Before that moment can potentially play out though and before I can even respond back to his earlier comment, an abrupt knocking on the driver's side window interrupts us. We both jump up in surprise, looking over to the panel of glass behind Mason to see my Mum standing there with a big smile on her face. My eyes widen in horror at the sight, wondering what on earth she's doing here.
Mason quickly reaches down to lower his window so that my Mum can now (much to my dismay) lean in to talk to us.
'Hey sweetie. I was wondering when you'd be home.' She cheerily beams at me and I notice her energy immediately decline a little a second later when she reluctantly drags her gaze over to Mason.
'Mason.' She greets, sending him a tight lipped smile.
My Mum does not like Mason.
She may not admit it but ever since he came into my life, she's not been happy. I first had to tell her about him when she overheard me gushing about him on the phone to the girls. And ever since, she's just been kind of hostile towards him. Luckily, I don't think he notices it as she doesn't go far enough as to be rude or anything, she's just a bit cold to him. And I'm positive he interprets her standoffish attitude towards him as just her being an overprotective parent.
But I obviously know her well enough to know that's wrong. She's usually so sweet to all my friends and so the stark contrast between how she treats everyone else compared to him is almost laughable. I've tried interrogating her a number of times as to why she won't give him a chance and just treat him as another one of my friends but she always denies it.
'Miss Allen.' He acknowledges back respectfully, giving her an awkward smile in return.
'Oh, hey, Mum. What are you doing here?' I probe with an exaggerated smile, making sure to give her a pointed glance when Mason isn't looking.
If she knows me well enough then she knows that in my head right now, I am screaming at her to just leave and to stop purposely making everything so awkward. And she does, of course she does, but she just chooses to ignore me and my silent pleas.
'Oh, I just wanted to thank Mason for so kindly picking you up and dropping you off.' She announces, cooly lying and nodding in appreciation towards him.
My eyes narrow at her in suspicion over Mason's shoulder but she doesn't seem the least bit fazed, her smile only widening further at the sceptical look on my face.
'It's no problem really.' Mason assures between us, shaking his head slightly at her.
'Well now that you've done that, mind waiting for me inside?' I tensely ask, painting a forced smile onto my face a second later when I see she doesn't make any move to.
'Oh no, it's okay. I think I'll stay and then we can both go together, spare Mason the trouble of having to walk you to the door.' She thoughtfully chuckles.
I watch as she turns her attention to him and fixes him with an intense stare until he eventually swallows and backs down, weakly smiling and nodding in agreement.
No way is she seriously using intimidation tactics like that on him in front of me, I think.
I feel my fingers clench around my bagpack in my lap, forcibly breathing through my nose to try and not lose it with her. When I realise she doesn't look like she's going to give up anytime soon, stubbornly standing still in her position at the window and raising her eyebrows- I decide to call it quits. I don't want to start anything with her in front of Mason, the thought of that mortifies me and so I sigh in defeat. And don't think I don't miss the look of triumph that crosses my Mum's face when I do.
'Okay well. Bye, Mason. Tonight was fun, we should do it again soon. I'll text you later, okay?' I promise with hopeful eyes as I turn to look at him.
'Yeah, definitely. I'll look forward to it. Goodnight, Willow.' He grins back with a bright smile.
I don't miss the way he leans towards me slightly as we bid goodbye and I'm sure he's going to hug me the way he usually does when we leave each other's company. However I watch the conflict arise in his eyes a second later, his unsure gaze flickering over to my mum for a split second as he appears to contemplate the frosty aura she's giving off. My heart sinks a little in my chest when he almost immediately moves back, seemingly having decided against the idea as to not further give my Mum a reason for disliking him in any way.
Dejectedly, I climb out the car as my Mum and I give him one last goodbye on the sidewalk. He waves back, before starting up his car and soon driving away.
I look back to find my mum has already trudged halfway to the house, not even having bothered to wait for him to leave before she had started walking back towards the door.
I hurry after her, my vexation rising at her actions now Mason is gone and I can clearly express my anger.
'Mum, seriously?' I deadpan in a hostile tone as soon as we step in and I lock the door behind us.
'What?' She asks innocently, frowning at me before she walks towards the sitting room and I can just bet she's got a great, big grin on her face now that she's got her back to me.
I scoff at her response, picking up on the slight smugness that she tries to hide in her voice.
Not wanting to let her off easy, I immediately stalk after her with my arms crossed across my chest.
'Do you really dislike him that much that you just had to embarrass me in front of him?' I accuse in a huff.
'Don't know what you're talking about.' She muses, shrugging and feigning naivety as she settles onto the sofa and focuses her attention onto the TV.
My annoyance rises at her attempt at playing gullible, frustration creeping in at her immature response. I'm about to respond back as equally as childish until my phone beeps in my hand and I find myself getting distracted when Mason's contact name flashes across the screen.
loverboy 💙🌝 ~
i guess we just can't catch a break today huh? :)
A smile pulls at my lips at his text until I remember that I'm supposed to be mad at the other person in the room. Returning my heated gaze to the woman in question, I find her already looking at me in curiosity. I just know she's interested as to whose just texted me and probably already suspects Mason from the sigh of exasperation she releases. But I decide not to give her the satisfaction, instead making up my mind to just leave it for tonight because I can't really be bothered to have to keep up this mood with her. That and the fact that I also want to go upstairs so that I can text Mason back as well as tell the girls the rest of what went down tonight.
