Valentine's Day- Chapter 1
Prompt: Maya plans a surprise for Josh's birthday and Josh's reaction to the surprise leads to an important discussion on the sustainability of their long game.
AN: Hi all. I'm the second poster for Joshaya Appreciation Week today. Hope you enjoy the story. This ended up being a longer story than I anticipated so I've decided to make it a two-shot. The first one is today, and I'll post the second one tomorrow after the author for Day 06 has already posted. Thanks to somuchlovexoxo for organizing this :)
Josh woke up suddenly with the familiar ringing of his alarm reverberating in his subconscious. It took him a couple of seconds however to notice that the song that usually woke him up- "It's a beautiful day," by U2 was NOT what was ringing in his ears. It was an obnoxiously loud and terribly sung birthday song. The tone was off-key and the voice sounded like one of those munchkin videos. Who the hell was singing like that?
He sat up on his bed and spun around towards the direction of the singing to notice none other than his college best friend, Andrew Watkins. Andrew was excitedly jumping up and down in the middle of Josh's dorm room as he bellowed out the birthday song at the top of his lungs and threw a bunch of confetti in the air, thereby littering Josh's impeccably clean dorm room. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAREST JOSHIEEEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU! YAYYYY!"
"HOLY CRAP! ENOUGH DREW!" Josh yelled as he felt his ear drums close to bursting from his friend's terrible voice. "I got it. It's my birthday. Please, if you care about me, just stop!"
"HOW OLD ARE YOU NOW?! HOW OLD ARE YOU NOW?!" Andrew continued singing even more loudly.
"OH MY GOD, DREW! IM GOING TO KILL YOU NOW!" Josh leapt off his bed and charged towards Andrew, ready to pummel him.
"OK! OK! I'M DONE!" Andrew held up his hands in surrender, and backed off from a clearly annoyed (and still sleepy) Josh. "Dude, chill. It's your birthday. Why would you want to start off with the murder of your adorable friend?" Andrew gave him a wide, toothy grin.
Josh just shook his head in disbelief at his friend's antics and took a look at his room which was now all covered in pink confetti. "Holy crap. Dude, you cleaning this up right?" Josh felt he was going to have a heart attack. He wasn't necessarily a neat freak but he had just spent a good part of his Saturday a few days ago cleaning up his room. And now, all of his hard work had been completely destroyed.
"Dude, nah, I can't, I got an exam in like two minutes. I shouldn't have even come here." Andrew responded as he checked the time on his phone and dropped something that looked like a cake box on Josh's desk. "This is from Jas." He said, pointing to the cake. "She said it's your favorite. Although, I didn't know you had a favorite cake? You like never eat cake. You eat veggies like all the time. When did you and Jas talk about this?"
"Dude, so you're seriously not cleaning this up?" Josh glared at Andrew in disbelief.
"Noo-ppe. Love you though man. Happy birthday! Jas and I will see you for lunch? We're treating you. Sounds good?"
Josh didn't respond. He kept staring at Andrew with a sour look on his face, and already thinking of ways to get revenge on his friend for trashing his room on his birthday of all days and just running off.
"O…kay. Silence means consent. Lunch it is! See you later, bud. Bye!" Andrew quickly ran off, sensing from the look on Josh's face that he had pissed the birthday boy off enough.
Josh ran his hand through his hair and sighed loudly in frustration. "I'm going to kill him." He muttered to himself as he glanced around at his room once more. His attention finally settled on the cake on his desk. With a slight smile on his face, he walked towards it and opened the box, curious to see if Jasmine, Andrew's current girlfriend and Josh's friend as well, had really remembered his favorite cake flavor. He couldn't even remember having that conversation with her. He opened it up to see a scrumptious red velvet cake and his smile grew even wider. He would make sure to say a big thank you to Jasmine, after he killed her boyfriend.
He picked up the cake and was about to put it in his little dorm fridge when he heard his phone ringing. Quickly setting the cake down, he rushed to his bed and fumbled through his bed covers until he found his phone buried underneath. Glancing at the caller ID, he felt his smile grow a thousand times wider and his heart skip a beat as he quickly answered the phone. "Maya?" He whispered her name softly.
"BOING!" Maya responded enthusiastically. Josh grinned from ear to ear at the sound of her voice. He could almost picture the look of pure happiness on her face as she yelled out her favorite nickname for him, and he couldn't help but feel his heart expanding with euphoria.
