Five Months Earlier

Catherine meets Mason for the first time

Five months earlier

    Cat had just stepped out of her air conditioned car and into the sun.  The strong smell of fish made her gag to herself. Even though Cat did love her father, she despised his line of work. Living in a port town in Washington had its perks and the redolence that was constantly floating around was not one of them. As Cat neared the end of the pier and approached her father’s boat, she greeted all the workers but one. He was new and had floppy, curly brown hair and dark blue eyes that somehow seemed to capture the sun inside of them.

    “Ahh, Cat! What are you doing here?” her father exclaimed while walking into her view.

    “Dad, you called me 20 minutes ago, remember?” Her father was forgetful sometimes. “I told you not to go into work today. I think the smell of fish is starting to affect your memory.”

    “Nonsense! I just forget things sometimes. Everyone does, we’re all human! Look, I wanted you to meet my new employee, Mason Wright.”

    “Hello”, her voice was small and timid, “I’m Cat, Frank’s daughter. How are you settling in?” He smiled and his voice sounded of velvet, the smoothest and softest kind there was.

    “I’m getting by alright. It’s a bit strange being the new person in town.”

    “He’s going to be going into the same grade as you Cat.” Her father spoke up. Cat was going to be a senior at Bellport high school, apparently Mason was too. Cat wasn’t very popular at her school, but then again nobody really was. Sure there were the stereo-typical people: jocks, music fanatics, nerds, etc., but that was mostly a select few of those who attended the school. Cat wasn’t in any of those groups though, she had her close knit group of friends. People outside of those 10 people still liked her, but she somehow only connected with those inside of her group. It’s not that Cat didn’t like the other people in her school, she was always just too nervous to get to a level of friendship with them that was passed the superficial conversations that strangers have.

    “That’s great Dad!” Cat didn’t think that he could still be in high school, he looked like he belonged at a college campus. He was at least six feet and then some.  He was a very broad person compared to Cat, but was a slightly smaller compared to her father’s other workers. From where she was standing on the dock, Cat could see the freckles that littered his arms, and they looked like little constellations on his skin.

    The shirt he was wearing looked an atrocious green color, but with the way she had been looking at his skin, it’s not as though she would notice. Cat realized that he had said something when she saw his mouth move, but she was so deep in thought about his star like skin, she didn’t hear him. She cleared her throat and spoke, “I’m sorry, what was that?”

    “I said, do you know any of your classes yet? I’m hoping to see someone I know- to an extent of course.”

     “Um I don’t think I get mine until Monday morning,” truth is Cat didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t know why, but maybe she was just psyching herself out. To be quite honest, his face fell just a fraction and that made Cat feel bad for not telling him. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something else, then closed it and then proceeded to announce he needed to get back to work.

    “I’ll see you at home, Cat. I need to finish up here. Take out for dinner?” they always got take out. Cat hadn’t had a home cooked meal since last Christmas when her aunt came over and spent the holiday with them.

    “Okay. I’ll see you later, I love you.” Cat turned on her heal and walked back down the pier to her car.

Author's Note

where should i pick up from? thougths

Reviews

[JB Anderson]

I absolutely love that you started with a "five months later" and "five months earlier" perspective, it enticed me to think about all the events that could have happened within that time to get them to that point on the cliff. Where should you pick up from? There are so many paths you could take. I would love to read more of this story - maybe start with Mason and Cat's first day back to school? Or perhaps the next chapter could be the night before school starts, and Cat is reflecting on her first encounter with Mason prior to seeing him at school the next day. Just a couple of ideas!
Can't wait to read more.