Iris & Mason

10. Mason

Mason.

What a disaster. Of course the car had to run out of gas while we drove on an empty street. Why did I even expect things to go well? I should have known.

Despite all of the disaster, Iris looked beautiful. She continued to wear a smile on her face, especially while we ate. Over and over again she would tell me how delicious it all was. She almost sounded like she was in pain when she took her first bite of the cheesecake.

Iris was always entertaining. I never got bored when I was with her even in a moment of silence. She was always beautiful. To be honest, I had this urge to grab her face and kiss her lips until they fell off but I figured that was probably not the best idea if I wanted to ever see her again. I had to be smooth. I had to be the cool Mason I was when I met her.

So instead of being bold, I played it cool. I asked her about her past and she asked me about mine.

"Tell me about your childhood. We've never really talked about that." I said to her. When I said it, though, her face kind of twisted into something that told me that wasn't the best question to ask.

"We'll talk about it some other time." Iris told me. Her eyes kind of averted to her lap, signaling that the past was a touchy subject.

She went on to explain to me the tragedy of her past and I did my best to give her encouraging words. It was clear that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. So by default I went with plan b, which consisted of staring at her lips for a few seconds before she caught on to what I was trying to get at.

"Is this happening right now?" She whispered as our faces inched closer together.

I gently took a hold of her face and answered the question for her by pressing her lips against mine. Yes it was happening. Yes I felt those fireworks they always talk about in the movies. Yes it felt like I could do this forever.

At first it was a little awkward because I realized I was kissing Iris. Not that I didn't want to kiss her, because I did. It was just weird to think about because she was Iris and I was Mason. We were friends who flirted, but it was different when I was actually kissing her.

It seemed like we had just found our groove when she pulled away, her forehead touching mine. I although I couldn't really see it I could feel her smile radiating from a mile away.

"So what now?" She asked. The tone in her voice was much softer than before.

"Now we figure out how to get some gas." I shrugged, doing my best to act like something hadn't just happened between us. On the inside I was smiling like a little boy.

"Or we could just kiss again." She suggested.

"I don't think I want to." I joked, waiting for her reaction.

Her smile faded quickly, then reappeared when I started to laugh at her, lifting her chin up to me with my hand.

"You know I'm kidding." I assured her, letting her chin go. "I've been waiting to kiss you for a while now. I think you must know that."

"You know, I really wasn't sure how this night was gonna go. I'm really happy so far despite our unexpected events." Iris avoided eye contact, picking at her nails while she spoke.

I scoffed. "You had to have known I would at least kiss you tonight."

On another note, what the fuck was I supposed to do about the gas? It was my fault for not even looking at the meter. Clearly I had other things - or people - on my mind. My options were to either call someone for help or walk to the nearest gas station which was at least two miles away.