I Can't Stay Away

Molly found Mason later that night. Looking around, she saw no signs of Kaylin. She prayed to herself that Mason had made it to the airport in time. She walked up next time and asked, “How did it go?”

“She’s not with me, is she?” Mason said sadly.

“You missed her?”

“Yeah,” Mason replied, not going into any further details.

“Mase, I’m sorry,” Molly said, not knowing what else to do to comfort him.

“It’s my fault. If I would have just told her how I felt when she first kissed me, we wouldn’t be going through this right now.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Molly admitted. “Have you tried calling her?”

“She won’t answer,” Mason told her.

“I’ll try tonight, okay?” Molly told him. “But, you really need to focus on superpipe. You’ve got qualifying tomorrow.”

“I know,” Mason said. “I think I’m just going to go to bed so I can wake up early tomorrow and get a few runs in before qualifying.”

“Okay,” Molly said. “Good night.” She watched as Mason left, and she pulled out her cell phone. Scrolling down until she came to Kaylin’s name, she pressed the button to call her.

“Hello?” she heard Kaylin answer.

“How was your flight?” Molly asked her.

“Fine.”

“Why are you avoiding Mason’s phone calls?” Molly asked her. If Kaylin was going to give her vague, one-word answers, then she was going to cut right to the chase.

“I already told you I can’t face him,” Kaylin told her.

“Listen, just talk to him,” Molly said. “He really needs to talk to you.”

“Mol, I can’t. At least, not right now.”

“Kaylin,” Molly began before she was interrupted.

“Molly, I can’t,” Kaylin repeated. “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later,” she said as she hung up.

Molly stared at her phone for a few minutes. She couldn’t believe that her best friend had hung up on her. She hadn’t even had the chance to tell her that Mason went to the airport to talk to her. She decided that she’d let it go, at least for the night. She hoped that Kaylin would just answer the phone when Mason called.

Molly watched Mason take his first run of the preliminaries the next day. She knew he wasn’t himself as soon as he went up for his first trick. She didn’t know if it had something to do with Kaylin or he was just having an off-day.

As soon as he was finished with his first run, Molly ran up to him. “What’s up with you today?” she asked him as they both looked up at the boards to see what his score was going to come in at.

As the score flashed across the screen, Mason knew it was going to be enough to get him to the semi-finals tomorrow, but he knew it was nowhere near what he was capable of. “I don’t know,” he told his sister.

“Is it Kaylin?” Molly asked. “Did you talk to her last night?”

“No,” Mason said simply. “She still won’t answer my phone calls. Did you get a hold of her?”

“Yeah,” Molly began. “But then I told her to talk to you, and she hung up on me!”

“Sorry, Mol. I didn’t want to get you in the middle of it.”

“There shouldn’t be a middle,” Molly told him. “She shouldn’t be avoiding you like this. I mean I know she’s embarrassed, but there’s no reason to be acting like a child right now.”

“It’s fine,” Mason told her.

Molly just shook her head. “Only you would defend the girl that’s avoiding you,” she said laughing.

Mason simply shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve got to go, but good luck on your qualifying. I’ll be watching you.”

“Thanks,” Molly smiled.

The next day, Molly stood at the bottom of the superpipe, once again watching Mason. As he took his second run, he seemed to be off his line. She crossed her fingers, praying nothing bad would happen. As he went up for his last trick, what Molly assumed to be a 720, she saw him not fully grab his board, and he came crashing down to the bottom of the pipe. Molly’s eyes went wide, and she watched for what seemed like an hour, waiting on Mason to move.

Finally, he slowly stood up, as Molly let out the breath she had been holding. He looked over at Molly with a slight smile on his face, trying to let her know that he was okay.

Molly smiled back as she heard her cell phone start ringing. She grabbed it out of her pocket and held it up to her ear without looking to see who it was.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Molly, oh my god! Is Mason okay?” Molly heard Kaylin cry from the other end.

“You’re watching?” Molly asked, honestly surprised.

“Of course I’m watching!” Kaylin exclaimed. “Is Mason okay?”

“Yeah,” Molly told her. “He just got up.”

“Thank God!”

“Kaylin, do you see what you’re doing to him?” she asked.

“What are you talking about?” Kaylin asked.

“He likes you, Kay. If you’d pick up your damn phone you’d know that. He broke up with Missy and came to the airport to talk to you, but he was too late. He’s been trying to call you, but you won’t talk to him. Kay, he hasn’t been snowboarding like he normally does, and it’s because of you.”

“I made him do this?” Kaylin asked.

“Well, not directly,” Molly said, realizing how harsh she had been to Kaylin. “I’m just saying that I think his mind was on you and not on his run. He was the same way yesterday.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaylin told her. “Tell Mason I’m so sorry.”

“Why can’t you just do it yourself?” Molly asked. “Come on, Kay. I know you’re embarrassed by what happened, but didn’t you listen to me when I told you that he likes you?”

“I heard you,” Kaylin said. “Just tell him I’m sorry.”

“Damn it!” Molly yelled as she realized that Kaylin had once again hung up on her.