Chapter Text
Mason doesn’t know exactly what attracts him to Jane. But she’s nice and extremely talented, and they sound amazing together, so he decides to go for it.
It’s funny, though. Despite being one of the most popular people in school, in a position of power most people his age would kill for, he doesn’t have all that much experience with women.
Actually, he has virtually no experience at all.
Sure, he’s gone on a couple dates, but he’s never had a serious girlfriend. It just never seemed like something he’d want. He had enough in his life: performing, cheer, his family. He didn’t need some sort of ridiculous romantic entanglement.
For a while, he thought (and, actually, was completely terrified) that he might be gay. But he tried going on “not-dates” with other guys, too. And that interested him even less than the few women who had managed to, however temporarily, drag him away from his busy life.
Lately, Madison has been teasing him non-stop about his lack of a love life, and, as much as he loves his sister, he doesn’t think he can stand her attempts at embarrassing him any longer. Besides, he’d made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t just be that weird guy who was best friends with his sister. He was determined to “put himself out there,” as they said, a bit more.
So, when he sees Jane in the hall, hauling a mountain of books to her next class, he runs up to her and offers to carry them for her (I’m an athlete, remember?).
And when she says, “Thank you,” he immediately responds with, “Well, you can make it up to me by going to dinner with me on Saturday,” which he thinks is very smooth, but, judging by the way she looks at him, may actually not be. Luckily, after a few seconds of mildly-shocked silence, she laughs and says she’d love to.
Score one for Mason McCarthy.
As Madison grudgingly makes her way to History (she’s never understand why Mason loved this damned subject so much), she feels a slight vibration in her right pocket. When she sees that it’s a text from her twin, she can’t help but grin from ear to ear. Conversations with Mason never failed to make her happy. He had been her closest friend since infancy, after all.
When she opens it, all it says is, “You can stop teasing me about my lack of a love life, now. :)” She feels a grin playing at the corners of her mouth.
Finally. It’s about time.
Her brother deserved someone. He was pretty great. And the fact that some other girl had realized that was pretty great, too.
She always wondered why he never bothered with girls much. She knew him well enough to know it wasn’t because he was gay. And she didn’t think he was asexual, either. (Asexual people didn’t make the kinds of comments he made about Sutton Foster.) But, thinking back on it, she realized that she’d never had much of a romantic life, either. Sure, lots of guys had asked her out, but most of them had only wanted her for her status or because they thought she was hot. And, to be completely honest, she’s never really seen the big deal about relationships. She had enough things to worry about.
Like her History test that started in five minutes.
But, deep curiosity caused her to text Mason back, “Oh, really? Do I know her? Can I stalk her on Facebook? Or are you just making this up so I’ll shut up? ;)”
Almost immediately, he sends back, “Jane.”
Somehow, the thought of her brother being successful in love wasn’t as much of a cause to rejoice as she originally thought...
She supposed she didn’t really know Jane all that well. She had no reason to distrust the girl. But, somehow, she did.
As upbeat and all-loving as her brother seemed, she knew there was a distinctive sense of fragility buried somewhere in there.
Her brother didn’t deserve to have his heart broken. And maybe Jane seemed nice, but, the fact of the matter was that neither of them knew her well enough to know whether or not she’d treat her brother the way he deserved to be treated in a relationship. Or how she’d fit in with their family, or how she’d mesh with Madison, because if she didn’t have much in common with Madison, she knew that’d drive a wedge between all three of them, and that was the last thing she wanted.
But she resolved to stay positive and give her the benefit of the doubt, so she replies, “Cool!” before stepping into her test in Doomsday 101.
Saturday rolls around, and Jane texts Mason saying she has a stomach bug and probably shouldn’t be around people right now.
Mason feels a little upset, but it’s not like it’s devastating or anything. He really doesn’t know her that well, yet. And it’s not like she’s ditching him. She sent him a Snapchat. She didn’t look so great.
Madison, meanwhile, asks him why he’s still at home when he should be out having wild, kinky sex with his new girlfriend (it’s not a weird comment-they’ve always been close like that), and he replies, “She’s not my girlfriend, yet. And shut up.”
Madison turns to go to the kitchen, presumably to make herself a turkey sandwich, when she suddenly turns around and says, “This means we can finally catch up on Mad Men!!”
Gee, way to feel bad for him missing a date with the most promising girl in years.
But if she thinks her eagerness to take advantage of his datelessness is crossing the line, she doesn’t show it.
They’re seated on the couch, and they’ve been at this marathon for about ten hours.
Madison can’t help but feel a little bit happy that Jane had had to cancel her date with Mason. She’d been dying to catch up on her favorite show for ages, and, since it was Mason’s favorite show, too, she wouldn’t dream of watching the latest episodes without him.
Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Jane being as into this as they were. They’d always had TV shows that they’d “adopted.” Programs that they both found interesting that they always watched with each other and only each other. It was their thing.
Madison couldn’t help wondering if their thing would have to include Jane, now, if her relationship with Mason panned out. Or if their thing would become Mason and Jane’s thing.
