Waterfall and Steaks
LILY
“My parents are coming back tomorrow,” I tell Mason as we lie cuddled in his bed together the next morning.
“Our last day together then,” he mumbles, getting up.
“I guess so.” I sigh, wishing summer had another two weeks. “What are we doing today?” I ask.
“I thought we could go to the waterfall then go eat that steak. You know, tick the last two things off,” he says, pulling his shirt off and putting a clean one on.
“Okay,” I agree, watching as he changes his shorts.
“We’ll swing by your house before we go so you can change,” he mumbles, not looking at me.
“Are you okay?” I ask, standing up and walking over to him.
“I’m tired.” He sighs, looking down at me. “I’m sorry about last night. Must’ve been the weed,” he mutters, scratching the back of his head.
“Oh,” I mumble, feeling disappointed. “I get it,” I say, giving him a small fake smile.
“You hungry?” he asks, moving away from me and opening his bedroom door.
“No. I’m okay,” I whisper, grabbing my bag. “I’ll walk home and change,” I say as we step out of his room.
“Are you sure?” he asks, frowning at me.
“Yeah, you can have breakfast. I’ll see you later,” I say, heading for the front door. “Text me,” I say, swallowing hard before leaving.
The whole walk home I fight back my tears. How stupid could I be? To think Mason Cooper could actually be attracted to me. Why would he be?
I mean, my boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend; my parents never want to be around me… There must be something wrong with me, but I don’t know what.
Once I’m inside I slam my door closed and stomp upstairs. I rip my clothes off and roughly throw my drawer open searching for a swimsuit to wear.
Why does it matter now? It’s not like Mason will be looking at me. I could be butt-naked in front of him and he wouldn’t spare me a second glance.
I pull on a plain black bikini and grab a tank top and bike shorts to wear over the top. I continue stomping around my room wondering what else I need to bring, but I have no idea.
I huff and throw myself onto my bed, grabbing my phone.
Ava’s texted fifty times asking where I am, what I’m doing, when I’m coming home because the guy from Christ College has a friend for me.
Harry’s texted once telling me he has another date tonight, so I text back telling him that’s great and asking for details.
I stare at my phone waiting for Mom or Mason to text, but neither of them do.
When there’s a knock on the door my stomach starts doing nervous flips.
“Hey, princess.” Mason smiles down at me. “You ready to go?” he asks, and I nod, locking the door behind me.
“Are you okay?” he asks as we get into his car.
“I’m fine. Tired,” I reply shortly, repeating his words back to him.
Mason drives for twenty minutes, both of us silent, before pulling up in a forest parking lot. “It’s a bit of a hike,” he explains as we climb out of his car, him grabbing a backpack.
I nod and we start walking, still not saying anything.
“How’d you find this place?” I ask after we’ve been hiking for twenty minutes, finally breaking the silence.
“My brother took me here,” he answers quietly.
It takes us another hour before we reach the bottom of the waterfall.
It’s absolutely beautiful. Trees surround us, a large waterfall breaking through, crashing down into a large body of water surrounded by huge dark-grey rocks.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, looking around.
“It is,” Mason agrees, sliding the backpack off and dropping it on the ground.
“How do we get up there?” I ask, looking to the top of the waterfall.
“There’s a path over there. It’s only another mile,” he replies, pulling his shirt over his head to reveal his perfectly toned and muscular body.
“Do you have your swimsuit on?” he asks, kicking his shoes off.
“Yeah.” I breathe out, shaking my head as I mentally scold myself.
He doesn’t like you, Lily! Stop looking!
I quickly take off my shoes and clothes, leaving them in a pile next to his.
Standing at the top of the waterfall looking down, I internally freak out. We’re so high up!
“I think I’m scared of heights.” I swallow.
“You can go back down if you want,” Mason offers, and I shake my head.
I grab hold of his hand and squeeze it. “Just don’t let go, okay? If I’m dying, so are you,” I say, and he winces.
“We’re not dying anytime soon, princess,” he mutters, squeezing my hand back. “Three, two, one.” He counts down before I’m flying through the air.
It feels like I’m falling for ten minutes, but in reality it’s probably only ten seconds. The second my body hits the cold water I lose grip of Mason’s hand.
I kick myself to the surface, seeing Mason already up with a huge smile on his face.
“That was incredible!” I exclaim, swimming over to him.
