Take My Breath | Catnipz

fourteen

MASON sat absentmindedly at the kitchen island with a pen between her fingertips. The piece of paper pools with black ink across its blue lines.

Her mind is in a faraway place; along with her heart and soul; inevitably taken away with the one girl she longed for. She had forgotten the very purpose of today, with Riley sat patiently beside her with an open textbook and notes still spread across the marble as she silently studied.

"We can do this another day."

Riley starts to pack away her belongings. First her pens, then the loose leaf notes and all her extra materials that she had brought along with her.

"You seem really preoccupied." She chuckled.

Mason shook her head slightly and turned to the latter after merely escaping her dizziest daydreams. "Huh. What are you doing?" She questioned. "I thought we were gonna start the trial paper?" It sits blankly in front of her; untouched and covered in black smudges.

"I finished mine." Riley giggled. She quickly points to the ink filled sheets in front of her. The comparison between the two papers were hilarious to them. "I finished half an hour ago."

Mason rests her head against the palms of her hands. "I'm so sorry, Riley." She apologised with heavy sigh. "I don't know what's gotten over me. We were meant to work on this together. It's my job!" She exclaimed. She was too distracted.

The latter rubbed the small of Mason's back. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. It's not like you intended for this to happen." She uttered. "You have a lot on your plate right now. I'm not gonna be mad at you for having someone on your mind, Maisie. It's not easy to pretend like you're okay."

The room fell quiet for a brief moment. Mason couldn't fathom much of what was happening. This was, in all aspects, very unlike herself and how she normally acts around people. She hardly ever finds herself sitting absentmindedly or losing track of time visualising her dizziest daydreams.

But that's exactly what happened. And all of this was happening because of her; Mara Jace in all her glory. Mara Jace who sits in every corner and crevice of Mason's mind, body and soul.

"Still." Mason rests her head against Riley's right shoulder. "You came all this way for me to sit and daydream about some girl I fell in love with."

Riley intertwined their hands and squeezed. "You act like I live across the planet." She chuckled. "May I remind you that I live down the street. And no, she's not just some girl you fell in love with. There's reasons that led you to be."

Riley was right; Mara Jace wasn't just some girl. She just happened to be a girl that Mason would never have thought to have been romantically attracted to. But Mara Jace was just the kind of girl that anyone would be attracted to; Mason could not be blamed for the intensity of her crush. Her love. Her unreciprocated feelings.

Yet, she still hates herself for it. For at the end of the day, that 'some girl' happens to be her best friend. The best friend that is most likely sharing her warmth with another. The same warmth that Mason craves and misses in this exact moment.

"It would've been better if it were just some girl."

Mason could feel an oncoming headache from the left side of her cranium. The severity of the ache was mildly intense and otherwise concerning. The headache was thereby accompanied with a sharp feeling that brewed at the pit of her stomach, and even a shortness of breath that made it ten times more difficult to let out another word to say.

The latter caught on rather quickly and knit her brows together closely. "Maisie." She uttered. "What's wrong?" Mason shut her eyes closed and groaned loudly. "Hey, what happened?"