Hi, guys! I've decided to start a story about Josh and Maya! Don't worry, there will definitely be other characters involved! However, it's set in the future!

Now, please take note that I'm not sure if all of my facts about the colleges are correct, but I'd appreciate it very, very much if you'd just go with it! :D

.

.

.

.

Control Your Actions, Darling

The chandelier hanging from the ceiling made a beautiful chiming sound as the cool air from the A/C unit circled around the room; causing the tiny jewels to cling together. The walls of the elegant restaurant were a light crème color and the paneling was a lighter shade of beige. And the paintings on the wall—my, they were stunning. She didn't know what any of them meant, however, she was sure there was some type of emotional meaning behind the colors and canvas'. Though, she did like to think some of them related to her, like the one that was only lines of colors that were all different shades varying from a dull grey color to a vibrant teal color. She wasn't sure how that painting worked its way into her life emotionally, but for some odd reason, it spoke to her on a personal level; like it knew her pain and understood her struggles.

Goodness, the people here were far too classy for her taste. The men wore crisp, ironed suits with shiny dress shoes that would reflect almost any object you held in front of them. Oh, and the women—suddenly, she felt ashamed to look just like them—they all wore extravagant dresses and at least three inch high heels. While the other women in the dining area of the restaurant wore dull colors like a dim yellow, pale purple, and dark beige, she wore a rusted gold dress that brought out the microscopic gold specks in her irises. Her date, who sat across from her at their glass table, wore a black suit and a slim, dark grey tie around his neck. How could he afford to rent a suit—let alone take her out to a restaurant like this one—on a salary like his? Or maybe he owned the suit. She was now questioning whether or not if she had ever seen him in something like this. She never really went to any fancy events with him, so she couldn't be positive if he owned this suit or if he rented it and had to deal with the armpit sweat stains from its previous renter.

She finished off her last sip of her second glass of champagne. The restaurant was practically giving them away on a silver platter—oh wait, they were giving them away on a silver platter. She lifted her eyes off the stunning scenery of the room and glanced at her date. She then realized that he was only half way through with his first glass while she was downing them like a trucker. Embarrassed, she refused the next offer of free alcohol from the overly polite waitress.

"No thank you." Maya Hart whispered as she stared at the thin, crocheted table cloth that laid over the other silk table attire.

Her fingers twiddled with the edge of the lacy cloth as the waitress seemed to notice Maya's change in mood. She hadn't turned down a drink all night—she even seemed eager to take one…or two—and now she was acting as if it was the plague.

"Maya," Joshua Matthews chuckled wholeheartedly as his eyes flashed with amusement. "You can have as many as you'd like."

"But, you haven't even finished one!" Maya protested.

Josh diverted his attention from Maya and turned to face the waitress who stood patiently waiting for them to decide their actions. Her face remained calm, Maya noticed. She was glad she wasn't irritating the service here, she didn't want to get kicked out because of her picky attitude.

"If you wouldn't mind giving us a moment to look over the menu, we'll be ready soon." Josh politely said to the waitress who expertly held the platter on the palm of one hand; trying to rid of her presence for only a minute or so.

"Of course," The woman smiled sweetly at the both of them. "Take all the time you need."

"Thank you," Josh flashed a toothy smile.

The waitress nodded her head and walked away to serve another awaiting table a few glasses of champagne.

"Maya," Josh continued as he leaned closer to the middle of the table—closer to Maya—and rested one of his hands over one of hers. He opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a puff of warm breath. Waiting for another second, he tried again. He sucked in a breath and finally said what he had wished came out thirty seconds ago. "The only reason I'm not rushing on the alcohol tonight is that I want to remember my first date with the gorgeous, witty, fun Maya Hart."

Maya could feel her heart melt at his words and she maneuvered her fingers around to lace them through his own. Her cold, icy ones felt relief against his warm ones.

