⌗ 27
mason  ✎ᝰ
a week prior [to interludes]
_______________

A half empty suit case sits in the middle of my bed. There's clothes everywhere and my house is a lot noisier than usual. I push a pile of clothes to the side and I sit on the edge of the bed.

"I don't think we're gonna fit." I look around the room in disbelief. It hardly looks like my own anymore—it's been vandalised (with love).

Renz shoves a pile of clothes into my drawer. "Babe, we used to sleep on the same bed. We're gonna fit." She uttered, clearly out of breath as she tries to close the drawer shut.

"Yeah, when I was like five." I laughed. "I'm grown. Besides, we normally sleep on different when we sleep over nowadays." I stare at my King Single bed. It hardly fits myself, my two pillows and my family of stuffed animals. Luckily for me, that just means that Riley has to cuddle close whenever she comes over.

Meanwhile, Mika sits on my desk chair. She's been observing Renz like a hawk to its prey. "The fact that you're twenty three and have no clue how to store clothes away baffles me."

I can see Renz roll her eyes. "Right, well at least I have clothes. That's all that matters." The tall brunette continues to shove her mess of a pile into my organised drawers. "See...it fits!"

Mika stands from her chair. "You said that Riley lives close right?" She looks down at me with soft eyes. "Invite her over tonight. I think it'll be great to finally meet our baby's girlfriend."

Renz finally gives up and turns to face the two of us. "I've been excited since you told us you guys made it official." She clapped. "I need to hear that accent you keep swooning over."

I feel my cheeks burn up a little. "Yeah, her accent's pretty great." I laughed. I'm still quite in awe of it. I had no idea someone could sound like that—and to me, it's music to my ears.

"So you'll invite her over tonight?" Renz is jumping in her spot like a little kid expecting candy on the night of Halloween.

I nod. "Of course. But please, nothing weird." I look at them both, but truthfully, I only mean that towards Renz. She can be a handful sometimes. Florence has one too many embarrassing stories of me from when we were growing up that she could use to make fun of me.

Mika stands at the end of my bed and starts cleaning the mess that Renz had made. "It'll be just the three of us tonight." She explained. "Your Mum and Dad will be heading into the city for some business stuff. I don't believe that they have anything on the stove so I'll cook dinner."

A smile forms on my face. I can't believe this is happening. I can finally introduce Riley to my family. It's been a long time coming but now I'm here. It's all happening so fast.

I look down at my feet. "I'm feeling nervous..."

Renz tosses herself on the bed, earning a scowl from Mika. "No way my baby's feeling nervous!"

The older girl stares in disbelief as she watches Renz poke at the pile of clothes she began to fold neatly for the latter. "Why wouldn't she be nervous? You're here after all." She replied.

The brunette throws her lace bottoms at the older girl. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Mika takes the bottoms off her head and takes a deep breath. Had I not been here, who knows what these two would do between themselves. At the end of the day, it's just family banter.

There's a smile on my face that doesn't falter. "As the kid of the family it's very interesting to see you guys act like one." I laughed loudly.

Mika and Renz look at me with eyes wide. "I'm twenty six and a first year resident. I'm far from a kid, Kid." She ruffles my hair with her left hand.
Her right hand is used to pinch Renz's ear.

"Exactly," I grinned. "You're a twenty six year old first year resident acting like a kid because your cousin threw a pair of undies at you."

Renz releases herself from Mika's grasp and takes a deep sigh of relief. "On another note, where are we going tonight? Where do you and Riley normally go?" She asks me.

I shrug my shoulders. "We don't really go out," I admit. "We like staying indoors. Watch a movie, read a book, study...that's what we do."

The smile on Renz's face fades. "So you've never gone out to a restaurant or something? Do you guys enjoy that?" There's a hint of curiosity.

I nod. "Mm, we went to a restaurant last weekend. It was really nice. Though we still prefer being inside where we're familiar. It's just what we like. That's one of the things I love about us. We don't have to go out of our way to do things we don't want to do because we're more than comfortable doing what we usually do."

Mika sits down next to me and pulls me into a tight embrace. "When did our baby get so big?" Her tone is soft. I can see tears well in her eyes as she looks at me. "I'm really happy for you, M."

Renz finally gives in and joins our hug. "Gosh, seeing you all sappy like this is so weird," She laughed. "I like it though. You seem really happy, Mace. I'll seriously pay for your wedding."

We spent the next few minutes in each other's embrace in silence. I haven't seen them in so long. I would never admit the fact that I miss them—not to their faces. But this is nice. I've always felt like I could tell them anything.

It's been hard to find the right time for the three of us to get together. Mika's always busy now that she's a first year resident at the Hospital. Meanwhile, Renz has been flying in and out of the country for her modelling gigs.

I've always been in once place. But now I'm finally taking a step forward. It's another chapter of my life that'll come to an inevitable close, ready for a new one to open up and blossom.

The embrace comes to a quick end when my phone vibrates from inside my pocket. They pull away when I take out my phone to check.

"She's coming over."