The Art of Finding Jasmine Rose Peters

26

"Mable asked of you."

That got Hayden's attention, and she raised her stormy eyes to meet his. He had a smug smile on his face, and she wanted to smack him badly. He knew exactly what he was doing.

"You saw Mable?" Hayden had to calm herself before whispering the question.

"I thought you were ignoring me," he said, his smug smile intact.

Hayden glared at him and kept quiet.

"All right. Yeah, I saw her. I went to the hospital."

"How is she doing?" Hayden asked.

"She's better. You should come see her with me after school." He was serious now. "I know what happened the other day was hectic but you can't keep running away from it. It'd help if we meet Mable."

Hayden's mind went back to the necklace safely sitting in her desk back home. She was quiet for a second thinking it through. "You have to see her, Hayden!"

"After my shift," she replied curtly, and packed her things.

The earlier she left, the better for her.

***

Hayden's hands ached as she tried to knead the bread dough. Mr. Brown had said the one thing that differentiated them from other shops was how they made everything by hand. That might sound really cool when one is a customer, but when you're the one stuck kneading doughs all day, it sounds super tiring.

Satisfied with how the dough turned out—soft and rising to the touch—Hayden covered it to rise and told her co-worker about it. She had already passed her shift with 10 minutes. She didn't need to add anymore.

And Calvin was probably waiting for her at the back of the shop like she instructed him to. Hayden was super relieved that the back door was open to staff again. She couldn't bear seeing the faces of the regular customers who had seen her 'episode.'

Thankfully, Mr. Brown wasn't bothered with what had happened. He had even advised her to take the day off yesterday, but she refused. He was the nicest man she had ever met.

Adjusting her wool cap, which she had finally managed to buy at the shop Lyra had shown her, she stepped out of the locker room to finally go home.

Her eyes were on her phone as she waved at Beth, her co-worker. She wasn't surprised to find no notifications at all.

The crisp January air made her clutch her jacket tightly as she stepped out of the warm shop. Snow was absent in their little town, but that didn't mean it wasn't freezing as hell.

It was around ten degrees in the morning when she went to school, and temperatures often dropped in the evenings.

She was thinking of calling Calvin when someone called her name.

She whipped her head around as fast as she could, trying to find where the voice was coming from.

"Hey, it's just me," Mason said, throwing the cigarette he was smoking on the ground and stepping on it.

"What the hell, Mason?" she said, her heart beating erratically. She had thought it was someone else—someone she didn't know. Someone trying to harm her or take her belongings.

He raised his hands. "Look, I'm sorry for scaring you," he said, "but can we talk?"

Hayden looked at him suspiciously. He was wearing a black jacket with equally black jeans. His face wasn't shown completely in the dark alley and was she glad she couldn't see his hauntingly sharp brown eyes.

Why did he even want to talk to her? After everything he did, she thought he hated her guts.

She looked at him with raised brows. "What do you want?" she asked, curtly.

"It's freezing out here, let's go inside," he suggested, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"No," she surprised herself by denying him. "I'm not going anywhere with you till you tell me what you want from me."

He sighed, scratched the back of his head before answering. "Look, I know I messed up but can we please talk? Just give me a chance. I promise I won't screw up."

She could end up ignoring him, and never know what he wanted to say or she could at least give him a chance and hear him out. Besides, she could always leave if things didn't turn out well. He wouldn't force her to stay or say anything she didn't want especially in a shop full of people.

She finally nodded and followed him. They walked a short distance before coming to the front of the shop.

Hayden was sure her mouth was hanging open when Mason opened the door for her. She stepped inside nonetheless, forcing her mouth to close.

Was it just her imagination, or did Mason actually open the door for her?

They found a seat for two and sat down.

Kelsey, a waitress, came to their table. She was around the same age as Hayden, but attended the local high school. She winked at Hayden as she took their orders.

Hayden got chai latte and Mason iced tea. He did look like an iced tea person because his heart was made of ice. Hayden silently laughed at her own joke.

Mason made a move to talk but decided against it when Kelsey approached with their orders.

Hayden quietly sipped her chai latte as she waited for Mason to talk. There was no way she was talking first.

After a deep breath, he spoke, "I'm sorry."

Hayden said nothing. There were a lot of things he had done to her, and he needed to say them out loud.

Once realizing Hayden wasn't going to talk, he scowled and spoke again. "I'm sorry for calling you names and constantly glaring at you."

She took another sip and looked at him. He looked kinda remorseful, and it surprised Hayden at the effort he had made to show her such. He didn't look like someone who apologized often.

"Don't think you apologizing will just automatically fix everything," she said. "You hurt me, Mason. You reminded me of something I never wanted to remember." Her breath started to seize as a particular memory tried to invade her senses.

Mason handed her some water and she calmed down. "I'm truly sorry, Hayden. I never meant to hurt you. It's just that," he paused. "This is a little bit hard to talk about, but when Amy betrayed us, it really messed with my already messed up thinking. I just - that's why I couldn't trust you. I tried to, but I couldn't. I'm sorry."

Hayden kept quiet. Should she forgive him? It wasn't his fault he was like that. But what about everything he did to her? All the memories he made he relieved. Wouldn't it make her weak to forgive him so easily?

"It's fine if you don't want to forgive me. What I did was really uncalled for. I realize now that you're not Amy and you'll never be her. You're so much better than her; better than me, even." He smiled slightly.

She took a large slurp of her drink. "Do you really think so?" Hayden asked slowly.

"Yes. You know, even though I think you and me are alike in some way, you're so much better than me. For one, you're stronger than me. If it was me, I don't think I would be able to brush off someone being mean to me for the amount of time you did."

"Thanks, Mason. You're a lot stronger than you think," she said, managing to smile at him for the first time since she met him.

"I don't think so but we cool?" he asked, and she nodded. He looked at her sceptically, not believing it was that easy. "You sure?" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah. You're sorry for what you did, and I don't like holding grudges."

"Thank you so much, Hayden. You have no idea how much this means to me," he said sincerely, with shining eyes and a genuine smile. He extended his hand for a shake. She looked at it and brushed it off.

They might be cool, but there was no way she was touching his hand.