– 20 – Mason

My texts to willow are an absolute tragedy.

Once I start sending them, I can’t stop, and soon I’m looking at what has to be the most embarrassing line of unanswered texts in history.

If my bizarre behavior didn’t scare her off before, this should do the trick.

I force myself to put the phone in my pocket, trying to steady myself by breathing in the night air. The sky is bright from the moon, the air around me like a warm blanket, and I take long steps, matching my breath with my movement.

Without realizing what I’m doing, I head for the witch’s house. The neighborhood is extra dark, and all I can hear is a TV playing through a slightly open window. I’m so stuck in my thoughts, my pace going faster and faster, I nearly collide with someone as I round the corner.

“Whoa!” the person says in a surprised, high voice. She drops an armful of things, sending a few papers scattering. I scramble to help her pick them up in the dark, and it isn’t until I hand them to her that I realize who it is.

“Oh my gosh,” she says. “You are literally everywhere.”

Willow.

Willow again.

Moonlight has made her completely mermaid again, the resemblance so uncanny, it gives me goose bumps.

We stare at each other in stunned silence, and then she mutters something that sounds like “This is getting ridiculous,” but I choose to ignore that, because mermaid, and also, Thanks, Universe. I hear you loud and clear.

“Willow?” I say, like maybe I don’t know it’s her. The moonlight is glinting off her hair, and her cheeks are lightly flushed. She’s clutching a book against her chest.

I can somehow see her freckles in the dark. Willow must be the only girl in the world who is as beautiful in the dark as she is in the day. How is it possible we’re having our third chance run-in? “Were you at the house?” My voice is loud on the quiet street.

She glances toward the house, then back at me, her eyes somehow managing to get even bigger. I step back slightly in an attempt to not fall directly into them.

“Are you following me?”

My enthusiasm drops. She’s nervous. That’s literally the last thing I want her to feel.

She continues. “Please don’t lie, because if you’re stalking me…”

I put my hands up quickly. “No. This was completely by chance. I needed some air, and I was planning to walk by your aunt’s house.” I take a deep breath. “Also, I’m sorry about my texts. I was really excited to be talking to you, and they were… weird. It’s a new phone.”

Her shoulders relax and she smiles a little. “It’s okay. I thought they were kind of funny.”