˗ˏˋ vital days and deficient talks 'ˎ˗

➷

Over the next week, Mahika's contact with her friends becomes less frequent amidst the chaos that is the burden of assignments before their exam week, big white sheets lining her floor, her bed, and her desk.

She's been studying so much that she's on the verge of getting physically sick of it, and she doesn't doubt that her friends are doing the same. They all have vastly contrasting personalities, but if there's anything they all happen to have in common, it's their love for their majors.

Her hair, on top of her head in a loose bun, looks messier than it ever has. She's settled with her glasses instead of her lenses because they were making her already tired eyes burn, sitting on the floor with her pencil tucked behind her ear. Everything paired with her giant, crumpled shirt — with no pants, because honestly, Mahika would get through the rest of her life pant-less if she could — and shorts make her look like she was thrown inside a tornado for a few seconds. The mess in her room adds to the aesthetic.

Leaving everything up for the last moment definitely wasn't part of the plan. And honestly, Mahika is surprised. Because this isn't the type of person she is. She knows working until her bones ache, submitting her portfolios to the professors before anyone else, and watching everyone cry and yell in chaos while she sits back and rests as much as she can before her exams. But this time, she had been... distracted.

Fingers reaching for the pencil, she scratches her head with the back of it. Her spine is shrieking at her to give it a rest, but Mahika knows there's no time for that.

Welcome to the life of design. Say hello to back pain.

She's been constantly switching between mumbling along (and calling it 'singing') with the music playing in her room and groaning to herself every once in a while about just how much work she has to get done before the day ends. It was working just fine until her stomach started rumbling, reminding how cruel she has been to it by not feeding it anything for over thirteen hours now, drawing her attention to the clock.

23:15.

Tired eyes squeezing shut for a second and teeth letting go of her lower lip to let a sigh move past, she thinks, I'll just eat when I'm done.

Although at the back of her mind, she's aware that the first thing she'll do after she hits send on that email to her professor, she'll throw herself in bed, cramped shoulders and all, and be out like a light the next minute.

She cross-checks everything before she finally leans back, rolling her wrist. The last thing she has to do is gather everything from the floor and then she can breathe out a sigh of sweet, sweet relief. While she's in the middle of pushing herself off the floor though, she hears a sound from outside that immediately makes her head shoot up in surprise.

There's the clear sound of keys jingling, and Mahika sits frozen on the floor with her eyes fixed unblinkingly at the dark hallway that she can see through her room door.

A pause, and then a low thud from the outside makes her break out of the state and hurriedly lower the music before she reaches for her phone. Before she can act further, the door opens, revealing a plump figure under the dim light of the porch.

Mahika blinks a few times.

"Ma!" she exclaims, pushing herself off the floor and basically speed walking her way to the door.

The woman jumps in surprise, dropping the handle of her luggage bag. Her hand goes straight to settle on her chest and she looks up at Mahika with wide, alarmed eyes, only to sigh a second after.

"Mahi," she breathes, closing her eyes with her hand still clutching her chest, as if relieved. "My God, that scared me. I thought you would be asleep."

Mahika shakes her head and throws her arms around her mother.

"I missed you."

Her mother laughs, a little breathless because of the way Mahika had basically barreled into her. She hugs her back though, and her hold on her daughter is just as firm.

Her mother was supposed to come home a few days ago, but had apparently gotten stuck with more work outside the city. Mahika had been disappointed upon hearing the news, but it's not like either of them could do anything about it. And besides, Mahika was used to this.

Maybe, given the situation and how overwhelmed Mahika had been, she might have taken the news a bit dramatically.

But she's here now. And that's all that matters to Mahika.

"Mhm," her mother hums, before pulling back and turning on the hallway lights so she can look at Mahika's face better. She smiles, reaching out to pat Mahika's cheek in that tender, motherly way that only she can. "I thought I'd surprise you. I assumed you would see me in the morning when you woke up but I see you haven't gone to bed yet. Is everything okay?"

