Red Herring ✔️

53. Weaving Webs

Christian and Mazie hung around the school parking lot while Jason finished up football practice. They wouldn't get very far without him; neither could they access Demi's phone without her passcode which Jason knew. He lorded that information over them as leverage to force them to include Jason. On the outside for too long, he was desperate for insider intel. 

"Anything?" Mazie asked Christian from her perch leaning against the driver's door of his truck. Christian sat behind the wheel, tapping his fingers impatiently on the open window and keeping the truck running to charge Demi's phone that they stole. 

"For the third time in the last twenty minutes, no." 

She rolled her eyes, kicking gravel under her booted foot. An anxious tick. 

She asked about Demi's phone - whether or not she received any texts. They didn't know what to expect but she hoped for something. "Should we go see her?" Mazie asked, studying the football field from a distance. Jason joined the team as a kicker. Currently, he simply sat on the bench on the sidelines. 

"Demi?"

"No, Michelle Obama. Yes, Demi."

Christian tugged on a strand of her hair which she ignored. "Alright, sass out of left field. We can't go see her for at least forty-eight hours. They'll probably place a hold on visitors except immediate family members."

Tapping a finger contemplatively on her folded arms, Mazie glanced over her shoulder at him. He didn't look at her. "How do you know that?"

Avoiding eye contact, Christian shrugged. Right. Back to moody, silent Christian. His quiet brooding irked her, mostly because her thoughts jumbled around in her head at chaotic light speed and she couldn't silence them. The juxtaposition of the two of them set her teeth on edge. 

"Yes, we should go see her as soon as we can. She'll be sober for the first time in a long time."

She nodded agreeably, forcing herself to stay silent just as he would. It may be petty but clearly someone peed in her cheerios at some point between holding a dying classmate in her arms and getting all of five words out of Christian. Mazie chalked it up to stress. 

"I found out something about Lonny." She was actually pretty excited to tell him. 

"Yeah?"

Excitement vanished. "Yep."

"Hmm."

Words, did he know them? "From Ailene."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

Nothing. Huffing, she blurted out. "I like you."

Due to embarrassment at her unexpected outburst, Mazie chewed on her lower lip and swiveled her head so that Christian couldn't see her face. His tapping on the door slowly ceased. In response to his stillness and lack of response, her heart rate tripled, throbbing in her chest. 

"Maze."

She couldn't do it. She couldn't face him. 

"Mazie." There was an edge of humor in his tone. "Mazie Elaine, look at me so I can look you in the eyes when I tell you I like you too."

The corners of her lips turned up. Demurely, she looked up at him under her long dark lashes. "I'll let the use of my middle name slide because..." Christian snaked his fingers through the hair at the back of her head and gingerly kneaded the muscles at the nape of her neck with his powerful hands. "...because we are on the same page."