A Tantalizing Kiss

“Mason Johnson, eleventh grade, tenor.” I said, glancing curiously at Stein for confirmation that I was indeed tenor. She nodded, writing on the pad before her.

She looked up expectantly.

“Notes?” I asked with a sheepish grin.

She tapped the first few notes.

I took a deep breath, clearing my throat. The melody played in my head.

I could do this.

I opened my mouth, “Masquerade.”

I blushed furiously at the voice crack. A few people chuckled, unsure of whether that was
intended or not. Stein rolled her eyes, not realizing it was real.

“Just warming up.” I grinned, making a show of rolling my shoulders back. I shook my
arms, loosening my body up. “Here we go.”

“Any day now.” Stein sighed.

“Masquerade! Paper faces on parade” I sang, trying to steady my voice. I found it in the
next line. “Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you!”

My eyes fell on Rose who sat with crossed arms. A very pissed off expression covered
her face. I held her eyes as I sang, hoping that I didn’t sound as awful as I thought I did.

“Every face as a different shade. Look around there’s another mask behind you. Flash of
mauve, splash of puce. Fool and King, ghoul and goose. Green and black, Queen and
Priest. Trace of ro— ”

“Thank you Mason.” She said, her face expressionless.

A rush of fear palpitated through my body. What if I had sounded truly awful and Rose
looked down on me more?

There would be no way to recover from that.

I walked down the aisle, taking a seat in the last row where I had originally sat. Rose
didn’t look back, but her face didn’t look happy.

Three people went after me. I sat through them, not listening. I let my mind wander
instead to random thoughts of what Rodger and Leah would say if they found out I had tried
and failed to get into the drama.

I would never live this down.

“Good job everyone who auditioned. Remember, tomorrow morning at 7 we’re going to
do acting auditions. For those of you who have a copy at home, we’re going to be acting out
the part before the song ‘Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh’. That’s act one, scene nine, by the
way. For those who are not familiar with Phantom, it’s right before the chandler drops.”

I noticed how her eyes landed on me as she spoke the last part.

“You are dismissed.”

Everyone shuffled up, moving out of the rows, heading as quickly home as possible. I
got out of my row, heading down towards the stage to talk to Stein about my performance.

A small hand pressed against my chest, stopping me in place. I looked down. The
familiar blonde haired girl stood before me with her face just as furious as before.

“Just so you know, this doesn’t help in anyway.”

“You’re the one who keeps bringing this up, Doll.” I teased, “I’m starting to think that it
does help.”

She flushed, “Sh-shut up! It’s not!”

I laughed, pulling her hand off of my chest. “Now I definitely think that this is helping.”

She pulled her hand back, rolling her eyes. “Whatever.”

“See you later, baby doll.” I winked, walking around. I didn’t glance back to see her
reaction, heading over to Stein.

Unfortunately, as I approached my drama teacher, I noticed that she was surrounded by
a flock of students that weren’t leaving just yet. I sighed, heading for the exit.

“Mason!”

I turned to the sound of my voice, my eyes resting on Mr. Wilson. I walked over curiously,
confused by what he wanted.

“Yeah, sir?” I asked.

He rested a hand on my shoulder, giving me a look, “We need to have more voice
lessons.”

My face drained. Shit, was I really that bad? “Ye-yeah sir, let me know when and I’ll see if
I can do it.”

Wilson nodded, his face expressionless.

I walked away in a daze.

I couldn’t tell anyone this now. I only had to hope that no one found out from the other
listeners.

I walked outside of the school, pulling my phone out. I dialed my sister’s number,
pressing the phone to my ear.

“Yeah?” She asked, sounding slightly out of breath.

“I need a ride home.”

“What about your friend, Rodger?”

“He left early.” I lied smoothly.

Joey groaned, “Can you call Caden? I’m a little busy right now…”

“With what?” I frowned, glaring at the ground. I sat down on the steps, leaning against
the pole from the railing.

“I’m at work, trying to organize the new shipment.” She said, “Shit!”

“What?”

“I dropped the box of grapes!”

I laughed.

“This isn’t funny, Mase. Just ask Caden.”

“Alright. See you at home hopefully.”

“Call me if he doesn’t get you. I’ll find someone, I promise.” She said, sounding slightly
distracted. I rolled my eyes, realizing that if Caden wasn’t my ride home, I was walking.

I hung up the phone, quickly dialing Caden’s phone number.

~*~

The three of us sat in McDonald’s. Joey and Caden sat on the same side of the booth
obnoxiously close together. I sat on the opposite side of the love birds, eating my Big Mac
silently. As much as I loved the taste of greasy fast food, my stomach was against it.

I couldn’t believe my singing was that atrocious.

“Mase, you ok?” Joey asked, poking at her fries.

Caden took the one from her hand, plopping it in his mouth before he spoke, “Yeah, you
seem kind of down today.”

I looked up, not wanting to answer, “I’m fine.”

“Did some girl reject you?”

I shrugged.

“What the hell kind of answer is that?”

I shrugged.

Caden rolled his eyes, taking another one of Joey’s fries.

“So, Mason.” Joey said casually. I internally groaned. This couldn’t be good if she was
using that tone of voice. “I got an interesting call today…”

I tensed up a bit in fear, “Oh really?”

“Yeah, from our mother.”

I relaxed slightly. “What does she want?”

“She got released from rehab last week.” Joey said, “She wants us to visit.”

“No.”

“Come on, she’s your mother!”

“No she’s not.”

Joey rested her fingers gently atop my hand. I met her eyes angrily as she spoke, “I
know you don’t like her very much Mase, but she’s still your mother. It’s that or you can
spend the weekend with Cody and Hannah. We both know how much you like that.”

