it had been a long time. so long, in fact, mason wasn’t entirely sure he’d ever step foot near mulberry again. there were no promises in those emails — the messages themselves becoming rather far and few between as time passed. for quite some time, things weren’t looking good. however, that was then. this was now; for what seemed like the first time in his life, mason felt like he was back to somewhere he belonged. with both feet planted on his skateboard, he carelessly sped through the sidewalks in true mason fashion like he’d never even left. it was a few blocks back that he’d spotted her —norah— stumbling out of the pub and appearing less than sober. instead of intervening, he merely followed at a safe enough distance to be considered discrete. when the girl stopped, however, he made his oh-so valiant move to heroically swoop in.
“no, you’re right. i’ll give ya’ that,” mason played along, as if he were just any stranger handing her a water straight from his bag, “have a good time, didja?” then that there was pause, with mason all but anticipating the moment it would click and suddenly thrust the pair of them into a whirlwind. soon enough, it came. “ah, don’t call me that — just call me mason,” the male responded with a lazy shrug of his shoulders, unable to be serious even for a second. the circumstances were different, but not much had seemed to change between the pair of them. this image was almost a familiar one, with norah exasperated on some level while mason merely remained unwavering and persistent with a broad grin across his face. “what d’ya mean, why am i here? ‘cause i wanted to be…?” perhaps deep down, it wasn’t that simple. regardless, mason gave a single laugh in disbelief. “this is my home. and you’re part of that too, whether you wanna be or not — sorry ‘bout it. fight it all you want, i don’t make the rules.”
the sound of mason’s voice infuriated norah, but not as much as it would’ve maybe four months ago. “for your information, i had a terrible time. s’no fun to drink when you’re feeling lonely.” she waved her hand dismissively, feeling the slightest bit of bile creep up her throat. maybe it was the fact that she was kind of a lightweight, or maybe it had to do with the relief she felt knowing mason is alive and well and standing right there, even if he ticked her off just like before. she wasn’t used to missing someone so much, nor had she expected to keep in contact once she’d taken a break from mulberry living.
“gimme a break. you have a life. you have friends.” she paused, taking a long drink from the water bottle after much debate. even in her state, she knew it was probably wise to at least try and stay hydrated. “and, y’know, even if i did believe in fate, that’s not what this is. it doesn’t matter that i missed you, or that you’re gonna hold this over my head in the mornin’.” she stood, gesturing vaguely between the two of them, screwing the top back onto the water bottle. instead of letting her gaze run over him one more time (twice was enough), norah lunged forward and (poorly) smacked mason, pouting when she just barely grazed his arm with the bottle. he wasn’t actually doing anything harmful, so a small apology was mumbled shortly thereafter, and as she glanced back up at him, the world seemed to be spinning. “you should--um, you should go. i’ll find a cab or--i don’t know. sleep in the park.” with that, norah plopped her ass right back onto the curb, head in her hands. “i don’t want you to see me like this.”
