*9 years ago - age 11*

"Mason!!"

We're on the frozen lake in the park that's opposite our houses. Mason and I have been neighbours since he moved to Wrendale when we were three so we pretty much grew up together and we come here to skate everyday after school. It's like a ritual for us and this is our place. Our safe space.

"Yes my Princess Annika?" He replies skating back towards me doing a mock bow.

"Do you still have to call me that?" I huffed, crossing my arms.

Mason flicked his finger side to side at my posture and chuckled, "Is that supposed to intimidate me? You know you look like an angry Strawberry Shortcake right?"

"I'm not ginger!" I rebut but it only serves to make him laugh harder.

I didn't expect to be able to intimidate him but a girl can hope. At 11years old he's already over 5ft and playing hockey every waking hour is turning him into a Gaston impersonator. The girls at school go mad for it and glare at me when I breathe in his direction, let alone talk to him. Unlike them, I have zero desire to date Mason Jennings. Cue need to throw up at the thought.

"That's the part you have a problem with? That I got your hair colour wrong?" He says as he recovers from his fit of giggles.

"Shut it Wipeout"

The smile on my face is smug as Mason's grin falls away.

"Low blow Lexi, low blow"

When Mason and I were 9 we played for the same junior hockey team. Our town doesn't have a junior girls team so the coach bent the rules slightly to let me play. At our last game of the season, Mason had the puck and was en route for the winning goal when he got too cocky and tried to show off with a spin mid-skate. Needless to say he didn't pay attention and his skates collided with the puck causing him to totally wipe out and face plant the side of the rink. We lost the game and ever since I've called him 'Wipeout' to do my duty to society and keep his offensively big ego in check.

I begin to skate circles around him as I speak, "Shouldn't have called me Princess Annika"

"How is it fair that me calling you a princess means you call me Wipeout two years after it happened?!"

"Annika is a Barbie princess. I'm too old for Barbie so you can't call me it anymore."

