Lucas' POV:
Of course both Riley and Farkle had to be out of town at the same time. Well more like, they were both out of town at the same place. Let me explain. It started on Friday…
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"Everyone take your seats." Mr. Matthews instructed as the bell rang. "We have a lot to do today." I took my seat as did Riley and Farkle and Maya. Maya was asleep in two minutes flat and I laughed silently to myself. She was such a funny person.
"Did the scores come, did they, did they?!" Riley immediately started squealing. A few weeks before our entire class had taken aptitude tests to see if we qualified for some summer internship at a science center up in Maine. Both Riley and Farkle had been counting down the days until the scores came back.
"I want that internship so bad!" Farkle hissed.
"Not as much as me!" Riley sang. Mr. Matthews slowly pulled a yellow envelope out from one of his desk drawers.
"They came!" both Riley and Farkle cried in unison. Maya snorted a little and sat up.
"What's the racket about?" she grumbled.
"Maya, the aptitude scores came!" Riley grabbed her best friend's shoulders and shook them.
"Stop right now or I'll hurt you." Maya growled. Riley let go of Maya.
"Someone's grumpy." I teased Maya.
"Someone should keep his mouth shut." Maya turned to me.
"All of you should keep your mouths shut!" Farkle turned to Maya and me. "I want to hear the scores!"
"Alright, alright." Mr. Matthews laughed. "I see some of you are very eager. Now I must remind you that this was our first year trying these aptitude tests and most of you did very well. I am pleased to announce that three of our students will be receiving scholarships to attend a science internship up in Maine with hundreds of other high test scorers."
"Read the dang scores!" Farkle slapped his desk. Mr. Matthews carefully slit the envelope open and removed a few sheets of white and blue paper. He stood at his desk silently for a few minutes looking over the papers as all of us sat in anticipation. Everyone was holding their breaths. Not everyone wanted the internship as badly as Farkle and Riley, but it would still be an honor. I was even hoping I might get it myself even though I didn't like science, I was more into history.
"Well well." Mr. Matthews smiled. "Looky here." He turned to Riley and held up a certificate. A deafening scream came out of her mouth as she ripped the paper from her father's hands and read it closely.
"Riley Matthews!" she cried. "I made it! I get to go!"
"And one for you." Mr. Matthews handed one to Farkle.
"I knew it!" Farkle yelled and held his certificate up high as if it were a trophy.
"One more." Mr. Matthews smiled. "Wanna make any guesses?"
"Just hand it out." Maya sighed.
"Sophie, here you are." Mr. Matthews handed Sophie Peterson a paper. "Congratulations." Sophie smiled.
"Thank you, Mr. M." she slid the paper gently into her backpack.
"Those of you who received certificates earned a scholarship. In a few weeks you'll need to make a small trip up to Connecticut to register for the internship. Talk to your parents and arrange to make that trip."
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Riley and Farkle were both up in New York registering for the internship. It was Saturday evening and I was sitting home alone with nothing to do. Normally Farkle, Riley, Maya and I would all go out for milkshakes on Saturday night. But without Riley as a common link, Maya hadn't said two words to me all weekend. Not a text, not a call. I sighed and checked my phone again. Just as I was about to put it down, it started to ring. I looked to see who it was. It was Maya.
"Hello?" I answered quickly. "Maya?"
"Ranger Rick?" a voice croaked over the line.
"Maya is that you?" I couldn't believe it was her. She sounded awful. "Are you ok?"
"Can it." She growled. "I'm fine."
"Are you sick?" I tried again.
"No!" she hissed.
"Why did you call?" I tried a different approach.
"Riley is gone." She started.
"I'm aware of this."
"Let me finish." She sighed and I heard her shifting around and fabric brushing up against the phone and what sounded like candy wrappers crinkling. "I need a favor."
"What kind of favor?" I got suspicious. She sighed again.
"Just a sec." I heard her drop the phone and rush off. And then I thought I heard her puking. I waited until I heard her pick up the phone again.
