By the time he got to his apartment, his phone rang and it was his mother. She had been told about the stalker news, and she also heard that the daughter of Musk was in the same school as her son.
"Hey mum. How are you doing?" He tried to sound cheerful, after all, he was talking to his mother.
He opened the door to his apartment, and just sank into the sofa and told his mum everything that happened except the part where he realized he was the person Avery spoke about.
"You need to avoid her. The Musk's are trouble."
"Mum, relax, Father has called and he also talked about to me about them. What's with this petty fight you guys have with them?"
"You don't understand, you could never understand what kind of people they are but just know that they are cruel and vile people. The kinds that will manipulate you into something terrible. Nothing good could come out of your relationship with a Musk."
Mason shook his head, his parents were hell-bent on this family being bad and some other people would have listened and stayed away but it just made him more curious. Now he wanted to know as much as he could about Avery Musk.
To make her less worried, he said, "Fine, I will stay away from this girl."
"Tell Dylan to stay away too, he might suck you in if he gets close to her, and I mean it Mason."
"Understood mum. How are you doing thought, it's been hours since I last heard from you."
"I'm doing good. Your father is here with me, wanna talk to him?"
Before Mason could say no, he heard his Dad on the other side saying, "What the hell? I told you the boy is just trying to pick a fight with me all the time, now you want me to talk to him again?", Then he heard his mum say, "Well, he's your son and he's growing too fast. If this goes on, you two might not speak to each other again a few years to come." to which his Dad said, "Yeah? He's gonna be working at our company, there's no way he's not gonna speak to me..."
There was a knock on his door.
So he said, " I gotta go Mum, someone is at the door."
When the call was over, the knock on the door continued and when he opened it, it was Evie.
"Hey" She started and looked down briefly before she raised her head up again to face him.
"Hi. What do you want?" He replied rather coldly. She felt very bad that others were affected by the result of her own action. She knew he had probably seen the video and thought he was upset by it, especially since Avery texted her and told her she had seen him and he had been cold to her.
"Um, Avery thinks you're upset with her, so she texted me to talk to you, and just sorta explain things again."
He raised a brow, he was surprised that she'd text her friend to talk to him but she remembered that they didn't have each other's contact.
"I'm not upset with her. Nobody knows she was talking me, and I'd like to keep it that way—"
"Mason, you're misunderstanding everything." She interrupted.
"I was worried about her this morning, and I didn't even know it was me you were talking about in the video. I saw the live video too, everything got cleared up but Evie—"
"She told me that story in private. We were just having our girl talk, I was the dumb one who still had my live video on. If you're going to blame anyone, it should be me. Avery would never try to mess up anyone's life—I mean, unless they truly deserved it—what I'm trying to say is, I'm truly sorry Mason, I did something terrible and regret it but don't take it on Avery."
"If you just give me a second to get some words in, it would be easier for you to understand where I'm coming from. Look, I don't want any drama in my life. If being around you and your friends will bring all that, I don't know how that makes me feel."
"Look, I promise, there is no drama around our lives"
Mason scoffed and said, "Yeah right. Less than a day of meeting you guys, the entire building got swamped by security agents"
"True. But that's just cause Avery's dad was very worried hearing that she was being stalked. Come on, if it were your dad, he'd do the same."
Mason ran his hand in his hair and rubbed his chin gently. "You're right. Maybe the reaction was called for."
"Exactly. So, please don't be mad at Avery."
Mason released and chuckled, " did she really send you to me?"
"Well, so far, I've been cleaning up after my mess. You saw the life video, that's one of me cleaning things up, this apology is next, depending on what's next, I'm willing to clean up my mess because with Avery—Well, you don't wanna get in her bad books."
Mason raised a brow and asked, "How so?"
Evie caught herself before she said more damaging things and said, "You know, everyone has their reputation to protect and she is particularly interested in a decent reputation."
Mason nodded. "Well, do you want me to tell her how not upset I am with her?"
"Maybe if you don't snub her when you see her again, she'll figure it out—also, I hope I'm not making her sound desperate and pathetic, those are two things Avery Musk is not."
"Okay, noted. Do you mind giving me her contact? I don't want you to be the middleman anymore. I'll talk to her myself, is that okay?"
"Sure." She relaxed and checked her phone for Avery's contact and then showed it to him. He walked back into his apartment and asked her to come in while he went to grab his phone from the kitchen counter.
"This place is nice. Not as nice as our place but it's very similar."
Mason smiled politely and handed her his phone. She dialled Avery's number in and gave it back to him.
"You didn't save it."
"Yeah, so that you can."
He smirked and just saved the contact as "Avery Musk"
"Well, I'll be on my way now." Evie said heading towards the door. He looked at her rescinding figure and said, "And, I'm not mad at you, Evie"
She smiled and said, "Thank you Sir." And it made him smile. When she looked at him, she noticed the enchanting smile Luna was talking about.
