Page 86 of Studious
“Wow,” Mason says, and I can’t tell how to interpret that. While he’s my best friend, he isn’t a number or equation, so I don’t always understand him.
“What does ‘wow’ mean?”
“It’s an expression of surprise.”
I sigh. “Don’t be sarcastic.”
“All right. I meant it sincerely. I… was not expecting to hear the two of you were spending that much time together. Do you have any idea what he’s thinking?”
“Not really. He treats me really nicely.”
“I’d have to beat him up if he did anything else,” Mason says.
“From Paris?” I scoff. “But I do appreciate the protectiveness.”
“De rien.”
“But what do I do?”
“What can you do? You can figure out how he feels about you. The best way to do that, bee tee dubs, is to ask him. Or you can stew in your own juices and suffer.”
“I don’t like that second option. But the first sounds scary.”
“Relationships are scary, Alden. Because you’re putting yourself out there, and you might get rejected or hurt.”
“Not if you beat Danny up from Paris.”
“That would be only if he hurt you, so by definition, it wouldn’t work.”
“Hmm.” I scrub my hand over my face. “I don’t think he’s going to hurt me. Not intentionally, anyway. I know I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him. What we agreed is that he would teach me how to be a player, and I’d let him record me.”
“How’s that been going? Do you like being recorded?”
“Um, now that I think about it, Danny hasn’t recorded anything in a while—at least not with me there.” I scroll on my phone and don’t see any new videos. “It’s like he gave up. Although he does have two thousand followers, it’s nowhere near the millions I believe he needed for his bragging rights.”
“Huh.”
“What does that mean? You’re as hard to read with your ‘huh’ as your ‘wow.’”
“’Huh’ means I wonder if he stopped out of courtesy to you. Like he didn’t want to be invasive once he saw where it was going. It seems like he wanted to protect you.”
“Huh,” I say, and Mason laughs.
“What kind of ‘huh’ is that?” he asks.
“The confused kind.”
“What if,” Mason says slowly, “he’s starting to care for you the way you care for him?”
“Impossible,” I reply immediately.
“Why is that impossible? You’re easy to care for. You’re sweet and fun. So long as he doesn’t get between you and a baseball game, you’re fine.”
I smile at that, even though it seems hard to believe. Not the part about baseball—that makes perfect sense. But the concept that Danny could have feelings for me.
“We went to a Dodger game together.”
“Marry him.”
