Page 15 of Escape Velocity
He checks his watch. It’s only been half an hour since he was in the library. Was their team meeting that quick?
Mason sighs and turns around to see Callum leaning onto the table, his forearm veins bulging. Mason knows he’s doing it on purpose.
“Yeah. You go here too?” she answers, her voice even.
“Yeah. Guess that’s why Fanning’s here too? You guys have been inseparable since?—”
“Since ninth grade,” Mason interrupts, crossing his arms.
Callum shifts uncomfortably on his feet, clearly noticing Mason’s instant displeasure with him.
“You really think I would only come to the school I’ve been gunning for since I was a kid so that I could follow my best friend?” Mason asks, his cheeks hot from the implication.
Callum furrows his eyebrows. “No, I was just thinking that?—”
“Bull. You’ve been finding any possible way to discredit me since we started high school.”
They’re off to the races already. Mason is sick and tired of having his week derailed by Callum and the football team, and he needs to make a counter-attack.
Callum scoffs, his mouth opening and closing but saying nothing. Mason knows he’s right.
Callum closes his eyes.
“Fanning—”
Mason sighs. “Stop calling me by my last name.”
Callum opens his eyes and raises his eyebrows. “Mace?”
“I’m not a toxic aerosol spray.”
“Mace-face?”
“Worse.”
“Mason Jar?”
“Maybe.”
“Macey-Basey?”
“No!”
“Fine.Mason.”
Jenna’s head is going back and forth between Mason and Callum like she’s watching a tennis match. She chomps on her fries as she watches.
“I was just trying to say hi to Jenna. As far as I know, you’re the only two people other than Joel from Northwood that goes to Montgomery. So, we may as well get used to seeing each other. I was just trying to be friendly,” Callum says, holding his hands up like he’s an innocent victim and Mason instigated a whole fight.
Maybe he did. But that’s all he knows how to do with Callum.
His throat still stings from the comment Callum’steammate made before, so maybe he’s still on the defense. Sue him.
“Because you changedsomuch over the past year, right?” Mason asks, tilting his head.
“Fanning—”
“Mason.”
