Chapter 12- I Really, Really Hate David Letterman
“Well, remember when you left from visiting me in Italy like, a week ago? You told me that you were going back to Los Angeles, and I know that I’ve been in Europe for a few months now, but I am pretty positive that this isn’t Los Angeles,” Tinsley slowly says, removing her large aviator sunglasses and placing them in her expensive looking Chanel bag that’s hanging from her arm. “Then, I wake up yesterday morning,” She continues, “And I hear that my brother, who specifically told me that he’s going back to California, is here. In Indianapolis, Indiana, no less.” She scolds Mason, but obviously she’s not really angry, which would be stupid.
I guess that she was just concerned about her baby brother. She always did go the extra mile to protect him when we were all kids, I mean. Like, when the older kids would try to bully him, she’d threaten them and basically had them all scared to go within a ten-mile radius of her brother. Granted, that only stopped the older kids from bullying him, it’s not as if Tinsley could come to my and Mason’s school from her school and stop the kids our age from messing with him. It’s pretty sad really now that I look back on it.
Tinsley was always really, really popular though. I remember her before her family left for Hollywood and jump-started their kids careers. She was never the stereotypical mean popular cheerleader girl who put herself above others, though, I don’t think. She’s four years old than I am though, so she was in the tenth grade before they left. Therefore, I never got to meet her personally, but from the interviews I’ve seen her do at her various red carpet events and fashion shows, she really does seem like a nice person.
“I tried to talk her out of coming, Mason, I really did, but you know how relentless your sister is,” A tall man announces, walking into Tome Sweet Tome. I think that he maybe works for Mason or Tinsley or even both of them because he has an earpiece in his ear and an official looking clipboard thing in his hands. He just looks like a manger type guy, I think. He also has a somber look on his face, one that makes me think he’s a no-nonsense type of guy and I only know that because my mother also sports that look.
“I am not relentless,” Tinsley corrects, walking up towards the counter and placing the purse on top of it. “I am assertive. So, tell me why you’re here and not in California. You told me that you were going back to Los Angeles,” She demands of her little brother.
“I am going back to Los Angeles, Tinsley,” Mason assures her, running his fingers through his hair. “All I did was take a detour.”
“A detour?” A petite blonde girl echoes, walking into Tome Sweet Tome just as the words are out of Mason’s mouth.
Oh man, including Barb and me, there’s six of us here in the bookstore right now. Like, at one time and that’s like twice as many people as there usually are. At least, when I’m working here, that is. There’s Barb and I, of course, then there’s usually a customer that comes in and on rare occasions, there’s two people together kind of like that older couple that was here earlier. Honestly, I’m just so surprised that this place is actually still like, in business and operating and all of that good stuff. We don’t have a Barnes and Nobel though, at least, not on this side of town. Then again, it’s a big town and I’m assuming that there’s one of the other side of the city, which I never go to because there’s really no reason for me to.
“Yeah, you know, like a diversion,” Mason clarifies with a nod, looking at the blonde girl.
“I know what a detour is, Mason,” The girl confirms with a heavy sigh, shaking her head. She walks up to the counter that Mason and I are sitting behind and she places her hands on her hips, giving Mason a scowling look. “But what are you even doing here?”
“I wanted to come home for a few days. I mean, Maybe You 2 is done filming so it’s not like I’m working,” Mason shrugs carelessly.
“That’s true, but Piper has already scheduled you to be on Letterman, Leno, Fallon and Kimmel all this week and next week to promote Maybe You 2 before it premiers on the 15th, because on the 15th, you have to be in Hollywood and at the premiere for this movie, seeing as how it is your movie,” The blonde girl explains to Mason as if all that information is just etched into her brain or something. She obviously works for Mason though, so that’s probably apart of her job description, remembering things, that is.
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to go on Letterman, so you tell Piper that. He’s weird and old and annoying. He asks me the most awkward questions, you know that. Then I already know that he’s going to ask me if I’m dating Brianne, which I’m not. Not to mention the fact that the show tapes all the way in Manhattan and it’s too cold in Manhattan this time of year,” Mason tells the girl.