“It was,” he agrees, looking up to the top of where we just jumped from. “Wanna go again?” he asks with a boyish grin plastered on his face.
“Yes!” I squeal, swimming to the shore.
We jump another two times before Mason suggests we eat something. We swim to the shore and head over to the rocks by our stuff, and he pulls out four sandwiches from his backpack.
“Did you make these?” I ask, taking a bite of the ham-and-cheese sandwich.
“I made Tayla make them.” He smiles.
“How old is she?” I ask.
“Fifteen. Gemma’s thirteen and scares the shit out of me.” He chuckles.
“And your brother? What’s his name?” I ask cautiously.
“Callum,” he answers quietly. “He’d just turned twenty-one before he died,” he adds, shaking his head. “He was an addict. He was injecting heroin, but he didn’t try to hide it.”
Mason’s voice shakes. “He’d threatened to kill himself a few times. He would come out of his room with a needle hanging from his arm, threatening to inject air into his veins.”
“I had to wrestle him down and pull it out. Mom just stopped caring one day. All she did was go to work, come home, and drink. Her husband had enough of her and all his drama and left.”
Tears pool in Mason’s eyes, and I scoot over to grab hold of his hand.
“She brings home different men every week who would yell at me and Callum. Then one night he and Mom had a huge fight and he went out. I went to bed.”
His voice cracks and the tears stream down his face. “I got up the next morning and went into his room and he’d hung himself.”
I wrap my arms around Mason, pulling him into me, letting him sob on my shoulder. “Sh-she’s acting like she was the best mom and did everything to help him,” he says against my skin.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I say, stroking the back of his head as he clings to me.
“I haven’t spoken a word to her in two weeks because if I do, I’m going to call her a selfish, drunken whore,” he mumbles as his tears start to stop.
“I don’t blame you,” I whisper, twirling the end of his hair around my finger.
“He brought me here one day after he had a huge fight with one of Mom’s boyfriends.
“Said it was his favorite place and he’d always wanted to jump off the top but didn’t have the balls,” he says, pulling back from me.
“Then two days later he’s dead,” he mutters, looking at the waterfall.
“Mason,” I whisper, wiping my own tears off my face. “I don’t know what to say,” I mumble, wishing I did. I wish I could take his pain away.
“You don’t have to say anything, princess,” he whispers.
***
“There’s no way you can eat all of that,” Mason says to me, looking at the two giant steaks that have just been placed in front of us.
“I know. But I want to try,” I say, picking up my knife and fork.
“I bet you I can finish mine.” He smirks, no traces of what happened at the waterfall left on his face.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” I laugh.
Turns out after all the exercise—and I’m guessing the crying—we’ve done today, we’re starving. We’re both almost finished. Mason has one bite left, and I have maybe three.
“I’m so full,” I groan, leaning back in my seat and patting my bloated belly.
“You can do it, princess.” Mason sighs, glaring at his last bite. “I can’t. I’m going to explode.”
I shake my head.
“You’re so close,” he counters. “You can do it.”
I push down my next two bites, leaving the last piece on my fork.
“Well done, princess.” Mason smiles, tapping his chunk of steak against mine before we both chew and swallow the last of it.
“Holy shit, we did it!” I exclaim happily.
“What the fuck?” the waiter gasps, looking at our empty plates. “I mean, good job.” He corrects himself, shaking his head. “I wasn’t expecting that.” He laughs, lifting up a camera.
“Say cheese!” he says before snapping a photo of us. “For the wall.” He nods behind us, showing a hundred black-and-white photos lined up of people smiling in front of an empty plate.
“Have a good night, kids.” He smiles as he walks away.
“I can’t move.” I groan, holding my stomach. “You have to carry me to the car,” I joke, but when Mason stands up I quickly jump up too.
“I need a nap.” He sighs as we walk outside, the fresh air hitting me.
“Me too,” I agree.
“Do you want to stay with me tonight?” Mason asks almost nervously.
I should tell him no, but before my brain can process anything my mouth says, “Okay.”
Mason starts driving us back to town in silence. After ten minutes, one of his hands moves off the steering wheel and grabs hold of mine.
“Thank you for today, Lily. I had fun,” he says gently.
“I did too.” I smile. “This whole month has been the best month of my life,” I tell him.
“Except for me kissing you. Twice,” he mumbles, more to himself than to me.
