Page 107 of Tell Me I'm Enough

“Is she your girlfriend?”

He almost chokes, laughing. “No, she’s just a friend, buddy. Are you trying to charm my friend, Easton?”

“Ew! Girls have cooties!”the other shouts, jumping on Mason’s back, as he sits on the edge of his bed.

He shakes his head, smiling. “Give it a couple of years, Ash. You’ll be chasing those cooties around.”

“No way!” he says, sticking his tongue out.

The other one—Easton—leans back in. “Can she come play with us, too?”

“Sadly, no,”he tells them. “She’s all the way in North Carolina right now.”

“Where’s dat?”

“It’s like a nine-hour drive from here, bud.”

“Woah, dats far.”

“It is,”he says softly. “Okay, I’m gonna come play. Just give me a minute to finish up this call, and I’ll be down.”

“Okay! Bye, Simone!”

“Bye, boys,” I tell them, smiling.

Once they’re gone, he walks into his closet and grabs a shirt, pulling it on.

“Sorry, those two are feral.”

“No, they’re so cute. I’m obsessed with them.”

He takes his phone and walks all the way down to his kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge. As soon as he cracks it open, I hear a faint voice in the background.

“Let’s try not to stay drunk and completely pathetic this entire break, yeah?”

My stomach drops.

Mason’s face doesn’t change much. But his eyes do. Something goes hard behind them.

He mumbles under his breath, “I wouldn’t need to if you weren’t around.”

He doesn’t give him any real response, though, just walks back upstairs and then out onto a balcony that looks like it’s attached to his bedroom.

“Geez, Mason. Your room alone is probably bigger than my whole house.”

He shakes his head, laughing, and then tips back his beer before setting it on the ledge and resting his arms there, holding out the phone to look at me.

“Yeah, well, I can guarantee it’s a lot emptier than yours, so.”

I hate the sadness behind those words, but before I can say anything else, he smiles and puts the happy mask back on. “So, how’s your break been so far?”

“Um, fine, I guess. It’s been good.”

“Fine?” He gives me a silent look that says,‘Don’t lie to me.’

“Okay…it’s been…kinda boring, honestly.”

“Why boring?”