Girl Meets The College Years - Chapter 1
As Maya walked through Washington Square Park she looked at the changing leaves and couldn't believe that she and Lucas had been in college for almost two months. She smiled as she thought about the little routine they already had, meeting up first thing in the morning for coffee before they made their way to their core math class. And on Fridays they would alternate weekend sleepovers between dorm rooms. But the one that seemed to be the most frequent was when Maya would go to Lucas' dorm to complain about her freaky roommate Diane, which is where she was heading at this very moment. She arrived and climbed up the fire escapes that lead directly to Lucas' room. She tapped on the window before coming in, per request of Lucas' roommate Jasper. Neither of them wanted to relive the moment when Maya caught him changing after coming back from the gym. Speaking of the devil, Jasper was the one who greeted her at the window.
"Come on in, he should be back from the showers any minute."
"Thank you." Maya said as she came in the window and sat cross legged on Lucas' bed.
"You know most people use this thing called a front door."
"Yeah I know some people are so weird." Maya said completely ignoring him.
"Whatever, I'm running late. Bye." Jasper said as he practically ran out of the room.
"Peace." she replied not looking up from her nails she was fake examining. It wasn't that she didn't like Jasper; he just wasn't fun to mess with because his sense of humor was limited to dry sarcasm and ironic life observations.
As Maya waited for Lucas to come back from the communal showers she grabbed one of the magazines she left for this very occasion, and a few minutes later he finally returned.
"Oh hey." Lucas said as he closed the door and put his shower caddy back in the closet. At the sound of his voice Maya looked up from her magazine to see Lucas clad in nothing but a towel.
"That's how you walk around in the hallways?" she said cocking an eyebrow, the fact the dorm was co-ed didn't help her jealousy.
"Well not all of us have a bathroom in our dorms. Besides it's only like ten feet away."
"Yeah well, I still don't like it."
"Please, everyone knows that my girlfriend is the scariest, toughest, and fiercest girl there is. The girls here know better than to even look my way."
"Aww baby that is the nicest thing you've ever said to me, thank you." Maya said as Lucas came over and gave her a kiss hello.
"Anytime. So are you gonna go wait in the hall while I get dressed?"
"Seriously? We've been sleeping together for two years and you don't want me to see you naked? Hate to break it to you Huckleberry but I've already seen you in all your glory."
"You know a little mystery between couples is a good thing."
"True, but your butt is no mystery to me."
"Fine, so what are you doing here anyway? I thought we were meeting later." Lucas asked as he started rummaging through his drawers picking out clothes.
"We were but I couldn't spend another minute with that gothic nightmare."
"Oh come on, Diane is not that bad." Lucas said as he dropped his towel, causing Maya to lose her train of thought. She was enjoying the show so much she didn't even notice Lucas had said something until he called out her name.
"Maya?"
"Huh?" she replied in a haze trying to figure out when he had put boxers on.
"Stop ogling me like that, it makes me feel like a piece of meat."
"What'd you say pork chop?" Maya said as she tilted her head. Lucas threw his wet towel at her, making her to giggle.
"But seriously, Diane is starting to really freak me out." she said as she threw the towel back at him.
"What did she do?" Lucas asked as he put on a t-shirt and joined Maya on the bed.
"Okay well I think she might be in to me."
"What do you mean?"
"You know, in to me. Like girl on girl action."
"That doesn't sound so bad to me. Actually sounds kind of hot." Lucas said earning a shove from Maya.
"I'm serious, first I caught her with one of my bras; she said she was just picking it up off the floor."
"You do like to throw things on the floor." Lucas said pointing to the towel she just discarded on his carpet.
"Okay but she is always there when I come out of the shower in my towel."
"I'm sorry what? You were doing that to me a few minutes ago."
"And the other night I turned over in my sleep and she was just standing over me starting at me and when I asked her what the hell she was doing she just said 'nothing' in that creepy tone. I'm telling you something is up."
"I'm sure you're just overreacting. And even if she is in to you, so what? It's not like you feel the same way."
"No, but still. I feel like one day she's just gonna pounce. And Halloween is right around the corner I bet she has some kind of Wicca-Satan sacrifice she's gonna perform."
"Well I don't think you have to worry, usually they only sacrifice virgins."
"Exactly! What if Riley comes over?"
"Look, I'm almost positive that you just don't like her and you're gonna come up with any reason not to."
"Just you wait, when she kills me in my sleep and you walk in on her doing freaky things to my bloody corpse you'll be sorry."
Lucas just laughed it off but Maya was serious, Diane was definitely up to something.
Over the next couple of days Diane's weird behavior escalated. Maya caught her constantly staring with a look on her face that just said trouble. Finally Halloween arrived and Riley wouldn't be coming till later on in the night and Lucas wasn't coming for another hour. They were going to the big Halloween parade in the city. Maya was picking up the costumes, she had finally convinced Lucas to dress up in a western theme so she was a sexy saloon girl and he was a gun slinging outlaw. When she returned to her dorm building she noticed the hallways were eerily quiet. She made her way up to her floor and saw that the lights were flickering.