"Josh, I-I…I don't know what to say." She could feel the corners of her mouth pull upward. Was she smiling? No, no, it was more than smiling she realized; she was grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you…very much."

"Anything for you, Maya." Josh mirrored her grin and gripped her hands a little tighter.

He stood slightly form his chair and leaned across the table.

What was he—?

And then it happened. And she never even had a warning. These types of things should come with a warning label, seriously.

Joshua Matthews kissed her cheek ever so lightly and let his soft lips linger on her blushing cheek for just a moment. If he hadn't been in front of her and leaned directly across the table, she might not have noticed him press his lips to her face; it was so light and soft and almost unreal. Her breath hitched in her throat when he pulled away. His face came so close to her's she thought he might lean in and kiss her on the lips; sadly, he did not; he just sat back down in his chair.

Wanting to replay that specific moment again and again—forever even—, she closed her eyes, cherishing it.

.

.

.

.

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

"No," Maya groaned and shoved her face into her dark grey and purple pillow case.

It was just a dream.

Five years later and Maya still had an extremely passionate hatred for alarm clocks. She pulled her face from the pillow and reached over to pick up the digital clock. 9:31 am. It read. She had an hour and a half until her pre-law class began. She threw the sheets and comforter off of herself and sat on the edge of the bed. The sun barely crept into the room from the guarding curtains that hung over the window. She swung her feet for a few seconds, her toes barely even touching the hardwood floor beneath her. She knew she had better go and get into the shower or else she would be running low on time, but she suddenly felt so comfortable…and sad. How could that have only been a dream? It had felt so real, so believable. Her emotions and feelings were all jumbled and tangled up. All she could do was sigh.

Suddenly, she got the courage to leave the comfort of her bedroom. She walked down the hallway and on her way to the bathroom, she pounded on the door across from hers and shouted her way down the hall.

"Riley!" Maya screamed, not caring if the rude people next door heard her; she didn't care. "Get up or you're going to be late!"

Maya never stopped to look back, she made her way to the bathroom and closed the door, locking it afterwards. She pulled her towel off of the back of the door and slung it over the light lavender colored curtain. She pulled the curtain back slightly and reached forward to turn the water on. She turned back around and stepped over to the sink. She began splashing cold water on her face while the water heated up in the shower. After she threw another few handfuls of the icy water that fell from the faucet onto her face, she looked into the mirror. It had begun to fog and that was when she noticed the steam hovering above the shower.

"Maya, I've been up for hours! I'm only waiting on you!"

Maya heard Riley yell as she undressed herself to get into the shower. Yeah, she kind of figured Riley was already awake, she rarely ever had to wake her up in the mornings; it was Riley that usually had to scold Maya for oversleeping.

She threw her dirty pajamas in the hamper that was overflowing with both of the girls' clothes. Then she got in the shower and the heat of the water woke her up completely.

.

.

.

.

Maya eventually emerged from her bedroom fully clothed, make-up applied, and her hair let down in their natural waves. Her backpack felt slightly heavy on her back. She remembered her laptop this morning, which added to the weight of her pre-law text books.

"Riley, I'm ready!" Maya said while she walked down the hall toward their living area of the apartment.

She stepped into the room and she saw Riley speaking on her cell phone. Maya didn't say anything more—not wanting to disturb her conversation—and walked to the kitchen that opened to the living room. She might as well eat breakfast before they go to class; her substitute professor would drone on and on about rules of the court and objections she already knew about. She let out a small sigh as she made her way to their stainless steel refrigerator. The opened the fridge portion of the large contraption—really, it was quite huge; taller than Maya herself; which she obviously wasn't happy about—and scanned her eyes over what little food they had.

Leftover spaghetti?

No.

Leftover macaroni?

No.

What was that still doing in there? Maya reached forward and pulled out a container that used to withhold Riley's mother's delicious casserole. She flipped it over and noticed the discoloration and fuzz beginning to grow underneath the two-week-old food.

Eww, gross.

