Question: is there a city/country you would love to visit before you leave this planet?

Answer: my all time city-of-my-dreams is Tokyo, and just recently I would love to visit Portugal. A certain someone knows why, and I love them so much. Marry me? Hehehe.

Chapter 35 - Deceiving Him.

Oliver

Mason had called me a little bit earlier, telling me that he was coming to pick me up. We'd disposed of our initial plan of having me take a shuttle bus to his dorm. He said he didn't want me stressing out since I was sick and he also wanted to use this medium to meet the girls again.

I'd told him that I deleted WhatsApp from my phone and the only way we could talk was through iMessage or actual text messages, email wasn't even an option. We did both, except emails. I hadn't told him the reason why I deleted the app though, I'd been trying my best to not think about the reason and I guess it was working for me... a bit.

Who am I kidding? I was greatly failing at that, but the physical pain I'd been feeling in my chest had finally stopped and that was progress, that had to be some kind of progress. I had also stopped biting down on my tongue, it was almost completely healed now.

Packing the clean clothes I intended to wear during my stay at Mason's place, I eyed my laundry basket with scorn. It wasn't my fault that I had so many dirty clothes, it was the dirty clothes' fault that they were dirty. No matter how hard I thought about this I couldn't find sense in it, so I just resumed putting clothes and my necessities, like a new toothbrush and my chocolates, into the bag.

Looking down at the bag which should've been small, but was very far from being that, I realised I still had a little more to add to it. Stuffing it up and carelessly forcing everything in, I zipped the bag. Almost snapping the zipper, but thank goodness that I didn't.

Another text came in from Mason and I knew it was probably time to leave. Rushing towards my phone with genuine excitement I was proven right, he was the one.

Mason
I'm at the gate now and I don't have a lighthouse ID, whatever that is. The security guard needs the permission of the person I'm here to visit to let me in. Is that how you guys operate here?!

He added a few screaming emojis and I laughed at that.

This really had been the way we operated ever since the incident with Casper. The head security guard had ordered that this be the new style and only way of gaining access into lighthouse if you're not a resident of the building, to prevent that from ever happening again.

Chuckling at his text, I typed a quick reply with lots of emojis and cringeworthy typographical errors before rushing out of my room to go fetch him.

I confirmed for the security guard that he was my guest and he was here to see me before he put in the code and the two halves of the gate slid open for him to drive in. I waited for him in the terrace while he drove all the way to the garage, coming out a few minutes later to join me.

"Hey there," he greeted, offering a handshake but I opened my arms and hugged him. "Okay?" He muttered to himself, sounding a bit surprised before hugging me back.

Granted, I might've been trying too hard and forcing happiness, but this was the only effective way I could get over Khalid; with a boy just as good looking and who actually cares about me, thus, Mason.

"Let's go up and meet the girls then I'll get my bags and we'll be off," I chimed, beaming at him and taking his hands into mine.

He seemed a bit confused, not a bit, he seemed really confused and nonplussed by the sudden change in my attitude towards him. I could tell he was loving it anyway. Aside from the fact that he was speechless, he didn't act like he might've noticed that I had ulterior motives.

We entered the elevator, with his hands still in mine, we chatted about insignificant things. The second the elevator doors tore open, we were faced with a laughing Chris and a straight faced Khalid.

I stiffened and froze at the sight, putting a little more pressure into the grip. I held Mason's hands so tightly in mine now. My eyes dwelled on Khalid's, so did his dwell on me but for a very short while before he looked away and started looking every which way.

The tightening in his jaws were visible and his lips were firmly pressed into a line. His jaws continued to flex and his breathing visibly grew heavy, so did mine actually.

Chris didn't stop laughing when he saw me. He did, however, when he took full cognizance of the bad energy in the air. I stood transfixed in the lift, staring fixated at Khalid who didn't bother to look at me anymore, Mason had to pull me out of the lift with him, snapping me out of it.

"Uh, hey Olly," Chris greeted friendly, waving shortly at me.

"Hey Chris," I answered curtly, but forced a smile on my face.

