So this is another update and I hope you guys liked the prologue. Some of the first chapters might be a little short because I'm still getting used to writing long chapters for the same story. So please, hang tight and I promise they will get longer. :)
A classic for today.
What do call cheese that isn't yours?
Nacho Cheese.
Hope you enjoy it. :)
The exams that the juniors all had to go through were stressful to say the least. The group of four (with the addition of Zay at times) handled the exams with countless hours of studying, countless amounts of study sessions and most importantly, countless amounts of empty pizza boxes and take out containers. They normally rotated in whose house it was for their grovelling and whining to start. This week it was Lucas' turn and Farkle, Riley, Maya and Zay had come over bringing candy and take out food with them.
The group of friends sat in the living room with each of them on their respective laptops looking at previous notes. Well all of them besides Lucas. His attention was focused on Maya and Maya alone. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her and it didn't help that Farkle was sending him secretive glances as a way of saying, 'Dude, can you try to be a little more discrete?.'
It isn't my fault, he thought.
He couldn't help but notice what she was wearing today. She opted for a simple outfit with simple denim shorts and a white tank top with a red flannel shirt on top. She was wearing her hair in a messy bun on top of her head and decided to wear her glasses because her contacts were annoying her, which was a rare occasion in Lucas' eyes. He loved it though. He loved how se could simple clothes and still look like the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on.
As he reluctantly got back to work (he didn't want to get caught), little did he know that Maya was doing the same thing to him.
Lucas thought that his feelings for Maya were one sided but Maya held the same feelings for him that he had since that very lucky day she started a 30 second relationship with him on the subway. She initially thought he was cute but none the less, a stranger on the subway. Nothing would come out of it. That was until she found out that he had transferred to the same school she went to with Farkle and Riley.
As soon as Lucas walked through the doors and into that history classroom, she knew her life would change and it did, drastically. She had a reason to smile besides being friends with Riley and it might have included the fact that she loved those little teasing moments throughout the day full of 'Bucky McBoing Boing', 'Hopalong', 'Ranger Rick' and the best one yet, 'Huckleberry.'
He was the first guy that she was infatuated with besides Josh. That was until Riley called dibs and Maya, being the best friend she could have been. She stepped back. She squashed those feelings into a small corner of her brain and refused to let herself acknowledge them. Riley was 'in love' with 'Mr Perfect' and Maya had to let her have him. Of course it hurt everyday. Seeing Riley flirting with Lucas and him reciprocating. Of course it hurt seeing them go on dates. Of course it hurt when they started going out as boyfriend and girlfriend back in freshman and of course it hurt when Riley came home to Maya and was so heartbroken that Lucas had broken up with her midway through sophomore year.
She didn't want to see her best friend's heart being broken but that little selfish part of her couldn't help but be relieved. Maybe there was a chance for her now. Her and Lucas. The broken girl and the moral compass. Until that chance was squashed when Riley told her why he broke up with her. Lucas told Riley that he couldn't be with her because he wasn't in love with her. He was in love with another girl.
Little did Maya know, the girl that Lucas was in love with was her! He couldn't handle having a relationship with Riley, who was one of his best friends, if he was constantly pining and dreaming of being with Maya. It was the worst thing he could do as Riley and Maya's best friend.
Maya was devastated when she found out. Why didn't anyone want her? Her dad had left before she could even make memories of him. Her mum was constantly working. The only constant parental figures she has were Shawn when he had started dating her mum and the Matthews.
Why didn't anyone need her? Was she that broken and ruined that no one desired her? It had hurt Maya so much that she closed off from everyone around her. For months, she couldn't handle the pain, the pain that came with someone you love, loving someone else. She threw herself into her art and painted extraordinary artworks that were put up for competitions and had won. Artworks that showed obvious emotions such as sadness, misery and angst. She was 16 years old and she thought her life was on the verge of the end.
Until one starry night in busy New York City, she was sketching on her bed with soft music playing when she heard a tap on her window. A tap so soft, if she had been concentrating, she would have missed it completely. She looked to her window and saw a tall figure with dirty blonde hair. Lucas.
She had hesitated, why did he come here? As she went to open to the window, he came rushing in. He was almost shivering when he sat below the windowsill waiting for her to tell him to get on the bed.
As she gave him no sign she was going to move. Confusion swallowed his features. He had noticed she had been closed off during the past few months, especially to him. He had no idea why though. He had patched things up with Riley and they agreed on platonic circumstances. Everything was back to normal. Except for her.
He simply looked at her. Until she started sobbing. Some of the most broken sounds coming out of her little mouth that normally was upturned in a smirk. Her words coming out jumbled and harsh. Her begging him for a reason as to why no one wanted her? No one needed her? As to why no one loved her? He couldn't fathom why she was thinking like that. He loved her. God damn it he wanted to tell her. He wanted to show her. Kiss her with such a passion that he left her trembling. He wanted to prove to her that he loved her with everything in him. But he couldn't. He didn't want to confuse her and it was obvious she felt nothing for him, which is what pushed him to date Riley. To date someone to just get his mind off of her. He knew it was wrong but he couldn't handle the feeling of wanting her but never being able to have her.
He didn't say anything to her besides his mumbling of sweet nothings in her ear. Mumblings of promises of love from their entire friendship group. Mumblings of promises of love from the Matthews, from Shawn and even from her constantly absent mum. Sometimes even whispering so quietly she never could quite grasp, of promises of his love for her.
That night was the first night of all the sleepovers they had. Where Lucas would crawl through the window and lie with Maya and they would talk until the early hours of the morning about his life in Texas to his broken childhood to his life in New York or when they talked about Maya and her broken childhood and her life in New York.
That night was the beginning of the friendship that forever entwined the two. The beginning of their endless love for each other that didn't come out in the open until much, much later.
That seemed so far from where they were now. Junior year, with Maya's head in his lap and him playing with her hair, long forgotten about the laptops left astray.
One by one, the other friends trickled out claiming it was too late to study anymore and thanking Lucas for holding it as his house. One by one they left until it was Maya and Lucas.
Maya yawned and stretched her hands above her head, which left a sliver of pale skin peeking from under the hem of her shirt. Lucas' eyes travelled to that piece of skin and only wondered what could be underneath.
As Maya stopped yawning, Lucas directed his attention to his now shut down laptop.
Maya whispered sleepily, 'Come on cowboy, let's go to bed.'
As Lucas followed, all he could think about was how if they were in a relationship, his version of bed would involve a lot more touching.