"We'll see about that Annika" He says as he skates away from me and I scream in frustration before chasing after him.

~~~~~

*Present day*

Mason says nothing. Not a goddamn thing.

I'd avoided the possibility that I'd one day see him again since the day he left and now that the 20 year old version of him is stood in front of me, avoidance sounds like a good idea.

I break our eye contact but as I try to turn back to face Sophia and Seb, Mason chooses that precise moment to no longer impersonate a giant rock.

He scoffs and crosses his arms just like I used to do as a kid to try and seem scarier than a life size Smurfette, "You're still a coward then"

I whip around to face him, "Enlighten me as to why I'm the coward"

"Couldn't look me in the eyes and be honest then and you still can't do it now." He scoffs, "Though I guess honesty wasn't your problem. It was who you were honest with that was the kicker."

My insides churn at his implication, mostly because he's not wrong. I couldn't face him when it happened. I let him go and lost of piece of myself in the process.

Mason 1, Lexi 0.

"Do, uh... do you guys know each other?" Sophia asked cautiously from behind me as the stare down continued.

"No" Mason answered the same time I said "Yes"

"Bullshit man. You know each other." Seb replied earning him a death stare from his Captain.

"Not anymore we don't" Mason seethed out before looking back to me, "Get out"

Before I could reply, yet another guy with rippling muscles put his arm around Mason's shoulders, clearly not sensing the mood. I'm starting to question what they put in the water in this place so that everyone looks like a Greek fucking god.

As much as it irritates me, I can't even pretend Mason is an exception. He's grown to at least 6ft and has the same brown locks girls fawned over when he looked like a mini Justin Bieber in 7th grade. He's broader and his tight black shirt does nothing to hide the muscular form underneath or the biceps that look like they could easily kill a man. I judge myself harshly for being turned on at the thought.

I beg my eyes not to betray me and stray to the tattoos on his arms as they curve over muscles I didn't know arms could possess but trying to persuade my now aching ladyhood that Mason isn't the least bit attractive to me is futile. Traitor.

"Who's your friend Jennings?" The leech hanging off of Mason asks, running his gaze over my body and smirking when he sees how my dress has gradually ridden up. Mental note: don't borrow Sophia's clothes again.

"You know the neighbour I told you about Hugo?" Mason said slyly, still refusing to release me from his stare.

Neighbour. Not old friend, not girl I grew up with. I've been demoted all the way from childhood best friend to neighbour. 

Mason's friend, Hugo, stiffens and drops his arm of his captain's shoulders, "No fucking way." he states in disbelief though he immediately starts glaring at me. 

"In the flesh" Mason chuckles.

Hugo pins me with a unnerving look that makes me feel like he knows way more than I do in this very moment. Correction - he definitely knows way more than me right now. I never expected Mason to roll out the red carpet for me after how we lost touch as kids but his reaction tells me I'm really missing something here. 

"I thought you said she was smart enough to stay away" Hugo scoffed.

"Things change" Mason returned with a shrug like he couldn't care less about what he was saying.

I moved my eyes over to Hugo and back to Mason, "I didn't know you'd be here Mason." I snap, "And if you don't me anymore, how come your friend here knows so much?"

Mason takes a step forward so he towers over my slim 5ft 6 frame.

"I think you asked enough questions when we were kids don't you? Call me paranoid but I don't feel like answering any more of them. No one could predict what you'll do with the answers."

The venom dripping from his voice scolds me and his words hit me like a truck. I swallow down the bile that had risen up in my throat and try to regulate my breathing as I look down at the floor in a pathetic attempt to hide from him. 

He knows. That one statement tells me he knows he had to leave Wrendale because of me.

Mason catches me swallow and smirks triumphantly, sensing he's rattled me.

"You've had your five minutes of fame Lexi" He spat my name and it drew more attention towards us. "Now if I'm not mistaken, I told you to get. out."

I register that someone turned the music down as the entire room watches our exchange but I can't get my brain to work or my feet to move. I'm frozen in the knowledge he knows what I did even if he doesn't understand why.

"She's here with me Mason. Stop being an asshole to the girl on her first day." Sophia defended me.

"Stay out of it Sophia" Sebastian muttered and she did not take kindly to it, pushing him off her and going to stand with Lia who had previously been dancing before she noticed the scene. I turned my head to look at them, my body language screaming for someone to tell me what I was supposed to do. Sam was stood with them behind Kate and he was looking at me with dare I say pity?

"I can see the wheels turning in your head Lexi" Mason chuckles calling my attention back to him, "You're wondering who knows, what did I tell them, if I did tell them something then how much of it was about you... you're drowning in your own head Annika."

I freeze at the use of his old nickname for me and my eyes flash back to his, no doubt giving way that I feel like a hole was just punched through my chest with how he used it to taunt me.

Mason suddenly points to my face, "That look. That look right there." He grins and not in a kind way, "I'm going to enjoy seeing that look as I pull the rug out from underneath you over and over."