"Calm down, its probably just faulty wiring. Nothing to freak out about." Maya said trying to calm herself down. She walked to her door and saw that the lights in her room were out too. Starting to worry Maya ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, quickly changing into her costume. Once she was done she unlocked the door and let out a scream as it flew open revealing Diane with a flashlight.
"What the hell! You scared the crap out of me!"
"Sorry, I was just checking."
"Checking what?"
"That we were alone."
"Wait, what?"
"I need us to be alone Maya."
"Why?" Maya said almost afraid to ask.
"Because I don't need that boyfriend of yours barging in and ruining my plan."
Maya took a big gulp; this was all getting a little too much like some bad horror flick for her liking.
"Look I don't know what you think is gonna happen here but I'm not interested."
"Don't worry, you're not my type."
"What's your type?"
"Dead!" Diane screamed as she pulled her other hand out from behind her back to reveal the biggest knife Maya had ever seen. She let out a blood curdling scream as Diane dropped the flashlight and started swinging the knife around. She chased her all the way around the room before Maya finally reached the front door. She ran out and slammed it behind her but Diane kept beating on it. Maya knew that the moment she moved Diane would break free but there was nothing she could do barricade the door so she decided to make a run for it. Maya ran as fast as her stiletto heels would let her, all of a sudden running into a very solid pair of arms.
"Maya? What's going on?"
"Lucas! We have to go she's after me."
"Who is?"
"Diane! She tried to kill me we have to go get the police."
"No, you go. I'm gonna try and stop her."
"What are you crazy? Lucas?" Maya screamed but her boyfriend was already making his way back towards her dorm. Maya wanted to go get help but she couldn't leave without Lucas, so she ran back and just as she made it around the bend she could see Diane and Lucas at the end of the hall. Maya watched in horror as Diane backed him into the corner and stabbed him repeatedly before escaping down the staircase.
"No!" Maya screamed as tears filled her eyes and she ran towards Lucas' body.
"Lucas? Lucas!" she said as she cradled him in her arms.
"Maya?"
"Yeah baby it's me. Hold on I'm gonna go get help."
"Maya wait; I have to tell you something."
"What?"
"I… I…got you so bad." Lucas said standing up like nothing was wrong.
"What the?"
"Happy Halloween."
"Wait? This was all a prank."
"Yup and I couldn't have done it without my brilliant co-star." Lucas said as he pointed to Diane coming out of the staircase.
"Diane? You were in on this?"
"It's good practice for my acting class; we're doing 'Misery'."
"But? How? You two?" Maya asked still very confused.
"Look, you seemed really worried about Diane so I dropped by to talk to her and it turns out I was right you were making a mountain out of a mole hill. So we decided to teach you a lesson."
"I knew that." Maya said as Lucas rolled his eyes. "I was just playing along because of all the trouble you went through Cowboy."
"Sure you were. Now don't you have something to say to Diane?"
"Sorry for thinking you were a crazy lesbian killer?"
"Okay. I am a lesbian but you don't have to worry I'm leaving school to pursue acting full time. Goodbye." Diane said as she left to their room. Just as oddly as she had come into their lives was as oddly as she left. Turned out Diane had packed up all her things before hand and was literally leaving at that very moment. So Maya and Lucas had the whole room to themselves as Lucas changed out of his 'bloody' clothes and into his costume.
"Okay? You ready to go?" he said as he emerged from the bathroom in full outlaw attire.
"I didn't really know it was all a prank." Maya admitted quietly from her bed.
"I know." Lucas said in a soft voice as he sat down next to her.
"I was really scared."
"I know that too."
"Why would you do that to me?"
"Maya…"
"The more I think about it, I can't believe you would put me through that?"
"It was just a joke, Maya we pull pranks like that on each other all the time."
"This was different; you used my worries about Diane against me. Why would you do that to someone your suppose love and protect?"
"I'm sorry."
"I wish that was enough Lucas, I really do." Maya said as she got up and walked to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm sorry, I don't think I can do this anymore." she said walking out into the hall.
"Maya!" Lucas called after her, she watched as he put his head in his hands.
"Gotcha!" Maya said as she popped back into the room.
"I guess I deserved that." Lucas said looking relieved.
"Yes you did, and for future reference if you ever pull something like this again… you'll end up with some real stab wounds. Now, let's go Riley's waiting."
"Yes dear." Lucas replied as he followed Maya out the door.
Soon after winter break rolled around Maya was ecstatic when Riley invited her over for a sleepover like the ones they had when they were kids. It had been far too long since the last one, as Maya climbed inside she saw a very pensive Riley sitting in their bay window.
"Hello."
"Peaches!"
