Run and Hide

i. ski-lodge

"okay." Maya looked over at Lucas he walked away from Riley.

"Lucas, I'm not allowed to talk?" Riley asked.

"Sure you can. You can talk to whoever you want to Riley" he said simply before walking away.

Maya watched him as he walked away. A feeling of hurt washed over like cold water. It radiated from her chest to her throat and suddenly she was finding it hard to breathe. She quickly walked away in the opposite direction as Lucas, ignoring the calls of her best friend. Her feet led her out of the lodge, down the steps of the front porch of the lodge. They continue to lead her down the paved pathway.

Maya had no idea where she was going but all she knew was that she had to get out of the lodge, get away from Riley and Lucas, and get some space from everyone who knew the situation she was in. She didn't want their judgements and she definitely didn't want to hear any of their input. They talked around her like she wasn't aware of what was going. She hated that people were talking about them and she hated the situation she was placed in.

Her feet continued to move fast down the path, she found herself turning whenever she felt like it. Thirty minutes of mindless wondering, Maya found herself in front of a beautiful lake. The area was surrounded by trees and different types of paths that lead to who knows where. She walked further into the open area. Seeing that this area was covered heavily in grass. there was one particular tree that was huge and was at the edge of the lake.

The trees around her were slowly losing leaves. The colors of the trees were different due to being in different stages. It was really a beautiful sight, but what left her breathless was the view of the lake.

The mountains could be seen on the other side of the lake. They were brown and covered in trees with different hues of reds, greens, and browns. The trees around here were mostly in different hues of red and orange. The lake in front of her was crystal blue. The reflection of the trees were clearly shown on the lake. The giant tree was losing a lot more leaves than any of the other trees that surrounded them. The leaves were mostly red and orange while the ones that had fallen on the floor were already dark hues of brown and red.

It was beautiful sight. She desperately wished she had a canvas and paint to capture this beautiful sight. She took a deep breathe at the scenery. Her hands were shoved into the pockets of her denim vest.

"Hi, Maya right?" a voice called out.

Maya jumped and quickly turned around to face the person calling out for her. She blinked a couple of times trying to snap out of her daze. "Hi." Maya said cautiously.

The person in front of her was way taller than she was. He had dark brown hair pushed up and messy. He had light honey brown eyes and a very big friendly smile. He had a dark blue denim jacket and black pants paired with the same boots she had on.

"I'm one of the chaperon's in the group. I'm Josh's friend from NYU." he explained, his hands shoved into his own denim jacket. "I'm Stiles." he introduced. "I saw you walking out and I wanted to make sure you were good."

"I'm good, you can go back and-" Maya was interrupted by Stiles.

"I actually don't know where we are considering I was following you and making sure you didn't fall into a ditch" he explained. "You kind of ran out of the lobby pretty quick. I told Topanga and Cory that I would watch over you, you were gone pretty quick and I thought I lost you" he explained.

Maya looked around and where they were. "I have no idea where we are either." Maya said honestly as she squinted her eyes to try and find something that looked familiar to her. She was so consumed by thoughts and feelings, she had no idea where she was headed she just wanted a place to head out.

"Oh" Stiles said rubbing the back of his neck. "This is not going to end well is it? I'm not even getting paid but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be fired"

Maya laughed a little at his remark. "You didn't have to follow me out here" Maya stated facing the brown hair boy. "I can take care of myself."

"Right but this is a school trip and technically speaking, you're my responsibility since I am the chaperon" Stiles stated. Maya raised an eyebrow at him questionably. "I don't doubt you can handle yourself considering you didn't get caught into any ditches while I got caught into three."

Maya laughed again, she shook her head. "Well then, we should probably head back Mr. Chaperon" Maya said before turning her back to him to look at the view one last time. "Too bad I won't find this view again." Maya said as she looked back at the breathe-taking view.

"It is a pretty good view." Stiles said as he walked beside her, staring at the same view.

"It's calming and it's therapeutic." Maya stated, breathing in the fall air.

