Make you mine | Mason Mount

• Thirty-one •

Mason was in bed, staring at the ceiling, miserable. It was the next day after the FA Cup loss, and he was trying to process it. His mom, Debbie, came over to clean the house because it's been a mess lately, and she's been aware that things haven't been easy for him.

She knows her son inside and out; she knows he's hurting and that he's too stubborn to figure things out with Jolene.

"Mom, can you vacuum somewhere else?" Mason whined.

"Get changed and go and talk to Jolene," she said, turning the vacuum cleaner off and sitting on his bed next to him.

"I'm tired right now," he mumbled.

Debbie was concerned about him. He didn't have any energy left, he's been like this now and then after coming back from Greece and started playing football.

She brushed her hand through her son's hair, comforting him the best she could, "Is there a reason why you haven't spoken to her?" She asked.

"She admitted she was keeping a secret from me and doesn't want me to know. Am I supposed to be ok with that?" He asked as he looked at his mom.

"Sometimes people have secrets to protect others," she caressed his cheek, "maybe she wanted to deal with it alone?"

"But why? I want to help," he said, looking confused and not understanding if he was doing something wrong.

"I know, sweetheart, you always want to help," she chuckled at him, "but sometimes we have to accept that people don't want it, and if that's the case, we still have to be there for each other until they're ready to talk about it," she explained to him.

"She wanted to tell me yesterday, but I didn't let her explain, maybe it's too late to fix things," he sighed, regretting everything he did last night.

"It's almost lunch time; why don't you go eat lunch together, give her the chance to let her explain?" she suggested.

"Yeah, you're right," he sighed. Debbie pulled him into a hug, which he melted right into, "I love you, mum."

"I love you more, my sweet, sweet boy,"

———

Mason took his mom's advice and went out to talk to Jolene. He was miserable without her, and she deserves to explain everything to him.

Her break was starting in a couple of minutes, and she was currently stacking up returned books on their respective shelves.

Mason had arrived at the library, meeting Monty at the reception. "Mason, nice to see you; it's been a while."

"Yeah," Mason chuckled nervously as he scratched his neck, "it's nice to see you too."

"I assume you're looking for Jolly?"

"Yes," Mason nodded with a smile.

"She's at the fantasy books section; just walk straight  down the corridor and you'll see her on the right side," Monty told him. Mason quickly thanked him and made his way to find Jolene.

And there she was. She didn't notice Mason right away; she was focused on stacking up the books, humming a song to herself. She didn't look like her happy self like she would when she was in the library; the whole situation had stressed her out and mentally drained her.

He noticed it all. Her hair was a mess; most days like today, she just put her hair in a messy low bun. She was wearing sweatpants and hoodies for work, still carrying around a card around her neck so people would know she was working there. But clearest of all, Mason noticed the dried tears on her cheeks and the tired eyes just by looking at her side profile.