The second we stepped out of the lift, Khalid stepped in making to leave Chris who started panicking and hastened to join him.

"Uhh, see you later then?" He spoke quickly while skipping into the lift.

"Yeah sure, later. Bye," I waved at him this time.

The elevator slid shut and I just kept staring, Mason had to shake me slightly to get my attention back. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Khalid hadn't even uttered a single, fake greeting to me. He just made it obvious that he disliked me and wanted nothing to do with me.

If that was the way I was going to be treated by him then I would have to up my avoiding and evading game, I never wanted to be this close to him ever again. I couldn't bear to see him treat me like this ever again.

As my thoughts kept flying to wherever, it occurred to me that Khalid had once seen Mason and I kiss, now he had just seen us holding hands. I internally face palmed at these series of events. It was painfully coincidental.

He had chosen to ignore the kiss but now I'd kissed him and just as quickly as I did, I was holding hands with the guy he once saw me kissing. How complicated could my love life get. Who am I kidding? I didn't have a love life, I just had disaster and stuff going on.

"Hey? You okay?" Mason worried, pulling my hand again to bring my wandering mind back.

"Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, why?" I uttered, looking up at him and forcing the smile I had on, just before we saw Khalid, back to my face.

"Nothing, it's just that you look a bit tense or scared of something all of a sudden," he observed, keeping his eyes on me.

"Of course not, I'm fine. Let's go?" I offered, pulling him with me once again towards my room.

Khalid's phlegmatic front hurt to think about, but I still couldn't get it out of my head. The way he stood and completely ignored me was totally unnecessary. Pushing these thoughts aside once again, Mason and I walked into my room after I unlocked the door.

"I already packed a bag long before you sent a text," I announced, leaving him by the door and walking into my room to get the bag I'd packed.

"That's the bag?" He sputtered, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, why?" I raised a brow, looking from him to the bag repeatedly. "What's wrong with the bag?"

"Oh nothing," he chuckled. "It's just a bit... extra," he settled on the word. "I mean you're just spending the weekend at my place, which consists of two nights and two and half days. The big bag is a little bit extra," he explained.

My expression fell and I stared at the bag, embarrassed and disappointed at my awful packing skills.

"Is it?" I murmured, sizing the bag.

"Yeah but it's fine, it's totally fine," he reassured, waving it off. "I'm glad you want to be very comfortable during your stay. Matter of fact, it makes me really happy."

"Thank you," I babbled shyly, hanging the bag properly over my shoulders.

I looked around my room and everything seemed to be in place, it should be just fine till I get back on Sunday evening. I'd forced myself to clean up a bit this morning because I was truly uncomfortable in my space and that was just wrong.

Walking over to my small fridge at the end of the room, I retrieved a bottle of water for myself and a bottle of sprite for Mason.

"Here," I walked back to him and held it out to him. "We can go now."

"I'm fine though, I don't need-"

"Just take it," I insisted.

"Okay then," he sighed and gave in, collecting it from me. "Thanks."

Taking a quick glance around my room again, we stepped out and I locked the door. It was the first time I would be sleeping outside my room, outside my dorm, and I kind of missed my room already. Thinking about it, it was a bit funny that I was spending my first night out at Mason's.

Earlier this semester I'd been trying my best to avoid him, but here I was, encouraging him and willingly going over to his place.

I knocked once on Jess's door before checking if it was open, it was. Slowly pushing it open, I stepped in with Mason following closely behind me.

Yadiri realistically squealed when her eyes landed on us, Jess's face simply brightened up with a smile when she saw us. They were on their various beds, using their laptops.

"Mason!" Yadiri sprung up from the bed and rushed to him, wrapping her slender arms around his neck in a hug.

"Hey," he grunted, falling back a few steps when she smashed into him.

"Hello Mason," Jess greeted from her bed, taking her eyes back to her laptop.

"Hey Jessica," he replied with a smile.

Yadiri finally set him free and walked back to her bed.

"Olly said he's spending the weekend at your place," Jess mentioned. She didn't put it as a question but he answered anyway.

"Yeah, he is," Mason confirmed.