Mahika nods quickly, pulling back so they can both make their way inside.

"Just college work — oh." She runs back inside, calling, "I was supposed to send an email!" over her shoulder. Her mother's familiar laughter follows after her.

"Did you eat?"

Mahika's expression turns sheepish even though her eyes are still on her laptop screen. "Well..."

"Well?" Her mother repeats, coming over to stand with her shoulder against the doorframe, and Mahika doesn't have to look at her to be able to tell that she has her eyebrows raised.

"I was... going to?"

Her mother hums. "When? Tomorrow?"

Mahika presses her lips together to suppress a cheeky grin.

"I really can't trust my twenty-three year old daughter to take care of herself while I'm away?" She straightens up and crosses her arms across her chest, tapping her foot for added effect.

With all of her teeth on display, Mahika sends her professor the assignment and then walks over to her mother. "Nope. That's your job."

The woman just rolls her eyes, letting Mahika lean down and rest her head on her shoulder. When a small, warm hand rubs Mahika's back, she doesn't realize when her smile begins to wobble, and then slowly fades away.

The very same hand comes up to caress her hair and she's taken right back to when she was a kid; the one that came home from school every day with big, teary eyes, waiting for her mother to wrap her in her arms. 'I don't want to go to school,' she would complain, and, 'I'll always be right here when you come back,' her mother would say in her forever patient tone, and rub little Mahika's back until she stopped crying.

Twenty-three year old Mahika doesn't feel all that much different from the way five-year-old Mahika did. The circumstances might be dissimilar, but she was scared of disappointing her mother then, and she's scared of disappointing her mother now.

She didn't like eyes on her then, and she doesn't like eyes on her now.

She was a little kid who needed to be protected from the world then, and she feels like one now.

"I'm going to make us something to eat, hm?"

Mahika pulls back to look her mother in the eye, her exhaustion from all of the work gone somehow. "What? No, you just came home. Sit down. I'll do it."

Reaching out to pat both of Mahika's cheeks with her hands, her mother says, "I haven't cooked for you in over a week. Let me feed my child." She scrunches her nose then, gently squishing Mahika's face. "Even though she's not a child anymore."

Mahika throws her head back and laughs, taking hold of her mother's hands in her own. They're soft and warm, and Mahika feels her chest fill with affection. "Ma, no. You never rest, do you? Go take a warm shower or something. Relax. I'll make us food."

When she steps away and out through the door, her mother eyes her teasingly. "So you can cook for the two of us at this hour but can't feed yourself?"

Mahika pokes her head back in. "I can't hear you over how hard my stomach is rumbling. And are we forgetting you're hungry too?"

"You're a little brat. And I ate earlier."

"Mhm, I don't know, Ma..." Mahika says in a singsong voice from the kitchen. "Sounds like you're not taking enough care of yourself."

Her mother's laughter from the room is the only thing she hears in reply.

Later that night, they talk about anything and everything. Mahika's cooking and how she makes things exactly how her mother does. Their jobs. How home doesn't feel like home when her mother isn't around. How they would get a dog if either of them were capable of taking care of an animal while also balancing their work and the obvious absence from home. The sun. The moon. The sky. The stars.

But now as Mahika lays awake in her bed with her eyes on the fan slowly rotating above her head, she's reminded that she didn't say the one thing she had wanted to say out loud.

She had talked of, and around, the entire universe with her mother.

Yet, she had swallowed back the most important words of them all.

And she can't help but wonder how long it's going to be before she starts suffocating on them.

➷

a/n

hi <3 we're going back to mahi & friends next chapter and we're going back Good

this update happened a bit late (even though i've already done my 'three updates a week' part) because i haven't been very well :( i just wanted to let you guys know that updates on this book might not be as frequent anymore, but i'm definitely going to try and keep up the best i can.

thank you so much for reading! all of the interaction on this book brings me so much joy :')

take care of yourselves and stay hydrated!
until next time x