My Love - Mason Thames

Chapter 15- Let me help you

After a minute someone walks in, I look up and see Mason standing there

"Hey Mase. What's up?" I ask looking back at my phone

"I don't know, just wanted to know if you needed help. You seemed kinda stressed when everyone was saying what they wanted." Mason explained walking over to me

"I'm fine. we just can't order from 8 different places" I say with a breathy laugh

"Cassie, don't lie to me. I know that you say you're fine and that if you're not then you'll come to me. I get that, but the way you were just a minute ago was different from any other time I have seen you." Mason says turning me to face him. I still look down at my phone not wanting to look at him. He puts his hand under my chin and lifts my face up so I have to look at him. "Please let me help you Cass. I've let you lie to me for so long, but you can't lie to me this time. I know something's not right." He says softly, as if he raises his voice I'll shatter. I have to bite the inside of my cheek to not break down

"But you have to promise not to change anything" I tell him and he nods his head, "When I was 5 I was diagnosed with SPD or a Sensory Processing Disorder. That means that my brain doesn't know how to deal with all the sensory input that it's receiving." I try to explain, he looks at me confused, but like he wants to understand. I take a step back and take a seat on the counter. "So you know when you touch cornstarch and rub your fingers together it feels weird but tolerable?" He nods "Yeah so my brain can't match it to anything that it knows. So my brain will over stimulate trying to figure it out and it will start to turn off other parts of my brain. So those parts are kinda like when you sleep. It happens often when I am around loud noises, new textures, weird textures, weird foods, or with people touching me, it causes me to shut down. But because of my life and job I can't just shut down, so instead I just tell everyone I'm fine." I explain putting my head down and getting quiet at the end

"Hey Cass, why didn't you tell me about this before? You know I would have helped you." Mason asks putting his hands on my knees

"Because if I tell someone about it then it means it's real and that something is wrong with me. And when something is wrong with you then people treat you differently." I say softly. Mason gently lifts my chin again

"Hey Cass, I don't think anything is wrong with you. It's just another thing that makes you even more special than you already are. And please tell me if anytime I touch you or anything, if you can't handle it I'll stop. Cassie I'm so so sorry that you felt the need to hide this from me or anyone else, please understand that if anything is wrong at all you have a room full of people that will help you fix it. Okay?" I couldn't look at him in fear that I might start crying "Oh, Cass please don't cry" He said hugging me. I pull away, quickly dry my tears, and look at him

"Thanks Mason, that means a lot" I say hugging him 

"And I meant every word of it" He whispers in my ear. We sit there for a good minute or two before Mason pulls away "Are you good now?" He asks

"Yeah, and we should probably figure out what we're gonna order for dinner before everyone gets too hungry" I say giggling at the end

"Good idea, why don't we just get something easy like uhhh.. pizza or a Chick-fil-a platter or something" He suggests

"Yeah. Can you go give everyone those options then come tell me?" I ask sweetly

"Of course. Be right back" he says then runs out of the kitchen. A minute later he comes back "It was close to half and half so they decided that we can get pizza tonight, then Brady said we can all stay the night and in the morning we can get Chick-fil-a breakfast." he said walking back over to me putting his hands back on my legs standing in between them. I pull up the Pizza Hut app

"Do you know what kind of Pizza everyone likes?" I ask looking at him

"Just get like 3 large pizzas probably cheese, pepperoni, and probably supreme" Mason suggests

"Ok" I look back down at my phone and start ordering. When I'm done the app tells us how long it will be "We have about 20 minutes till the delivery person gets here." I inform Mason

"Sounds good. You wanna go join everyone?" He asks. The real answer is in a few minutes but I don't really feel like explaining why

"Sure" I reply I try to get off the counter but Mason doesn't move

"If you don't want to we don't have to right now" He tells me

"Can we stay in here for a few more minutes?" I ask

"Of course we can. Is something wrong?" He asks 

"No" I tell him pulling him in for a hug "I just want a hug right now" 

"That's perfectly fine with me" He says quietly in my ear causing me to giggle, he then buries his head in my neck. After about a minute we pull apart "You ready to go now?" He asks. I nod and hop off the counter, I walk a few steps ahead of him and walk into the living room where everyone else is. They all look up

"The pizza will be here in about 20 minutes and I ordered three large's one cheese, one pepperoni, and one supreme, I hope that's ok with everyone." I tell them walking over to a couch and throwing myself on it. I look at Becca and she gives me a look saying 'I know something happened' I just smirk at her

"CASSIE!" She yells and everyone looks at her "Maddy and I need to talk to you" she finishes much calmer this time

"We do?" Maddy clarifies 

"Yes, we do" Becca says grabbing me and Maddy pulling us into the spare bedroom we were in earlier. All the guys giving us confused looks

"Why do we need to talk?" Maddy asks once Becca closed and locked the door

"Cause something happened between Mason and Cassie in the kitchen. Didn't it Cassie?" She asks looking at me

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Ok so a little background for this chapter: Cassie has a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), I have one and I explained it with a mix of my experience and the medical description. I had Mason say something that I wish someone would have said to me.