“We’re visiting for a whole weekend?!”

“So you’re going?”

“Not if it’s that long!” I snapped, “I’d rather take Cody and Hannah over Mom.”

Joey laughed, “We’re only going up for a couple hours. I can’t take that woman as much
anymore. She may have been released last week but that doesn’t mean she’s sober.”

“You think she’s drinking already?” I asked, taking a sip of my soda. Caden listened
quietly, smart enough to know not to interrupt.

Joey shrugged, “You never know. But I’m a recovering addict. I don’t need the temptation
of alcohol around me.”

I snorted, “You recovered years ago.”

“Do you want to go there for the weekend?” She threatened.

I rolled my eyes, “Why can’t I just stay with Caden?”

“He’s coming with.”

Caden’s eyes bugged out, “Since when did I agree to this?!”

Joey smirked, playing with her hair teasingly, “Don’t you remember earlier? We were...
ah... talking, and I asked you if you would come?”

Caden’s eyes narrowed, “No, Pumpkin, I don’t seem to remember this at all.”

“Oh well. You’re coming. Mason and I can’t face our mother on our own.” She groaned. I
stuck my tongue out at Caden.

He flicked the side of my head, “She’s your mother for a reason, Pumpkin. And she
hates me. Why do I have to visit?”

“Nonsense. She loves you.” Joey lied.

Caden used to be our mother’s favorite of all the boys Joey had ever brought home.
Technically, she didn’t bring him home, though. Of course, when Mom found out Joey was
popping pills and snorting crack, she immediately blamed Caden. Caden was entirely
unaware of Joey’s addiction, thinking that it was the SATs getting to her.

I’m still the only one that knows it was Joey and Jason together for most of the drug
addictions.

Regardless, Mom decided to take her hate out on Caden and has since never forgiven
him for not realizing that his girlfriend, her daughter, was a stoner.

She isn’t one to talk anymore, considering she’s been admitted into rehab twice in the
past couple years for her addiction with mixing various pills with alcohol.

Caden rolled his eyes, “Whatever. I’ll go, just to save poor Mason’s ass.”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.

“Just make sure I don’t have soccer or anything during that time.” I sighed, “Then I’ll go.”

Joey laughed, “As if I would plan anything that would interfere with your soccer games,
practices, scrimmages, whatevers.”

“Shut up, I could get a scholarship from this!”

“‘could’ being the key word there.” Caden teased.

“You’re not helping my point, Caden.” I hissed. He smiled innocently, flicking a French
fry at me. I threw it back.

“Be mature.” Joey hissed, kicking my leg under the table. From the brief look of pain of
Caden’s face, I could guess she did the same to him also.

“Sorry, Mom.” I teased.

Caden kissed her cheek.

“Suck up.” I mumbled.

He flashed me a grin.

Joey rolled her eyes, finished her dinner. “Are you two planning on being done anytime
soon? I’d like to leave this place eventually.”

“Pumpkin, do you remember when we used to come here almost every day when we
were still in high school?” Caden said.

Joey nodded, a smile creeping onto her face. “I do happen to remember you forcefully
dragging me here in the beginning, Caden. So whatever you’re trying to trick me into doing
won’t work with those memories.”

He sarcastically groaned.

“Come on.”

I wasn’t finished with my meal.

Nonetheless, I dumped the leftover food onto the tray, letting Caden take it over to the
trash can. We stood up, leaving the building finally.

It was cold outside. Joey huddled next to Caden, leaving me to freeze on my own. I
always felt a little lonely whenever they acted like that. It was rare, but when the feeling came,
it came strong. I crossed my arms over my chest, wishing that I had a girlfriend I could hold.

Share body heat with.

Shaking my head, I cleared my thoughts, climbing into the backseat of Caden’s car. He
pulled out of the parking lot, heading down the highway towards our apartment.

Joey turned on the radio. She didn’t change the channel which left us to listen to some
abstract music channel that only she would like. No one spoke, letting the music fill the
silence of the car. Caden blasted the heat, trying to warm his girlfriend up.

We arrived back at the apartment a few minutes later. Joey and I ran inside, trying to
escape from the coldness around us.

Caden, being the show off that he was, took his leisurely time.

“You’re such a dumbass.” Joey said, holding her waist.

Caden gave her a smirk, tapping her ass before walking inside. She blushed furiously,
avoiding my eye.

I didn’t care; they’d done worse while I was around.

“Hey Joey.” I called, sitting down on the couch. I pulled out my phone, checking the
messages I had ignored at dinner as I waited for her attention.

One from Rodger. ‘Coach was pissed at practice. You got hell to pay tomorrow’

One from Leah. ‘I need you to buy me lunch tomorrow. Please?(:’

One from Hannah. ‘You need to visit more!!!’

She had a strange story. My father and mother were divorced long before I had been born.
Yet a one night stand let to my creation. My dad had been dating the same girl for some time
now, but neither one pushed for marriage. Hannah had a son that I used to visit, Jason.

I made a mental note to contact him some time in the future. Jason and Joey had an iffy
history, but Jason and I didn’t.

“Yeah, Mase?” Joey asked, sitting down on the chair across from the coach.

“What day would we visit Mom?”

“I don’t know yet. Probably after school so I have an excuse to leave early.”

“But I have practice…” I was careful not to specify which practice I was referring to. Of
course, I knew she would assume soccer.

“I know. So we’ll only go for two and a half hours or something.”

“When?”

“Next week sometime if I remember.”

“Alright.”