“Mason, you’re in Indiana and there’s snow on the ground. We almost couldn’t even fly out here because the sky is about as clear as a murky lake. It’s cold here and it’s cold in New York. Besides, Piper is your publicist, this is her job, you know,” She expounds.
“Yeah, Aub, I know that that’s her job. I hired her,” He reminds her with a goofy grin. “Where is she? Is she here too?” He wonders.
“Yeah, she’s outside with Jason in the limo and she’s not going to be happy when she finds out you don’t want to do Letterman,” She informs Mason, pushing a lock of her long blonde hair behind her ear. “And you’re gonna be the one that breaks that to her. Anyway though, who’s your friend?” The girl queries Mason, looking down at me with a polite smile on her face. She looks really young, this girl does and if I had to guess, I’d say that she’s barely twenty years old. That or she’s had some really intense plastic surgery. The former’s most likely to be the truth though, I think.
“I can handle Piper, Aubree,” Mason says, blowing out an irritated breath. “This is my friend, Aria, guys. Aria, that’s obviously Tinsley, my older and over-bearing sister. Aubree is my personal assistant and as you can tell, she’s very annoying and very bossy and just a really mean girl. Lastly, that’s Chauncey, he’s my manager and a little bit of a prude,” Mason supplies, gesturing to the respective person as he introduces me to them.
“Aria Austin, is it?” Tinsley asks suspiciously, looking down at me, suddenly engaged in the conversation.
“Um, yeah, actually, how’d you know that?” I reply, giving her a curious look.
“I remember you,” She pipes. “You have a brother. Um, Caleb or Chad or something like that? We went to middle school together, I think it was. I never actually talked to him, but I remember him. Plus Aria Austin was like, a regular name in our household at dinnertime. My parents did this really retarded thing when Mase and I were kids and the four of us would go around the table and name the highlight of our week or whatever and this kid,” Tinsley jerks her thumb towards her brother and I glance over at him, seeing that his face is tomato red. “This kid has the world’s largest c— ”
“Okay Tinsley, you can shut up now,” Mason murmurs, jumping up from his stool and reaching over the counter, putting his hand over his sister’s mouth in an attempt to silence her. “Lick my hand all you want, but I’m not moving it until you promise that you’re not gonna talk about that stupid thing we used to do when we were kids,” He threatens.
“Fine, I promise,” Tinsley agrees, her voice and words slightly muddled by Mason’s palm. He gives her a doubtful look and then slowly removes his hand, sitting back down on the stool beside me. Tinsley unzips her Chanel purse and takes a lipstick out of it, reapplying it before nonchalantly saying, “Crush. This kid had the world’s largest crush on you. And he’s just so weird that his weekly highlight always had to do with you. Like, ‘Oh, Aria let me borrow a pencil today’, ‘Aria gave me her apple at lunchtime on Tuesday after the bullies took my lunch money’, ‘Ar— ”
“Tinsley, shut up!” Mason exclaims, his eyes widened to the size of saucers and his face still an unworldly shade of red. “She’s a psychopath, don’t believe anything that this crazy ass lunatic says,” He says to me, a serious expression on his face.
“Mason, you’re still so delusional and that’s just ridiculous.” Tinsley observes, shaking her head at her brother in disappointment.
“I’m not delusional and you’re being annoying, so, go away,” Mason huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I think you forgot who the big sibling here is. That would be me and I’m not going anywhere,” She giggles.
“But why?” Mason asks, as if the thought of his sister being here physically pains him. “You hate Indiana,” He reminds her.
“I don’t hate anything. Except pasta and boys who sag their pants,” She pipes. “I would never in a million years move back here to Indiana, but I don’t hate it. Besides, I haven’t seen good old Lady Di and Nicholas in a while,” Tinsley defends. I vaguely remember one time when Holland was gushing to me about Mason. She would name all these really stupid and boring and just irrelevant factoids about him. I remember one of those stupid factoids being that his parents are Dianna and Nicholas Carter. I guess that Tinsley just likes to call them by their first names, though I can’t imagine why because she and Mason are both full-blooded brother and sister, meaning they have the same parents.