Maya didn't bother cleaning out the Tupperware container, being fully aware of how impossible it would be to get the grime off of the container itself. She walked over to the waste basket in the corner and stepped on the floor petal, dropping the whole thing into the white trash bag. They really should go shopping for groceries. There was near to no food in their apartment and Maya was about tired of it. She had been living off the food from the café right across the street for almost two months now and, as much as she loved their food, it wasn't doing her and Riley any good to waste their limited income on restaurant food every night.

"Maya," Riley sang as she skipped into the kitchen. "Go put your bag away."

Maya knew she wasn't finished, but she went to drop her bag in her bedroom. She could still hear Riley from down the hall.

"Was that Kelli? Did she say we didn't need our books today?" Maya yelled from her room. Then an idea popped into her mind and she gasped happily. "Is the sub taking the class to the courthouse today? Are we gonna see a real trial?"

Riley laughed at her best friend's guesses. When Maya appeared back into the kitchen and living room area with a hopeful expression clear on her face, she continued explaining what was currently happening. "No, we're going out to lunch with Uncle Josh!"

Uncle Josh. Maya realized. As in Josh, Josh. The very Josh she had dreamt about the night before. The same Josh she had feelings for, but always got crushed when he bluntly turned her down, stating they were too far apart in age. It obviously did not boost her self-esteem excessively. However, she learned to get over it…sort of. That dream last night hinted to her that her feelings haven't completely vanished, but what could she do? Her feelings were clearly not returned and she knew they never would be.

Recently, Maya and Riley had been spending a lot of time with Josh. Both of the colleges Maya, Riley, and Josh went to were both in Manhattan, but Josh's school was in Lower Manhattan and the girl's school was in Upper Manhattan; however they only lived about a twenty minute subway ride from each other.

Josh got accepted to NYU on a scholarship and majored in Art and Literature, he told them he wasn't quite sure which he wanted to pursue in the future, so he decided to study both.

The girls both applied to Columbia and received acceptance letters. However, there was one thing Maya had kept from everyone; even Riley. When she was seventeen and just beginning to prepare for college, she applied to NYU, Columbia, and a few other schools close to their area.

Part of her wanted to attend NYU to expand her horizons, to go to a nice school. However, the other part of her knew Josh had received a scholarship there, and what would it hurt to see Joshua Matthews around the campus once and a while? ...Or every day. But when she received the rejection letter in the mail, she didn't tell anyone. The letter said she didn't have nearly enough academic activities for their expectations. Even though Maya was more bummed than she thought she'd ever be, she almost wrote a letter back to NYU practically telling them to go and screw themselves. She got over it though; the rejection from the school…not the many, many rejections from Josh. Although she promised she wouldn't give up on him that one game night at the Matthews' home—and don't take her for a fool, she saw the look he gave her; the roll of the eyes and the pursed lips and she knew that he thought she would never have a chance with him—, she was beginning to lose hope. After all, hope is for suckers.

"Oh," She finally replied to Riley. "Wait, Riley Matthews is going to skip class to go out to lunch?"

"It's only—" Riley paused to check her watch. "Eleven-fifteen, Maya. I don't have my first class until one-forty-five."

Oh, right.

It had completely slipped Maya's mind that Riley moved her class to afternoon because of her part-time job in the morning. She currently worked at the floral shop a few blocks down. The job didn't supply a large amount of money, but it was enough to get by with until they graduated. They lived in one of the many apartment buildings in the city of Manhattan; therefore they were surrounded by many convenient shops and restaurants.

"But your job, Riley! We need the money! Have you even seen the lack of food in our—"

"Maya, today is Tuesday!" Riley stopped her. "I don't work on Tuesdays and Sundays, I told you that!"

She did? When?

"I swear," Riley continued, but mumbled as she turned around to put her cell phone back in purse that laid on the marble counter. "You never listen to anything I say."

"Riles," Maya suddenly whispered.

