"Maya, you have to tell me. You didn't call me and tell me to come to the art room in the middle of the night just so you can put off telling me what's been going on with you the past few weeks."
Lucas was right. She knew he was, and yet, Maya sat on a stool surrounded by all the art she felt horrible about. Surrounding herself with art done by people who all had something magical to say was obviously not the way to cheer herself up. Normally, she'd call Riley to come and pick up the pieces of her messy breakdown, but since it was nearly one in the morning, she knew she'd have no luck getting ahold of her. So, the girl called the first person she thought of. She called Lucas before she chickened out, and muttered the words, "I need you, Lucas."
It wasn't even two weeks into their junior year, and the blonde had already felt like she'd hit rock bottom. She had enough stress to deal with without the thought of teenage girls being cruel to her. Without thinking of those girls who ruined her artwork all because they'd thought Maya wouldn't fight back. And they were right. Maya hadn't lost herself since her freshmen year, but right now, she felt like going over the edge. She felt like causing some serious damage. That's when she knew she had to hold her friends close. It's been over four years since Lucas came to New York and crashed into her and Riley's little world. But, before Lucas could be a part of their world, he had to change his own. He pushed himself to be a great person, but Maya knew he didn't have to try too hard to succeed. However, she'd also seen the darkness in him. She knew the damage that Lucas could cause and knew that he'd hurt anyone who hurt her.
Several weeks after Maya told Lucas that Riley was the person he chose their freshmen year, Lucas told Maya that he'd always be there for her. That he'd never leave her alone, and that even if the two of them didn't work out, their friendship would still be forever. Lucas convinced her that she could be someone. This resulted in him saying that Riley wasn't the choice for him. He had to back out of it before he hurt the fragile girl even more, and before he put his own happiness off yet again. Lucas wanted to be with Maya. It was as simple and as complicated as that. There were months of heartache. Lucas unintentionally broke Riley's heart, but Maya was the one who caused it to begin with. If she'd been honest about her feelings, her best friend wouldn't get hurt. It somehow brought her closer to Lucas. It got Lucas to see her in a new light, and ever since that long talk the couple had, they were together. Things felt like they were falling back into place. But, after everything he didn't know about with these shitty girls, Maya knew it'd be tough to pull her out of the funk she'd let herself slip into. Maya wanted to badly to believe in something again, but these girls had taken everything from her. Her art, her friends, her hope. Soon they'll probably take her boyfriend that she fought so hard to get. Maya would give Lucas her entire world if he asked her to, and she knew those feelings he had for her could crumble away in a matter of seconds.
The art room was one of few places where Maya felt safe being herself. She could usually thrive in the colorful walls without having anyone to judge her but herself—although, sometimes that judgment could be worse than the judgment of others. She merely wanted to feel like herself again. She spent so much time her freshmen year not knowing who she was, and she'd forgotten how awful it felt. She needed to bring herself back.
"Someone has hurt me. More than once, I guess. But not physically—just emotionally. It's not a big deal." Maya murmured, trying to keep her voice low so there was a chance Lucas couldn't hear her.
"Someone hurt you?" The girl watched his face harden and darken, and became a witness to an anger she'd forgotten about. "Somebody hurt you, and you didn't tell me. You hid it from me, because you knew how I'd react, and exactly what I'd do."
Maya heard Lucas's voice crack, and he sounded as though he was about to cry. That wasn't the reaction that the blonde beauty expected from him, and she wasn't prepared to deal with crying. She couldn't see Lucas in pain because of something she deemed as mild. Or, something that she had to deem as mild in order to spare his feelings.
"No, Lucas. Forget it. It's fine. I'm fine."
"You're not fine. I think if we've learned anything these in these past years, it's that in friendships, we ask for help. We're more than friends, Maya. You haven't had to fight your own battles for a long while, and you shouldn't start now just because you're scared."
Maya paused, sucking in a deep breath, and letting it out as she chose her next words very carefully. How could she be thinking of Lucas in a time like this? Why did she want him to be less upset, rather than focusing on her own feelings for a change? She knew why. She loved this boy, and he loved her. She knew it because of the one qualification her mother told her: his eyes must light up. If that were all it took, then Lucas loved her. His eyes were practically the sunshine in this very moment—even with the weary look placed on his beautiful face. "You have no idea what it's like, Luke. To feel as though nothing you do will ever be enough for these people. To know that no matter what they do, they'll keep taking things from you. First, it's friends, then it's teachers, and eventually it's art. Next, it'll probably be you or Riley. A couple of people who I'd give the world up for. That's what they're going after next, I bet."
These words swam through Lucas's mind, and he wasn't sure where to start in regards to reassuring the girl. "What do you mean they took away your art?" If there were anything these people couldn't mess with, it was Maya's art. He'd fought so hard for the school to keep the program so Maya would have an outlet, and if all it took was two girls to take that outlet from her, Lucas knew she was in trouble.
"They took it. Broke every canvas I had in this very room. Which, I mean, was almost all of them other than my earlier stuff." Her voice shook, but she didn't back down. The high school's art teacher liked to keep each and every one of Maya's pieces to save her from throwing it out if she got too self-conscious about it. The girl had a bad habit of getting stuck in her own head, and although art was her way out of her head, the final pieces sometimes sucked her back in.