"You didn't invite the rest of us, you only invited him," Yadiri griped, feigning a frown. "That's not fair."

"To be honest, I didn't really invite him, he suggested it," Mason chuckled. "But you're more than welcome at my place."

Jess looked up from her laptop and sent me a knowing look which I wished I didn't understand, but I did get the message behind the look. I took notice of what she was trying to say with her eyes so easily that my stomach tied into a knot.

Like I wasn't feeling guilty already, she just had to keep reminding me.

"Nah, you guys have your fun, we'll come some other time," said Yadiri, playfully brushing it aside.

"I'll be coming back on Sunday. If I'm not back by Sunday, just know that Mason has murdered me and call the police," I chortled, slightly tapping his back.

"By murder you mean 'made you mine', right?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me and wore a teasing smirk on his face.

"Oh my God, stop," I yelled, shoving him this time and looking away.

These kinds of jokes still had a very strong effect on me. I could feel my neck burning up, and the heat slowly made its way to my face.

"I just wanted to jump in and say hi since I came to pick Olly. See you guys later." Throwing an arm around my neck and holding me so close to him, Mason waved at the girls.

"Sure, see yah," Jess replied idly, trying her best to keep her eyes fixed on her laptop.

"Bye bye Mason!" Yadiri pitched over all us, waving diligently at him.

We stepped out of the room, got down to the garage and drove out of my dorm, driving over to his. I exhaled loudly when we finally left my dorm. I hadn't completely forgotten about it, but it seemed like a huge rock just got lifted from my shoulders when we left lighthouse, I felt relieved.

A weekend away was probably what I needed, Mako wasn't even around either. He'd also left for a change of environment and possibly a breath of fresh air. Not that lighthouse had suddenly become uncomfortable, recent occurrences just made it difficult to cope with ease.

The lasting knowledge of Khalid being one too many steps away from me wasn't helping me either. A weekend away from lighthouse, away from the knowledge of Khalid being so close yet so far, a weekend away with Mason was exactly what I needed.

There was no better person to help me get over Khalid if not Mason. Selfishly, I'd decided to talk full advantage of his feelings towards me without any ill intentions. I just needed to shove Khalid to the back of my mind, to the very bottom of my thoughts, buried under everything else, necessary or otherwise.

***

Friday ended way too quickly. I just arrived at his place, we had dinner, took showers- separately of course- and before I knew it I fell asleep on the other side of his bed. Maybe I was just too tired from shedding too much tears and doing absolutely nothing. Who knew doing nothing could make you so tired.

Waking up on Saturday morning, which was today, I felt refreshed to an extent. I hadn't woken up crying. This was the first morning I'd woken up with a dry face in some days now.

Mason's room was incredibly organised, nothing was out of place. There was not as much as a speck of dirt anywhere so we spent Saturday morning making breakfast together, laughing and making jokes about everything and anything.

I had no idea why but Mason and I never for once ran out of things to talk about, he either had something to say or I did. All in all, I was overjoyed that we had an unending stream of topics to talk about.

We had brunch over a movie and one too many cans of coke, talking about most of the things that happened in highschool, this time going into serious detail. I never for once stopped laughing hysterically at all the things Mason said, I wasn't forcing it, he was effortlessly funny and I was genuinely happy.

After doing the dishes and spending over an hour looking for a good movie on Netflix with his laptop, we went for an evening stroll around five o'clock. Mason had offered to show me around these parts of Denberg since I had told him my daily routine was: go to school and come back, everyday, no changes at all.

I hadn't had time to explore the school like most people were, mostly because I was too lazy to explore.

We got back to his dorm just before it got too late and made dinner together, just like in the morning. Mason was impressively good at everything, including cooking. He knew his way around the kitchen, and just as expected the food came out in the best way possible.

He refused my offer of help and ordered me to just sit and watch, so I did. Honestly, I was glad he did because I didn't have the strength to get anything done. I was just tired by default.

After eating dinner around 8PM, we settled into his bed and decided to binge as many episodes of the second season of Sex Education as we could, undeterred by the mountain of homework staring at us. My own situation was a lot more laughable than his.

