"I have news that may or not be great to you and awesome kickass news." Mason said when I answered his call.
"What's that?" I turned speakerphone on as I started brushing my hair.
"Well, I'm not spending Christmas with you guys this year." I frowned at his happy sounding voice.
"That better not be the awesome kickass news." I said lowly.
"Why would that be the awesome kickass news?" He asked but didn't give me time to answer. "My uncle is coming over for the whole break." I could see him bouncing around his room.
"Holy shit." I said right as I hit a knot in my hair. "Ow."
"Are you okay?" He went from carelessly happy to worried soccer mom in under a second.
"Yeah, just hit a knot." I rolled my eyes. "Why is your uncle coming down? Doesn't he work twenty hours a day and live like half a day away?"
"He's coming down for work." He was back to carelessly happy.
"I didn't take your uncle for the mix business with pleasure kind of manager." I joked.
"He isn't a manager." Mason corrected me for the millionth time. "He's just an overseer for a gallery."
"Fancy way of saying manager." I smiled as he started ranting about the difference. "So if your uncle spending Christmas with you isn't the awesome kickass news, then what is?"
"Oh yeah." I heard him shuffle some things around on his end. "Well the boss people of the gallery own a whole bunch worldwide-"
"I know." I reminded him.
"And the general theme or whatever for the next up and comers show is Local, as in you're applying." Mason didn't bother waiting for my outcry before tearing it down. "Walt told me that the boss people are looking into opening a new gallery within two hours of here, and you have to be at least sixteen to apply."
"Can't apply with nothing." I finished brushing my hair and started braiding it.
"You have a wall covered in pictures, and a box under your bed overflowing with what isn't on your wall." Mason said with enough cockiness that made me want to throw a book at him again.
"Mase, sweetheart, there's a huge difference between a professional gallery and a bedroom wall." I sighed.
"Well, the deadline for apps is early February, interviews for semi-finalists are in March, final picks are announced in March, and the show starts in May." I couldn't tell if he memorized this or was reading it off the website. "So you have time to think about what you want to do for your display things."
"Just to get you to shut up, I'll think about it." I shook my head when he cheered in victory. "But we're not telling anyone, not even Walt and Hannah."
"Cross my heart and hope to die." He responded and I took him off speakerphone.
"Don't hope to die." I murmured. "I don't wanna know what I would do if you died."
"Probably have more friends." He said without hesitation.
"I have three friends, and that's enough." I got up and closed the door. "Hannah said you stopped by earlier with Justin."
"Yeah, he needed helped bringing her chocolates and flowers." He said as I laid down on my bed.
"Okay, I thought you came over to talk about our gameplan for getting you laid." I waited him for to reply.
"Mason?" I asked after nearly twenty minutes had gone by.
"Sorry, stuff." He said.
"So I was thinking maybe Ella from work." I knew not to push him. "She thinks you're cute for reasons unknown, and I've seen you check her out."
"I haven't checked her out." I heard a door slam shut.
"Mason." I'm calling bullshit. "Bullshit."
"It's not." He sighed. "So Ella from your work because she thinks I'm cute?"
"Yeah, you'll gonna have to wait until after your birthday since she's nineteen." I got under my covers and turned onto my side.
"Hmm." I could picture him nodding and tapping his free hand on his shoulder. "So we're going long?"
"I don't understand what you said because I'm too tired to Google it." I yawned and he started laughing.
"I love you, Hails." He managed to say between his laughs.
"I love you too, Mase." I moved my phone to lay by me and turned speakerphone back on.
"You're about to fall asleep aren't you?" Mason asked me.
"No." I yawned.
"Go to sleep, Hails." He told me.
"No, I wanna talk." I stole his line.
"How the tables have turned." He said dramatically.
"I know." I whispered when I heard my Dad's footsteps. "Talk to me anyway?"
"Want do you want me to talk about?" His voice was softer and quieter. I don't know if that's because I was about to fall asleep or if his parents were seconds away from fighting.
"Anything." I closed my eyes.
