Not a Reunion

Chapter 24

Mason

I started to feel nervous around Thea again. I've always felt nervous around her after we got reunited again, but this was different. Now I was nervous that she was going to mention something that would put me on the spot.

A spot where I had gotten myself into. This was all really my fault, but I just couldn't bear to lay on the floor and wait for her to stop trashing in her sleep on her own. I don't think I could've been able to sleep through her whimpering. So this was a situation that I had put myself in, but it wasn't one that I regretted. I knew that I had done it for food reasons, but I'm not sure if Thea would see it that way.

After the both of us finish stretching, we start jogging. I think about how it would be for me to run faster than her and get away, but then it wouldn't make sense. The only reason that Thea was running with me was because she was scared to be out on her own. After being in New York for the last six years, her senses had been heightened by this subject. It would be easy for her to get assaulted on the streets all on her own.

This was her hometown; she had lived here all her life. But I guess it made sense why she was nervous.

I braved a look at her to find that she was matching my pace perfectly, her ponytail swaying perfectly with the movement. Her face was set straight in front of her, her eyes hard as she stared at her line of sight intently. I know that she had to be thinking about what she saw when she woke up this morning.

I swallow, and then she cuts her tongue at me, and it seems that my mouth dries with one look. She only says, "So what was that this morning?"

I think about how I want to answer. I want to think about how she asked the question. I tried to find the accusation in her voice or her facial expression, but I didn't find any. There isn't any sense of anger toward me either, so I decide to be honest.

"I woke up in the middle of the night hearing a noise," I start, glancing at her before setting my eyes straight across. "I knew it was from you. It came from inside the room. You were having a nightmare, so I waited for it to pass. But you kept whimpering, and then you did the worst thing you could do."

"What was it?" she asks, and I glance at her with a little frown.

"You screamed in your sleep," I say, and I find that the only thing she did was just duck her head. Did she know that she does that? Is she aware of the fact that her nightmares are so bad for her to react on the exterior? I don't question her, as I just say, "I made my way to you, and I didn't know what else to do but offer you my hand."

Then I clear my throat, avert my gaze, and I say, "And you took it."

And kept it for the whole night.

"Oh," Thea says, a flush appearing on her face, not from the exercise that we were doing. She huffs out a breath and keeps her eyes down as she says, "Well. I guess I should thank you then."

"Yeah," I say, and then shake my head. I turn my head toward her and say, "So, what's the nightmare about?"

That was the wrong thing to ask. I don't think any question would have been good for me to ask her in this situation. I don't think that I had any authority to wonder anything about her. I knew that she would shut me out and ignore it, and yet I still asked.

Yet, Mason Katz cannot seem to let the girl go.

Thea tugs on the base of her ponytail and then brings it in front of her, only to move it away. Then she says, "A lot of things." I don't say anything other than a nod. She sighs. The sound is breathless from the fact that we are running now. "The dream is all my emotions at once."