"So I was thinking of reading through my old scripts and picking my favorite lines and put them on a board with a picture." I told Mason when he sat down next to me.
"I thought the one wasn't finished?" He picked up my finished script and flipped through it.
"It never will be because I was so focused on editing and making it perfect I tossed my outline in trash by mistake with the rewrites." I sighed and showed him the outline I made for my samples.
"How are you doing Unfinished Manuscripts?" He frowned as he tried to make sense of my sloppy outline.
"The Emerald Legend is going to be on one side, and Death of a Beauty Queen is gonna be on the other side." I explained. "I'm gonna get one of those boards that are white on both sides instead of the ones we use in school for presentations."
"Okay, it makes sense now." He nodded and scooted closer to me. "Want me to pick the lines, so you don't scream at the shitty writing?"
"You don't have to." I pulled my hair out of its ponytail, ran my fingers through it, and pulled it back up.
"I wanna help." He leaned over me and grabbed a highlighter. "After all, I'm making you apply."
"You're the bestest friend ever." I rolled my eyes.
"You love me." He nudged me with his elbow.
Before I could answer I heard a gasp from the doorway, and Mason and I jumped apart. Hannah and Sophia were staring at us as if we had three heads each.
"We weren't doing anything!" Mason shook his head and I started moving towards them when Sophia spoke up.
"Why not?" She was grinning ear to ear.
Mason answered before I could even think of a reply. "Because we're best friends, not fuck buddies."
I waved my arm towards him to let them know I agreed with him before closing the door again.
*****
"I'm getting the mail!" I yelled as I grabbed the mail key from the key rack.
"Okay." Dad said from the kitchen.
I walked down our driveway and to the corner where the stand thing of mailboxes for the block was at. I located our box easily since it was the top left one and grabbed all the mail inside before closing and locking it again. I flipped through the mail and pocketed everything that was for me.
"We got the key." I said to myself when I noticed the key for the larger box on the bottom; that means we were getting a box of some kind soon.
"Mail." I waved the mail around as I closed the door and put the mail keys on their hook. "We're getting a package soon."
"I ordered a couple of books off Amazon." Dad said as I tossed the mail onto the counter.
"Please tell me they have nothing to do with sex." Hannah begged as she began to look for her mail.
"Like he would tell us." I pulled out my pieces of mail and actually read who they were from. All the colleges I applied to.
Hannah and Dad were too busy arguing over what his books were about to notice me opening a shit ton of letters; I started from the bottom of my list and worked my way up to the college I wanted most.
Pratt-accepted.
Visual Arts-rejected.
Massachusetts-accepted.
Savannah-accepted.
CalArts-accepted.
USC-accepted.
UCLA-accepted.
I took a deep breath before opening the letter from NYU; I scanned the letter then reread it to make sure I read it right then again.
"I got in." I whispered. "Oh my God, I got in!"
"Where?" Hannah picked up the letter from UCLA as Dad looked at me in confusion.
"How are you already getting an acceptance letter?" He asked.
"I applied early, but I was in the middle of redoing them because I hadn't heard back." I couldn't contain my excitement. I got into UCLA and NYU, my top two colleges.
"We're going to UCLA together!" Hannah hugged me, but my eyes were on Dad as he read the other letters.
"If she chooses to go to UCLA." Dad pointed at all the acceptance letters. "And it's not the UCLA letter she's holding."
Hannah dropped her arms from around me as my heart fell out of my body. "Which one are you holding?"
"New York University." I swallowed and waited for their reactions.
"You got into NYU?" Justin asked from the doorway of his room.
"Yeah." I nodded and pressed the letter harder against my chest.
"Congrats." He smiled at me before walking out to the kitchen. "Morning, babe."
"Not around me, please." Dad shook his head and went back to making breakfast.
"Why didn't you tell me you were applying to all of these schools?" Hannah asked me.
"Didn't think I would get in." I shrugged and set the NYU acceptance with the others. "If it makes you feel better, Sophia is the only one who knew because she saw my redo apps."
