Landed with Ash duty again?

I mean, it's fine, I like the kid. He's sweet, and he thinks I'm cool — but that isn't hard, six-year-olds think any teenager who pays attention to them is cool — and it's not like any other guys at the club are gonna hang out with me anyway. So I let him rave to me about his Sonic games and his Pokémon cards, and I don't mind. But still, getting stuck babysitting every single time Mason has to bring his brother to the club can get a bit tiring. Especially when I was really hoping to actually talk to Mason tonight. But no, he brought Ash, and he had a girl in tow so there was no chance of anyone talking to him tonight unless it was Mixer.

I sighed, nodding along to whatever Ash was talking about, but I hadn't really been paying attention. I had found myself looking at Mason's newest girl. She was pretty — all the guys were ogling her like she was plated with gold or something. I wondered if it was Rachel, or some other girl Mason had picked up this evening.

"Are you listening?" Ash asked in exasperation, prodding my arm.

"Ouch!" I said, turning my attention back to Ash. "Yeah, yeah, your gameboy broke...right?"

"But it didn't really break," Ash said, as if he had already explained this to me. "I just thought it did when Mason pushed me yesterday."

I frowned. "Mason pushed you?"

Ash almost said more, and then stopped. He shook his head. "No. He didn't."

"Did he or didn't he?"

"I'm not supposed to say..." Ash looked like he really wanted to say.

I looked sympathetic. "You can say to me. I won't tell anyone, promise."

The kid seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Well, he pushed me down some steps and I fell onto the concrete and it really hurt, but he said if I told anyone then he would hurt me more. It still really hurts, but Mason says I should stop being a pussy about it."

"Oh," I said. "That's not good."

I looked over at Mason. There was no denying he was a scary guy. I mean, part of the reason I always agreed to look after Ash is because I wouldn't dare say no to him, because he was so scary. ...Also because he was cool and I wanted to impress him. He was different from the other guys at the club. He was nice to me — or actually, maybe it's just that he payed attention to me sometimes. 

Oh man, was I really that pathetic? Mason payed attention to me, so I thought he was cool. Much like Ash was with me — much like a six-year-old. Was I really as easily impressed as a six-year-old?

No, but it was different, anyway. It was more than that. Without him, I never would have been a Tusker. Without him, I could have died.

Mason was definitely an interesting guy. I knew he wasn't the greatest brother to Ash — this much the kid told me — but, was that really his fault? I mean, he was always dumped with his kid brother by his parents, as if it was his responsibility to take care of their child. I sympathised with his frustration. And despite the stories Ash told me about Mason, Mason had always been sort of...protective of me. Ever since he had rescued me from that nasty run-in with the Cigs and I had become a Tusker, I had felt that he had kept an eye out for me to make sure I didn't get into more trouble. So really, I did believe that despite how he treated Ash, he had to be a good person, deep down. His tough exterior was just a facade so that all the guys at the club took him seriously.

I must have been staring, because Mason caught my eye and frowned before looking away again. I hastily diverted my attention back to Ash, who had begun rambling about his favourite Sonic level. But then, even if Mason was just a good person in a difficult situation, did that really justify his treatment of Ash? The kid was too young to know if he was doing anything wrong. It wasn't his fault that his parents always shifted the responsibility of looking after him onto Mason. It definitely wasn't Ash's fault that he could barely walk and needed near constant care. 

But it also wasn't Mason's fault that he had to be responsible for Ash. I believed he would realise sooner or later how badly he was treating his brother, and would change his ways.

At least, I hoped that was true.