"Mason, you bear the same first name as my father"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I hope you'll be as gentlemanly as he is"
"Don't count on it, I'm more of the bad egg"
Evie laughed and walked out of the apartment.
He went back to his room, to continue working on his new game. He gave himself a month to he launch the game and that's what he planned on doing. Mason liked to give himself deadlines, it helped him concentrate on whatever he was working on. He looked through his playlist and played whale sounds, they helped him stay focus.
There was a knock on his door so he stopped what he was doing and went to check on who it was, it was Ian. He ushered him in and they spoke for a while. He realized Ian was in his house because he brought his girlfriend, Lydia to see her friends, Jessica and Sheryl and he didn't want to listen to the girls talk or do girls stuff so he thought he'd stop by and chill with him.
He couldn't continue working on his new game so he brought out his old games and played them with Ian. Ian did not know that the game was Mason's. Nobody else knew about his multi-million dollar business besides Dylan, and his mum—because she owned shares in his company. He decided to be discreet about it so that his father would not shut him down, however his games and company was very popular but nobody knew who the CEO of the company was.
"I love all the games by this company." Ian said.
"Yeah?" Mason replied, his eyes still on the game they were playing.
"They make the sickest games. I mean, look at this graphics, it's dope as fuck and it looks too real. I feel like I'm in a virtual world. Look at the ground, even the grains of sand on the floor look so real. It just makes you want to continue and...what the hell man? You were supposed to cover me from them zombies."
Mason laughed and screamed, "I can't hold them off for long, get the stones. Get the fucking stones Ian!"
"It's hard dude, what do you want from me?!"
They continued screaming, laughing and playing the video game till Ian got a phone call from Lydia. She wanted to know where he was because she wanted to go back home. He told her where he was and told her she could come over. So she came and they were all hanging out and the boys were still playing their game when Lydia asked Mason if he'd come for the party that the Sorority had planned.
"What party?" He asked.
"It's like a fundraiser type of party by the sorority house. We're raising some money for the women's center." Lydia explained.
The thought of doing a charitable act piqued Robert's interest and so he asked, " Oh, what women's center?"
"Sheepers."
"That's quite thoughtful. When is the event?"
"It's on Halloween. We made it that day so that people can wear costumes, have fun and still create awareness."
"Costumes? I love costumes, I will there." Ian announced.
"You don't have a choice Babe." She said matter-of-factly.
He laughed and Mason agreed to be there. Then Lydia said, "We just have to convince Luna and her friends to be there."
"Have you asked them yet?" Ian asked.
"Not yet. I think I can convince Dixie—we had a great talk last night at Troy's party, but Evie and Avery? That's not going to be easy. I think we might pay for their appearance."
"Pay for their appearance?" Mason asked raising a brow.
"They're influencers. High profiled ones. And she only accepts appearances that interests her. I know some brands that couldn't get her to work for them and they were willing to pay good sums. Have you seen Avery's following today? Just by trending today, It's outrageous. That's why her father reacted the way he did to the stalker story."
"Yeah" Ian added
"Mason, you two seemed close at Troy's party, can you get her to accept our paid appearance? It would pull crowd and help our fundraising and the reputation of our sorority if she shows up." Lydia asked
"I don't know—" Mason began.
"Please Mason. I have never asked you for a favour before now."
"Fine. I'll ask her but if she says no, I'll not persuade her."
"If you ask her, she'll say yes. I know she will definitely say yes." Ian said as he shot Mason a familiar teasing look.
"I know what you're thinking Ian but it's nothing like that. We barely know each other and besides, like Lydia said, she accepts appearances that she wants, why do you think I can influence her decision?"
"Uh, because y'all are into each other?" Ian started.
"They are?" Lydia asked, surprised at that revelation.
"You should've seen them at Troy's party. The love tension was outta here."
"Damn, no wonder Jessica was weird when I mentioned that we should invite the girls when I told her Ian was coming and he'd bring you and Dylan. Sherly was the only one in support of that appearance." Lydia said
"We're not into each other. I don't like her like that. I'm sure she has other influencer guys she likes. We're from two different worlds, and her world is just overwhelming." Mason said defensively.
"Opposite attracts booboo" Lydia said. "I mean, look at me and Ian. We're opposite in almost everything yet I love him to death." She continued.
"And I love you too." Ian replied pukering to kiss her but keeping his eyes on the game. She kissed him.
"I just don't think there's anything there." Mason said.
The front door opened and Dylan walked in. He looked tired but his eyes lit up when he saw the game Ian and Mason were playing.
"Hey guys" he said.
"Hey." They all replied and he sat to watch them all play.
"How was your day, Dylan?"" Lydia asked him
"Crazy." He replied. Then as he sunk into the sofa he added, "I'm glad to be home again."