"Hi honey! I've missed you."
"Missed you more."
"I don't doubt it. So I am all ready for sleepover time, what do you want to do first?"
"Can we talk, like we use to?"
"Absolutely that's what the bay window is for. Anything in particular you wanna…"
"How did you know you were ready to have sex with Lucas?"
"Wow, okay just jumping right in here. Um, I don't know it just kind of happened. Is there any reason in particular your asking me this?"
"Well Farkle is back from MIT for the holidays and I was thinking maybe before he leaves we could … ya know."
"Well do you want to … ya know?"
"I don't know. I mean we've been together for a long time and I love him. But I'm not sure how I really feel about that? How did you feel?"
"Safe." Maya answered after a long pause. "It definitely didn't happen like how I imagined it would but with Lucas I always feel safe."
"How did it happen? We never really talked about it; in fact I don't think we ever talked about it?"
"Um well it happened in Texas right before our junior year."
"Well I know that."
"Right, um so Lucas and I got into a big fight at the campfire and I ran off. It started to rain so I ran into the barn with Lucas right behind me. We climbed up into the hay loft and we started kissing and then it just happened."
"Just like that? And you weren't scared?"
"I was terrified, but only because I loved him so much. I can't really explain it; we just both knew it was the right time."
"Did it hurt?"
"A little but Lucas was very gentle with me. Now don't get me wrong, the sex is a lot better now that we both know what we're doing, but that night was… perfect." Maya said as she smiled at the memory.
"So you just knew huh?"
"Yeah, and I'm sure when the time comes you'll know too. Don't rush anything if you're not ready."
"Okay I won't. Thank you Maya."
"Anytime. So any other questions?"
"Could you teach me…?"
"No."
"Okay."
Riley called Maya two days later telling her that it had been the right time.
"Riles I'm really happy for you."
"Thanks, so I guess we're both women now."
"Yup they'll send you your welcome packet in the mail."
"There's a welcome packet?"
"Goodnight honey."
"Goodnight peaches." Riley said before Maya hung up. She threw her phone onto Lucas' nightstand before turning over and curling back into his side.
"So Riley and Farkle huh?" he asked.
"Mhmm, those two crazy kids finally caught up with the rest of us."
"Well I'd say they're about a couple of million times behind us."
"Most likely, but honestly every time with you is just like the first time." Maya said stroking Lucas' cheek.
"Mhmm, perfect." He said as he took her hand and gave it a kiss before pulling her close as they relived that magical night in the hay.
After what seemed like forever, their first year of college came to an end. Finals were over and Lucas and Maya were on their way to Topanga's for a reunion/ end of the year party with their friends. But of course they wouldn't be Maya and Lucas unless they were fighting about something.
"How can you possibly think that?" Maya said as she walked into Topanga's.
"Maybe because it's the truth?" Lucas said right behind her.
"Seriously? I leave for Texas for a whole year I come back and you two are still bickering." Zay said greeting his best friend with a hug.
"Zay? You're a smart man tell me, even if a couple breaks up for a while when they get back together their anniversary would stay the same right?" Lucas said putting his arm around him.
"No tell him Zay, if a couple breaks up and gets back together then their anniversary is of that date because the time you were broken up counts." Maya said coming up on Zay's other side putting him between the two.
"I'm not getting in the middle of this." Zay said as he squeezed out from between the two and went to get a muffin.
"Are you two still arguing about this?" Riley said from where she and Farkle were sitting.
"Yes because today is our anniversary and Lucas is telling me that it's not for another month."
"That's because it is! Someone please back me up here?"
"Okay that's it. Mom! Dad! Can you come here please?" Riley said as she called her parents over.
"What is it Riley?" Topanga asked.
"Lucas and Maya are fighting over when their anniversary is."
"Been there, done that." Cory said joining the conversation.
"What are you talking about?" Maya asked.
"Well there was a time in high school where we broke up for a bit before getting back together and when we did we fought about what our anniversary was. I thought it was the day we got back together." Topanga said.
"While I thought it was the day we started going out to begin with." Cory added.
"So who was right?" Lucas asked.
"Neither of us."
"What?" They both said at the same time.
"We decided to pick a new day all together. And when we got married we just started celebrating that instead." Topanga said smiling at her husband.
"Why would you pick a new day?" Maya asked.
"It was actually Shawn's idea. So we picked a day and that was our anniversary."
"That's dumb." Maya said as Lucas nodded in agreement.
"Maya, if you want today to be our anniversary that's okay with me."
"No Huckleberry you're right. Our anniversary is our anniversary even if we did break up for a while."
"No it's today."
"No it's not."
"Not again!" Zay said as he finally came back thinking it was safe.
Lucas and Maya shared a look and started laughing before they both said,
"Happy Anniversary!" and shared a kiss. It didn't matter who was right or wrong, what mattered is that they were together and they always would be.
