Red Herring ✔️

42. Catch Me If You Can

"Who was that?"

The second Mazie closed her locker, Christian's intimidating presence stalled for her on the other side. He propped himself up on his shoulder and crossed his arms over his chest. His bulging arms at eye level tripled her heart rate because she knew what conversation they were about to have. Mentally composing herself, Mazie ordered herself to make lingering eye contact with him.

Pointing over her shoulder, she gestured to the girl with bright red hair who idled near Mazie's locker for an after-class discussion. The two of them argued about what their paper was supposed to be about according the teacher's guidelines. "Lizzie. She's in my psych class."

Narrowing his eyes, Christian's attention never strayed from her face. "You know what I mean."

Sighing, Mazie cradled her books close to her chest as a protective shield. All morning, her classes required logical thinking and deductive reasoning which ate up all of her brain's energy, sucking away the time necessary to consider how she would explain that morning's proceedings to Christian. "Are you referencing my friend in the hallway this morning?"

Hiking up an eyebrow, Christian didn't move a single muscle other than that subtle movement. "Don't play coy, Mazie."

Searching for the right words, Mazie settled on the truth. She didn't have anything to hide. "That was my friend Blake. Our families have always been close. We grew up together." She sealed her lips together so as not to talk to much and entrap herself by her own words.

"So that's why he kissed you?" Christian asked.

She shook her head slowly. "No, that's not why he kissed me. He didn't ask permission. Blake just...did it." It was hard to explain why Blake did anything. As eccentric as he was, Mazie didn't ask questions about his intentions. But she knew deep down that Blake never meant any harm. Unfortunately, he ended up apologizing more times than he should have to for doing things that he didn't completely think through.

"Has he ever kissed you before?" He inquired. Still as a statue, his unwavering gaze immobilized her.

Mazie licked her lips, wishing they were discussing their own kissing and not Blake's horrendous mistake. "I mean...yeah, when he was drunk years ago. Nothing recent and I would never let him. He caught me off guard....trying to prove a point."

"What point?" His straight forward questions dug at the story to find the truth. As afflicted as she felt, she was still thankful for his directness.

Concentrating on her honesty, Mazie looked him in the eyes when she said, "Proving that we are...or aren't...a thing."

"What kind of thing?"

Her shoulders slumped. This is not how she imagined this conversation unfolding. "Don't make me say it. You know."

Containing his smirk, Christian asked, "How would that prove anything?"

"Well..." Mazie put herself in Blake's shoes to try to understand and to explain to Christian what he intended by his actions. "I think he was trying to prove that we are a thing because it would piss me off that he did that and it was probably supposed to get some sort of reaction out of you once you heard about it. But you saw it."

Nodding his head in contemplation, Christian looked down his nose at her. She dropped her gaze to the floor, collecting her cleverness in attempt to boost her confidence. Channeling all of her inner Margot Robbie, Mazie lifted her head boldly and swished her hair over her shoulder. In the absence of his affirmation, she said, "This is the part where you say something."

A smirk grew on his lips very slowly. "There's nothing going on between you two?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing. Just friendship. You can ask Amelia."