It’s been 15 minutes and neither Tara nor Kaitlin were back with any news about Kevin. Lauren waited a couple more minutes and the girls still didn’t show. ‘Where are they?’ she thought to herself. She stood there, looking around at the crazy college party going on around them. Lauren saw a lot of attractive guys, very very attractive guys, but the only boy she was thinking about was Mason. Of course the one time she comes anywhere close to him, he’s not there. She rolled her eyes and decided to go looking for Kaitlin and Tara.
She headed into the party and realized just how crazy it was. Yeah, sure, Lauren had been to parties before, but none that were ever as crazy as this. Especially as a freshman at another school’s party, it was overwhelming. The only reason she was excited to come at first was because she thought that Mason would be here, but when he told her he wasn’t going to be, she was devastated. She continued to walk through the party, when she stopped all of a sudden. Across the room she spotted a familiar face. At first she thought there was no way that it was who she thought it was, but as she moved closer, it was exactly who she thought. Mason was standing against a door, but he wasn’t alone.
Mason was leaning against the door to the basement, looking around everywhere for Lauren. He knew she was coming, but he didn’t know how he was going to find her in this crowd of people. He stood there on his phone, wanting to text her and ask because he couldn’t wait another minute. He was dying to see her. All of a sudden, a girl came up to him, obviously drunk, and fell onto his chest.
“Oops sorry!” She said giggling uncontrollably.
Mason helped the girl stand up and said, “Oh uh, no problem.” He clearly wasn’t interested in her, but she didn’t get the memo.
“So,” the girl said, pulling down one of her short sleeves to reveal a bra strap, “You wanna head upstairs?”
Mason looked away and pulled the sleeve back on her shoulder. “No thanks.” He said looking her in the eye. He patted her on the shoulder and walked away. As he walked in the opposite direction of the girl, he noticed that Lauren was talking to another guy, who she seemed awfully comfortable with.
“Florida State huh?” The boy said. After Lauren saw Mason with that other girl, she ran away and just so happened to find a boy willing to talk to her. His name was Jack and he was your typical tall, dark, and handsome kind of guy.
“Yeah that’s right.” Lauren said, but she noticed Mason was walking over to her, and he didn’t seem happy. ‘Two can play at this game’ she thought to herself. “So, um Jack,” she said leaning in closer.
“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing talking to my girl?” Mason said interrupting Lauren.
“Uh Lauren do you know him?” Jack asked her.
“I don’t know, Jack, do I?” Lauren said crossing her arms.
“Listen, I think you should go..” Jack said pushing Mason away.
“No, I think you should go.” Mason said, pushing him back. The two started pushing each other back and forth, and Lauren knew this wasn’t going to end well.
“Ok ok ok! That’s enough just cut it out already! Mason control yourself!” Lauren said, getting in between the two boys. They had created a scene, so know everyone was staring at the three of them.
“Don’t you tell me to control myself,” Mason said, “How do you expect me to act when I see you groping on another guy?”
“Oh, so it’s not ok for me to grope on a guy but when you’re groping on another girl who’s half naked it’s ok?” Lauren was furious, “Yeah that’s right I saw you over there with that tramp so don’t even try to act like nothing was happening.”
“Nothing was happening Lauren,” Mason exclaimed. Everyone had gathered around, and the party was almost completely silent. “Do you think I would do that to you?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore Mason. How can I even believe you haven’t done anything with any other girls before tonight? That’s right, I can’t! This has happened too many times before Mason and I don’t know if I can trust you after what I just saw.” Lauren said sternly with tears forming in her eyes. She was hurting, but so was Mason.
“Lauren, listen..” Mason tried to say to calm her down, but she wouldn’t listen.
“No, alright. I can’t do this anymore. We tried to make this work but obviously we can’t. I’m too paranoid about this becoming a regular thing and I’m just…I’m done.” Lauren said, walking away.
“Lauren get back here!” Mason screamed, but Lauren kept on walking. In the corner of his eyes, he spotted an acoustic guitar lying on a table. “Hand me that.” He yelled to one of the guys leaning on the table. Mason got ahold of the guitar, but hesitated before playing anything. Nobody knew that he was a musician, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to expose himself. The only thing motivating him to do this was Lauren. He wasn’t ready to lose her, because he was falling in love with her. If he sang to her, it could save his relationship, but it might ruin his reputation.
Lauren hadn’t gotten very far because of the crowd of people that was circled around her and Mason. She kept trying to push her way through, but then all of a sudden she heard the sound of a guitar. She whipped around to see Mason standing in the center of the circle, with the guitar. “Mason what the hell are you doing?” Lauren asked running over to him.
“If you won’t listen to me talk, then I guess I’ll have to sing it to you.” Mason said, trying to smile.
“But I thought you didn’t want anyone to know?” Lauren whispered into his ear.
“Losing you is way more important to me than people finding out my secret.” He said, beginning to play Be Alright by Justin Bieber. He knew this was one of Lauren’s favorite songs, even if it was by Justin Bieber, but he was willing to do anything for her. He knew how the lyrics affected her and after he heard it himself, he realized why she liked it so much. Mason listened to it every day when they were apart because he knew everything was going to be alright, although he would never admit that to anyone. “Through the sorrow, and the fights, don’t you worry, cause everything’s going to be alright…” He sang to her.
Lauren stood there with her hands covering her mouth and looking down at the ground for two reasons. One, she didn’t want Mason to see the tears coming down her face and two, she didn’t want him to see the huge smile that was on her face. Mason finished singing and put the guitar down. Everyone around them was silent. “Lauren,” Mason said breaking the silence, but Lauren couldn’t contain herself any longer. She ran to him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her tightly and spun her around. Mason put her down, grabbed her face, and kissed her. He kissed her so passionately that everyone around them started clapping. The two pulled away and Lauren was totally embarrassed.
“I’m so sorry Mason.” Lauren said, going to hug him again.
“I’m sorry too.” Mason said, kissing her forehead. “Oh, um, Lauren?” He said, bringing his face close to hers.
“Yeah?” Lauren said, biting her lip.
“I love you.”