Riley turned her attention away from her bag to look at Maya and she sighed. "Yes, what is it, Maya?"

"I had a dream about him last night."

Riley didn't have to ask. She knew who Maya was referring to. They often had conversations about this kind of thing, mostly when Maya is feeling down after they've visited with Josh. They usually ended in tears and several empty ice cream cartons.

"We went on our first date." Maya smiled through the tears that welled in her eyes. "Riles, the restaurant was so beautiful; I know it was only a dream…but it felt so real."

"Oh, Maya." Riley barely spoke above a whisper. Her voice was soft and sympathetic.

Maya had been struggling with her feelings for Josh for some time now and recently it had begun to get harder and harder for Maya to put them off and she struggled to keep them hidden. Well, no, not hidden, really. Almost everyone—again, no, pretty much everyone—knew of her unreturned emotions, but every single time it somehow came up in a conversation with Josh, he shot her down every single time. But luckily, it hasn't come up in about two and a half months, so he had absolutely no reason to reject her.

.

.

.

.

The bell sang loudly as Maya pushed the glass door of the café open. She held it long enough for Riley to grab ahold, then she let the bar go. She stopped right in the pathway of the door and searched the café for Josh. Suddenly, a light grey beanie fell into her line of sight and she immediately knew it was the young man they were looking for. Even five years later, and Josh could still pull off a beanie. She smiled softly to herself as she weaved through the customers that sat in the uncomfortable dining chairs. She didn't even look back to make sure Riley was following her.

"Josh," She spoke when she came up behind him.

Hearing his name being called, he spun around in his chair. His lips formed into a wide grin and his eyes flashed with what seemed to be happiness. He pushed his chair back immediately, causing the bottom of its legs to scrape across the wooden planks of the floor, making a deafening sound. He stood and wrapped his arms around Maya.

"Maya," He spoke softly as he mumbled into her blonde hair. "It's good to see you."

"You too, Josh." Maya laced her arms around his neck and squeezed gently.

They pulled away after a couple of seconds and Josh noticed his niece standing behind the blonde girl he just let go of.

"Riley!" His voice grew louder and Maya expected the looks the people around them were distributing. "Little niece, come here!"

Josh hugged her tightly and rocked side to side, pinning her arms to her sides and most likely hugging the life out of her. Riley began to giggle and Maya was shocked to find that she could make some sort of noise through the crushing of her lungs.

"Hi, Uncle Josh." Riley tried to move her arms to hug him back, but all she could do was wrap her forearms around his lower back.

Maya took her seat across from the one Josh had been sitting in. Josh and Riley finished greeting each other and they joined Maya at the table. There was light chatter between the trio as they studied the menus, searching for a meal that looked the slightest bit appealing. Soon, the waitress came by and she looked quite familiar to Maya. Where had she seen her before?

"Can I take your orders?" She asked with a genuine politeness in her voice.

"If you could give us another minute that would be great." Josh smiled lightly.

"Of course," The woman smiled sweetly at all three of them. "Take all the time you need."

No, no, it can't be.

That was the woman in her dream. That was the polite waitress who worked at the elegant restaurant in her dream. Why would this specific woman be in her dream? Well, they did come here quite often, so there was no doubt that was the reason.

"Maya, did you hear me?" Josh broke her out of her thoughts.

She looked away from the spot the waitress was standing, however she was gone now. "Huh? What did you say?"

Josh cracked a smile and laughed lightly, making his chest rise up and down at a faster pace. "I asked, what do you think you're going to get?"

"Oh, um," Maya contemplated. She didn't really get a chance to look at the menu since she had recalled the events of her dream. "Just my usual, I guess."

"Yeah, me too." Riley agrees as she closed her menu and sat it in front of her.

Josh nodded his head in reply and glanced back down at his menu. He was deciding between one of the hamburgers or one of the salads. He turned his head to look out the window; it was raining today, so he decided to go with the salad. He had absolutely no idea why that affected his decision, but that's what he went with.

