Stepping out of his bedroom,
Cayden King glanced into the living room silently. Jesse Martinez
was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, he entered the kitchen
and set about making breakfast. As he scrambled his eggs, he
found his thoughts returning to Julia Taylor’s diary entry.
“She was pregnant,”
he said to himself, wondering if Jesse knew about it. It dawned
on him that if Jesse knew about it, he would have said something.
He had been going on about how much Julia wanted children, but
made no mention of her actually being pregnant.
“Why wouldn’t she
have told him?” Cayden questioned aloud.
“Told who?” A voice
questioned, startling Cayden and nearly causing him to drop the
bowl of eggs that he was scrambling.
He glanced at the door. “Mason,”
he said with surprise, “I didn’t hear you come in.
Are you just getting in?” He questioned, pausing slightly.
“What a second, have you been out all night?”
“Yes Mother,” Mason
replied. “I hooked up with these two girls at the club and
we went back to their place.”
“Please,” Cayden
said as he put his hand up to prevent his friend from continuing,
“no details, thank you.”
Mason laughed. “Fine,
I won’t disgust you with the gory details of straight sex
. . . even if it was hot.” Heading into the living room,
Mason fell onto the couch with a sigh of relief. “I am going
to sleep for hours,” he said aloud.
“You’re going to
sleep?” Cayden questioned as he cooked his eggs. “I
thought you were leaving today. Don’t you have a bus to
catch at noon?”
“Are you trying to kick
me out?” Mason questioned.
“No, but I thought . .
. I thought you were going back home today. You’ve been
mentioning it all week.”
“I know,” Mason responded.
“Cayden . . . I have to tell you something . . . I don’t
plan on going back home, ever.”
“What?” Cayden questioned
while cooping his eggs onto a plate. “What do you mean?”
Mason sat forward on the couch
and glanced in Cayden’s direction as he entered the living
room. “I hate it at home,” Mason admitted. “There’s
never anything to do, and people look at me like I’m an
idiot because I didn’t go to college like everyone else.”
“You’re not an idiot,”
Cayden assured him.
“That’s how everyone
makes me feel,” Mason explained. “My mom looks at me
like I’m a disappointment, and my father doesn’t say
anything, but I can tell that he thinks I’m a failure.”
“You’re not a failure.”
“I know, that’s why
I’m not going back. People out here don’t care if I
went to college. They don’t care about things like that.
It’s hard back home because everyone is constantly in my
face, but out here no one knows me.”
“Have you told your parents
yet?” Cayden questioned.
Mason nodded. “I told
them before I left,” he explained. “They got so pissed
off. My father said that if I left for New York, then I wasn’t
welcome in their home anymore . . . so I left.”
“Why didn’t you tell
me?” Cayden questioned.
“Because I didn’t
want another person to look at me like I’m a failure.”
Cayden shook his head. “I
would never do that,” he assured him. “You’re
my best friend, I don’t care about any of that.”
Mason smiled. “I’m
sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,
you have nothing to be sorry for.”
“My grandmother gave me
some money before I left, but it’s not going to last forever.
I have to get a job. I’ll pay rent if you let me stay here
until I find my own place,” Mason pledged.
“Don’t worry about
it,” Cayden said as he shook his head. “My parents
have it covered. We just can’t tell them that you’re
staying here,” he explained with a smirk. “But I think
you do need a job, all of that partying can get expensive,”
he added.
Mason laughed. “I don’t
want to depend on you for everything.”
“It’s okay, I’m
happy to help,” Cayden explained.
“So . . . are you going
to eat that?” Mason questioned as he pointed to Cayden’s
plate.
Rolling his eyes, Cayden handed
his plate of scrambled eggs over to Mason. “Eat up, you
mooch,” he teased. |
