January 3rd 2017

Chapter 3
Her Departure From Friends

She wasn't going to pack. That would be admitting that it was real, and she was not going to do that. She had gone and sat on her bed, that was all. So far, her mother had made no attempt to come and speak to her again. She could hear her out there though, packing, no doubt. The way she was going about it, they could have been gone in days… No… Not doing it, not…

The knocking at her door came then, and she knew it wasn't her mother. She stood and went to open. Riley. The way she stared at her, all wide eyed and stricken, she had to have figured out what was happening as soon as she saw the state of things out there. At once, Maya had thrown her arms around her, and her best friend had squeezed her right back. Now the denial was all gone.

Riley, the Honey to her Peaches, bless her, had pleaded as fervently as Maya herself had done for this to have been a mistake, to not happen. She would have put her up right there in her room without a moment's thought. They would be living together and that would be that. Maya would have chosen this in a heartbeat, too, except it couldn't be and she knew it.

When Riley found out about her parents' part in all this, her initial reaction was of affront at the fact that her parents had known about and been complicit in this, and had Maya not held her back, she could have run right back home to give them a piece of her mind. Instead, they sat and she handed over the promised food, which was revealed to be a box of cookies. It would do just fine. Maya had gone through four before she could try and speak.

"She's not going to change her mind." Somehow it felt easier to say when she had to say it to her. Riley looked like she was trying to keep from crying, to be cool for her. All Maya had to do was let her see that she was already crying herself, and then the floodgates burst, punctuated between sobs and cookies.

Then there was another knock, not at the door but at the window. Maya turned to find a mop of hair sitting over a bright face that lost its smile the moment it saw her tears. She stood and opened the window, to Farkle's surprise greeting him with what might have been the most earnest hug she had ever given him.

"Who died?" he asked, looking from her to Riley and back. "Is someone dying?"

"I'm moving," she said it, watching the boy's expression shoot up and sink back down again as he processed the news. "To Texas." Without a word, he hugged her again, and she took it gladly. In a moment, there were Riley's arms, too. No more fighting left in her, she was going to take what she had left of them for as long as she could.

When she finally emerged from her room, it was with both of them on either side of her, looking as beaten down as she did, by the look her mother gave them. She had made progress in Maya's absence, which was not surprising, she guessed. They had that in common. They had to keep busy.

After Riley and Farkle had gone, Maya had asked the question she needed answered, maybe the only one. How long before they had to go? Her mother told her they would start the drive down there in a week. Most of what they would bring with them would be shipped out there the day before.

One week. As long as that could sometimes feel, she knew these last seven days in New York would all fly by, and suddenly she would be saying goodbye to this place, remembering this exact moment as though she had only just lived it.

With no better option set before her, she had grabbed a pair of boxes and dragged them back to her room. She stood there in the door, looking at it while it still existed this way, before she had to tear it all down. She wanted to remember… all of it.

Soon, instead of packing, she was sitting on the ground, there in the door, with a pad of paper and a pencil. She had started to draw it all, as close to reality as she could make it, and it was a surprise even to her that she was succeeding. She had not felt so at peace since she'd come home as when she sat here and looked at the image she was putting together.

In the days that would follow, she would come to repeat the exercise time and again. She drew the view from her window, her school, Riley's bay window, her mother's diner… She drew her friends, those people who had been her world more than any one place or thing. They were what would make leaving the hardest, and she hoped they knew this, deep down. These pages she would take with her, would cherish for all that they represented.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners