The Mask Effect (EDITING)

Chapter 17- We Do A Little Something And Turn Ourselves Around

Dedicated to @LanaJoKing for... well, everything. Amazing books. A sense of satire I shall never reach. But most of all, for proving that you don't need to have a title to have your own importance in the story!

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Noah's POV

There were reasons I didn't like falling off roofs- whether I was pushed, pulled, or just lost track of where the roof ended. No matter how you found yourself in the situation, there was always that moment of intense panic when all your thoughts turned into one long loop of Ahhhhh!

This was that moment.

It struck me that in the event that we all died, my last word was going to be one, completely meaningless syllable.

But we're not dying, my brain reasoned as it sank in that we weren't falling further or in mortal danger. As I eased out of panic, I began to realise other tiny details. It was important that I was falling- no, in suspension- with Madeline, right?

Just stuck upside down and holding on to each other for dear life.

I wondered if the building was protecting us from mortal embarrassment in our... situation. Please, building. Please conceal the fact that two teenagers are hanging upside down in midair, too close for anyone to be able to tell what we're doing from below.

Gravity had a firm hold on Madeline's hair and both of our t-shirts. We could either reach up and tuck them in- or stick it out and not fall the rest of the way down.

I preferred embarrassment over being flattened under vehicles.

Both of us were too close to each other, so close our noses could have touched. Her warm hands were underneath my own as they clung to me, as if she'd fall if she let go.

You're the one keeping both of you in the air, doofus!

The part of me that wasn't busy regretting my life decisions realised that I was going to have to figure out how I was going to explain the flying. Strange air currents?

"Um... Madeline..." My throat felt dry.

She turned to me, strangely calm- although we were upside down over a street, stuck hugging each other. "What?"

"You're doing a great job!" I said. "I didn't know you could fly!"

"Neither did I." She looked puzzled- probably wondering how she was keeping us aloft. "I can fly?"

"Well, we're not falling," I pointed out. It was technically true, right?

"That's great and all, but how do we - uh, how do we-" She made a twirling motion in the air.

Well, I'd only fallen off something stuck in the arms of a girl once- so I was as clueless as she was.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But we should figure it out before all the blood rushes to our heads."

"I have an idea, but it's not a good one," Madeline said nervously. "Is it weird that I have this secret fear that if we move, we're going to fall?"

"Trust me." It was impossible to get closer than we were, but we tuned out everything else anyway. "We won't fall."

"How do you know?" She looked down at the road before meeting my eyes. Her own eyes were like mirrored glass for the lights.

"Because," I replied. It seemed to be my cue to say something elegant, or meaningful, but all I could eloquently muster was, "I think we can do this."