Chapter 39: Boyfriend Privileges

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Boyfriend Privileges

The silence in the athletic hallway was completely different now.

It wasn’t heavy. It wasn’t suffocating. It was light, carrying the quiet, incredible weight of a massive exhale.

Audrey stood there, her fingers intertwined with Mason’s. She looked up at him, feeling the frantic adrenaline of the last twenty minutes finally start to fade into a deep, overwhelming sense of relief.

Mason looked down at their joined hands. Then he looked back up at her face. The serious, guarded captain was entirely gone, replaced by the guy who had spent the last three months quietly memorizing her habits.

He didn’t pull her into a dramatic kiss. He didn’t make a sweeping speech.

He just tilted his head, his dark eyes warm.

"...Lunch?" Mason asked.

Audrey let out a breathy, genuine laugh. All the tension completely evaporated.

"I thought you’d never ask," she said.

They walked out of the hallway together. They didn’t let go.

---

An hour later, training was officially over.

The locker room smelled heavily of deep heat muscle rub, damp towels, and worn cleats. Leo was sitting on the bench, aggressively trying to untangle a knot in his shoelaces, while Jackson was unwrapping the tape from his wrists.

The heavy metal door swung open.

Mason walked in. He tossed his gym bag onto his bench.

Jackson looked up. He paused, the athletic tape dangling from his hand. He squinted across the room.

"...Captain," Jackson said slowly.

Mason unzipped his bag. "What?"

"You look happy," Jackson noted, completely suspicious. "Like, weirdly happy. You just got chewed out by Coach Miller for twenty minutes about the defensive line, and you’re smiling."

"I am," Mason agreed easily, pulling out a clean shirt.

Leo stopped fighting with his shoelace. He looked up, his eyes narrowing into fine slits. "...That’s highly suspicious. What did you do?"

Mason pulled his training jersey over his head. He hesitated for a second, tossing it into the laundry bin. He leaned against the metal lockers, looking between his two best friends.

"I should probably tell you two something," Mason said quietly.

Both Leo and Jackson immediately stopped what they were doing. They looked up.

Mason scratched the back of his neck, suddenly looking a little awkward.

"...Audrey and I weren’t actually dating," Mason said.

Total silence fell over the locker room.

Jackson blinked. Once. Twice. "...What?"

"The relationship started as fake," Mason explained, keeping his voice perfectly level.

Another profound, deafening silence.

Leo slowly stood up from the bench. He dropped his shoe.

"...Excuse me?" Leo whispered.

"We agreed to pretend because of the confession page," Mason said, bracing himself. "It was mutually beneficial. We faked it."

Leo just stared at him. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"You mean..." Leo started, his voice pitching up an entire octave. "...THE ENTIRE THREE MONTHS?"

Mason nodded. "...Yeah."

Leo threw both of his hands into the air, looking like a man who had just been deeply, personally betrayed by the universe.

"I DEFENDED YOU!" Leo yelled, his voice echoing off the metal lockers.

Jackson completely lost it. He started laughing so hard he actually had to sit down on the floor, clutching his ribs.

Leo ignored him, pointing a dramatic, accusing finger at Mason’s chest. "Do you know how many arguments I had with people?! I fought with the midfield about you! I told Chloe you were relationship goals! I told my sister!"

Leo took a deep breath, his eyes wide with absolute betrayal.

"I TOLD MY MOTHER!"

Mason winced. "...Sorry."

"You let me buy you a celebratory pint on Tuesday to research your own fake relationship!" Leo ranted, pacing the narrow aisle between the benches. "I was out there playing active chaperone, and you were faking it?!"

He stopped pacing. He folded his arms tightly across his chest, glaring at his captain.

"...So," Leo demanded, narrowing his eyes. "...now what? Is the fake relationship over? Are you broken up?"

Mason smiled. It was that same, stupidly happy smile Jackson had noticed earlier.

"No," Mason said simply. "Now she’s actually my girlfriend."

Leo paused.

The anger disappeared instantly. The dramatic betrayal completely vanished from his face.

"...Really?" Leo asked softly.

Mason nodded once.

Leo didn’t hesitate. He lunged forward and tackled his six-foot-two captain into a massive, aggressive hug.

"I KNEW IT!" Leo cheered, pounding Mason on the back.

Jackson wheezed from the floor, tears of laughter in his eyes. "You literally didn’t! You had absolutely no idea!"