"Boy, aren't you cheery this morning. To what do I owe this awfully excited and sugary cheery Maya?" He teased lightly.
"To your BIRTHDAY, you old man you!" Maya exclaimed and immediately commenced to sing the birthday song. Josh almost dropped the phone in shock as he listened to her angelic rendition of the song which his best friend had butchered just a few minutes before. He had heard of Maya being a good singer but he had never actually heard her sing by herself. The rare occasions in the past that he had witnessed her singing was during Matthews Christmas family gatherings. But even then, they were all singing traditional carols together as a group so he hadn't noticed anything particularly special about the beautiful blonde's voice…until now. My God, I could listen to this all day, he thought dreamily to himself as he felt himself completely entranced the more Maya sang.
"Happy birthday Josh! Wishing you lots of happiness today!" Maya exclaimed joyfully after she finished singing. Josh was literally tingling with euphoria as Maya's voice still echoed in his ears. He laid down on his bed, pressed the phone gently to his ear, and took a few seconds to consider his next words before he spoke.
"First of, my God, Maya, you have an amazing voice. I mean, I'm speechless right now. I'm pretty sure that was the best birthday song that I've ever heard in my 18 years of life. Please don't tell my parents or Cory that. Especially, Cory. He might be devastated." Maya burst out laughing at this comment, the sound of which filled him with a soothing warmth. That's another sound that I could listen to all day, he thought to himself. "Secondly, thanks for calling. You've definitely made my day after it was almost ruined by my soon to be ex-best-friend."
"Oh no! What did Andrew do?"
"Oh you know- woke me up with a birthday song that wanted me to kill him and then also kill myself and scattered my entire room with pink confetti- which by the way- he's not cleaning up. So yeah, I was pretty pissed before your call."
"Shoot! Why didn't I think of that?" Maya exclaimed amidst laughter.
"Uh no. You would have been on my naughty list if you had done that. You're on my good list now. Don't ruin it kiddo."
"Yes sir! Anywho what are your plans today birthday boy?"
"Hmmm," Josh thought as he took a quick look at the time- 9:30am. He had to go to class in an hour. Maya had called him at the perfect time. And then it hit him. Why was she calling at that time? Didn't she have school? It was a Wednesday morning.
"Hold on. As much as I'm enjoying this convo, don't you have school right now? How are you able to talk on the phone?"
There was a short pause where Josh could almost hear the wheels in her head turning trying to come up with a credible excuse for why she wasn't sitting in a classroom in that moment.
"Um, well I AM in school." She finally spoke. "Just not in a classroom..."
Josh burst out laughing, already anticipating where this was going.
"So you're cutting class- to call me." He responded, shaking his head slightly. It was classic Maya.
"Well, not exactly," Maya responded. "I might have asked your brother if I could go to the bathroom and I kinda haven't returned yet. It's been ten minutes now I think? I should probably get going before Riles organizes a search party to come looking for me." This comment made Josh burst again into laughter as he imagined his niece recruiting a search party which would probably comprise of Lucas, Zay, Farkle and Smackle- their friend group- roaming through the halls of Abigail Adams high school looking for Maya who was probably hiding in a bathroom stall. He laughed so hard he started to feel tears at the corner of his eyes.
"This is hilarious." He responded as he wiped the tears off. "Yeah you should probably get going because my adorable- but slightly overprotective niece- will definitely do that. She kinda takes after her father don't you think?"
"Oh my God, they're practically twins!" Maya quickly agreed as Josh smiled warmly. He absolutely adored his family and was even more grateful that Maya was practically a part of it. One of his favorite conversation topics with her whenever they ran into each other at family gatherings was poking fun at his family's crazy antics.
"Alright, Maya, I'm going to let you go before you get caught. Thanks again for calling."
"Wait, not so fast!" She yelled. "You still haven't told me your plans! It is Valentine's Day after all, and your birthday. I assume you are busy?"
Josh grinned- not exactly sure where she was going with this. Was she trying to ask him out? He decided to entertain her for now by giving her the details of his day as he currently had planned.