"Well, one time in the first grade there were these twins who no could tell apart." I laughed because I knew what story he was telling. "And I was friends with both of them, even the one who wasn't in my class. One day during recess I was playing basketball by myself when one of them came up to me, and I thought she was the twin from the other class because my twin didn't wear dresses back then. I was wrong. She threw her book at me while yelling, 'It's Hailey!', and from that day on I made sure to know every difference between them because I don't need another scar."
"I can't believe you remember that." I giggled.
"Of course I remember." He sounded offended by my statement. "Every time I see Cat In The Hat I remember."
"Bullshit." I nearly yelled. "I threw the Illustrated Classics of Pride and Prejudice at you because my Mom got mad at me for flattening a corner on it. That was the only time she ever got mad at me."
"Why did you have Pride and Prejudice in the first grade?" Mason asked me.
"I liked the pictures." I shrugged.
"Well, this isn't helping you sleep." He said. "Time to pull out the Put Hailey To Sleep book."
"And what's that?" I asked him.
"The history of basketball." I groaned at his answer.
"I'm already asleep."
*****
I woke up sometime in the night to someone sliding into my bed. "Mase?"
"Why did your brain go straight to your boyfriend?" Hannah asked me as she brushed some of my stray hairs out of my face.
"Because he comes over a lot." I leaned into my sister's touch. "He's not my boyfriend."
"Sweetheart, you two are getting closer to being married everyday." She said without any teasing in her voice.
"How was dinner with your future in-laws?" I opened my eyes and met her eyes.
"Better than dinner with yours." She smiled.
"Anything is better than dinner with those two shit bags." I told her. "Trust me."
"They're still fighting?" She rolled onto her back. "Why don't they get a divorce?"
"And ruin the perfect family imagine Jessica is relying on to sell houses?" I laughed. "They'll only get a divorce after Alex Davidson buys them out."
"And the fighting?" She asked.
"That'll stop when Hell freezes over." I rolled my eyes. "That's why Mason comes over so much."
"Really? I thought he came over because you two..." I narrowed my eyes at her when she trailed off.
"Because we what?" I scooted closer to her.
"Because you two were secretly dating." She looked over at me and we both started laughing our asses off.
"If I ever date Mason Adam Banks, you'll be the first person I tell." I promised her. "Just like if you ever sleep with Justin, I'll be the first person you tell."
"I'll only sleep with Justin if you tell Mason how you feel about him." Hannah reminded me of our deal.
"So you're dying a virgin." I moved my head from my pillow to her shoulder.
"Nah, I have faith in you." She kissed the top of my head.
"Do you think it's weird Mom and Dad never told us who's older?" I asked her after a few minutes of silence.
"No." She wrapped her arms around me. "Go to sleep."
"I was sleeping when you woke me up." I closed my eyes again and listened to her heartbeat.
"Shh, go to sleep."
*****
"Where are you going?" Dad asked me after school the next day.
"The Gym?" I said it as a question because I couldn't remember if I told him I was staying to help Mason.
"Why? You're not on the basketball team." He looked confused.
"I promised Mason I would help him." I closed my locker and walked over to my Dad. "And, no. It's not a metaphor for sex or blowjobs or anything. I'm literally just helping him with shooting from the halfway line."
"Bring your sister with you." Was all he said before he walked out to the parking lot.
"I'm sure she won't mind that at all." I muttered and went to find Hannah.
"Hailey!" Sophia yelled my name before I even saw her and Hannah hanging out near the cafeteria.
"Hey, Soph." I smiled at her. "Do you want to come with Hannah and watch Mason and I shoot hoops?"
"Since when was I watching you help Mason with the halfway line?" Hannah stood up and grabbed her and Sophia's bags.
"Since Dad said so like five seconds ago." I smiled at her.
"Did he think it was code for something?" Sophia asked me as we all walked to the Gym.
"He thinks everything is code for sex." Hannah rolled her eyes.
"I don't care if either of you stay." I pushed the Gym doors open. "Hannah and I just have to go home together."
***AN***
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~ChasingMadness24