Page 18 of Possession

Ollie

Just lucky I guess

CJ

ahem

He does and it’s amazing

Next question

(three hours later)

Vinnie

What the fuck

4

Mason tossed his phone aside, wiped the tears from beneath his eyes, and stood. He’d been putting off that conversation with Vinnie for days because he knew nothing would be solved from it, and he’d been right.

He wasn’t sorry he’d left and come home. Not really. Though he was sorry he’d hurt Vinnie. He never wanted to do that. It was why he’d stayed for as long as he had, even though he’d been miserable since the beginning.

But they wouldn’t be able to solve anything hundreds of miles apart. If Vinnie decided to go to Texas, they would never fix what was broken between them, but if he came home, he knew they’d have a chance.

The next couple of weeks were going to be difficult, not only because he’d be unable to stop thinking about what would happen when Vinnie’s contract was up but also because while he would have Penny and Ollie and all of the wonderful people Ollie had surrounded himself with, Vinnie wouldn’t have anyone.

And knowing that, living with the knowledge that Vinnie was by himself for the first time since he and Mason had been forced out by Vinnie’s parents, was killing him.

They’d been living together since they graduated high school, sharing every high and low, all of their ups and downs. No matter how bad things got, they’d at least had each other.

But Vinnie had to make his choice. All Mason could do was hope he came home too.

Sniffling, he scrubbed at his face and decided to head downstairs to see if he could pilfer anything decent from the kitchen. He’d been spending time each day trying to find a place to rent so he could get out of the MC’s hair, but all the places he’d looked at so far had either been in the middle of college students—and the last thing he wanted was to be up all night listening to parties or getting contact highs through the thin walls—had creepy landlords, or looked like they’d fall apart five minutes after he moved in.

And in one particular case, the “apartment” had actually been a room in a man’s house, who hadn’t stopped staring at him and made Mason extremely uncomfortable, especially when he showed him their shared bathroom.

Shared. Bathroom.

As much as he had liked living in Ridgewood in the past, he was beginning to worry he wouldn’t be able to find something appropriate, not in the timetable Tomas had given him. He was already pushing a week, and even though no one had said anything to him yet, he knew it was coming.

He was taking up space in a clubhouse that didn’t belong to him, and he wasn’t paying rent or helping out in any other way. While he did his best to keep his head down and not cause any problems, there was no way they’d forgotten he was there.

He’d thought being right next door to Ollie would at least be nice and give them a chance to spend time together. And they had a little, but his friend was busier than he’d expected. He had his job that he went to, of course, and then in the evenings, heoften had obligations for things that he’d agreed to or signed up for before he’d known Mason was coming.

Mason tried not to be jealous that most of the time, Ollie was going off and doing things with CJ, or CJ, Kenneth, and Emmett. He knew Ollie and CJ had grown especially close while he and Vinnie were gone, but living in CJ’s old room and watching the two of them sit huddled together in Ollie’s room or downstairs in one of the round booths, planning Tank’s birthday party and some sort of fundraiser, he couldn’t help the surges in envy he had.

At least he’d gotten to spend some time with Penny the night before, the two of them going out to eat and catching up. He’d found out she was seriously dating a member of the MC, and she’d confessed she’d met him after Ollie had finally worn her down and convinced her to come to one of the BDSM parties.

After everything she’d gone through with her ex, Mason was, of course, ecstatic for her, but a tiny kernel of resentment was starting to grow inside him toward the Devil’s Hands Motorcycle Club. It seemed like they were invading every corner of his life somehow, stealing all of his friends and sheltering him when he had nowhere else to go. He’d been so grateful he’d been allowed to stay, but now, he was wondering if it would have been better if he’d gotten a hotel or a short-term rental.

He slowly descended the stairs, lost in his tumultuous thoughts, until he neared the bottom and heard loud voices and laughter and came to a halt. Shit, he’d forgotten Ollie had said there was going to be some sort of gathering at the clubhouse that evening and that he and Six would be attending after they got back from a dinner date.

He wasn’t in the mood to pretend to be polite and friendly, not after the conversation he’d just had with Vinnie. All he wanted was some comfort food and then to curl up with his phone to scroll mindlessly on social media for the rest of thenight. Maybe he’d plan some content for his channel, too, since he was going to have to start filming again really soon, nearly out of prerecorded videos.

The only way to get to the kitchen, though, was to pass through the main area of the clubhouse. There was no way he could get from the stairs to the kitchen and back without being spotted by somebody. He wasn’t sure what would be worse, being asked to join them and feeling like he had to or not being asked and feeling like even more of an outsider.

Dejected, heartsick, and hungry, he sat on the last step and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t believe how far off track his life had gotten.

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