“Then go to Elkhart, you don’t have to stay in Indianapolis,” Mason desperately pleas.
“Nope, you know, I was actually thinking of staying at the old house with you. Mason, we hardly get to see each other anymore and neither of us are working right now. We need brother and sister bonding time,” Tinsley says, walking around the back of the counter and wrapping her arms around her brother, resting her chin on top of his head. “Pleaaase?”
I’m getting a little nervous about what Barb’s gonna do if she walks out here and sees that I’m letting other people behind the register which is totally and completely forbidden seeing as how they don’t work here. I mean, given the fact that together Mason and Tinsley’s net worth is probably something like, ninety million dollars, I don’t think she has too much to worry about. It’s not as if they would steal from Tome Sweet Tome. Not when they both carry around more money in their wallets than the cash register here can even hold.
“Okay, okay, but if you do anything else to embarrass me, I swear I’m not talking to you,” He informs his big sister.
“Yay!” Tinsley squeals happily, leaning down and kissing her brothers disheveled dirty blonde hair. “This is going to be ah-mazing.”
“Oh yeah, for sure,” Mason sarcastically remarks, earning a slap upside his head courtesy of Tinsley.
Even a blind man could see how close the two of them really are though. That’s pretty cool, I think, the fact that they’re brother and sister and don’t completely hate each other. I wish Caleb and I could be like that.
Don’t get me wrong, Caleb and I have a good relationship and all, for the most part, but it could be a whole lot better. And if he wasn’t such a mindless idiot who had friends like Wyatt Abernathy, then maybe it would be. Nevertheless though, I love my brother and I know that he loves me even if we don’t exactly show it.
“Don’t act like you’re not dying from happiness on the inside, I know you miss me when we’re on different sides of the world.” Tinsley teasingly sings, skipping back from around the counter, which I’m not sure how she does given the fact that she’s wearing heels that have got to be at least six inches. Tinsley collects her purse and then sighs. “Okay, I’m gonna go up to Elkhart to see the ‘rents and then we’re hanging out later, so be prepared,” She explains to Mason.
“Roger that,” Mason chuckles awkwardly, giving his sister a wave.
“It was nice to finally meet you, Aria,” Tinsley tells me cheerfully before turning on her heel and leaving out of the bookstore.
“So, exactly how long did you plan on being here in Indiana, Mason?” Aubree asks him with a tired look on her face.
“I dunno,” Mason shrugs with a sigh. “How long do you think that I can stay here for?”
“Like I said, you just need to be back in Los Angeles by the 15th. And Anna worked hard to get you as a guest for Letterman, Kimmel, Leno and Fallon. So, where you like it or not, you’re going on one of those four talk shows. Preferably all of them.”
“Well, Letterman and Fallon are in New York and Leno and Kimmel are in California. Tell Piper to cancel Letterman and Fallon and if people have already gotten their tickets for whatever day she got me in on, just send them some sort of consolation present. I’ll do Leno and Kimmel and I’ll do them on the 13th and 14th that way on the premiere of Maybe You on the 15th, I’ll already be there,” Mason quickly says as if this is a normal thing for him. And seeing as how he’s a movie star, I guess it is. “Did you get that all?”
“I think so,” Aubree sighs with a nod. “I’ll give it to Piper, Jason and Chauncey and see how they feel about it, yeah?”
“Alright, that sounds great. Now, are you all gonna be staying here? Or what?” He questions.
“Well, I’m your assistant, so I think I kind of have to, but I’d imagine Chauncey and Jason aren’t. Piper probably will be though.”
“Okay, in that case, you’re welcome to stay at the old house with Tinsley and me or I’ll get you a hotel or something,” He offers.
“For all the work I had to do to track you down, I expect the best hotel in the entire city,” Aubree informs him with a small laugh.
“You got it,” He solemnly says. “The best hotel for the best assistant. What about you, Chauncey?” Mason asks the quiet man.