"You can see the change from summer to fall" Stiles pointed out as he pointed to the tree. The tree had different hues of red and orange leaves. Surrounding the tree was fallen leaves with darker hues of red and brown. A couple of the leaves had fallen into the lake. "It's nice that it shows how change can beautiful"

Maya didn't take her eyes off of the tree that was dropping leaves of different hues. She walked closer to the tree, crunching fallen leaves with her boots. A sad smile came to her face. "It's also sad." Maya said as she looked at her feet.

"The trees wilting away, losing the leaves it spent all spring growing." Stiles added. Maya squinted her eyes in part confusion and part daze. She turned her head to look behind her to see Stiles staring off to the lake. Stiles was engrossed at the lake, his hands still in his pockets. "What?" Stiles asked as he looked over to her, feeling her stare.

"You read my mind." Maya stated. "It's just weird you understood."

Stiles chuckled. "Not that weird Maya." he said grinning. "Come on, we better head back."

Maya sighed as she nodded, kicking her boot into the dirt. "I guess so, can't escape reality forever." she spoke to no one in particular.

Stiles stared at her sad face for a couple of seconds before plopping himself to the floor, sitting down cross legged. Maya stared at him with her head tilted to the side in confusion. "Listen, if you want to escape reality for a bit longer we can stay here a bit longer. You gotta face reality sooner or later and I have a feeling you wanna go with later" he explained as he patted the empty space beside him.

Maya smiled down at him before walking over to him, taking a seat beside him. "So, what made decide to come here to watch a couple of high school freshmen's learn about mother nature?" Maya asked staring back at the breath-taking view.

Stiles chuckled. "I started NYU in the fall. I live in the same hall as Josh and we have psychology together. He wanted someone to accompany him on this trip and I offered. I needed to get away anyways" He answered honestly. Maya looked over at him, scrunching her eyebrows together like she was trying to read him. "What?"

"What did you want to get away from?" Maya asked interested, keeping the same face.

Stiles grinned as he shook his head before making eye contact with the blonde. "How about this, you tell me what you're running away from and I'll tell you what I'm running away from." Stiles stated as he stared at the blonde.

Maya refused to break eye contact, she bit her lip nervously trying to figure out how much information she should say to this stranger. "I'm this triangle, you see, with Riley - she's my best friend and Josh's niece- and Lucas - he's a cowboy." Maya started, she started to look down on the dirt floor and draw random things into the dirt. "We've been in this triangle for a while and long story short. I already know who he chose. I already knew from the beginning. Who was I to kid myself that he would ever like me, that any guy would ever like me." Maya blushed slightly once she realized she was being too honest with a stranger. "He chose her, I mean he had to chose her. I wasn't being myself, I was being her when he started to have feelings for me so obviously he likes her. I mean I don't know how much you saw but he got pretty angry when he found out she was talking to someone else, talking to another guy that isn't here. Meanwhile, he never feels that way with me because it's clear that he has more feelings for her than me and I guess I'm running away from the answer, that he finally chose her." she trailed off releasing a big huff of air.

Maya didn't look up after confessing. She continued to repeatedly trace over the shapes she had drawn on the floor. "So yeah.." she mumbled, releasing another gust of air she was keeping in. "Your turn Stiles." Maya looked over at Stiles who was staring at her. He turned his head and stared at the glistening lake.

"I was in love with this girl since the third grade. She was like my dream girl. The girl of everyone's dreams really. She was smart and beautiful and she was what I've always wanted. I literally idolized this girl. Anyways, we started off as friends during high school cause our groups merged together and well we always worked well together. We knew what we needed from each other and we were always there for each other through all of her bad relationships and the one I had before her. Anyways, eventually we hit it off, we ended up together a month before graduation. But.." he trailed off, chewing the inside of his cheek like he was afraid to admit it out loud. "Long distance is harder than it seems. We're at a rough patch right now. I mean we used to work well together but lately we aren't working that well anymore. I guess I'm running away from whatever is going wrong in our relationship. Josh offered to have me come with him and I figured why not. Get in one with nature and what not, thinking about what to do and what to expect when I get back to the dorms"

"Well what do you think so far" Maya asked, looking back at him.

