Page 5 of Mason
“Of whom, honey?”Harper asked quietly, her violet gaze darkening.
“M-my mom.She…died.”I gulped back a sob.“Recently.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said with what sounded like genuine understanding.“We’ll get it fixed, I promise.But right now, we need to get you medical attention.”
“Maybe we should pull it out?”Maya suggested, crouching down beside us, the fake concern in her voice causing my fingers to flex around the wood in my hand.I wanted to tell her to shut the fuck up and stay the hell away from me, but my voice suddenly stopped working.
“No!”Harper said sharply.“They can do that at the hospital.We don’t remove sharp objects lodged in the body.”
“But it’s not that deep,” Maya argued, lifting her hand before I could even flinch away.“Hey!”
“Don’t touch it!”Harper snapped, slapping Maya’s hand away.“Stand back.Sutton needs room to breathe.What’s the ETA on that ambulance?”
“En route,” the judge answered, her phone still to her ear.She glanced around frantically before waving the headmaster over.“Emergency contact?”
“Who is here with Sutton?”Harper called out to the audience, causing a fresh flood of tears to blind me.
There was no one.Mom was the only family I had.Wade Myers didn’t count.He was nothing more than a name on my birth certificate and the one who signed the tuition checks for my private education.
“She’s just an orphan here on scholarship, living off everyone else’s dime,” Maya explained.“No one ever comes for her.”
“Shut the fuck up, Maya,” Tyler told her, appearing behind Harper.“Her mom was always at events for Sutton.All four years, she was front and center.”
Pain shot through my chest, piercing my heart.
I miss her so much.
“Kids, let’s not argue,” Claudia said with a strained laugh.Then she whispered, “Remember that we are still live.”
“Right.We wouldn’t want to show the world what a bitch Maya Myers is,” Tyler sneered.“She didn’t win first place, and now she’s trying to degrade the nice, quiet girl who never bothers anyone.Yet she’s always had a petty vendetta against her.Tell the world you’re jealous without telling them you’re jealous.I’ll wait.”
Damn, Tyler, tell her how you really feel.If only he had been this fierce the last four years.We might have had a chance to be friends.That would have been nice.Having a friend, an ally.Someone who would have made each day inside the school grounds bearable.
But maybe his defense of me was more for the cameras that were still rolling, along with all the phones recording.Just because Tyler hadn’t been openly mean to me didn’t suddenly make him some white knight in my time of need.
“Sutton?”Harper asked softly, and I felt myself begin to sway, the world around me going fuzzy.“Oh crap.”
Her arms caught me, easing me onto the floor before I passed out.Blinking hard, I tried to keep her in focus.“I want my mom.”
“Shh, baby,” she soothed.“It’s going to be okay.Do you want me to call your dad?Someone else?”
“There’s no one,” I murmured, closing my eyes.The world was spinning, and my limbs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds each.
“Well, there is now,” she said, her words sounding like a promise.“I’ve got you, sweetheart.”
Mason
I reachedthe stage just as Mom let out a startled cry, trying to catch Sutton.They both dropped to the floor, Mom breaking the worst of their fall.Thankfully, they weren’t too far from the floor since they were both on their knees, but the crash was loud in the eerily quiet auditorium.
Neil, Mom’s bodyguard, was already there to assist her.I rushed forward, panic chasing me as I sprinted toward the group encircling my mom and Sutton.Pushing a guy with his phone out recording, I shouldered a path to them.
“EMTs are here,” someone announced.“Is she still breathing?”
“Yes, and her pulse is steady,” Mom answered.“Can we get some room here, people?This isn’t a circus act.She’s injured and needs medical attention.”
“Everyone get back,” Neil’s voice boomed, causing most of the crowd to flinch and automatically respond as directed.“Get that camera out of my face.This event is over.”
“Hey!”a high feminine voice whined.“You don’t have the authority to end?—”
