The Boy Who Teased Her

The hallway narrowed near the stairwell. Students packed together beneath a row of fading posters, and Lily was caught between a wall and a stream of bodies. Someone’s elbow struck her books. Her folder slipped from her arms.

Papers scattered across the floor.

The noise seemed to swell around her.

“Great,” Lily breathed.

She crouched, reaching for a worksheet just as a sneaker stepped on its corner. A boy from the basketball team - Derek Hall, she thought - looked down at her without moving.

“Careful,” he said. “Wouldn’t want you to make the floor nervous too.”

His friends laughed.

Lily’s fingers tightened around the paper. “Please move your foot.”

Derek looked delighted. “Oh, she talks.”

Another student nudged him. “Maybe Mason finally taught her.”

The laughter came again, brighter this time. Lily felt every face turning toward her. Her throat closed. She could not get enough air past the tight collar of her shirt.

Then Mason’s voice cut through the crowd.

“Pick up your foot.”

Derek glanced over. Mason stood a few steps away, one hand resting on the locker beside him. His expression had lost its playful shine.

“What?” Derek said.

“You heard me.”

The hallway seemed to make room for Mason without anyone meaning to. His friends stopped talking. Even the students hurrying past slowed to watch.

Derek lifted his foot from the worksheet, but he did not step away. “Relax, Reed. We’re joking.”

“Then tell a joke.”

Derek’s smile faltered.

Mason walked toward them. He was not much taller than Derek, but he carried himself like the whole corridor belonged to him. When he reached Lily, he bent and picked up the last paper before handing it to her.

His fingers brushed hers.

The contact was quick, almost nothing. Lily still felt it travel up her arm.

“Back off,” Mason said.

Derek folded his arms. “Why? She your girlfriend?”

A strange silence opened around them.

Lily’s face burned. Mason looked down at her. For one unguarded moment, his eyes were not amused or careless. They were focused on her, searching.

Then he turned back to Derek.

“She’s not yours to bother.”

Derek snorted. “You bother her every day.”

Mason’s jaw tightened.

Lily noticed. She had never noticed that before - the small movement beneath his cheek, the way his hand curled at his side when he was angry.

“Yeah,” Mason said. “I do. And I’m telling you to stop.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Good. Maybe you’ll remember it.”

Derek stared at him, waiting for the grin to return. It did not.

The warning bell rang, harsh and sudden. Students began moving again, breaking the circle around them. Derek muttered something Lily could not hear and shoved past Mason.

His shoulder struck Mason’s.

Mason did not move.

Derek’s friends followed him toward the stairwell, their laughter fading into the general roar.

Lily remained crouched beside her scattered papers. Her hands shook as she gathered them.

Mason lowered himself beside her. “You okay?”

She looked at him. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Defend me.”

He took the worksheet from her and smoothed its bent corner against his knee. “He was being annoying.”

“You’re annoying.”

“I know.”

“You make fun of me.”

“I know that too.”

“Then why is it different when he does it?”

Mason’s fingers stopped moving.

Around them, the hallway pressed forward. A shoulder brushed Lily’s back. Someone called Mason’s name from near the stairs, but he did not answer.

Finally, he held out her worksheet.

“Because I’m allowed,” he said.

Lily stared at him.

He gave a crooked smile, but it looked forced now. “I mean, because I know you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I know you hate crowded hallways. I know you count the lockers when you’re nervous. I know you always carry two pens because you’re afraid one will stop working.” His gaze dropped to the pens tucked beside her notebook. “And I know you pretend not to hear me when I talk to you.”

Lily’s breath caught.

Mason glanced away, as though he had said too much. “Derek doesn’t know any of that.”

The bell rang again, warning them that the late pass office would soon be involved. Lily should have stood. She should have taken her papers and gone to class.

Instead, she asked, “Why do you know?”

His eyes returned to hers.

For a moment, the noisy hallway blurred. His face was close enough for her to see the faint freckle near his left eyebrow, the one she had noticed months ago and never allowed herself to look at for too long.

Mason’s voice lowered. “Maybe I pay attention.”

The words slipped beneath her defenses.

Then someone shouted, “Reed! Are you coming?”

Mason straightened. The familiar confidence settled over him again, like a jacket he could pull on whenever he wanted.

“Class,” he said. “You should go.”

Lily stood too quickly and nearly lost her balance. Mason’s hand closed around her elbow.

“Easy.”

His palm was warm through her sleeve. He looked down at where he held her, then released her at once.

“Sorry.”

The apology startled her more than the touch.

“You don’t have to - ”

“I said sorry.”

His tone was light, but his eyes were not.

Lily hugged her books tighter. “Thank you.”

Mason blinked.

“For Derek,” she added.

A smile began at the corner of his mouth. “You’re welcome, Chen.”

She turned toward Room 214, trying to hold on to the strange warmth he had left behind. She had taken three steps when she heard his friends catch up with him.

“Man,” one of them said, laughing, “you looked ready to fight Hall over her.”

“Please,” Mason replied. “Lily would faint if I actually made a scene.”

The others laughed.

Lily stopped.

Mason continued, his voice carrying easily over the corridor. “Besides, somebody has to keep her from getting crushed in a hallway. She’s basically a frightened house cat with a backpack.”

More laughter.

The warmth inside Lily vanished so quickly it left her cold.

She turned just enough to see him. Mason stood with his friends near the lockers, one shoulder against the metal. His grin was back. His posture was loose. He looked exactly like the boy everyone knew.

He did not see her watching.

Or maybe he did, and he chose not to show it.

Lily faced the classroom door and walked inside.

The room smelled of dry-erase marker and rain-damp coats. She took her usual seat near the window, placing her books carefully on the desk. Her fingers still remembered the pressure of Mason’s hand around her elbow. Her ears still held his earlier words.

Maybe I pay attention.

She looked down at the worksheet he had smoothed for her. The corner was still creased, but the page was no longer torn.

That was the problem with Mason Reed.

He could make her feel seen, then turn her into a joke before she had time to understand what seeing meant.

Lily opened her notebook as the teacher entered. Outside the window, rain began tapping against the glass.

A minute later, the classroom door opened again.

Mason slipped inside, late and breathless, his hair damp from the weather. He glanced around the room until he found her. Their eyes met.

His grin did not appear this time.

Lily looked away first.

He took the empty seat behind her.

For the rest of class, she felt him there - close enough to hear him shift, close enough to sense when he leaned forward. Once, a folded scrap of paper landed beside her hand.

She stared at it.

Then she opened it.

His handwriting slanted across the page.

I wasn’t calling you a frightened house cat because I think you’re weak.

Lily’s pulse jumped despite herself.

Underneath, he had added:

You bite harder than anyone knows.

She should have crumpled the note. She should have passed it back without reading another word.

Instead, she turned around.

Mason was watching her, his expression stripped of the teasing smile. There was something uncertain in his eyes now, something that looked almost like a question.

Lily held the note between them.

“Then what am I?” she whispered.

Mason’s gaze dropped to her mouth and returned to her eyes.

“Someone I don’t want anyone else hurting.”

The teacher called for quiet.

Lily faced the front, but the words on the board blurred. Behind her, Mason remained silent.

For the first time, she wondered whether his teasing was meant to push her away - or keep everyone else from noticing how carefully he watched her.

She did not know which answer frightened her more.

End of chapter one. 4 more chapters and about 10,643 words in the full book.