Sitting beside him on the bed with our backs relaxed on the headboard, I got uncomfortable halfway into the second episode. I kept struggling to find comfort once again, changing my posture too frequently. Mason seemed to notice how uneasy I'd become because then he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in to lay on his chest.

I was a bit skeptical about the proximity of our bodies to one another at first, I could literally feel his heart beat softly behind his chest. However, I melted under his hold and sunk deeper into him, letting him hold me however he pleased. He seemed to be loving it more than I was and that was surprising, because all I felt was complete bliss at the time.

We pushed through the first three episodes, laughing here and there. Sex Education was such a good show and the second season really dealt with LGBT related matters. Halfway through the fourth episode, Mason's breathing grew heavy as he caressed my arm more noticeably with just the right amount of roughness.

"Hey, umm, you still want to continue?" His voice was husky and laced with mild sexual desire, not lust.

Just the tone in his voice did a great job at exciting me, I hadn't even thought in that direction until now, until I looked up at him and saw the glint of infatuation in his eyes.

"Are you tired? What time is it?" I tried to stand up from him but he gently held me back down.

"I'm not really tired, I just want to do something else," he replied, eyes still fixed on his laptop he minimised the window to check the time. "It's 12:03AM already. Do you want to sleep?" He inquired, looking down at me.

"Let's just finish this episode then maybe we'll do something else, whatever you've in mind," I added the last part innocently, but when Mason twitched and tightened his hold on my arm I knew I might've caused a spark within him.

The second we finished the fourth episode Mason closed the laptop and placed it on the floor, sliding it under his bed.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, scooting closer when he opened his arm and gestured for me to come lay on his chest.

"I just want to hold you, that's all I want to do right now and I don't want any sexually disoriented characters from a TV show to distract me from doing just that," he sighed and pulled me in closer.

He'd turned off the lights, leaving only his night light on. I wondered why he even had one, it did help the ambience of the room though, and made it feel more homey. Having Mason hold me so protectively, slowly brought sleep to my eyes and I didn't even think too much, I tried not to think too much.

His fingers kept drawing lines and circles on the bare skin of my arm, sending a shiver all around me and making goosebumps appear almost everywhere. I on the other hand had no idea of what to do with my left hand which was lying motionless on his chest.

After a few minutes of contemplating and actual inner conflict with myself about what to do with my hand, I tentatively brought it to trace over his well defined six-pack. Feeling the firmness of it from the cotton nightshirt he had on.

He noticeably spasmed when I pinched and grabbed one of his packs. A smirk formed on my lips and I felt satisfied and fulfilled for being able to bring him so much pleasure with only my hand. Despite trying so many times to convince myself otherwise, I found Mason's nipples very attractive.

I stayed far away from them, restricting the movement of my hands to only his stomach area because I didn't trust myself. I continued with the little I was doing and so did Mason, but after a few minutes he opened his legs a bit wider and made me place one of mine in-between his, cuddling me even closer than before.

The feel of something really warm and hard made me freeze in my movement. He detected the way I twitched when my lap relaxed on his stiffness. Luckily for me I wasn't only in loose boxers like I usually am, I was wearing my pyjama bottoms.

"I'm-I'm sorry about that," he stopped tracing on my bare arm and apologised quickly, the slight hoarseness still audible in his voice. "Having you so close to me has made me so hard, I can't even control myself," he whispered.

Somehow those few words of his, at that very moment, made me want more of him but I still had a little bit of my self-control despite being mesmerised by the heat emanating from him. I too had a similar problem down there but he wasn't feeling it.

"It's fine, same here," I admitted shyly, glad that the room was significantly dark and he couldn't see just how flustered I was.

"Oh," he voiced his surprise and scoffed.

A muzzled laugh awkwardly escaped my throat and I had to press my lips together to stop myself. He did the same and after a back and forth movement of incomplete chuckles we both burst into complete laughter. The situation was a bit funny anyway.

Mason wasn't just horny, he wanted me for more than just this little game we had going on tonight. While me, contrarily, was just seduced by how undeniably attractive he was.