I open my mouth but no words come.

Mason laughs and Hugo sniggers, "You really should've stayed at home Lexi." He leant down and whispered in my ear so only I could hear, "but I promise it won't take you long to be running back. Now for the final time, get out of my house before I drag you out like I know you remember they dragged me away."

He leaned back and an emotionless mask fell into place as my heart fell into my feet, "Go."

I can feel every pair of eyes in the room burning into my skin, waiting for my reaction but my roommates make the decision for me. Kate loops her arm around my waist as Lia grasps my left hand in hers. I don't even have the energy to push them off me as my body screams at their touch.

Sophia steps in front of me and levels Mason with a glare that makes the freshman stood near cower away from the stand-off.

"You're a prick Mason. I don't care what happened when you guys were younger, fuck you for doing this in front of an audience and ganging up on her with Hugo. If anyone's a coward you are." She seethed and she turned to look at me, "Let's go home"

I vaguely recognised that I was being pulled from the room as Seb tried to reason with Sophia to stay.

"If she goes, we go Seb." she snapped.

I stop and take a deep breath, coming to terms with the fact that I do deserve Mason's anger. But this much? In his mind I betrayed him and that's all that happened... but to me? I just wanted one of us to be safe.

"Mason" I call out as I turn to face him across the room, my voice steadier than I feel. Silence descends on the room once again with the exception of low volume house music still playing.

"She speaks" he mocks.

"Yeah she does" I snap before collecting myself again before I lose my nerve, "I figure we both know what I did and well now everyone here knows you have an axe to grind with me" I gesture around the room with outspread arms. "Clearly you've fabricated some elaborate evil plan that 13 year old me created to ruin your life but honestly I never thought it through as much as you're giving me credit for" I let out a breathy chuckle before continuing, "I thought I was doing the right thing and...." Breath Lexi ".... and I'm sorry if I caused you to suffer. I never wanted that."

I didn't lie to him then. I didn't tell him everything, not by a long shot, but I didn't lie. Maybe that's still wrong of me, to hide from him. But I can't let him find out exactly what happened, especially now I know he holds a severe grudge against me. He'd use what I'd tell him and set the life I had, a life that was held together by my sheer will, on fire, leaving me to burn with it. I couldn't let that happen. Not for my sake. I gave up hope for myself a long time ago... but for my sister. 

A scowl is still set across his features as I turn on my heels and leave the house out the front door before he can reply. The cold September air surrounds me and mixed with the adrenaline coursing through my veins it shocks my body back to life and tears I didn't realise I had been holding back began to fall over my cheeks.

"Are you ok?" Kate says timidly as she comes up beside me. I jump at the sound of her voice but relax when I see her worried expression. No need to make myself more of a freakshow than I already am.

"Yeah I'm fine" I drag my hands under my eyes to brush the tears away and give her a tight smile.

"You're not. What happened in there was-"

"Mortifying" I chuckled sadly.

"More so on his part I think. From what I've heard Mason's been a dick since he stepped foot on this campus and that seems to be the only body part he makes use of. He lacks the brain cells clearly to see that whatever happened to you both is hurting you too."

"Oh I think he knows." I scoff, "He just doesn't care." 

"I told you hockey players are pricks" Lia huffed as she walked out of the house with Sophia.

"I never said you were wrong Lia" she replied.

"Thank you for sticking up for me in there Soph. I don't deserve it and I'm sorry if I've caused problems between you and Seb. God knows I tend to say or do the wrong thing at every opportunity and I didn't mean for my mistakes to affect you"

"You've got nothing to be sorry for Lexi and yes you do deserve to have people protect you. Seb and I will be fine. I just have to remind him occasionally that not all his friends are good people and he shouldn't stand up for them." She smiled at me as she took my hand in hers, "Let's go home before Jennings decides to be even more of an arrogant ass."

We all chuckled and made our way down the path, away from the house. Having these friends and as Sophia put it I guess having people to protect me felt foreign and terrifying. I'm used to not relying on anyone and although she means well, I know I still only have myself to truly count on.

A lot had changed for me in the six years since I last saw Mason, more than he could ever imagine - but he's clearly not the boy I used to skate on a frozen lake with everyday after school and after that little show I'm not naïve enough to fool myself into believing he'd care if he knew about my life since we last spoke. I have to accept that and the fact he'll no doubt endeavour to make me suffer even more at his hands before my time at Bridewell is over. 

Silly me for thinking coming here could be a new chapter in my tragic little story. 

~~~~~

Author's Note

Oh if you only knew what's to come......

There will be more flashbacks and I will delve into their backstories over the next few chapters so look out for TWs!

I hope you're enjoying!!

Next chapter = MASON'S POV!!!

Twitter: bookgirl03 - tell me what you think!