"I think I don't ever wanna face the possibility where she's not in my life." Stiles admitted. "I don't know how I would continue the world without having her in my life whether it's as a friend or as a girlfriend. I just need her there."

"Then you tell her" Maya said simply. "You tell her how important she is to you and if it's really worth it, you'll get over the slump"

Stiles smiled slightly at the blonde freshmen. "What about you?" he asked. "What are you thinking of?"

"I'm thinking that this is an insanely beautiful view and that I never want to leave. I never want to go back to that lodge or back to watch Lucas fall in love with Riley. I don't want to go back to being Riley's troublesome best friend or the girl that Lucas didn't pick. I don't wanna go back feeling the way I do. I just want to keep being here, with this view." Maya admitted honestly. She released a sigh. "I never want to hurt her. I would never put myself in a position to hurt Riley and I never want something that was hers."

"If you didn't want something that was hers, then why would you try and be her?" Stiles asked, glancing over at the blonde who scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. He realized she had done that a lot when she was trying to process something.

"I-I don't know." she muttered. "Riley's always had it good. I mean, her parents were Cory and Topanga. They were childhood lovers and married since they were like three. Her parents were there for her. Her little brother adored her. Her entire family was so loving and supportive and I wanted something like that." she released a sigh. "My dad left when I was seven and after he left, I never really saw much of my mom. She was always working and I thought she had to do with him leaving." Maya explained. "I'm sort of broken in a way and Riley had spent so much of my life trying to fix me and make me happy and make me have hope. I guess I wanted what she had so bad, I became her..."

"You know what that sounds like?" Stiles asked, Maya looked over at him. "It sounds like complete crap." he even laughed at the idea. "You're basically saying that your growth and development as a freshmen in high school was turning into your best friend. Maya, you're in high school. You're growing up, that's just how life goes. You change for the better with good and bad influences."

"I didn't stand on a teacher's desk for months, I haven't been in detention, I was getting good grades-" Maya was interrupted by Stiles who fell on his back laughing. Maya pouted. "Hey! I'm being serious"

Stiles sat up, his laughter dying down a little. "You becoming a good student and trying to get your future together isn't you becoming your best friend. That's you trying to improve your life. Who even came up with the idea that you were becoming her?"

"Riley" Maya answered. Stiles stopped laughing and looked at the young blonde. "What?"

"You doing better and acting different isn't a bad thing Maya," Stiles stated. "And you're not broken for not having the perfect family like theirs. There's so many parents that are divorced, separated,-"

"It just sucks when there's perfect families surrounding you and all you have is your own" Maya explained. "I haven't spoken to my dad in a year and I couldn't forgive him for leaving and I couldn't forgive him for the pain he caused me, even though I know I should."

"Listen, I know all about that okay. I've grown up seeing perfect families all around and the older I got the more I realized that family is a little weird in a sense where it doesn't stop at a mom or a dad. My best friend is someone that I consider family. I consider My girlfriend family. I only have a dad and we're a family." Stiles explained. "The older you get, the more you realize all the stuff you see around you changes and your perspective on how you see things change."

"Wha happened to your mom?" Maya asked looking back at the lake.

"She died when I was a kid." Stiles stated.

"Do you miss her?" Maya asked.

"Every damn day" he answered with a sigh.

A comfortable silence was shared between them as they both enjoyed the final view of the lake. The sun was starting to set. They had been out here for a while talking about their lives, confiding in each other what they've been too scared to share with anyone else. They both knew it was almost time to go.

"Maya?"

"Yeah?"

Stiles looked at her and raised an eyebrow at her. "Is this helping you?" he asked.

Maya bit the inside of her cheek and exhaled. "Not as much as I want it to" she admitted honestly. "But this view and talking with you is slightly helping."

Stiles smiled. "I'm helping you?"

"Slightly helping" Maya clarified.

"Still helping" Stiles replied back with a shrug. "You're slightly helping me too." he admitted. "What are you going to do when you go back to the lodge?" Stiles asked looking over at her.

The smile on Maya's face faded away. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to think. "I'll guess we have to find out"