks wonderful, and not too oversized like the rest of his clothes. His pants are nicely pressed and they're not too formal so he can wear them out on any regular day if he wants. His hair is messy like always because I doubt that Mason would care about how his hair looks. He looks really nice. He looks ravishing. Beautiful, supple, ambient. All these words float into my head. Goodness gracious, what's gotten into me?

"How do I look?" he asks me. I nod. Delectable. "Stunning."

The Café is dark and broody and almost gives off a mysterious vibe. My Milkshakes melted into a puddle, the condensation leaking from the napkin that I placed it on. And Rachels Latte has been delicately sipped, her minimal light pink lip gloss leaving a lip print on the ring of the cup. I like the way that she looks with the lipstick on. It accents her thin lips nicely.

Rachel sits at the other end of the table, on the laptop. According to her, we're almost done with the project, and we can spend the next few weeks (approximately 3 months) adding finishing touches and getting feedback. We've been scheduling study dates more and more, much to my mother's dismay. She doesn't like that I'm out all the time. But she did unground me on the premise that I would go to school more. Which I was going to do anyways, because I get to hang out with Mason more and that's super fun.

I think that Rachel somehow thinks that if we spend more time together, I'll ask her to be my girlfriend. Or that well hit second or third base. Either way, I feel grateful to be in the presence of a god.

Mr Hoover has decided that this project is our semester project and to be completely honest, I don't understand what we've been working on. I've looked at our project maybe three times the entire time we've been working on it and it mostly screams Rachel. Theres not a trace of me. I do the same thing that I always do. I sit there and listen to Rachel talk.

Today though, I brought my journal with me. I've been getting really into it. Most of the pages are filled with things about Mason. Things I've learned about him, things I want to learn about him. That sort of thing. Other pages are about me and Rachel, though I've never written an entire page dedicated to her. Theres some about Sierra in there and I even have a page about Lori and my mom and my sister and my dad. But usually, I only want to journal about Mason. When he texts me, I stop what I'm doing to message him. I will write everything I know about him.

Rachel looks at my journal. "What are you writing about?" she frowns.

"Just some things." I don't really feel comfortable telling Rachel about my journaling habit. It feels wrong. She'd probably think that I'm weird for writing like that. It is something that's pretty girly. And also, I seem like a stalker writing about Mason so much.

"I want to know." Rachel says, grabbing at the end of my journal. She's smiling now like it's a game, but really, it's not. I don't want her to see what I'm writing.

"Stop. Are you jealous? I'm just writing."

Rachel lets go of my book and sighs. "Fine. But I want to do things together. Do you think that I can write with you one day?"

I shrug. The only people who know I journal are my mom and SJ. I used to write a journal with my mom when I was younger. And SJ sort of walked in on me doing it once. And now Rachel knows which is fine, but I don't want it to be a couple's thing. Well, not that was a couple or anything, but you get what I mean. This doesn't need to become another thing that she monopolizes.

"Maybe." I speak.

I see Mason come out of the back of the counter from the corner of my eye. I forgot he was working today. Usually, he works at the front counter, which I like because I get to talk to him (and sometimes he gives me the employee discount) but today he was in the back doing whatever baristas do.