When the laughter cleared from the air, he arched his back and adjusted, making it so that I could feel the fullness and thickness of his length properly. I sucked in air through my teeth and realistically held my breath.

"You telling me that you've a hard on as well isn't helping me at all," he moaned into my hair, bringing his other hand to my face and grazing his thumb along my lower lip which involuntarily fell open and left a small gap in my mouth.

He continued twisting and turning, rubbing his hardness against my lap. I completely gave in and let him do whatever he wanted, it didn't make me feel uncomfortable or insecure in any way. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed it.

It did, however, make me feel like a really bad, selfish person, trapping me in my guilt. My conscience kept screaming at me to say something, to do something, but I refused to. I had to get over Khalid, and fast. This was probably the only effective way to achieve that.

Still with my leg in-between his, he turned and faced me directly now. We were looking right into each other's eyes, the ample light of the room making it so that we could see the look on the other person's face.

"I hope I'm not pushing you into this," he uttered softly, his sweet-smelling, warm breath falling into my face.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly, and steadily. "No, no you're not," I assured him, ignoring the tiny voice whispering in my head.

"Oh, that's great, because right now all I want to do is kiss you," he gave me a heads up before closing the small distance between us and connecting his lips to mine.

Letting air out of my nose again, I eased into the kiss and went with the pace Mason set. He kept on kissing me, softly trapping my lower lip with his teeth once in a while, teasing me. He was such a good kisser, my breathing trembled.

He nimbly brought his hand under my pyjama shirt and pressed his palm against the bare skin of my back, making me moan into his mouth and crash myself into him, joining the upper and lower halves of our bodies. I couldn't get over the way his chest, which was stiff as a wall, felt against mine.

The way he rubbed my back, the heat of his palms made me shove my tongue into his mouth and he didn't hesitate to suck on it the instant I did, asking for more. The wound I'd intentionally given to myself stopped hurting all of a sudden. He pulled back a little, our mouths still connected in a kiss, he brought my hands over his stiffness and encouraged me to take a hold of it. I did take a hold of it, through his shorts.

It felt so full and alive, warm and strong in my hands, I stroked once and this time he moaned into my mouth and that almost made me go crazy. I loved the way he grunted and moaned both at the same time, the way he held onto my lower lip with his teeth for a few seconds before sucking on them again.

We continued kissing, I continued stroking his stiffness, he continued rubbing my back and eventually grabbed my butt cheek with his hand, pulling me closer and wanting a whole lot more.

After a good ten to fifteen minutes into the kiss, he pulled back and smiled against my lips, rubbing our noses together. I was panting and so was he but he had more control over his than I ever did. I was too focused on replacing the image of Khalid in my head with an image of the boy I was kissing, but the process was labyrinthine. I couldn't achieve this as easily as I thought I could.

"What does this make us now?" He chuckled softly, placing a quick kiss on my lips. "I'm pretty sure this makes us more than just friends," he gushed, placing another quick kiss on my lips.

"Ssh," I shushed him, putting pressure on the hand which held his length, causing him to jerk forward. "Don't spoil the mood," I finished and reconnected our lips, resuming my back and forth stroking movement.

That was the last time we visited that topic throughout the night.

We both slept after almost an hour of intense making out. Luckily, none of us came that night so we didn't go too far.

Sunday came around and were able to complete the remaining four episodes of sex education, to say I loved the ending is an understatement. I adored the ending of the second season, it ended so beautifully but it only made me want more. The wait seemed too long.

We ate breakfast and lunch in one big meal- brunch- and played games on his laptop before evening approached. Packing up my bags I realised I hadn't even worn half of the clothes I brought with me and Mason never stopped laughing at me for this.

I took a shower after him, got into new clothes, picked up the rest of things and said goodbye to the neatness that was his room. I was definitely going to miss this place, his dorm wasn't as big as mine though.

Getting into his car, he drove us back to lighthouse. I recognised the security guard to be the one who almost extended Jess's patience meter on the night of the party at the ER. His face brightened up with a smile and he greeted us with his strong accent which I still couldn't put my hands on.

