The Stars Are Fading Away

We will all learn from the burning out
We will all learn from the liar's mouth

Wren's car pulled up to the curb. I walked out of the building and got into the pasenger seat.

"Hey." He glanced over at me with a little smile on his face.

"Hey." I sighed.

There was a moment of silence. Then, "What's wrong?"

A rush of anger swept over me. I wanted to jump up and scream at him. I have a huge fucking bruise on my face! What the hell did he think was wrong?

I attempted to swallow my emotions. "I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up."

He glanced over at me. My voice still had an edge of anger in it, and he noticed.

He didn't say anything else, just kept driving. Were we just going to keep ignoring what happened?

After awhile, I realized that we weren't driving towards Wren's apartment.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Mason's house. I don't think you've met him before."

"No…" I said, and continued looking out the window. We were driving toward student housing that you leased. Like apartments, but usually bigger and cheaper with student benefits. Houses flashed by our windows. We pulled into a brown one-storied flat.

Wren got out and I did the same. He walked up to the door and rang bell, and I joined him on the porch.

There was some loud barking, and shouting. The door opened and a tall, skinny guy with light bronw hair stood in the doorway.

"Sorry, he gets excited about visitors." He smiled. "Dodger, get BACK." He disappeared for a second. "Okay, you can come in now. Sorry about him, he's an idiot around new people."

I loved dogs. I smiled back at him.

"This is Mason, and this is my girlfriend Amber." Wren made introductions.

"Pleased to meet you." He offered a hand to shake, and I shook it.

Suddenly, there was a shout from the back of the house.

"GOD DAMMIT!"

A huge chocolate lab came tearing around the corner, head right towards me. Mason tried to grab his collar, but missed and the dog spun across the hardwood floor right into me.

I stumbled back into the door and knelt down to pet the dog.

"God, I'm sorry. Hid name is Dodger, and he's not here permanently. It's Bryce's dog, he comes when his parents visit."

"It's fine. My dog back home did the same thing, except he was just a beagle." I laughed.

Mason grinned, and crouched down to pet Dodger with me. He looked up at my face. His mouth dropped open.

"Holy shit! What happened to your face?"

My hand flew to my cheek self-consciously. "I, uh, tripped on some stairs and hit my head on the railing."

Mason's eyebrows rose. I didn't lie very well this time.

"Really?" he questioned.

"Yes." I tried to sound more believable.

"You don't seem the type to trip on stairs."

"I wasn't paying attention." We stared at each other for a few more seconds before we were interrupted by the doorbell.

Mason glanced up and grabbed Dodger's collar. "Can you get it?"

"Sure." I walked over and let more guys in. I recognized one, his name was Cameron. He gave me a lopsided smile before sitting on the couch with Wren.

Mason released Dodger, and he quickly went to jump on the newcomers. I went over to sit at the dining room table. Two more guys emerged from the back of the house. One of them was wearing sweat pants and no shirt, rubbing his eyes. He moved around the table and started opening cabinets, searching for food.

Mason went over and grabbed the cereal from a shelf and put it in his grip before turning to me.

"The fully dressed one is Bryce, and this is Coby. He's always like this when he wakes up."

I laughed as Coby collapsed into a chair and poured himself cereal.

Bryce turned to Mason. "Where's Derrick? I honestly don't want to bail him out of jail again."

Mason laughed and rolled his eyes. "Who knows?"

"He went to a bar with me, I saw him with some chick," Coby said. The cereal seemed to revive him enough to form a coherent sentence.

"Explanation enough." Bryce turned to everyone gathered on the couch and called, "Who wants to go to Denny's?"

They all got up and wandered towards the door. Wren stopped and looked at me.

"Do you want to go?"

"I'm not hungry, I already ate."

"Mason?"

"No, I ate too."

"Okay. Bye, Amber." He came over and gave me a kiss.

After he left through the garage door, I went to the couch and flipped through the channels.

Mason came over and sat by me, waiting, it seemed like.

When I came to the conclusion that there was nothing on, I reluctantly met his gaze.

"So," he stated.

I waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "So…"

"Do you want to tell me how you really got the bruise?"

My eyes widened and I bit my lip. "I told you. I fell."

"You lied to me. Amber… I know I've barely met you, but I can tell if someone is lying to me. And I can't help but think that isn't just an accident. I know it's none of my business, but… I don't know. If something's going on, you have to tell someone."

I stared into his eyes. He seemed like he wanted to say more, but he quickly closed his mouth.

"Any guesses on what happened to me?"

"This isn't a joke."

"I know. Any guesses? I'm not going to tell you." This guy was annoying me. It wasn't any of his business, so why was he still trying to butt in?

"Fine. You want to play like that?"

"Yes." I smirked. I knew I was being bitchy, but I didn't care. I was venting anger. I knew it wasn't fair to Mason, but I didn't want to get hit by Wren again.

"Did Wren hit you?" he raised his eyebrows, and something about his face made me think he knew he was right.