When the waitress came back around again, the three of them ordered and talked as they waited patiently for their food. When their meals arrived, the delicious scent was almost enough to make their stomachs growl. The conversation came to a minimum when they began eating their lunches. There were words said here and there, but the only sound that cold mostly be heard was the sound of silverware scraping and clinging against the porcelain plates.

After everyone's meals were finished, Riley looked at her watch.

"No!" She scolded herself. "It's past one, I have to go; my class starts soon and I still have to run by the apartment."

"Hey, it's totally cool," Josh nodded his head in understanding. "I'll take care of this."

He pointed to the bill on the edge of the table.

Josh stood from his chair to give Riley one last hug before she raced out the door. They both wrapped their arms around one another for a second and then let go. Riley pulled her bag off the backrest of her chair and looked at Maya.

"Whatever you have to do, do not let him pay for everything." Riley instructed clearly.

Before Maya could nod or reply, Riley was half way through the café and she didn't want to yell through the restaurant. So, she sighed and directed her attention back to Josh. He shifted his weight over slightly to retrieve his wallet from his back pocket.

No, Riley said not to let him pay.

"No you don't." Maya ripped the ticket out of his hand. Just in time too, she realized. He had just begun to reach for the pen at the end of the table.

"Maya, seriously, it's fine." He chuckled airily.

"No, Josh, you don't need to pay for all of this—"

"Maya, how many times have you and Riley paid for me before?"

"That is so not the point—"

Cutting her off once again, he placed his hand over hers in the middle of the table. "Maya," He looked into her eyes. "Please, let me pay today."

He grabbed my hand…just like in my—no, Hart, what the hell are you thinking? This is not your dream, you cannot tell the future, and he will not kiss you.

"Damn you, Joshua Matthews." Maya grumbled and moved her hand from under his. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked off into the distance of the café. Josh laughed and finally grabbed the pen, messily scribbling his signature on the bottom portion of the piece of paper.

"Would you at least let me leave the tip?" Maya questioned.

Josh chuckled and his nose crinkled up and the corners of his eyes wrinkled. She loved it when she made him laugh like that—even when it wasn't anything funny that she said—,she knew it was genuine as opposed to that fake smile that he gave the waitress just half an hour ago…and in her dream last night.

Ugh! Stop it! Quit bringing that up! It's never going to happen!

"You're hilarious, Maya, you really are."

Maya groaned and threw her back. This boy would be the death of her. He was way too stubborn for his own good.

"Josh, you're impossible." She spat.

Josh sighed happily and leaned back in his seat. "Oh, I try, I certainly do."

His words brought a smile to her lips and made her laugh lightly.

"Well, I should probably get going; I have to pick up some groceries on my way home." Maya stood from her chair and grabbed her purse.

"Do you want a ride?" He offered as he stood as well.

"No, no it's fine. It's way out of your way anyway." Maya waved him off as she pulled her purse up to her shoulder.

"You sure?" He asked warily.

"Josh," Maya laughed. "There's no need to go through all of the trouble of driving me to the market, it's okay."

"Maya," Josh spoke gently as he stepped a little closer to her. "It wouldn't be any trouble at all, I promise."

Maya thought for a minute. Did she really want him to go shopping with her?

Of course!

She was trying to suppress her feelings for him and he certainly wasn't helping her case. But if he did come that would make things so much more complicated for her, wouldn't it?

Yes, yes it would.

She sighed. "Fine, let's go, I don't have the time to argue with you."

Josh smiled triumphantly and motioned for her to walk before him. He kept up his pace behind her and rested his hand on the small of her back while he guided her out of the café.

She was definitely going to have to ignore those tingles that were sent up her spine and gave her goosebumps on her arms.

This was either going to be longest shopping trip she's ever been on, or the shortest.

.

.

.

.

Here's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and tell me what you liked and didn't like :)

Much Love,

Torispeace.