“Oh, you don’t have to get me a hotel,” Chauncey assures Mason. “I think I’ll fly back out tonight to Los Angeles. But you better not miss this premiere, Mason. This is one of the biggest movies of your career and if your ass is not in California on December 15th, then you might as well kiss it all goodbye,” He informs Mason seriously.
“Jeez guys, do you have no faith in me at all?” Mason asks his manager and personal assistant. “I’ll be there, I swear. Stop worrying. I’ll call you guys later or something,” He tells them, giving them both a finalizing nod and subtly letting them know that they can leave now. They seem to get the hint, because Chauncey sighs heavily and then mumbles something unintelligible under his breath before pushing the door open for Aubree and then walking out behind her.
“Wow, you’re so professional,” I teasingly tell him, turning to Mason on my stool once we’re all alone again. Well, almost all alone. Barb’s here, of course, but she’s closed up in the workroom probably doing labels or ordering more books or something like that.
“Nah,” He disagrees. “They usually handle all of that for me. Jason, Piper, Chauncey and Aubree. They’re all major pains in my ass, but without them, I’d be nothing. There’s just know was that I’m going to New York to be on David Letterman or Jimmy Fallon though, I just will not do it and I don’t care what anyone says,” Mason tells me firmly, shaking his head as he plays with his glasses that he’s supposed to wear as part of his disguise. I think it’s a stupid disguise because he looks totally the same, just more like a hipster and with his hair pushed back. I guess it works for him though.
“Why not?” I ask curiously, picking up my Starbucks cup and drinking from it. He got me a pretty big one— a venti, I think it is. It’s definitely not a trenta, because those things are huge, but it’s a bit larger than a grande. I should know— I go to Starbucks a lot.
“Because New York is cold and I don’t want to chance getting stuck there in the snow,” Mason answers simply.
“I’ve never been to New York,” I pipe. “It’s really cold here though and it obviously snows a lot. So, I mean, you never know. You could get stuck here too. I think it’d be a whole lot cooler to be stuck in New York than Indiana, but that’s just me,” I respond.
“Well, you’re wrong. I’d rather be stuck here in Indiana than in New York,” Mason assures me with a small smile.
“That’s because you’re obviously brain-dead,” I giggle, taking a long sip of my White Hot Chocolate. Next to chicken nuggets, I think that these things are my favorite things in the world. They really are so delicious. Speaking of chicken nuggets, I really want some right now. Sure, I had them for lunch today but that was so many hours ago and the last thing that I ate was pizza and now I want chicken nuggets.
“I’m not braid-dead,” Mason defends with a laugh. “It’s just that there’s someone here in Indiana that makes it worth staying.”
“Oh?” I ask, raising my eyebrows slightly in question as my mind immediately flashes back to Tinsley’s previous statement about how I used to be Mason’s crush when we were still kids. Then, without my permission, it flashes back to my recent talk with Clark.
“Crush. This kid had the world’s largest crush on you.”
“Like, likes you as more than his non-famous friend.”
“I just think that’s Mason Carter has a crush on you, that’s all.”
I guess it could be true that Mason likes me. But then, why would he? I mean, I’m not saying that I’m ugly or anything because, you know, I don’t think that that I am, but Mason dates super-models. Like, some of the top super models in the world. He’s dated beautiful singers and talented actresses and the idea that he might like me, a normal girl from Indiana, is totally and completely crazy and so unlikely that it actually makes my stomach hurt.
“Yep,” Mason confirms with a nod, giving me this weirdly intense look.
“Well, that’s nice. Is it your mother?” I ask jokingly, feeling the uneasy tension.
“No, it’s not my mother,” Mason laughs. “I mean, yeah, I love my mom, but no.”
“Well, then who is it? Is it Holland? I mean, I know you haven’t even met her but she claims to have fallen in love with you through all of your red carpet events and your press junkies and all that good stuff. So, yeah, if you’re in love with Holland, that’s totally cool,” I reply with a giggle. I know that he doesn’t actually have a crush on Holland— a random girl he’s never met— but I thought I’d go for it anyway, just to make light of the situation that I can already feel forming.
“No, it’s not your crazy friend,” He denies with a small laugh.