“No, I liked that too,” I whisper. “I don’t want to stop being friends,” I add, squeezing his hand as he pulls into his driveway.
“Me either.” He sighs, letting go of my hand.
“We have to, though, don’t we?” I whisper, feeling tears build up in my eyes.
“It’s probably for the best,” he sighs.
“Just one more night then,” I smile, not letting the tears fall.
“One more night,” he smiles sadly.
Mason holds my hand tightly as we walk into his home and up stairs to his bedroom. The whole time I’m holding on as tightly as I can, wishing he’d never let go.
“What do you want to do?” he asks quietly, slowly letting go of my hand.
“Should we watch a movie?” I ask, kicking my shoes off.
“Yeah,” he nods, climbing on top of his bed, and brings up Netflix on the TV.
“Mason,” I whisper before letting my tears fall.
“Come here, princess,” he says, holding his arms out, which I instantly climb into.
“I’m going to miss you,” I sob into his chest.
“Me too,” he agrees, kissing the top of my head and sending butterflies to my stomach.
“Did you mean what you said that night?” I sniffle, pulling away to look at his face, deciding I need to know and I don’t care if he thinks I’m an idiot for bringing it up weeks later.
“That if I was your girlfriend, you’d kiss me whenever you got the chance? That you would—”
Mason’s lips press roughly into mine, cutting me off. I kiss him back just as roughly, wrapping my arms around his head and pulling him closer.
His hands grab my ass, pulling my core into his hardness.
His lips slow down the pace, and he brings his hands to cup my cheeks as he slowly pulls away. “You have no idea what I’d do for you, Lily,” he says against my lips before kissing me softly again.
“Tell me,” I whisper, closing my eyes as his lips start kissing down my neck.
“Lily,” he groans into my neck. “If I could, I’d give you the world. Whatever you wanted, I’d do it for you.” His hands travel down my thighs and back up again to my ass.
“I’d make love to you every single day. I’d kiss you in front of everyone so they know I’m yours.” His hands push my shirt up.
“I’d make you cum so hard you forget that anyone else has ever touched you before,” he murmurs, kissing the top of my breasts, making me moan and throw my head back.
“Mason,” I moan out his name and pull my shirt and bikini top off.
“I don’t think you realize how beautiful you are, Lily.” His eyes darken with lust before his mouth attaches to my nipple. He lifts his head to move to the other, but instead he just kisses around it.
I tug at his shirt, wanting it off, and he happily takes it off before attaching his lips to mine.
Mason grabs my hips as I start rolling them against him and flips me over to my back, taking me by surprise.
He kisses down my body, only stopping when he gets to the waistband of my shorts. I lift my hips, and he tugs them and my bikini bottoms down together.
When he starts kissing my inner thighs, I let out a mix between a gasp and a moan. My hips involuntarily buck toward his mouth, which he soon attaches to my core.
“Oh my god,” I moan, tangling my fingers into his hair as he starts licking and sucking me. “Mason…,” I moan as he slips a finger inside of me.
An unknown pressure builds in my stomach, and before I know what’s happening, my whole body is shaking in euphoria.
As my body slowly stops shaking, Mason kisses up my body again, stopping at my lips.
“That was so fucking hot,” he growls as I breathe heavily underneath him.
I pull his face back to mine, attacking his lips with mine while my hands push on his waistband, which he pulls off, our lips never leaving each other’s.
“Condom,” I breathe out as I feel him rubbing against my entrance.
Mason kisses my lips once more before getting on his knees and pulling open his bedside table, grabbing a foil packet.
“Can I?” I ask, biting my lip nervously.
“Anything you want, princess.” He smiles, placing the wrinkled packet in my hand.
“I’ve never done it before.” I blush as I fumble slightly. As I roll the condom down his length, his eyes close and his head rolls back.
“I don’t think I’m going to last long,” he groans, getting in between my legs.
“I don’t care,” I say, hooking my legs around his butt and pushing him closer.
As he slides into me, we both let out moans. He feels so good. Mason leans his forehead against mine as he starts slowly moving in and out of me.
“Mason,” I moan, scratching at his back.
Our lips find each other again, swallowing each other’s moans as he makes love to me.
“I’m going to come, Lily.” He breathes out against my lips.
“Come for me,” I moan, digging my heels into his back.
Mason’s body falls down beside me, and he quickly pulls the condom off before he pulls me back into his arms, where I fall instantly asleep.
