Untitled Document

Untitled Part Twelve - Anita

The towel slides down my head, leaving my hair shaggy-looking. Really, the only important thing is that it's fluffy later. 

I have never run faster in my life than I do to the showers after Jannett's Capture the Flag training. Lately it's the only part of the day I would look forward to if it didn't mean missing Mason's by-nightly yoga ritual. I haven't figured out yet how she manages to have energy for that after a full day of exercise.

Tonight however, I think I'm in luck. Mason is running late on her routine, still on the dock doing yoga in the sun's dying light.

I creep down the hill to the dock, it's been like this every night for me. I feel awful disturbing Maisy's flow so instead I approach her as quietly as possible. Any other night I wouldn't even step foot on the dock as it would throw off the dock's balance. Tonight however, she and I have unfinished business. Taking a deep breath I take my first step onto the floating boards of wood, they shift under my weight and Mason flinches when the dock moves, previously lost in thought. She laughs when she realizes it's only me and goes to carry on with her stretches.

"Am I so familiar I'm no longer worth even a measly 'hello'?"

Between her arms Mason's eyes meet mine and she beams at me, her face warming with the last of the sun. "Hello dear Anita." I turn my eyes to the sun so the golden rays cover the blush creeping over my cheeks, or that's the hope at least. Maybe it just illuminates the red.

When the temperature of my face returns back to normal I turn and grab Mason's waist, pulling her close to me. She gasps and her fingers curl around my hand, unsure what to do next I laugh and let go only for Mason to whirl on me and tackle me with a hug of her own. Was she uncomfortable?

"We have unfinished business." I mutter to her, taking hold of her hands in mine.

"Oh yeah?" Maisy lifts our arms above our heads and twirls.

"Yep. We were ever so rudely interrupted earlier."

Mason's shoulders tense. "Ah, yes. That."

Surprised, I laugh at her, "what do you mean 'that'? Did you forget?"

"I mean no, I'm just waiting in anticipation." She shrugs.

"Oh yeah?"

"Mhm." When Mason smiles my eyes fall to her lips and suddenly my explanation is almost as important. "What else would we do right now?"

"Well..." I trail off, questioning if this is the right thing to do.

"Well?"

"Well, what if I wanted to kiss you?" There's only a hint of a joke in my tone. "What would you do then?"

Mason grabs the collar of my pajama shirt and pulls me closer to her. Butterflies erupt in my stomach and I feel dizzy. "Well, then I would do this."

And before I have time to process anything I'm pushed over the side of the dock and into the lake. When I emerge I'm showered with another spray of water as Mason jumps in after me. She surfaces in front of me and wraps her arms around my neck, embracing me, still laughing a little.

"That was mean," she whispers. "Sorry."

"I mean it was pretty funny. You had me breathless for a moment."

"Heh," Mason pulls away and then I'm back to reality.

This isn't really real, this relationship, I'm forced to remind myself. It could be real, but it's not. It's not real. And I really do owe Mason an actual explanation.

"For real this time though-"

"Damn it!" Mason cuts me off in her realization, eyes gone wide. "I was supposed to be at the library to call my Dad!" She begins backing out of the water, leaving me alone. "Anita I'm sorry, really. We'll find time to talk about this another day."

Then without another word and not even looking back I wade in the water by myself. Defeated, and dirty once again, I dunk back under the water and try to clear my head.

~~~

"AGAIN!" Jannett shouts through the megaphone and the lines begin again.

Sprints.

The absolute bane of my existence.

After touching down on the starting line again, the second line follows us and soon enough everyone is running in unison, panting, sweating, tired, hot. Back and forth and back again. This exercise is the definition of one step forward and three steps back. It feels like progress is impossible and we'll be stuck running like this forever and ever. Someone put music on the speaker but it's only faintly audible through the pounding in my ears.

When my line reaches the end we collapse as one and cherish the cold grass, still damp from the morning dew. Mason lays just to the left of me, but I'm tentative to talk to her. I can't help but feel like I've royally messed up. And to think I thought things were actually going well for once. Maybe, I was starting to think, maybe she's starting to like me back. That would be too good to be true. I should know better than to think like that. Mason's an actress, she's simply doing what she's good at and the agreement was she would date me for the summer. Not any shorter, not any longer.

Before that time is up I need to tell her the truth. I need to tell her for real why I left, and I need to tell her I'm still scared of messing up with her. But we can't have any distractions, and right now Capture the Flag has consumed our lives.

"BURPEES! GO!" Jannett commands, we obey. As one we push up from the comfort of the cold grass and leap into the air, then fall back into the grass and repeat again.

At this rate I'll never have a chance to talk to Mason, it will have to wait until after the game. That's the last week of vacation, the end of our deal. Then there will be no distractions, we'll have no excuse but to come clean and maybe if my intuition is correct, then we won't have to make up some lie of a break-up and go back to being strangers. I can't let that happen.

Some things are not meant to be, but Maisy and I, we have chemistry. If all goes well we'll talk uninterrupted by Jannett, by phone calls, and we won't go our separate ways. We'll be Mason and Anita, together forever.

The sun beams down on my face, beads of sweat rolling down my forehead. Jaz tosses me a bottle of water that's gone in an instant. I'm uncertain this will work, but I need it to. This time, after everything, I know I won't have the strength to leave Mason again. She's so strong, so kind, so trusting. If she'd done what I did to her I would have turned her down in a heartbeat. I don't deserve her, but she's given me a second chance and I can't let her down.

So it's decided. After the game, I come clean to Mason. I'm going to tell her everything, and maybe... maybe, she'll feel the same.