Madison didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but she saw how other people got when they were in relationships. Ever since Ms. Berry and Coach Evans had been (...seeing each other? she wasn’t really sure), they’d been entirely wrapped up in themselves. Same with Mr. Hummel and the coach of the Dalton Academy Warblers. And almost every other acquaintance she’d met had relegated her to third-wheel status, if that, once he or she started dating someone. It wasn’t like she’d had all that much experience, but she figured that was just what happened when people started getting into relationships.
But she was particularly attached to Mad Men, so she was, at the very least, pleased that she could finish this show up with her brother before he potentially abandoned her for a girl neither of them knew very well.
So, she leans her head on his shoulder and tries to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.
Monday rolls around, and Jane has recovered. Not enough to be completely her usual self, but enough to be at school and talk to Mason in coherent sentences, which is good enough for him.
They both arrive early to Glee club, and she apologizes for missing their date, and that, if he wanted, Breadstix would be on her, Friday night as a way to make up for it.
Mason manages to somehow root through the pleasant fog in his brain to reply shyly, “I like a girl who can take matters into her own hands.” Jane looks down in a manner that might be described as adorable, subtly basking in the glow of his compliment.
Score two for Mason.
Jane glances behind him and nods a greeting, and, as he turns to see who it is, he spots Madison standing in the doorway. All of a sudden, he feels unbearably awkward. Their whole lives, it had pretty much been the two of them, and now, he has something with Jane that was completely separate from his relationship with his twin.
“-take charge all the time. You’re going to have to put in some sort of responsibility if you want this relationship to work.”
...Aaaannnd, he’d just missed what she was saying because he was thinking about something else entirely.
Back to score one for Mason
He can infer from context, though, and he’s about to retort how this whole date was his idea anyway and how he’s plenty responsible, especially where an exceptionally pretty and talented girl is concerned, but he feels Madison’s eyes on the back of his head, and he just, somehow, can’t. He feels like he can’t share that intimate of a moment, even if it’s just harmless flirting, with someone else in front of his sister. He feels almost like his privacy is being invaded, even though she’s standing at the door about eight feet behind him, relatively removed from the situation in question. And sharing something so personal with someone else in front of his best friend just seems...wrong.
So he stutters, leaving Jane to smirk at him, thinking she’s gotten the upper hand in this round, before she steps outside to take a drink of water.
Make that score one-half for Mason.
He locks eyes with Madison and feels some sort of weird, nervous feeling begin to curl somewhere deep in his stomach.
“Sorry,” she murmurs, although she doesn’t look as sorry as he expects her to be.
“That’s all right. There was no way you knew she’d be here.”
“Yeah...So, Friday? Does this mean I’ll have to find something to do all by myself, then?” She gave him a teasing smile.
And suddenly, he felt extremely guilty. The thought of her being alone on a weekend, especially one where they were fortunate enough not to have cheer practice beforehand-Sue was leaving for some spa vacation she had given herself as a three-quarters-birthday present (not birthday, or half-birthday, three-quarters-birthday)- made him feel inexplicably upset. He didn’t get it. Like, at all. She didn’t look upset. And it was perfectly within his right to go on one date.
But he finds himself apologizing profusely, and Madison smiles warmly and says, though she’s touched he’s thinking of her, it’s one date, before giving him a quick squeeze of his hand and excusing herself to go to the bathroom.
Score one for Madison.
God, she’s embarrassed. Interrupting a moment between her brother and Jane. And she supposed she should have left, but, for some reason, she stayed completely glued to her spot by the door, unable to look away.
And when Jane mentions “Friday,” she tries not to dwell on the fact that that was when she’d been planning on teaching Mason how to bake chocolate croissants (hey, the ones at the local bakery were expensive!!).
...But she gets mad, anyway. At least, internally. It’s not like there were that many people that she was truly close to. It’s not like she’d ever really wanted to be close to anyone. She’d always had Mason. And it’s not like she had anything else to do.
But, ever the positive McCarthy twin, she finds herself automatically telling him it’s fine, not finding it in her to actually get mad at him.
She just decides she’ll invite Spencer over to watch ESPN. The guy could use some friends.
The next day, Madison spies Mason and Jane walking in together, laughing over some likely cheesy joke that they both found funny.
That hurt a little.
Okay, a lot. How many more private jokes was he going to have with Jane? Just how much of his life wouldn’t include her anymore if and when they started going out?
She doesn’t know why she feels the need to loudly broadcast to Spencer that she wants to hang out with him on Friday (“because, after all, it’s not like anyone else is going to be around”). Spencer looks kind of confused, but seeing as she offered to buy hot wings and he never really could resist anything sports related, he agrees to come over.
If Mason wants to make everything about Jane, then I’m just going to have to prove that I can have fun without him.
Her twin blanches a little bit, looking a bit guilty.
That’s right. I can have a life, too.
Maybe she’s being a bit too harsh. But she might be losing the person she loves more than anyone else in the world to a girl who might not even be worth his time. She’s allowed to make him feel a little guilty about that.
And judging by the way he avoids looking at her for the rest of rehearsal, she obviously did just that.