⌗ 62; third person ✎ᝰ

Mason hovered over Mara's packed bags. The latter had walked out for some fresh air following their talk that morning. Riley stands behind her; at a distance that gives the latter enough breathing space to gather her thoughts.

"I feel awful." Mason dropped down to her knees. Her heart had ached endlessly since the last kiss she shared with her best friend.

' You just weren't mine to lose.' Mara's words play endlessly through Mason's mind. There is little to nothing that she could do to reverse this sadness. Six words that cut deep within her soul like a stake to the heart; inevitably bleeding.

Riley felt her heart burn with the kind of feeling that engulfs you—like a building caught in a fire. She takes a step forward, careful not to startle the other as she placed a hand on Mason's shoulder.

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen." Tears run endlessly down Mason's face as she clutches a fist over her chest. "This is all my fault."

Riley shook her head. "It's not." She wasn't sure if she'd be reassuring in any way, but she still tried nonetheless. She'd try several times over just to comfort the girl; she meant that much to her and more. Denying it was no use. Riley had never not loved Mason. To see her weak and fragile like this pained her. " I need you to know that, Maisie."

Mason froze. Riley had that impact on her. It could never fade away nor cease to exist; that's just how it is. The name felt like comfort to her. Mason felt a little more at ease. "But it is..."

Riley knelt down beside Mason. "I don't know if you'd believe me or not. But it'll be worth a try..." The other girl turns to face her. "When you went to sleep last night...Mara asked to talk to me." She watched as Mason's eyes widened.

Mason wiped her tears with the back of her palm. "I know." She breathed. "I don't know what about but Mara told me that she finally understood it."

Riley tilted her head slightly. "Understood what?"

The room falls quiet for a mere moment as Mason fixes herself into a more comfortable position. "She understands how I feel." She sits with her knees pressed against her chest. "For you." Riley felt the air leave her lungs for a mere moment. "I think it's always been obvious," Mason chuckled lightly. "And to her most especially. I think she knew deep down where my heart really lied despite how I felt for Mara too. And I want you to know that I'm sorry..." She feels her heart skip several beats as Riley stares into her eyes.

"What are you apologising for?" Riley knew what. Part of her felt curious as to what the latter had to say. "There's no reason for you to be."

Mason shook her head firmly. "I have to. How could I be in love with you despite everything that happened and have feelings for someone else? Don't you feel upset knowing that? Does it not hurt hearing that? And coming from me..."

Riley chuckled softly. "Mara tried to apologise to me for the exact same thing. Truthfully, I'll have to give you the same answer I gave her."

Mason cocked her brow. "What answer?" She sniffled. "Should I be scared?" Her voice soft.

Riley chuckled once more. "No, you don't have to be." She smiled warmly. "I'll be honest when I say that my feelings for you haven't changed. You'd think I'd cut myself some slack and change my mind after you walked out on me." Mason felt another tear roll down her cheek. Guilt was slowly creeping up on her once again. "But that day only proved to me further that there's quite literally nothing you could do to make me stop loving you, Maisie. And in saying that...I still love you regardless of the fact that you fell for your best friend. I don't care. And I don't care if you still do. You can't just turn them off or throw them away. Nothing is ever easy like that...even if we really want them to be."

Mason was startled at how calm Riley had been. She knew full well that the girl was incapable of holding a grudge or a feeling of resentment, but this reaction had struck her nonetheless.

She bit down on her lower lip. "I think you're being a bit too kind to me, Marsh."

Riley laughed. How she missed so terribly the way her name sounded when Mason called her. She couldn't help but feel a small smile form on her own lips. "Isn't that what we're meant to be doing? To treat people with kindness?"

Mason nodded firmly. "Yes. But I literally just admitted the fact that I have feelings for my best friend...all while being in love with you."

"I heard you the first time, Maisie." Riley chuckled. "I could see the way you look at her. It felt like hell at first. That I won't deny. You can't help but feel even the slightest bit of jealousy when you see the person you love look at another that way. I'll admit that wholeheartedly. I felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs when I saw you two act that way at the airport or even last night at the dining table. But when I sat down with Mara, her words stuck to me. I couldn't help but rethink everything when I got to bed. It helped me realise that how you feel is absolutely understandable, and hers too..."

Mason swallowed the dryness in her throat. "Nothing about you has changed, Marsh. You're still as selfless as ever. I don't know what to say.."