Maya stood from her seat and took Lucas's hand in hers as soon as she let that nugget of information off her chest. She hoped the feeling of her hand in his would be enough to hold the boy back from banging down the girls' doors in the middle of the night and trying to ruin anyone he could. Maya always told Riley that she liked Lucas for what he was—and that meant every part of him. She liked him for his moral compass side, but she also adored him for his short temper and willingness to fight for anyone he deemed important.
Lucas's blood was boiling. But, he had other people to consider. He couldn't throw away his future for this girl, although he was more than willing to. If Maya said the word, he would storm over there and kick someone ass. He knew she wouldn't, though. He knew she was telling him because she trusted him—not because she wanted him to jeopardize their future together or separately. "Do you think Mr. Jackson made copies of the paintings? I know they're not as special as the canvas version, but at least it'd be something, you know?" Lucas waited for the shorter girl to sit down again until he pulled a stool up next to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He rested his chin on her head and looked at the piece she had started before he spoke again. "Plus, you have everything in your sketch pads, every piece of art you've given me, our friends, the Matthews family, and your other family."
Lucas had a point. Maya knew he knew what he was talking about, but even his comforting words didn't take out the sting. "Someone didn't think my work was good enough. After spending years perfecting myself, and smoothing out all of my ruffles, someone came back to remind me, 'Hey, you're nothing special. You're mediocre at best.' Can you believe that, Huckleberry? I'm nothing special. Maybe I was getting too big a head."
Lucas dropped his arms and moved his head from Maya's head to a mere two inches away from her. He could feel her repetitive breaths falling onto his lips as his mouth formed all the words he wanted to say. There were a million things running through his mind, but the most prominent one was that Maya didn't think she was special. He saw the whole world in her. He knew her at her worst when her father left the second time, and he knew her at her best when she finally found herself again. He knew every moment in between. Lucas had tried to be there for Maya since the day the seventh grade began, even if he couldn't be there the way he wanted to be until freshmen year. A little less than two years later, he was still here. Lucas still thought she was the most interesting person he'd ever met. Maya constantly had a story to tell or a joke to crack. And although some of her humor was at the expense of herself, the majority of it wasn't cheap shots towards herself. Most of it was actual comedy, which was sometimes impossible. She kept situations light unless she was genuinely angry about something as well. And if she got angry, it was over something she cared about. Her golden line, "People only get upset with each other when what they're talking about is important to them," Always came to his mind whenever she got heavily passionate towards a topic or person. In his eyes, she was the most amazing person he'd ever gotten the chance to meet. Even if they weren't in each other's lives forever, he appreciated the time he got. That's why hearing about this made him so angry. If he wanted to spend more time in Maya's life, he had to act calm. He had to force himself to not make impulsive choices or else she'd push him away.
"Maya, have you talked to these girls much? Or at all?" Lucas raised his eyebrows, pushing a loose strand of hair behind the blonde's ear.
"No, not really. But you don't have to know everything about someone to see the things that are obvious."
"Based on that logic, you need to trust me, because I know so much about you. I know how beautiful you are on the inside, how loving you can be, how goofy you can get, and how passionate you are about anything you throw your heart into. You're the most special person I know. Two girls who can't even appreciate your art shouldn't be able to tell you who you are."
Maya shook her head, leaning away from Lucas. She was shutting him out because she was scared. Lucas could see the fear in her eyes. "You're a biased source, Sundance. You have to say that."
"I want you to be happy, Maya, but I would never lie to you about who I think you are. But, I shouldn't be the one to tell you who you are. You need to tell the world—and those stupid girls—who you know you are before they decide to make you into someone you're not."
Lucas dropped the hand he'd moved to Maya's knee in the middle of his rant, and found her staring him down. It wasn't angry anymore. Maya stopped being angry about life a long time ago, but she surely looked terrified of what was next to come. "But," He added, "If you're not ready to tell these girls who you truly are, your friends will do it for you for now. We'll all start tomorrow."
Maya felt grateful to have a boy as great as Lucas in her life, but she felt like she didn't deserve it. She wanted to openly give him as much love as he gave her, but she didn't have a way with words like he seemed to. "I know it's early on, but you make me feel like my life is complete. I dig you so much, Lucas. You have no idea how magnificent I know you are."
She grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulled him close, and kissed him with as much passion in her kiss as she had in her voice from time to time. Tonight, she learned a few things about Lucas. The first was that she'd met someone who would never give up on her, and if he happened to give up on the relationship, she knew he'd still remain her friend. Their friendship would last forever. The second was that while the sun shined out of his eyes, it also shined out of both of their souls. It created some kind of metaphorical nuclear fusion that even Farkle wouldn't be able to explain. The third and final thing was that Maya's small hand grasping Lucas's collar added another shirt to his collection of shirts featuring a handprint of paint just small enough to match Maya's.
Things could still be hard tomorrow, but at least she had these three things to hold onto. She had three things to be happy about, and that was without even thinking about it. Maya was blessed to live in the same world as the people she knew—even if all of them weren't providing her with happiness. They all had some sort of life lesson to teach her, and she was ready to learn for the first time in her life.