"I BELIEVED IN SOMETHING!" Leo shouted back, refusing to let Mason go. "I am a visionary!"

Mason just laughed, clapping Leo on the back, feeling lighter than he had in months.

---

The next morning, the air on campus was crisp and bright.

Audrey was walking across the main quad, carrying her heavy camera bag on one shoulder and a steaming vanilla latte in her hand. She was exhausted from editing late into the night, but she was smiling.

Suddenly, a large hand reached down and smoothly plucked the paper cup right out of her fingers.

Audrey stopped. "Mason!"

Mason took a sip of her coffee, looking completely unbothered as he fell into step beside her. "It’s too hot. You’re going to burn your tongue."

"You stole my coffee," Audrey accused, crossing her arms.

"I optimized your coffee," Mason corrected, handing it back to her. "I tested the thermal output."

"You’re impossible."

He grinned, a lazy, arrogant smirk playing on his lips. "Pretty sure that’s covered under boyfriend privileges," he said, completely unapologetic.

Audrey’s breath hitched slightly. The word. He just said it. Out loud, in the middle of the quad, where anyone could hear. But he didn’t say it for an audience. He said it for her.

She took the cup back, trying desperately not to smile. "...Maybe."

---

For the rest of the day, it was like a dam had finally broken.

The careful, painful distance Mason had been keeping all week entirely vanished.

When Audrey sat in the journalism office to take notes, he casually reached over and stole her blue daisy pen, spinning it between his fingers while he read over her shoulder.

She didn’t freeze. She just rolled her eyes and snatched it back.

When they walked to the cafeteria, he didn’t ask. He just reached out, lifted the heavy canvas strap of her camera bag off her shoulder, and slung it over his own.

She didn’t overthink it. She just let him carry it.

They sat at a small table in the corner of the dining hall. Audrey unrolled her paper napkin, grabbing a burger and a large side of french fries.

Before she could even take a bite, Mason reached across the table and stole a perfectly crisp fry from the top of her pile.

Audrey instantly smacked his arm. "Get your own."

Mason didn’t even flinch. He just chewed the fry, maintaining direct eye contact, and deliberately reached out to steal another one.

Audrey narrowed her eyes.

"...Really?"

She reached right across the table, grabbed a crisp fry off his tray, and popped it into her mouth.

Mason stopped chewing. He stared at her, completely stunned.

"...Did you just steal my fry?"

Audrey smiled sweetly. "...Girlfriend privileges."

Mason laughed so hard the people at the next table turned to look. For over thirty Chapters, he had been the one keeping her on her toes. Seeing her finally learn his language and throw it right back at him was the most satisfying feeling in the world.

The wall between them was completely, entirely gone.

---

By the time the sun started to set, painting the campus sky in streaks of bruised purple and gold, they were walking back toward the girls’ dorm.

The pathways were quiet, shadowed by the massive oak trees lining the sidewalks.

They were walking close together. Without thinking, without planning it, Mason reached down.

His knuckles brushed against hers. Then, entirely naturally, his fingers slipped between hers, lacing their hands together. His palm was warm and solid against hers.

They made it halfway down the sidewalk in comfortable, easy silence.

Then, Mason suddenly stopped.

He froze in his tracks. He looked down at their joined hands, his dark eyebrows pulling together in a sharp frown.

He looked back up at her, his expression suddenly guilty.

"...I forgot to ask," Mason said quietly.

Audrey stopped beside him. She looked at his face—at the genuine concern in his eyes, at the way he was instantly ready to let go if she told him to.

She smiled. A soft, incredibly fond smile.

"You forgot," Audrey said gently, "because you’re being yourself again."

She smiled.

"...And Mason?"

He waited, his dark eyes searching hers.

"You don’t have to ask anymore."

Silence fell over the quiet path.

"You’ve never touched me because you wanted to take something from me," Audrey said softly. Her fingers tightened around his. "You only ever wanted to take care of me."

She looked up, meeting his gaze fully.

"I trust you."

Mason didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t make a grand speech.

He simply nodded. Because anything he said right now would only cheapen the moment.

He squeezed her hand gently, entirely on purpose.

Audrey squeezed back.

They turned and kept walking down the quiet, shadow-dappled path.

For the first time since the confession page had turned their lives upside down...

They weren’t pretending.

They were simply walking home.

Together.