Riley shrugged her shoulders. "She took care of you, Maisie. Not only that but you two spent countless hours and even days with each other. You were both broken. I believe that having each other in those times helped you guys heal in some way. You formed a deeper and more intimate connection. And for that I can't blame you. After all, you still feel the same for me, right?"

Mason nodded. "I don't have it in me to stop loving you, Riley. Mara and I both knew that. Despite the fact that she still loved Mavis and I loved you...we just couldn't stop ourselves from feeling the way that we did and—"

Riley put a hand on Mason's knee. "Maisie. You don't have to explain yourself. I really do get it and you may not even believe me but—"

"I do though. I do believe you." Mason answered.

"Then you have my answer. Maisie. Fate works in the most ridiculous ways. And maybe this was just part of it all. It may have been ridiculous and painful but it's a lesson we ought to learn from."

Fate. "I didn't think of that before." Mason answered. It seemed like fate played a much larger role than Mason thought.

"I believe that if it's meant for you...it'll find you again. Regardless of time or place. Maybe even the person." Riley added. "It's similar to the concept of the invisible string; tying two people together who in turn will find their way to each other. It doesn't matter when or where. It doesn't even matter if you find yourself tangled in it. In the end, you'll always end up with the person you're tied to. That string will never break."

Mason finds herself swimming in this entirely new perspective that Riley had laid out before her. Riley is intelligent and empathetic. She's congenial and above all...

Riley Marsh is benevolent.

"I think that we managed to find ourselves again." She added. "It felt like the world had turned against me that day. I couldn't ever put into words the kind of hurt I went through. Seeing you go was something I'd never want to go through again." Mason couldn't help but lower her head and sob into the palms of her hands. "But I can't help but think now that after everything that happened between us...we still found our way to each other. Our invisible string grew the longer we fared apart. It definitely tangled. But it never broke. So even if you found yourself falling for someone else, I can't ever blame you for going through something you had no control over. We're here at the end of the day."

Riley presses her palm against the side of Mason's cheek and rubs her thumb against it gently. There's a warm smile that forms across her lips as Mason lifts her head up little by little.

You can't help but feel that feeling for that someone you find yourselves tied to. That's where they both stood. The heart will never lie.

"We're all meant to love different people in our life time, Maisie. If it ever so happened to be that Mara was one of them...cherish that deeply. I know how much she loves you." Her voice gentle. "I think that the one thing Mara and I have in common is that we both know how it feels to be loved by you. How it feels to be in love with you. Gosh, it's a magical feeling." Riley smiled. "I can't blame her for loving you too. After all...a girl like you deserves to be loved by everyone."

Mason sinks into her warm touch and smiles warmly. She never thought to have been returned to this feeling of warmth. Her warmth in particular. And her heart swelled with the kind of happiness that she had not felt in so long.

But Mason could not keep that feeling alive for any longer than it had been. For she felt an all consuming guilt wash over her like downpour.

Behind those four walls stood her best friend; hidden, but there. Mason could feel a heaviness in her chest as she sunk deeper into Riley's warmth. She wished so deeply that she could mend the broken heart that stood behind those walls. She loved both of them so deeply,

and she felt her body ache at the thought of it. The thought of only ever being able to love one of them in this lifetime; in the way she can't love the other just the same.

A pressing thought swims in the deepest darkest parts of her mind. Who would Mason be tied to within her next life? Would fate be kinder?

All she could ever want is happiness. And happiness sits in that room right with her. But what could she give up to bring happiness to the one that stands between the thin white walls that separate them. Fate is just as much destiny as it is doom. If two people can't stay away from each other, perhaps they are never meant to be apart.

And for the first time in what seems like forever, she finds herself in the arms of Riley Marsh. The warmth takes over as they feel their wraps wrap around each other for the first time in so long.

Mason cries into the crook of Riley's neck and parts her lips slowly. "I missed you so much."

A small smile forms before Riley speaks. "I missed you too. More than you could ever know."

And while their souls intertwine,

Mara knew.

She felt it creep against her skin.

The one that got away.

The one that wasn't hers to lose.

And for the millionth time,

her heart breaks and her soul empties.

Without having to see, or know, or have heard,

Kim Mara knew she had lost to the hands of the inevitable fate. If Riley and Mason were tied by the invisible string of fate,

then what she had was far worse.

The barbed wire that ties around her finger slips away, revealing the crimson that drips down the sides of her and creates a pool around her feet.

'If you don't decide on your story. Fate has no choice but to.' — Ava Alexis