Bonus Chapter—Mason

Two years later...

It was still fucking daytime, but with all the curtains closed and windows covered, the room looked dark. Not that I gave a damn what time it was outside, because I didn’t plan on leaving my home.

There was a part of me that was angry for locking myself in, and feeling sorry for myself. I still wouldn’t leave the house, though.

I didn’t have the courage to leave, after all. Not anymore.

“Fuck, this is boring,” I grumbled, drinking the last of my beer, then crushed the can and tossed it in my trashcan. The can went in, and I smirked, but it quickly dropped with a sigh as my eyes turned back to the TV. “If they’re gonna show this kind of play to people, they at least need better players.”

Like me, I thought, then cast that thought away, too. It was a dangerous thought to have for me recently, but sometimes, I couldn’t keep myself from wishing.

I was watching a football game, and it was already in its last quarter. I wasn’t on either side, but the team on the losing side was a fairly big name, so how weak their game was, kinda grated on me. I fucking loved football, always had, and I couldn’t play anymore. It might be an unfair assessment, but it felt like they were putting to waste the chance they had when I’d already lost mine.

If it had been me in there…

Such fanciful thoughts kept going through my mind, but they only hurt me more. Because no matter how much I still loved football, playing again was out of the question.

“More beer,” I murmured, looking over my shoulder toward the kitchen. I didn’t move, though, because the kitchen looked really far from where I was sitting. It wasn’t that far, my house was only fairly big, but I was too lazy to make that step.

It wasn’t as if it would hurt, not really. I just lost the will to do a lot of things ever since the accident, even small things like this. When I stopped to think around it, I had dropped so far below pathetic that it was sad, but then I forgot and did nothing about it because, to me, it didn’t feel like there was much point left in anything.

I was considering going to sleep, shifting in place when I froze.

Shit.

I gasped as I touched my side. I wasn’t really in pain; it was more like a phantom ache, something my doctor had told me was entirely due to my own mind than actual pain. Every time he told me, though, I wanted to curse him out because whether or not the pain was real, I fucking felt it.

“Maybe I should actually go to the hospital…”

Except, I really didn’t want to.

Ever since I had my hip replacement, I’d locked myself away from the outside world. It was my own self-imposed imprisonment, but I really didn’t have the will to face the world outside my home anymore. I hadn’t even been going to my physiotherapy appointments. It was probably a bad thing, but I didn’t care.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t walk as I was, the surgery had gone well, and I was doing just fine. The only problem came in when I tried to exert myself. I could walk, and I’d feel a pinch in my hip once ever several steps. I hadn't tried to run, but I didn’t think it would be possible to go for long distances or even a short distance.

Not that it mattered. I had nowhere to go. With modern convenience, if I wanted something, I could have it delivered to my doorstep, and it wasn’t as if I lacked funds even after the long hospital stay.

I could never go back to playing football again, too. The doctor had told me that point blank, so there wasn’t much point in trying so hard, was there? In the time since I’d left the hospital, I only ever moved from my bedroom to go to the living room to watch TV, to go to the kitchen for food and drinks, to the front door to pick up my deliveries, or the bathroom. I didn’t need to struggle through physiotherapy for who knew how long to be able to manage that much.

In all that time, I hadn't seen any of my friends, either. There were times when I wondered how Sebastian was doing since I hadn't seen him in such a long time, I thought I’d forget what he looked like. I had his number on my phone, sure, but so did he, and he knew where I lived, too. I wasn’t planning on calling him first, so I figured I’d be spending quite a bit of time by myself.

It would be a lie to say I didn’t mind. I wasn’t in the mood to see anyone, but how long had it been since I left the hospital? I had been alone in all that time, and I’d been a people person before. I had a feeling being alone was only making me even more depressed, but I didn’t feel like doing a thing about it, either. I had friends, and if none of them were going to reach out to me, in my current condition, I didn’t have the confidence to be the one to reach out to them.

“Now I really need that beer,” I grumbled to myself, leaning forward, bracing my hands on the couch to push myself up.

With a grunt, I rose to my feet. I stayed in place a little, but that was just because I’d been sitting too long. I’d moved to the couch with a six pack because I thought it would be enough for me. I’d been sitting since I woke up sometime mid-morning, and I hadn't moved much in the hours since then. My ass must have fallen asleep, because it ached a little, too, and I winced as I rubbed it and took a step.

I didn’t get far when I heard a ringing. I sighed heavily and stared at the phone on the stool a few steps away. It was the house phone, and this wasn’t the first time it rang. The doorman usually called me for every delivery I had brought up, and while it was annoying, he was only doing his job, so I never bothered about it.

Then, I frowned.

Wait…did I order anything?

The last order I made was yesterday, and my kitchen was already fully stocked. I had a bunch of microwave dinners in my fridge so I wouldn’t keep calling for taking out all the time. Not that frozen foods were any healthier, but then, I didn’t need to keep as fit as I did before.

With a sigh, I walked over, dragging my leg only a little bit, and picked up the call before it dropped. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t figure it out just thinking about it.

“Hello?” I said, bored. “What is it?”

“Sir, you have a visitor.”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what he meant. Visitor? I never got visitors. Even before I got injured, it was a pretty rare occurrence, so where did the visitor come from? Then it suddenly hit me that someone had come to see me, and my body froze.

“I’m sorry, did you just say visitor?” I said in disbelief.

“Yes, sir,” the doorman said. “She said she came to see you and I allowed her to come up to your apartment.”

No.

Dammit, he should have told me first. I was a little conflicted at the thought of someone finally coming to see me, but right then, I didn’t want to see anyone. I looked around at the room. I didn’t exactly clean, though I didn’t do a lot to make a mess. I could open up the windows and let in the waning light from outside, or I could leave them that way and turn on the lights…

No!

I snapped back to myself. I didn’t want to see anyone, as miserable as I was. I wouldn’t say I was ashamed to let anyone see me, but depending on who it was, I didn’t want them to see just how much I’d given up. I wasn’t the same Mason I had been just a few months ago. I was a completely different person.

One that wanted to be left alone, no matter how lonely it got.

“Tell them to—”

I was about to tell the doorman to tell whoever it was to fuck off when I heard my door open and turned. Not many people had a key to my apartment, but my closest friends had it. I realized I’d missed the part where the doorman said he’d allowed them up already. And on top of it, the person standing at my door was Sophia.

Slowly, I cut the call and put the phone down, staring at her.

Sophia.

She hadn't changed much from the last time I saw her. Still beautiful, still sexy. Our eyes met, and the look in hers was one of determination, though, and that was different. The last time I saw her, there had been devastation on her face and tears in her eyes.

Thinking back on it, my expression hardened, my surprise disappeared.

I’m sorry, Sophia. But even if it was her, I wasn’t in the mood to see her. Actually, I could say she was the last person in the world that I wanted to see at that moment. Especially after how we departed last time, she shouldn’t have wanted to see me, and yet here she was.

Her mouth opened to say something as she took a step forward, but even with a draggy leg, I was faster. I stood in front of her, blocking the way inside with my big body, and glared down at her.

“Sophia,” I said, my voice low and cold. “What are you doing here?”