“Then tell me who it is, stupid,” I reply, again, only teasing, bumping my shoulder to his.
“Since Tinsley already told you about the stupid highlight thing, I guess I’ll just tell you. It’s, um, it’s you, Aria.”
“It’s me?” I echo, dumbfounded. Well, not so dumbfounded, because I don’t think that him liking me is such a surprise. It’s really awesome that someone as amazing as Mason actually has a crush on me, Aria Jane Austin, but it’s not so much a shock, not to me. Sure I denied my thinking that he liked me when I was talking to Clark but that was before Tinsley came in and started talking about the stuff from their childhood and Mason’s crush on me. Maybe his childhood crush just blossomed into an actual crush.
“It’s you. Besides the fact that I really, really hate David Letterman, you’re the reason I’m still here in Indiana,” Mason confirms.
Setting my Starbucks cup down on the counter, I spin around on the stool so that I’m facing Mason all the way and give him an incredulous look. “Mason Carter,” I giggle giddily. “Do you still have a crush on me?”
“Five years is a long time to get over someone, and trust me, I did attempt to and for a while, it worked. But then I came back home and you were here and that plan just went out the window,” He shrugs as if talking about his feelings is nothing to him.
“I’m not sure what to say,” I admit with giggle.
“Dating. I think that we should do that,” Mason informs me.
“Dating?” I repeat, giving him a pointed look. “Is that your way of asking me out?”
“Nope,” Mason denies, popping the ‘p’. “That’s my way of putting it out there that that’s what I think that we should do,” He says.
“Okay then,” I retort with an amused grin. “Well, I think that’d be…nice.”
“Yeah?” Mason asks as if he’s surprised. I mean, he’s Mason Carter, it’s not as if people often reject him. At least, I assume not.
“Mhm,” I confirm with a nod. “So, now what?” I wonder.
“So, then, I think I’m supposed to really ask now.” Mason laughs. “Um, Aria, will you, you know, be my girlfriend?”
“To be a really successful actor, you’re extremely awkward,” I inform him, teasingly. “But yes, I will,” I announce with a smile.
“Are you sure? Because when the paparazzi finds out about this, they’re probably be after you too,” He warns me seriously.
“I think that I can handle a few photographers, Mason,” I assure him. “If that’s the price I have to pay for dating you then, I’m totally willing to. Besides, they’re not going to find me very interesting. I’m just some normal girl from Indianapolis,” I remind him.
“Alright then,” Mason says with a big smile. He hops up from the stool and grabs my hand in his, pulling me up. I’m not sure what he’s doing, not until he gently pushes me against the counter so that my back is touching it. Mason stands in front of it and raises his other hand to my cheek, cupping it in hand. “Maybe we should kiss a little,” Mason suggests with a teasing grin on his face.
“Maybe just a little bit,” I agree with a girly giggle.
Mason chuckles softly at that and then leans down to me— we have quite a height difference because he’s just so tall. Me, myself, I’m not short, really, but I’m more like average height, which is five foot five, I think. Mason though, is more like six feet tall, so he has quite a few inches on me. My and Mason’s lips move together slowly, not too fast or intensely or anything like that so that our kiss is soft and sweet and simple.
We don’t make-out or anything, which isn’t necessary since this is our very first kiss and because my very old boss in just a few rooms away. After a few minutes of slow kissing, I feel Mason smile a small grin against my lips because he’s just so goofy. He’s goofy but his smiles are contagious, so I do the same thing, just to humor him, which I guess works because shortly thereafter, Mason pulls his lips away from mine, resting his forehead against mine.
“This is pretty cool,” Mason notes, grinning his ridiculously perfect smile.
“This is very cool,” I correct him, going up on my tiptoes and pressing my lips to his again.
Author's Note: One day late, I know, I know, but really, for the first time the entire summer, I was extremely busy. I think this chapter is worth it though, at least, I hope it is. Anyways, comment your thoughs, por favor and don't forget to vote, please. Notice the picture and the lovely song, also! I'm kinda in love with that song right now, so yeah. I think the song is pretty cute for Mason and Aria too, so yep. <3