Mason - Chapter 21

“I think I kinda need to pee now.” Some time had passed since everyone had gotten their meals, and Mason was already full, while the rest of his family finished up. He got up from his chair, frustrated that his bladder had been triggered by his brief splash in Nicole's glass of water, and looked at Nicole and Mikayla expectantly.

“Too bad you didn’t tell us sooner,” Mikayla said with a half-full mouth. “You could’ve just done it in the cup," she added with a snorting laugh. Nicole gave Mikayla a side-eye, but she'd only been joking. “I don’t think any of us wanna take you though, so how about you just go on this.” She flattened out one of her crumpled up, slightly used napkins, and set it down in front of him.

“Uh, privacy?” the tiny boy boldly scoffed, so Mikayla grabbed an empty paper cup that she’d used for some tea, and set it down on top of Mason. It was a bit dark for him, but he didn’t really need any light to take off his pants.

After a minute, he knocked on the cup to let them know he was done, and Nicole grabbed it, setting the napkin on her plate since she was done with her food. “Sorry again for forgetting your little bathroom,” she yawned, just as Annabelle was returning with the check.

“Here’s this,” she said, holding the booklet out for Nicole to take, but Skye quickly snatched it out of the waitress’ hands instead.

“I think Mason said he’d get this one,” she smirked, and tipped the booklet over his head before letting it drop on him.

“What the fuck, Skye!” he yelled, and the booklet teetered for a few moments as he struggled to hold its weight, before he fell over, trapped and unable to move underneath it.

“What is with you tonight?” Nicole said with a scolding tone, as the two girls both giggled at Mason's predicament, while Annabelle looked down at him compassionately. Nicole grabbed the receipt off Mason’s back and rummaged through her purse, pulling out a credit card and handing it to Annabelle along with the booklet.

Annabelle gave Mason a sympathetic smile, as if Mikayla and Skye were her sisters and she was apologizing for their behavior, and then headed towards the front of the restaurant to ring Nicole’s card.

“Can you stop it?!” he huffed at Skye, annoyed with how “playful” she was being tonight. “Seriously…”

The waitress came back with Nicole’s card, clearly a little put off with the family’s dynamic. “Thanks for coming in tonight,” she said, giving Mason one more glance before Nicole thanked her and she took her leave.

Skye—who hadn’t even apologized to Mason yet—held her hand out for him as they got ready to leave. He looked at it for a second, then at her with an irritated glare, and turned his shoulder to her to address the other side of the table instead. “Can you guys leave me at the table for a minute?”

“Oooooh, someone’s gonna shoot their shot,” Mikayla commented, and the three of them shuffled out of the booth to go wait by the entrance.

When Annabelle came back to bus the table, she almost set her wash cloth down right on top of Mason before pulling back with a surprised look. “Oh! Is everything OK?” A tiny sliver of her imagined Mason saying that his family was abusive and he needed help, but he smiled instead, and nodded his head.

“Yeah, it was great.” Annabelle sensed more to the conversation, so she sat down and crossed her arms, leaning over and looking intently at the tiny boy with his hands nervously in his pockets. He looked up at her to speak, but with her face so close and curious, he froze up and looked away, taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. Other than his family, he almost never interacted with giant people by himself, and he’d also never asked a woman out before either—so speaking with Annabelle was like a double threat. “Do you wanna hang out… sometime?… or something?” he asked, finding the courage to look up at her again.

She was already smiling, having anticipated what Mason was going to ask, but she liked flirting with him; his reactions were so adorable. “Mason… are you asking me out on a date?”

He began overthinking whether or not he made the right move, and thought that maybe she was asking him because she didn’t date tinies, and had only been nice to him for a better tip, like Mikayla said. “No,” he said, as if the idea was crazy, but then realized that she probably wouldn’t be smiling if there wasn’t a chance she’d say yes. “Um… I’m just kidding. Yeah… I was—I was asking you out,” he stuttered, laughing awkwardly.

Annabelle took a deep breath as her smile widened, flattered by how flustered he was, and she leaned in while squinting her eyes a little. “I’m not kidding, you really are the cutest little guy,” she cooed, before sitting up straight and dampening her expression. “But unfortunately I just started seeing someone, and he’s a pretty cute guy too.”

“Oh.” Mason sighed, looking down at the table. “Is he tiny too?”

Annabelle laughed, but quickly stopped when she realized that Mason might think that her reaction was rude. “No, he’s normal sized.”

“Oh. Either way, I understand. That’s okay.”

“Buuuuut…” Her smile grew again when he lifted his head hopefully. “We’ve only been going out for a few weeks, so how about you give me your number, and if things don’t work out, then I’ll hit you up.”

“Okay, sure!” She pulled out her phone and brought up her contacts, then turned the screen around (it was an iPhone mini) so he could dial his number in. “Have you ever dated someone tiny before?” he asked, reaching all over the screen to slap each of the numbers with his hand, which she thought was cute to watch.

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head.

“Do you know anyone who’s tiny?”

“Nada. The most I’ve talked to one is whenever one will come into the restaurant like you did.” After Mason finished typing in his number, Annabelle looked over her shoulder to see if her boss was watching, and stood up from the table with a sigh. “Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Want me to take you to your family or have them come get you?”

“You can take me, I don’t mind,” he grinned, jumping onto her hand as she lowered it for him. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her, despite his attempts not to leer too much, but she didn’t notice as she walked him up to the front of the restaurant.

Nicole turned when she saw Annabelle approaching, and she reached out to take Mason from the waitress, thanking her again. “See ya,” Annabelle said with a wave, and Mason’s family said their goodbyes before heading out the door.

On the ride home, Mason stared out the window again, but this time his smile was even bigger than before, as he dreamed about what hanging out with Annabelle would be like. “So how did it go?” Skye asked him.

His smile faltered and he turned to give her an uncooperative look. “You don’t get to know,” he grumbled, crossing his arms. “However it went, I probably wouldn’t have been so nervous if you hadn’t made me look like an idiot.”

“Yeah, what you did was uncalled for Skye,” Nicole chimed in, looking at her in the rear view mirror. “I know I can’t stop you guys from teasing each other at home, but Mason doesn’t get out of the house that much. You can at least keep your hands to yourself whenever we go out in public.

Skye rolled her eyes and grumbled out a sigh. “Ok, sorry,” she said somewhat half-heartedly, and crossed her own arms as she gave Mason the same cold shoulder that he gave her for the rest of the ride home.