A/N: There are spoilers here for Upstate, also ignoring Ski Lodge as it has not come out yet as I write this. I am a little rusty on FF, I haven't written any for years, so sorry if it's not that great! I have come to love the idea of Josh and Maya and I wanted to write my own take on it. Here we go.
Prologue: Why I Really "Became" Riley
I was overjoyed when Shawn proposed to my mother. It was a good end to a very weird day, and I mean very weird. First, Riley accuses me of becoming her and then drags me to who knows where to meet up with Shawn to find the "real me," whoever she is. But the worst part about all of this is Riley still thinks that I lost myself because I liked Lucas, because I knew that Lucas liked Riley and I wanted the same type of attention. But that is not what happened at all.
"We are going to go out for a late night celebration Maya!" My mom shouts as I shut the door to my room after getting home from the Matthew's place. "We will lock the doors and don't let anyone in!"
"Bye Maya, sleep well!" Shawn calls, and then the door to our apartment shuts and I am alone.
I am alone to think about what everyone means when they say that I have lost myself, and I know that they are right. I haven't been the same in art class, I've dropped my style, and I've decidedly become nicer much to my chagrin. And again, they all think its because of the "crush" I had on Lucas, but they are so wrong.
I mean, it was about a boy, just not the boy everyone thought. It was about Josh, it had always been about Josh. The absent hot uncle of Riley Matthews my best friend. The boy I do not have a "crush" on, but have a longing for.
After the college party everything was different. I wasn't Riley's best friend who had a crush on her uncle anymore, I was a girl with feelings, and I think that scared him away. Why else would he have not come around for the New Year's Eve party, or our 8th grade graduation, or when Riley got a C on her Spanish test? Well, maybe not that last one. But it was all my fault Josh stopped coming around, and I needed to change that.
Josh thought I was a kid, too immature for him, and crazy too. But Riley, she was the perfect niece, and so kind and so unlike me that I thought if I changed how I acted maybe Josh would start to notice that I am more than a kid. But then, he still didn't come around for anything, and I got sucked into that stupid godforsaken "triangle" that only existed because Lucas was infatuated with the fact that I was Riley.
How could I have been so stupid? I let everyone catch on to me and now here I am, laying in bed, alone in my apartment, forcing myself to act like old Maya again. But I wasn't old Maya, I was new Maya. Old Maya was confident and wild and willing to speak her mind. New Maya was heartbroken, her confidence shattered because no one would take her seriously.
I stood up and looked in the mirror, pulling my faux leather jacket tighter around me. Embrace it Maya, I thought, They need to think that they fixed you or they will never leave you alone. I pulled out my cell phone, 11:30 pm. I scrolled through my contacts and paused when I got to the bottom: Uncle Boing. I tapped on his name just to see if I had the guts to change it to Josh Matthews in my phone, but I must have tapped too many times because suddenly I was calling him.
I froze, I didn't mean to do that, no! It was ringing when I finally hung the call up. Shit shit shit shit fuck shit, I didn't want him to call me back. I couldn't talk to Josh! He didn't know anything about what was going on here. I shut my phone off in a panic and threw myself face first down onto the bed. Well maybe he didn't notice...
I changed into my pajamas and got into bed, hoping that tomorrow I could be full fledged Maya, back to normal plus a little extra with the addition of Shawn to my family. Yes, tomorrow would be better, after all it was a Saturday and that's the best day of the week.
A/N: I know there is a lot more telling than showing in this chapter, but it is just the prologue to set up the story! Let's see where this goes!