ROTG: Broken Promises
A Josh & Maya Story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Rated: K+
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Notes: There are some pop culture references. Moon Moon. My sister and her friends think this is hysterical. Google it. Frozen because why not. And of course Pride & Prejudice. If you haven't read it. . . you're missing out! I also highly recommend listening to the song!
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"'Cause she's the girl that I never had. She's the heart that I wanted bad. The song I heard on the radio that made me stop thinking of her. And I can't concentrate anymore. I need to show her what her heart is for. It's been mistreated badly and now her world is sadly falling apart."
Unbreakable, Jamie Scott
She was laughing over a stupid meme that she had found on Pinterest (dammit Moon Moon) when he realized that it had been forever since he had had an actual girlfriend who he took out on dates and got to kiss goodnight. He realized it had been a while since he'd thought about it because he'd been too invested in his relationship with Maya to try and balance another female.
He pushed the thought aside and smiled at her. "Will you please tell me what's so funny about Moon Moon, Hart!?" he asked instead of entertaining what it could mean.
Maya shook her head, unable to speak or compose herself. She handed her tablet over to him, tapping the screen with her index finger. He browsed the post and didn't get what was particularly funny about it and told Maya so. Which made her snatch the Kindle from his hand and glare at him.
Oh, he most certainly didn't have time for another girl.
And it wasn't because he was in love with Maya.
Which he was.
But that was beside the point.
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He was in LOVE with Maya!
It hit him the next day.
Where did THAT even come from!?
He'd broken his promise to her.
Conceal, don't feel. . .
Cut it out! This is not Frozen!
But concealing his feelings for her was probably a good idea at the same time. There was the little matter of the promise that he had made to her. If she knew he'd broken it. . . he didn't know how she would react and he didn't want to find out.
Unless it revolved around her loving him in return.
Which he highly doubted. Maya was a woman of her word.
Unlike him.
Except he wasn't a woman.
But he most certainly wasn't a man of his word.
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"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
Maya looked up from Pride & Prejudice and smiled when she noticed that he was looking at her. "What?" she asked subconsciously, touching her hair.
"What?"
"You're looking at me funny," Maya said.
"I was just thinking."
"Well, it's your turn to read," Maya told him.
"You keep doing it," Josh answered. "I like how you do the accents."
"Okay," Maya agreed, grinning at him as she opened the book again. "My beauty you had early withstood, as for my manners - my behavior to you was at least bordering on the uncivil. . ."
He watched her, hearing nothing but the beat of his own heart and you love Maya! You love Maya! over and over again like he was a schoolboy all over again and being taunted for having a crush on a girl.
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"Your mind is somewhere else today Matthews!"
Josh looked at his tattooed, pierced and much older co-worker. "Huh?"
"Is it love?" She teased, pursing her wine-colored lips and making a kissy face at him.
"Love!?" Josh repeated. "NO WAY, STAR!"
"I bet it is!" Star answered as she started to shelve copies of Sylvia Plath's poetry. "Is it Penelope?"
"You mean Maya?"
"Sure," Star said. "Does Penelope have you all tangled up and going crazy?"
"You're weird!" Josh replied it was the best comeback that he could come up with.
"Weird?" Star repeated. "What are we, in middle school or something?"
"I don't love Maya. If I had fallen in love with her then that means I broke the promise."
"Oh the promise," Star said. "Maya told me all about 'the Promise'. It sounds like some stupid Nicholas Sparks movie. . . a girl and boy are friends and they promise not to fall in love but of course they do. And then somebody dies. . . and everything's messed up."
"You're ridiculous," Josh told her.
"And you have a bunch of used books to sort through in the back! Estate sale, Richard made bank when it came to this old person's personal library!" Star answered cheerfully. "I only just remembered to tell you about it. Sorry."
Josh smirked at her. "Sure you are."
"Just admit you love her!" Star called after him. "YOU'LL FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT IN THE LONG RUN!"
Josh put his earbuds down and plopped down on the floor. He dragged the first box towards him and opened the flaps. He started to divide everything into groups. Modern classics, short stories, the odd Reader's Digest Condescended book and endless amounts of poetry.
He had started in on the second box when he found an early edition of Pride & Prejudice. He extracted it from the box and paged through it. It would cost more than he made in a year but looking at it, he knew that he had to buy it for Maya.
He put it to the side, deciding he'd ask Robert about it later.
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Josh was practically skipping on the way home. Robert had given him Pride & Prejudice for practically nothing. All he had to do was work an extra hour a week and promise that he'd actually tell Maya that he was in love with her.
When he got to his dorm, he got an ink pen and flipped through the pages until he found the page he was looking for. The one where Mr. Darcy confessed how long he'd loved Elizabeth.
It mirrored the way he felt exactly.
He underlined the quote carefully even though he knew how much this copy was worth. Then in even letters, he wrote a note to her. He'd been thinking about what he was going to say the whole day so there wouldn't be any room for error because he didn't want to ruin a perfectly good book with scattered thoughts or words that needed to be crossed out.
It was an apology and a confession all at once.
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Dear Maya,
Well. It happened. I broke all of my promises to you. Things have changed and I fell in love with you. I don't know when it happened. I just woke up one day and it was there. This love. Maybe I always did and I never wanted to admit it to myself because we were too far apart in age and then we were too good of friends. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry. But I'm not sorry. I love you.
Your's Always,
Josh
The End
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Author's Note:
Okay. So this was sort of fan service because I didn't write the note in Chapter 7 of "Rules". So, there you have it. THE NOTE! And a little insight into when Josh first fell in love with Maya. I hope you enjoyed it. Sit tight! The document is open. I will be starting Chapter 8 tonight. I'm excited about it.
In the meantime, please tell me if you enjoyed this!
Lots of Love,
Holly, 2/22/2016