'I'm going now, but I want you to know that that was not cool. Not cool at all, Mum.' I lecture in a tired tone, shaking my head as if ashamed before retreating upstairs.
-
It's about midnight and I've been lying in bed pretty much ever since I got home. Mum had gone to bed a while ago after coming into my room to give me some ice cream and cuddles, her way of trying to get me to forgive her I guess. I mean it did work. Although at that point I was only really half annoyed at her anyway and besides, I've never really been able to stay angry at Mum for too long.
I'm currently tucked up in my blanket, scrolling mindlessly through social media when my phone buzzes in my hand and I look up to see a message notification.
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
hey will, can you come to my room, i need to ask you something
My eyebrows instantly raise at her text, not expecting her to still be awake right now.
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
mum, have u seen the time? it's literally midnight, i'm trying to sleep, wat do u want?
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
oh, please. i can bet my kidney you were probably on your phone texting the girls
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
guilty as charged lmao
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
exactly, i know my own daughter
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
true lol wat do you want tho
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
are you not going to come to my room?
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
not unles it's an emergency, do u no how comfortable and warm i am rn
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
it's not, i just need to ask you something but i guess we can talk about it face to face tomorrow too
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
?
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
do you want to come on trip away with me and mandy soon. she's going to bring her lot and we think it'd be lovely if you came too. we found a beautiful little cottage down by the sea and i think you'll absolutely love it
When her text comes through, my breath stills for a second at the mention of the trip Eli was going on before I find myself relaxing again. It's okay, I think to myself, I've been preparing for this ever since that thug cornered me in the car park. Biting my lip in concentration, I quickly begin texting her back just like I have been rehearsing.
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
ooo that sounds nice
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
it is, i'll show you some pictures tomorrow. so what do you think?
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
when do u plan to go?
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
in a few weeks
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
hmm, wat week exactly
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
it's the weekend of the week beginning the 5th. and we'd be going on the friday so the 9th
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
kay, let me just check my schedule to make sure i have nothing on then
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
schedule? haha, will, since when were you organised enough to have a schedule
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
hey! i've been trying to become more responsible recently i'll have u no
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
oops srry mum, i can't go, i have a big assignment due the following monday
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
assignment?
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
yh, an oral presentation. so i'm going to have to spend the weekend preparing for that. ugh, that sucks, this weekend away sounds rly fun 2 :(
I text her back, trying to be as convincing as possible and smiling in satisfaction when I reread my message. There's no way she won't believe that, it's a plausible and realistic enough reason. I should know, I had enough time to conjure it up.
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
check your calendar again?
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
huh, wdym?
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
will, how many times have i told you? i'm not up to date with these text sayings you kids use nowadays
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
lolllll i'm dead lmao it means 'wat do u mean?'
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
oh. well check your calendar again, willow. you must have got it wrong.
My eyes widen in horror at her reply, not having expected it at all. I scroll back up to look at my text about this fake assignment, trying to pick apart anything about it that may be causing her to be saying this. When I can't find anything at all, I scroll back down. Feeling frustrated, I quickly text back in the hope she'll finally stop speaking in riddles so that I can get to the bottom of this.
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
i'm confused.
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
you must have got your dates crossed. you don't have school that monday
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
?
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
it's a bank weekend, isn't it. that's the reason we chose then so we can drive there friday and not have to begin driving back until monday
I want to face palm myself at her explanation, feeling completely stupid for making such a dumb mistake and not having considered this kind of thing at all. Gnawing on my bottom lip, my mind races trying to come up with another reason why this still wouldn't work. But I can't come up with anything. And I know that me even hinting to just plainly not wanting to go as an excuse will open a whole can of worms that I don't really want to deal with.
I even consider stirring up a whole new practical reason about not being free that weekend even if this would create possible suspicion. That is until my Mum texts back and any hope of that just completely leaves my mind when I see how exited she already is.
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
so you can come after all. yay, i'm so happy, sweetheart. it'll be so nice spending time together, i know we haven't hung out in a while. you know i love you though, right?
Not wanting to ruin her hope and break her down like that, I decide to just give it up and text back while making sure I clear up my earlier error as to not look weird.
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
ofc, and I love u 2 mum. and ur right btw, i did get my dates mixed up, the assignment is the week after aha
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
oh, my poor, little, confused child
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
MUM lol
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
:) i'm glad we got that sorted though. mandy is going to be so excited when i tell her. did i mention eli is coming too? i'm sure you 2 will have a blast together, it'll be just like old times
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
u did and i'm sure it will, i'm rly looking forward to it mum
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
good girl. now it's getting late, you should get some sleep. and promise me you actually will try to and turn your phone off, i know what you're like
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
yes mum, i promise, goodnight x
mama bear 🤎🥰🐻 ~
goodnight sweetie, sweet dreams x
After texting her back and leaving the chat, I can't help but sigh as I stare up at my bedroom ceiling. Is this actually happening? I've got to have done something bad recently and this must be my karma for it, that's the only possible explanation. Sighing again at the thought of being stuck in a cottage with Eli for a whole weekend, I find myself opening my chat with Piper and Asha.
dr. will 🤍🥺☁️ ~
omg girls. u won't guess wat