I Fell For Her In The Summer
A Josh & Maya story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Rated: K+
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: The title comes from a quote from a book called Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.
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I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl.
Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater_
Maya tasted like lime popsicles and Coca-Cola, her lips were cold and her cheeks were warm from being outside all day long, Josh was pretty sure she would be sunburned later because she had run away from Riley and her industrial sized bottle of sunscreen the whole afternoon. When somebody started to set off fireworks across the lake, she pulled away, startled by the noise.
She looked at him in surprise, her eyes wide in the light of the moon and the pink and blue colored fireworks goin off the dark sky, they were surrounded by seventies music, the fizzy electric guitars and drums played in time to both of their heartbeats, seeping into their veins, the song thrummed in their heads over and over. Life can be short or long, love can be right or wrong. . . and if I chose the one I'd like to help me through, I'd like to make it with you.
"Maya. . ." he replied, breaking into the train of lyrics that had been running through his mind.
Maya released a long breath and turned around, intent on finding Riley and avoiding him for the rest of the night. Josh was tempted to follow her, to apologize for acting on the impulse that he had been fighting ever since they had all arrived in Philadelphia but he found that he was frozen in place, completely unable to chase after her. Besides, he wasn't so sure he would be able to apologize anyways. The only thing he was really sorry about was that he hadn't kissed her sooner.
Maya had hardly walked a foot away from him when he sprang into action and sprinted after her. He grabbed her by her vintage print kimono and spun her around to look at him.
"Josh, I need to find Riley," she said.
"Don't you love me anymore?" Josh asked.
Maya looked stunned but she recovered quickly enough and put her hands on her hips, looking at him sternly... "That's such a silly thing to ask! What sort of question is that Joshua Gabriel Matthews? You better be joking!"
"Just answer me," Josh said, "Don't you love me anymore? Because I still love you."
She softened immediately. "Oh Josh. . . this whole summer would have been pretty pointless if I still didn't love you!"
It was all the answer he needed. He framed her face with his hands, slid his fingers into the sides of her hair and kissed her again. The party, the fireworks and the music, the frogs ribbiting and the lapping lake all sounded faded into the distance. It felt like a scene from one of the Hollywood movies Maya had watched one too many times with Riley.
This particular scene had been in the making since Riley and Maya had arrived in Philadelphia at the start of summer. Josh had opened the door for them, realizing like in the lines of a Taylor Swift song, that she wasn't a little girl anymore.
The change in the atmosphere between them hadn't gone unnoticed by their friends and family. There was exchanged whispers of finally and it took them long enough as they stumbled out of friendship and into something more.
It had been completely innocent, holding hands in the dark movie theater while they watched one blockbuster after the other and flirting shamelessly over shared French fries and Coke floats at Chubbie's.
He had never felt this giddy in all of his life. Requited feelings were quite different from the bitter pill of shooting down a fourteen-year-old girl because of a pesky little thing like a three year age difference.
It had been the most perfect summer of her life. And now on Labor Day weekend, hours before they all had to leave for New York, it had culminated in their first kiss ever and then a second one. Josh hoped in the hazy parts of his mind that it wouldn't end when summer did.
"I love you," Josh repeated.
Maya laughed. "You don't know how long I've waited for you to say that!" She finally admitted.
"No. You don't have any idea how long I've waited to say it," Josh told her. "And it was even longer than you showed up earlier this summer."
"This isn't going to end when the school year begins?" Maya asked.
"I don't want it to end. Do you?"
Maya shook her head and nestled closer to him, resting her forehead against his. "No. No, I don't want it to end. I've waited for this since the day we met. There is no way I want it to end with summer, or ever. But maybe it's a little too soon to talk about ever. . . or even forever. . . I sound like Riley right about now. Don't I?"
Josh laughed. "Just a little bit."
"I'll stop."
"Good. It was heading into weird territory," Josh teased.
Maya laughed and then she was the one to initiate the kiss because now that she had started, she didn't want to stop especially since it was with him. "We better get back to the picnic," she said against his mouth. "I think people are going to start wondering where we are."
"Nobody's called us yet," Josh said. "They will when they start to worry about us."
"I'll bet you anything Riley is looking for us right now with her industrial sized bottle of bug spray," Maya answered.
"You're probably right," Josh agreed.
"Maybe we should go and find her, save her the trouble of having to look for us."
"Just give me a few more minutes; I feel like I haven't had you alone all summer long."
"We were alone," Maya answered.
"Hardly. Riley and Auggie were there every time we turned around and then Lucas was there on the weekends," Josh reminded her. "And when we were alone, the three of them were never far behind. Just give me five more minutes, ten tops. . ."
"Okay, okay," Maya agreed. "Ten more minutes."
A Johnny Rivers song had started to play in the distance and Josh started to sway with her in a slow kind of dance. It was one of the things he hadn't done with her yet. When he had his prom, she had been too young for him to take. When it had been her turn, he had been too chicken to ask her because he hadn't wanted her to be the only girl with a college aged date. It had backfired on him though, later on, he had found out that she had wound up not going at all.
"You do realize my mom and Shawn danced to this at their wedding," Maya told him.
"Ooops?" Josh replied. "Don't worry; I'm not going to deem it our song or anything. We'll have plenty of time for that later on. Just enjoy the moment for now; this is something else I've wanted to do for a very long time."
Maya's face lit up. "Me too!"
"I'm sorry it took me so long," Josh whispered.
Maya shook her head. "Don't be. It's better late than never, let's not dwell on things in the past. I want to focus on our future."
"Our future," Josh repeated. "I like the sound of that."
He was about to kiss her again when they heard Auggie calling for them.
Maya bit her lip and untangled herself from Josh's arms. "I guess we're being missed now," she said, smiling at him.
"I guess so. We better go see what he wants," Josh said, sliding his arm around her waist and pulling her closer.
"Okay," she agreed, looking up at him and smiling as she found his hand and intertwined their fingers.
He returned her smile as the rejoined his family to close out the last few hours of summer with them.
_The End_
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Author's Note II:
This was originally going to be a 4th of July story and then the 4th passed and this story was no longer relevant. So, I tweaked it a bit and made it a summer story instead. I hope you all enjoyed it. I tried to capture my feelings of summer in it; I don't know how well I did. The two songs that I mentioned in the story were Make It With You by Bread and Swaying to the Music by Johnny Rivers. I hope you'll tell me what you thought in a review.
Until Next Time!
Love,
Holly, 7/27/2015_