"You haven't told Mason?" Dad asked.
"No." I shook my head. "I don't know how he would feel about me moving to another state. I'll tell him later."
"Are any of the schools in Nevada?" Hannah asked.
"No." I shook my head.
"Okay." She nodded and dragged Justin out of the room.
*****
"I'm terrible." I said when the ball bounced off the rim.
"You're doing fine." Mason caught the ball and dribbled it as he jogged over to me.
"I've missed ten of my eleven shots." I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched Mason score another basket. "And you've gotten every single one."
"It takes practice." He shrugged and tossed the ball to me after getting it again. "Come on, Hails. Try again."
"At least I can catch it." I shrugged and bounced the ball for a few seconds before shooting. It circled the rim before falling off. "Fuck basketball."
Mason started laughing, so I jogged after the ball and threw it in his direction. It barely got near him.
"I love you." Mason shook his head before pulling his shirt off, and I did my best not drool or look at him.
"What were you and Hannah talking about last night?" I changed the subject to something more PG than my thoughts.
"Nothing." I heard him shoot the ball again. "How's your day been?"
"Good, I guess." I watched the ball go in the basket again. "I got into seven of the eight colleges I applied to."
"Holy shit, that's awesome." He pulled me into a hug I tried to get out of.
"Let go of me!" I yelled. "You're sweaty and gross!"
"Never." I felt him laughing and rammed my elbow into his stomach. "What about you? Get your letters yet?"
"Not yet." He dropped his arms and took a step. "What schools did you get into."
Crap. "USC, UCLA, CalArts." I started with the California schools. "Pratt University, both colleges of Art and Design in Savannah and Massachusetts, and NYU."
"NYU as in New York University?" He bounced the ball as he talked.
"The one and only." I yawned then blinked a couple of times.
"Ready to go?" He stopped bouncing the ball.
"Yeah, it's after ten." I pointed at the clock that was hanging above the boys' locker room.
"I have the key to the locker room if you wanna shower before heading back." Mason offered as I grabbed ours bags and he went to put the ball away.
"Does Coach have a key to girls' locker room?" I brushed the loose hairs out of my face.
"No, just the boys." Mason took his bag from him and we start walking towards the locker rooms.
"No thanks." I wrinkled my nose.
The boys' locker room doesn't have curtains for their showers, and I don't want to be that expose to Mason. It's bad enough that he's seen a picture of me in lingerie.
"I'm gonna, so just hit the lights and go through the locker room." Mason tossed me the keys after unlocking the locker room. "Don't worry I won't strip until you leave."
I smiled then went to turn the lights out before following him into the locker room. "I'm gonna go unlock the door then give you the keys back."
"Okay." Mason nodded as he turned the water on then kicked his sneakers off.
"So don't strip yet!" I hollered as I walked to the door and unlocked it.
"I didn't remove my socks." He was leaning against the shower wall when I came back to drop the keys off.
"Thanks." I rolled my eyes and left the locker room.
I didn't realize Mason didn't hand me the keys to his truck until I tried opening the passenger door.
"It's too cold to wait." I mumbled under my breath then turned around to walk back across campus to get his keys. "Maybe he's done."
I quietly opened the locker room door, so I didn't give him a heart attack and walked to where he was showering.
"Mase-" I started talking but was quickly cut off by Mason yelling.
"Hailey!" He yelled, clearly embarrassed. "What the fuck?"
"I'm not looking!" I covered my eyes anyway. "The wall is blocking you from my vision."
"What are you doing here?" He snapped. "How long have you been there?"
"You didn't give me your keys, and like two seconds." I don't wanna know what he's doing.
"They're in my bag." I kept my eyes on the floor as I grabbed his keys.
"Bye." I ran out of locker room and didn't stop until I got to his truck.
"Oh my God." I leaned against the truck and started laughing. "Can't believe I walked in on Mason touching himself."
***AN***
I. Can't. Stop. Laughing.
Let us know what you thought!
~ChasingMadness24 & BriannaVore