"Well no. I'm actually not too busy today. I have class, a lunch with Andrew and Jasmine- though that might probably turn into a funeral so stay tuned-" he heard Maya giggling at this, which made him feel warm inside- "and then more class, and that's about it. I got lots of homework to catch up on though. But in terms of birthday stuff- I'm coming over to Cor's on Saturday for dinner. I assume you will be there?"
"Um yeah duh. I practically live there." Josh laughed. "Good point."
"So what I'm hearing is that Boing Matthews doesn't have a romantic dinner date planned on this beautiful day of luvvv?"
Josh chuckled- sensing exactly where the conversation was going. "Um no, I do not actually. Shocking I know. Not sure what it is about NYU girls- I seem to be invisible to them apparently." That last part was a lie. Since starting his Freshman year of college, he had probably been asked out like 3 times which made him quickly realize that girls were a lot bolder in college than they were in high school where the norm was to wait for the guy to make the first move. One girl- Emily- he had actually gone on a date with. She was in his Spanish class, the first semester, a pretty brunette from Canada. They had shared a love of Spanish language and culture. One of Josh's dreams was to study abroad in Spain at some point in his college career. One date with Emily though was enough for him to realize that they would be better off as friends, so he quickly made sure things didn't progress any further.
And then came the weekend he would never forget, just over a month ago, when he accompanied Cory's class as a chaperone to their annual ski trip and ended up finally admitting (and accepting) his growing feelings for his niece's best friend. His affection for Maya had slowly developed over the years with every encounter he had shared with her. He wasn't sure when that affection evolved into something more but it probably started after she barged into NYU last Spring and started spilling her feelings out to Josh, Andrew, Jasmine and Charlotte during their small hangout party.
After that moment, Josh never forgot the intensity of Maya's gaze, the conviction with which she declared her feelings for him and the reasons she felt that way. His heart was racing as he listened in shock to every observation that Maya made about him. He couldn't believe that she had been paying that much attention to him- that she found him so worthy of her attention despite everything that was going on in her life.
When Maya was done speaking, it immediately occurred to him that he had never met a girl like her before- fearless, persistent, and extremely protective of those she cared about. In that moment, he was no longer able to dismiss Maya's feelings as an adolescent crush. They were genuine- he could feel them. Maya was a lot more mature than he had given her credit for and he couldn't help but be speechless as he gazed at her in silent awe. He had promised Maya at the end of that encounter that he would start seeing her differently. And he had kept that promise, especially in the quiet moments when her gaze, her mischievous smile and her words would invade his daydreams. I like you Josh. I'm in it for the long game. For a whole summer last year, she was all he could think about. And even though he was still bothered by her age, he could feel his walls getting weaker until they completely crumbled near the warm fireplace at the ski lodge when she gazed at him with utter adoration and declared yet again with utmost confidence- "I like you, Josh. It's you I like." He couldn't deny the effect she had on him anymore- his rapidly beating heart, the butterflies in his stomach, the elation on his face when he realized that she still liked him, and definitely not the cowboy.
Long story short, they were now playing the long game. Friends, until they could be something more at the appropriate time. And so far, he was satisfied with the way their relationship was progressing in their one month of playing the long game- frequent texts, occasional calls and of course the goofing off and flirtation whenever he would stop by the Matthews to do his laundry. There was a small part of him however that worried that Maya would be so focused on the long game and on someday that she would miss out on her high school experience. Zay raised this concern when he had first visited the Matthews after the ski lodge trip, and it had bothered him ever since.
As far as he knew, Maya was pretty innocent when it came to relationships. She had never dated before and Josh was her first serious love interest. As much as Josh hated to think about it, he didn't want Maya shutting herself off from the possibility of other relationships or interests because of him. After all, who knew if he was the right person for her? Anything could happen in the future. He didn't want Maya putting her life on hold for a future that was far from certain. But he also couldn't imagine a future without her in it, and if she did seriously pursue other love interests, then perhaps someday might never be...
Needless to say, he felt conflicted about whether he had been selfish in promising her a someday and a long game which sounded nice in theory but in practice was probably extremely confusing and complicated for a 15 year old girl in high school. Was he ultimately hurting Maya, especially if they continued to grow closer and things didn't work out the way they both desired? It was a question that lurked in the back of his mind and haunted him in the moments when he felt their bond growing stronger- like now, on the phone, laughing and flirting with each other, neither one particularly ready to let the other go although they were both running out of time.