"Maya?" I used a softer tone this time. "You are sick."
"Sorta." She mumbled.
"I'm coming over." I got off my bed and walked briskly out of my room.
"No!" Maya cried. I stopped.
"Why not? At least let me bring you medicine." I started down the stairs and towards my front door.
"I didn't call for medicine." She reminded.
"What did you call for?" I was getting impatient.
"I'm sick, but not in the normal way." She explained.
"What do you mean?" I was confused.
"I'm the other kind of sick." She was trying to tell me something but I didn't understand.
"I'm so confused." I sighed.
"It's that of month, stupid." She whispered. My eyes almost popped out of my head. I had completely forgotten that that might happen to any of my friends.
"Uhhhhh." I was able to stutter.
"Oh gosh." I could almost see Maya rolling her eyes. "I need tampons." She sighed. "Riley isn't here. I can't move."
"You want me to get you some?!" I cried.
"I said I needed a favor." She grumbled.
"Maya I don't know- I can't- since when did you-" a million questions flooded my mind.
"Oh stop blubbering." She hissed. "I'm sick Lucas." I froze when she said my real name. Her voice was so weak, she sounded almost like she'd been crying. Something told me there was more than her period going on. I gave in. She needed tampons, and she needed help.
"Where's your mom?" I asked as I reached for my coat.
"Mom flew to Michigan, remember?"
"Oh, I forgot." I had forgotten that Maya's mom had flown to Michigan for a week for a funeral for her great uncle.
"Please hurry." Her voice cracked.
"I'm hurrying." I promised. "What store do you want?"
"I don't care. I just want Pearl."
"You want pearls!?"
"You are so clueless!" she cried. "The tampon brand Pearl." She explained.
"Ok ok I got it." I nodded. "I can do that."
"Oh and the size." She remembered.
"Size?"
"There are different sizes, dummy."
"I knew that." I lied.
"I'm a lite."
"Lite? Like the size?" I clarified.
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" she growled.
"You must be super tight." I let the words slip before I had thought. Immediately a huge blush crept to my cheeks. "I didn't mean…."
"Just get the stupid things and get here." I heard her cut me off and then rushing back to the bathroom. She hung up quickly. I slid my phone back into my pocket. Wow I really needed to learn to think before I speak.
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I decided to stop my Fred Meyer on the way to her apartment. I found the aisle and quickly started scanning the shelves for the words 'Pearl' and 'Lite'. This was embarrassing and I didn't want anyone I knew to see me in this aisle.
"Aha!" my eyes landed on a box that said 'Tampax Pearl'. I grabbed it quickly and rushed over into the food department of the store. I stopped and bought a tub of chocolate fudge brownie icecream (which was Maya's favorite) and some whip cream and strawberries (which Maya also loved) and purchased those along with the tampons. The clerk didn't even look twice at me as he bagged the items. I thanked my lucky stars it had been that easy. When I reached Maya's apartment, I decided to go to the window instead of the front door so she didn't have to walk far to let me in. But it turned out that her window was already open.
"Knock knock." I poked my head in. I stopped when I saw her huddled under a pile of blankets on her bed, a heating pad cord snaking its way from the wall outlet to under her blanket pile. A cup of water was next to her bed and her blonde hair was tangled in knots.
"Who is it?" she whimpered.
"A burglar. Give me all your money." I joked as I climbed into her room.
"Not in the mood." She started to stir.
"I know." I tried to avert my eyes as I stepped over a lace thong on her floor. I didn't think of Maya that way. Ever. It sent chills running all over my body and I had to admit I got a little hard.
"Did you bring them?" and then her eyes appeared from under the covers. Her beautiful sea green eyes.
"There they are." I was thinking about her eyes.
"What?" she gave me a weird look.
"What? Oh nothing." I couldn't believe I had said that out loud. "You don't look so good." I sat down on the end of her bed and looked at her.
"I know."
