Riptide

-7-

I lifted the sleeve of my shirt and examined my healing arm.  Almost two weeks later, and the finger-shaped bruises had almost completely faded.  With school finally beginning, I didn't have much time to reflect upon the night at Elliot's party.  Some nights I would wake up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.  Some nights, however, I woke up with phantom traces of Mason's fingertips across my hand.

I sighed inwardly, quickly making my way out of the bathroom stall and glancing at myself in the mirror ahead of me.  Two weeks into the first semester, and I was already posted up at the university's library.  As I washed my hands, I tried to muster up the willpower to finish my Business Statistics homework.

"-apparently he punched the guy."  Two women walked into the bathroom as I dried my hands on a towel.  I looked at them quickly in the mirror, recognizing the blonde one - Jackie - from the Sigma Gamma Delta party that I had attended a few weeks ago.

Her brunette friend scoffed, rummaging around in her purse.  "He's going to end up getting himself expelled."

"As if his dad would let that happen," Jackie rolled her eyes.  She leaned up against the bathroom counter to the left of me.  "Xander told me he thinks Masons' addicted to coke again."

"Why does he think that?"  The brunette asked, retrieving a tube of lipgloss and applying it to her lips generously.

Jackie shrugged her shoulders, pivoting on her heels to look at herself in the mirror.  Our eyes met for a brief second.  I quickly looked away.

"Hey,"  Jackie said, turning her body towards me.  "You look familiar."

"Do I?"  I pretended to furrow my brow in contemplation.  "I think you're mixing me up with someone else.  I just moved here."

Jackie looked at me, her mouth slightly agape.  She pressed her pointer finger to her upper lip, attempting to determine where she had seen me before.

Moments passed before she shrugged her shoulders in disinterest.  "I guess you're right."

My shoulders fell in relief.

"Anyways, cute sweater!"  She exclaimed, grabbing her friend by the arm and dragging her out of the restroom.

I waited a few minutes before exiting the bathroom and rejoining Mason in the study room we had reserved.  He had already taken Business Statistics and had agreed to help me study.

"Did you fall in?"  He joked, glancing up from my textbook as I shut the study room's door behind me.  

I knew it was foolish of me to instantly believe what I had overheard in the bathroom.  I hadn't known Mason for long, but he didn't seem like a drug addict to me.  Then again, I had never really known a drug addict before.  Plus, there was the fact that Mara and Emmy, and even Mason himself, had been quiet when it came to discussing Mason's past.

"Hello," Mason snapped his fingers in front of my face, forcing me out of my wordless daze.  "Earth to Danielle."

"Sorry,"  I muttered sheepishly, glancing down at the desk.  "I'm just feeling a little brain dead."

"Want to take a break?"  Mason suggested, shutting my textbook.  I nodded my head graciously.

 "Have you ever been to The Hideout?"  He asked as we began packing up our things.

I furrowed my eyebrows.  "No."

"Cool,"  Mason pulled my backpack onto his shoulders.  "It's this super pretentious coffee shop right off campus that I have been wanting to show you."