*Author's Note - Two posts in a week! I wasn't planning on this but I had the time and the inspiration so I just went with it. Also, I needed and excuse to send a message out there to one of my most loyal readers. ParakeetPower! I saw you're review on 'Tis The Season' and wanted to reply but I couldnt. I'm so excited you're official on FanFiction! DM me from you're account! I'd love to read any of your stuff or just say hi! Okay my devious purpose has been fulfilled so - and as always, Enjoy!*
Maya paced back and forth in her living room. She could feel the static electricity forming around her hair from traipsing back and forth on the shag carpeting under her bare feet. But she didn't care. She needed to pace. She needed to be moving because she feared what would happen is she stood still for even a second. She could make a decision or worse - make the wrong one.
It shouldn't be this hard she thinks to herself. It shouldn't be this hard or this difficult. You're supposed to know. Aren't you? she thinks. She knows that Riley is her best friend. She knows that Shawn is her dad forever and always no matter what happens between him and her mom. Thinking of them takes her down a whole new tangent. They're happy together, her parents. They made their decision and they're sticking together. Both all in - no matter what happens. And her mom was just as broken as she is… or was. That's a fact she was placing in the plus side column of the list she was making in her head.
Wait a minute? She thinks again.
She's Maya Penelope Hart and she's … making a list. In her head?
Who am I right now? She thinks.
Who has she become? She knows the answer. She became the artist. She became the art teacher. She became someone who is open about her feelings and her wants. What does she want?
Right now she wants a bagel or something because this decision has been weighing on her mind so much she forgot to eat. Chimichangas sound good. Where was that place they got those amazing chimi… crap another tangent? Okay focus, she thinks to herself. Although she begins to wonder why she's yelling at herself in her mind when nobody is home. She recalls Farkle saying something once about how talking to yourself helps you figure things out. And boy does she have a whopper with this one. Taking a deep breath she picks back up on the subject of her parents.
"It's a leap of faith right. That's what Shawn said. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith." Now she realizes although she's talking to herself, she's really talking to one of the decorative pillows on her couch that Riley insisted she get.
"Except I've never been good at blind faith. Hope sure, I have loads of hope … now. But blind faith that everything turns out okay? I am not that girl. That's Riley and I'm not Riley. Oh great I'm back here again." she sits on the couch next to the decorative pillow, which is a horrible conversationalist.
"I don't do blind faith. But maybe for him … I could try? Right?" Now she has the pillow in her hands and is talking directly to it.
"But how do you even start that conversation?" She puts the pillow down and stands up again, resuming her path in the shag carpeting trying to making a moat around her couch.
"I could start like a normal girl with a 'honey' or 'darling'. But I'm not a girl, I'm me. I'm trouble. Maybe I'm too much trouble for one lifetime." Its then that Dorothy, her peppy and positive little voice in her head, starts in. You're not trouble. You're fire and passion and so is he. It's why you work. It's why you'll work forever. Fire can't burn fire.
Thinking of fire and passion … well it leads her down a different tangent. One that she is happy to take her time coming back from, with a sly smile on her lips.
"Where was I? Oh yeah, trouble. I'm trouble, but he's no picnic either. What if I'm the one who ends up leaving? What if it's too much for me and it turns out that I really am my father's daughter. Ouch… that was dark but it needed to be said."
She continues pacing with a loop playing over and over in her head. It looks like one of those YouTube clip videos of all of their best moments, and some of their worst. When making a big decision it helps to look at the playback. Playing back she sees everything that has happened. Campfires and smoothies, laughing and smiling, hearts beating wildly and yet so calm, first kisses and first … everything.
She knew it was love, that wasn't the issue here. The real conundrum was, is – is it enough? For her, for him, and for the universe that apparently sent them spiraling towards each other like comets in the distant stars so that they could collide and become them.
"How do I know we're meant to be or whatever?"
It was then that the universe, the same one that had sent them spinning and floating in space, brought her the answer one Maya Penelope Hart had been waiting for.
"Hey look what I picked up on my way home. Chimichangas! Da dada da!" Lucas sang-spoke as he came in the front door. He had a takeout bag from Paco's Tacos in one hand and a bright, shining, adorably dorky smile on his face. He placed the bag in her hands and graced her cheek with a gentle kiss. As he took off his winter pea coat and placed it on the hook next to hers, Maya just stood in the middle of the living room, eyes wide. Lucas finished hanging up his coat, turned around and immediately noticed the surprised look on his girlfriend's face.
"What? Did I not get enough? I swore I told Paco to give me…"
"Marry me."
The words just came spilling out of her mouth like they were a beast she couldn't contain any longer. Not as much as a question, but instead a statement. That's how sure she was. There was no fear in her heart – only love for the amazing doofy cowboy who loved her back with all his heart. And brought her chimichangas.
Lucas was the one with a surprised look on his face now. It only lasted for a second before he immediately reconnected his brain to his mouth and replied.
"Okay."
Maya smiled bright.
"Okay. Then let's dig in, I'm wasting away over here Huckleberry."
"Come here." Lucas grabbed the food bag out of her hand before pulling her in for a kiss. They needed some way to seal the deal without I diamond.
"So we're really doing this then?" Lucas spoke as they pulled apart.
"Yeah. Sorry I didn't have time to get you a ring. You brought me Mexican food, it just kind of slipped out."
"Yeah? Well that's okay. I uh … I actually have a ring. For you, not me. It's in my sock drawer."
"Shut up!" Maya said running into the room and returning with the small leather box in her hands. She opened it and began joking around.
"Oh well look at that. We have a problem here Ranger Rick. I can't possibly accept this ring it's too small. The one Farkle gave me when we were fourteen was much bigger and that was a pity diamond. This is the real deal rock." She said sliding the ring on her finger.
"Okay, so let's just take this one off and I'll go rob Farkle." Lucas joked back as he reached for her left hand.
"I'm never taking this ring off as long as I live." She said "It's perfect. Like the size of a Huckleberry. It's my huckleberry diamond." She said as she took Lucas' face in her hands, initiating another magnificent kiss.
After all the kissing was done Lucas ran into the kitchen to set the table for their celebratory Mexican feast. As Maya watched him bustle around the kitchen, another playback moment ran through her mind. This time it wasn't about their relationship. No this went back much further, to before even her Riley days.
She had been sitting in the kitchen with her grandmother. Gammy was showing her the diamond ring that her grandfather had given her when they got engaged.
"What do you think?" Gammy asked as little five year old Maya held the ring up for inspection.
"It's a little … small." Maya replied as Gammy took the ring back from her and placed it back on her finger.
"Well it's not the size that matters. Remember Maya, the boy should be the diamond. That's what's really important."
Maya never forgot her grandmother's words and smiled fondly at the memory as she beamed at her real Huckleberry diamond. The one that she was sure would last forever.
THE END