"Not that way. You always look pretty. Just you look sick." Riley never flustered me. But it was just something about Maya that always made me lose my cool.
"I feel sick." She moved her hands to hold her abs and groaned.
"That can't just be your period. I think you have something else." I shook my head when I saw her pain.
"I get really sick sometimes when it's that time." She explained. "It's normal."
"Normal?" I grimaced. "Ouch."
"So did you bring them?" she asked again.
"Yes ma'am." I tipped my imaginary hat at her.
"Stop acting all cute." She rolled her eyes. "It will work for Riley but it won't work on me."
"I also brought you some icecream." I showed her the rest of the things I had bought.
"Ok so maybe you aren't all bad." She gave me a half smile.
"Well that's progress." I laughed.
"Whatever. You caught me in a weak moment." She defended herself.
"Could you say it again for my ring tone?" I held out my phone. Then she laughed. I hadn't seen her smile at all today and seeing her laugh and hearing it too made the trip to her worth it. But before anything else happened, a pained look crossed over her face and she threw back the covers. "What-" but she was already racing out of the room and down the hall. I dropped the grocery bag on her bed and raced after her, my protective instincts kicking in. I followed her into the bathroom and held her hair back when she started heaving. I rubbed her back and she didn't even try to stop me. After she was done, I reached up and flushed the toilet for her. She sank down onto the floor. I had never seen her like this. She was so helpless and didn't even care when I put her head in my lap and told her to lay down right there in the bathroom. "Maya I think something is wrong." I was still stroking her hair as she looked listlessly up at the ceiling.
"Ya think." She breathed.
"I think you need to go to the doctor." I prompted.
"I know I'm sick. I've had a fever for the past few hours." She sighed.
"Wait." My mind jumped. Fever. Stomach pain. "Where does it hurt?"
"Here." She put her hands on the side of her stomach and groaned. "The cramps are really bad."
"Oh Maya." I breathed. "Those aren't cramps. I bet you have appendicitis."
"Apendi-what?!" she sat up quickly and groaned and leaned back against the wall instead.
"Maya we gotta get you to a hospital." Realization was just sinking in as I looked at the sick girl across from me. I knew it hadn't just been her period.
"I can't move." She moaned as I held out my hand to help her up. And then the weirdest thing happened. She burst into tears. I had never in my life seen Maya Hart cry. I hadn't even imagined it. I mean she was just so strong and not emotional. And here she was, on her bathroom floor, sobbing. "It hurts so bad!" she grabbed my hand with her small fingers.
"Maya, take a deep breath." I coaxed and before she could protest I scooped her up in my arms. She looked so shocked. But not as shocked as I felt. I was holding a sobbing Maya Hart in my arms. This was an all time first for me.
"Hop-along, don't drop me." She managed to choke out as I maneuvered us out of the apartment and to the elevator.
"Don't plan on it." I smiled down at her.
"You know something?" her eyes were closed now and her sobbing had just turned to silent tears running down her cheeks as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"What?" I stepped into the elevator.
"If I didn't feel like death, I might've been tempted to kiss you right now."
"I think that's your fever talking." I laughed. "But I'd like to think it's not." I stepped out into the streets and started in the direction of the hospital. She was silent now, her breathing shallow and labored. I looked down at her and realized that even though I had always thought of her as a fighter, she was also just another teenage girl. She was small, vulnerable, and weak. She needed people in her life to look out for her and protect her. And I realized that I wanted to be the guy to do that. "Maya." I whispered as the hospital came into sight.
"Mm?" she grunted.
"You owe me."
"I know." She mumbled.
"But I think I know what you can do for me." I smiled.
"I'm incapacitated." She was barely able to speak.
"I just want your lips on mine." I spoke quickly and her eyes snapped open as I moved my head down and kissed her gently. She looked appalled. "That was your first kiss." I smiled as I saw the look in her eyes.
"Don't tell anyone." She closed her eyes again and a small smile broke out on her lips, but it was more of a grimace.
"I won't. I promise."