A/N: Ok so this is honestly a little bit of a filler chapter… but it's fun and kind of sets up some stuff for later. So enjoy!
I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.
Chapter 3: "The Start"
Of course it took me forever to pack. Maya FaceTimed me when she got home and insisted on asking my opinion on every single piece of clothing she packed. Before either of us knew, it was already almost 3 in the morning. Knowing we had to meet at Farkle's early in the morning, I reluctantly hung up the phone. For the most part, Maya seemed distracted from her break-up with Josh. Of course, she brought it up during our FaceTime. I tried my best to keep the vain in my forehead from becoming too evident. Hearing her be sad over that guy never got easier. But then she would smile or laugh and I would feel an instant relief to my anger.
In the morning, I cut it pretty close to the 10AM call time Farkle had set. My late night conversation with Maya made me forget to set my alarm for the morning and I woke up late. With just a couple minutes to spare, I walked up the block to Farkle's building. From down the street, I could see Zay and Maya stand on the curb talking. Maya had a coffee in her hand and was swirling the cup around, taking small sips every now and then. Farkle suddenly emerged from the front door of the classy apartment building. He was the first one to look in my direction and see me.
"There you are!" he exclaimed relieved. Zay and Maya turned to look at me lugging my bags the last few feet until I was in front of them.
"We didn't know if you were going to show up," Maya joked. She reached over and grabbed another cup of coffee that was sitting of the roof of the car parked next to the curb and handed it to me. "I brought coffee for everyone. As a little thank you for letting me crash your boys trip." I had told her a thousand times she wasn't 'crashing' anything. We all loved having her around, she was our best friend, how could we not? From the looks both Farkle and Zay gave her, I could tell they had told her the same. "It might be a little cold now, considering you're late," she smirked.
"Alright we got to get going! My dad is letting us use one of his cars for the trip. Lucas put your bag in the trunk and let's go!" Farkle announced. I did as I was told and put my bag in the trunk next to the others. Farkle was about to put the key in the ignition when he looked startled. "Damn it! Hold on guys I have to go get the insurance papers from my dad," he said, starting up the stairs of the building.
Maya held out her hand to motion to him. "Wait! If you're going inside can I use the bathroom really quick? That coffee went right through me." She received a nod from the genius boy and went up the stairs with him. At his heels, she disappeared into the building with him. I got out from my seat in the back of the car and stood on the sidewalk. Knowing I would be in that car for the next few hours, I wanted to stretch my legs as much as I could. Zay apparently felt the same. He got out from his spot in the passenger seat and stood next to me. He had a particularly worrying smirk on his face.
"What?" I asked, worried for the answer.
"You invited Maya?" he answered, the same smirk remaining present on his face.
"You don't care do you?"
"No of course not! I love the little blonde beauty but it's just interesting." I knew where he was going with this. I had heard it all before from him. A million times to be specific. I ran my hand threw my hair, hoping he would understand my frustration.
"Zay, Maya is like my best friend. She was upset and I didn't want her to be alone while we were all gone. That's it," I explained. Maya and I had grown so close in the last couple of years.
"Lucas we're on this trip so Farkle can tell Riley how he feels about her. You're not going to tell Maya how you feel about her?" he asked.
"I got over Maya a long time ago. You know that," I tried.
It was lie, of course. I know that. Every time I truly thought I had gotten over any feelings I had for Maya in middle school or our freshman year, I would be proved wrong. I would be proved wrong by the intense feeling I got in my stomach whenever she smiled. Or how I would drop just about anything in the world to listen to her talk. We could talk about anything, that's just how close we had gotten. And we did talk about everything. Everything except how much I wanted it to be me that got to be with her.
Zay gave me a disbelieving look. I couldn't hide much from him. We've known each other since we were kids, but I didn't want him knowing about this. I had convinced him long ago that I was over Maya. While I was dating Riley freshman year I convinced him. But after the break-up, when Maya and I got closer, it got harder to hide it.
"You expect me to believe that?" he asked.
"Believe whatever you want, but I invited Maya on this trip to be a good friend. Because that is all we are is friends." Zay was about to speak when the door of the building was swung open and our two friends appeared, running towards the car.
"Alright we are officially 5 minutes off schedule! Let's go people!" said Farkle as he jumped into the driver's seat. The rest of us piled into our seats, Zay in the front and Maya in the back with me.
We were able to make up the tragic 5 minute schedule loss after a couple of sketchy drives down some ally-ways. But we soon made it to the freeway and were off towards our first rest stop. Only 3 hours separated us from being able to get out of the car for a little while.
Zay called dibs on having music played from his phone. It was mostly indie stuff with some rap songs thrown in. He had taken the courtesy of making a playlist for the road trip. At Farkle's request, and Maya's immediate thankfulness, he omitted from putting any country songs on the playlist. I mostly talked with Maya while Farkle focused on the road, muttering things to himself. He was concentrating on what he would say to Riley once he saw her. Zay sat in the front of the car, looking out the window, singing along to all the songs quietly.
I noticed Maya look down at her phone occasionally, typing messages. I would bet all the money I had that she was texting Josh. It wasn't a good conversation. Like I predicted before the trip even started, my first priority became Maya. Leaning down, I reached into her bag and pulled out Maya's white polaroid camera and started snapping pictures of everything, listening to her laugh at all the pictures.
For what turned out to be almost 4 hours until we got to our first rest stop, I ignored the looks Zay was giving me from the front seat. It was hard to pretend I didn't notice them. They were pretty obvious. Thankfully, Maya didn't notice.
God I couldn't deal with him giving me side glances like he knew what was going on in my head. Not if he was going to be giving them to me the entire trip. My attention would be on Maya because she needed me right now, but I just hope Zay wouldn't make me regret that.
A/N: Like I said, filler chapter. But the next chapter has some major cliché rom-com moments so get excited for that! Lol
Thank you guys so much for reading! Please don't forget to review! Love you:)