"Can you tell where that accent is from? The security guard that is," I added when he raised an eyebrow at me.

Balancing the backpack properly on my back I walked around to stand beside Mason who'd gotten down from the car as well.

"I can't say for sure, but I think either German or Belgian," he guessed, playing with his car keys.

"I think more Belgian than German," I pointed out, furrowing my brows in concentration.

"Why are we even trying to guess where his accent is from," Mason chortled. "If you really want to know you could ask him, he seems nice."

"He is nice," I crowed, agreeing with him.

"So this is bye bye?" Mason pouted at me.

"It seems so," I confirmed, pouting as well.

"Ugh, this sucks," Mason grunted, kicking the air.

"I know, right? We probably won't have time during the week to meet up and hang out with each other, I know I won't. I have a shit ton of catching up to do," I sighed and slumped my shoulders, remembering how awfully I was lagging behind everyone.

"Thanks to this stupid cold you got," he replied, sassing the imaginary cold.

"Yeah, stupid cold indeed," I mused, looking away from him for a while.

If only he knew that this 'stupid cold' was a human being, a male human being that I had strong feelings for.

"I'll try my best though, but if you don't have time it's fine. At least we still have social media, although you've deleted your WhatsApp."

"I'll install it again. Not today though, but soon," I assured him.

"You've your reasons for deleting it so don't force yourself back on it if you don't want to, we've iMessage and email?" He raised an eyebrow at me and tilted his head to the side.

"We don't have email, sorry," I corrected him, chuckling. It's not like I religiously check my emails, so that's a lost cause.

"Nope, we don't," he admitted, pushing himself off his car. "I've to get back now so I can at least look at the assignments I've not even touched."

"Oh yeah, sure. You should," I agreed with him, taking a few steps back but he pulled me closer and held my waist.

Smiling down at me for a while with all forms of happiness glimmering in his eyes, he leant down and pressed his lips against mine in a very soft, passionate kiss. I kissed back just before he pulled away.

"I love where this is going, I love where we are going," he corrected himself, still grinning from ear to ear. "I'm glad that you don't hate me anymore."

"I never hated you," I huffed and smacked his chest playfully.

"Sure felt like you did though, but now you're falling for my charms. What can I say? I feel so deeply for you anyway," he giggled and freed me.

My smile almost fell from my face but I held on to it, swallowing thickly instead.

"You should get going. Text me when you get back," I informed, quickly placing my palm on his chest.

"Sure, will do." Before he walked around to his car he leant forward and whispered something very quickly into my ear, but I still caught it. "I love you," he hissed softly with a sheepish grin on his face, rushing to the driver's side of the car.

A trip of guilt and fear tied my chest and made it difficult to breathe as I fiddled with the straps of my bag, staring at him with empty eyes.

He stopped after making a good turn. "Bye Olly, see you soon. Real soon, I hope," he called from his window.

"Of course, real soon," I answered and waved at him before he drove off.

Making my way to the lift, I tried to keep my mind empty. I couldn't be thinking about Khalid and Mason both at the same time, although one of those thoughts was by far more dominant than the other.

This wasn't right, nothing was right. I got into the lift and hit the button for the fourth storey.

I just kept creating more problems for myself. It was just a matter of time before I fell into something I wouldn't be able to get out of.

***

AN: I'm so, so sorry that this took so long, I took a very much needed break, not just from writing but from everything in general. I was tired and not in the right state of mind to be continuing Oliver's story, he deserves a clear head and a clear vision, not blurry, tear-filled ones. With everything happening, breaking down was inevitable for me given where I stand in all of this.

I was able to get back to writing and editing after completing the fourth season of 13 Reasons Why, I realistically shed tears after the last episode. Don't ask me why just watch it, they just... *Groans in 567 languages*

Thanks a lot for being here, and waiting. I promise regular updates as from today, I hope my energy remains positive. Once again, thank you so much, I'm so grateful.

PS, it's nothing much. I'm just lonely, I guess. But I'll be fine, I know I will be. And I really loved this chapter, despite everything. Try not to hate Olly.

Till next time loves.
-DrillBurger.