Page 71 of Hypnotized By Love

“Savannah?”

I heard Sierra calling me. I pushed on his shoulders, suddenly frantic. She was going to find me, and he was so obviously disheveled, and I figured I must look the same. Messy hair—had I been wearing lipstick? I couldn’t remember. If I had, it was probably smeared all over my face. I searched the ground for my scrunchie and found it, doing my best to pull my hair back.

Mason just watched me with an amused look as I ran over to the window to see if I could make out my own reflection. No lipstick, but I did notice that my lips looked swollen, my cheeks bright pink. I hoped my sister wouldn’t notice.

“Savannah?”

“In here!” I said, running over to the couch and picking up my book.

My sister opened the door and stuck her head into the room. “We’re going for ice cream. Do you two want to come?”

“Yes, I do! I’ve been told it feels good to say yes,” Mason announced, and I tried really hard not to flush at his words. “I’d love to get ice cream.”

“None for me, thanks.” I kept my eyes pointed at the page and hoped they would just leave so that my sister wouldn’t figure out what we’d been up to.

“Let’s go,” she said, and I could feel Mason’s gaze on me, but he left without saying another word. Sierra started to follow him, and then she said my name.

I looked up at her.

She pointed at her chest. “Your top button’s open, and you’re holding your book upside down,” she said with a wink, and I collapsed against the couch when she closed the door behind her.

I was never going to hear the end of this from her.

Especially since it shouldn’t have happened. I never should have given in to those impulses.

This had to be a onetime thing.

I couldn’t ever let it happen again.

My solution to this potential problem was to hide out as much as I possibly could. I stopped meeting my sister and Bridget out in public and spent most of my free time at home.

The one issue I currently faced was that the PTA’s silent auction / fundraising party was tonight. Technically my part of it was done—Ihad gotten all the donors, printed out a sheet for each item, and called everyone before the event to make sure they were ready to go.

Except Mason. I hadn’t called Mason to see if he was still planning on offering up a writing critique. I did print out a paper for it, though.

Everything was set up and ready to go. They didn’t need me tonight.

I worked myself up into a frenzy because I was so worried about seeing him at the fundraiser, to the point that I felt like I might throw up. I curled up in my bed, tucking my blanket around me and wishing it could be my shield so that I could hide out forever.

That roller-coaster feeling was back with a vengeance. I couldn’t separate out all these conflicting feelings I was carrying around, and I had gone and made it a thousand times worse by making out with him.

Because now I knew for a fact what I was missing out on—a physical connection like I’d never experienced before.

Not to mention the emotional connection we used to share.

I groaned and turned over. I could not go and face him tonight. Vivian was active in the PTA, so she would be there, and I couldn’t risk something happening with Mason out in public, because I’d already shown that I was more than willing to throw caution to the wind when he smoldered at me.

When my mom came in to check on me, I legitimately felt terrible and told her I couldn’t go, which she accepted.

My sister, however, did not.

“Are you faking?” she asked, sitting next to me on the bed.

“I’m not. I feel so sick to my stomach.”

Her hand reached under my blanket so that she could feel my forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”

That wasn’t true. I did have a fever, and its name was Mason, and he had permanently infected me, and I apparently had zero antibodies to him, and I was never going to get over feeling this way about him.

---