in too deep | ✓

26| M a s o n

"I was disappointed but I had no choice. So I did it myself. I handed them the tickets. Mom and Dad was quite surprised. Dad was really excited about it though Mom protested. At afternoon they left for their flight."

Silence reigned between them. Mason didn't say anything else for a long time.He didn't know how to.

"And they never came back." Mason said staring into the darkness. "They died in a car crash before they could even make it to the airport."

Evelyn squeezed his hand and Mason shivered. It took him moments to breathe out the heaviness.

"After that, I guess, everything stopped for us." Mason said looking down. "I locked myself out from anyone. So did she. We were stuck."

"But life goes on. So it did. I returned to school. Everyone keep coming to me and Mallory with their sincerest sympathy, fake sympathy and what not. Mom and Dad, they were important persons of the town, so almost everybody knew about it."

"Anyways, after the accident, me and Mallory, we grew apart. I didn't see it coming. I knew we should've been there for each other and somehow it didn't happen. She locked me out, just like I did to myself. We never really talked about it. In fact, we rarely talked."

"Even when, Carolina took our custody, we didn't talk about it." Mason said, "Mallory kind of ignored me throughout the whole time."

"At first, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I knew she was grieving and so was I. We were going through the same stuff. Then, I was angry. I didn't want to do anything about it. If she thought I didn't exist, why would I?" Mason looked away. "That was probably the biggest mistake I ever made. So I started trying to reach out for her, to talk to her, to let her know that I was there for her."

Evelyn sighed.

"But maybe I was too late." Mason inhaled.

"It was almost 15 days after their death. I was out of town, I was here. When I went back, I found my house full of people partying, singing, dancing and whatnot. I didn't know what was going on. So I went to Mal. She ignored me as always."

"Bryan told me, maybe it was her way of moving on. She was moving on, so maybe I should let her do whatever she liked." Mason said.

"Bryan?" Evelyn asked in surprise.

Mason nodded. "So I let her. I let her have parties in our house. And so did Carolina. Carolina gave her all the freedom she wanted from the start, because I told her. What I didn't know was, I was digging my own grave." Mason snickered.

"Getting what Mallory wanted, she didn't stop. She started going out almost everyday, partying, dancing, drinking. And her grades dropped. She got detentions." Mason said.

"And I reached out for her again. I tried to talk to her. Whenever I tried, she shut the door on my face. When I tried to catch her at school, she would create a scene. It was like she had sworn, she would not talk to me. Then I started following her wherever I can. I told my friends to keep an eye on her. I talked To Carolina, I talked to Mady and Ethan. Mallory was still doing whatever she wanted."

"One day, I heard her saying Carol that it was her life, her choice and people should keep their nose out of her business."

"Why did she keep ignoring you? Was she angry?" Evelyn asked.

"She never told anything to anyone. Not even Rita, her best friend."

"And I was so done. There was this party on one Friday night. I knew she was there. I thought of every single possible ways to corner her there. So I went to that party.