One day that same week Eddie stormed into the room cursing, his cheek swollen, and his eyes red.
"Fuck, fuck her, fuck her, fuck everyone!" he yelled to no one in particular.
Josh had just finished studying and was laying on his bad, checking his phone.
"Woah, everything ok there?" he ventured.
"Fuck, fuck just fuuck? ok?" Eddie grunted as he slapped the wall.
"Ok..." josh pursed his lips, and went back to checking his twitter.
"It's Maya." Eddie explained, "She's fucking crazy!" he exclaimed.
"No kidding" Josh muttered. She was crazy enough to fool around with you, he added silently.
"She's a fucking loon, I mean I thought we were having a good time, you know?" Eddie breathed, "all of a sudden she doesn't want to talk to me anymore, I go to ask her what the fuck changed her mind, and she tells me not to overthink it and shit!" his voice was rising by the word.
"Me? Overthink, no! I do a lot of things joshie, but overthinking is not one of them! we both know that" Eddie faked a laugh, "So I dig a little deeper, next thing I know she's screwing some other guy, can you fucking believe it?"
Josh was shocked. He didn't know why, this could easily be filed under 'things college Maya would definitely do', But he couldn't help his brow from furrowing and his disapproval from showing, this apparently had earned him a point.
"Exactly" Eddie shouted. "I walk in on them fucking, and shit goes down hill from there, everyone is yelling and I try to get her to talk to me, but she tells me to grow a pair and get over her? Like when was I fucking under you! Well..sex excluded" Eddie reminisced for half a second.
"So naturally, I flip!"
Naturally, Josh thought.
"Her guy starts to push me out of the room, dick hanging and all, telling me to back off, like im some sort of stalker that just wouldn't leave her alone!" Eddie shakes his head, laughing.
"Can you fucking believer that?"
Josh had no comments what so ever.
"So I sweep up what's left of my dignity and leave, ten seconds after I left I see the guy leaving too."
It was probably more than ten seconds; josh found it hard to believe that Eddie would just pack up and leave.
"So I take the chance to have the final world"
There we go. He was obviously waiting for her, josh had to admit Eddie does come out a bit stalker-ish in this story, but he just nodded along.
Naturally.
"I knock on her door, she opens it, but now that she doesn't have her fuck boy to stand in front of her she decided to play timid; can you fucking believe the manipulation, man? Fuck!"
"She says she's sorry, about what just happened and just couldn't keep up with me, it was her not me..shit like that.." Eddie had seemed to calm down.
"And she looked at me and I actually fell for it, you know? I felt so whipped it was pathetic of me, so for once; I tried to be the guy a girl actually wanted, said ill try my best to make her happy, and apologized if I ever tried to make her feel pressured to do anything she didn't want to do and stuff…and she shakes her head said she doesn't want to do this twice, so I lose it again I mean she was making fun of me, the bitch!" he slapped the wall again, "I felt so fucking angry I swear I would've broken her neck!" he shook his head. I really wanted to kill her right there, I swear!" he shook his head "like she would drop dead and I wouldn't care" he smiled a bit.
Josh was terrified; he didn't want to hear the end of the story anymore.
"So I try to grab her and she fucking punches me in the face, I shout and before I know it there was a crowd, I knew I wouldn't come off looking good, and I leave. For good this time"
"So you didn't kill her?" josh asked carefully
"Fuck no, she's not worth the jail time."
Josh didn't know if he should be relieved or terrified.
Now he really wanted new roommate.
That night josh couldn't sleep, he kept thinking about Maya, she wasn't 'different' as he had expected, it was like she was a whole new unrecognizable person, he could understand why Riley was so determined to pull the breaks on her, loose tracks will always cause a train wreck.
And Maya was as loose as they would come these days, so Josh twisted and turned, it was 3AM by the time he decided to give up on sleep. He opened his phone and started to check his social media. Maya had last appeared seven minutes ago.
The thought that she might be up drove away the last idea he had about sleep. She couldn't be up this hour, a lot of people check their phones in the middle of the middle of the night then go back to sleep again, it really doesn't guarantee anything,.
still…
He texted her.
Are you up?
It took about four minutes
Always. She replied.
What are you doing rn? No that sounded creepy josh deleted the text and tried a new approach.
A true college student i see.
I think the real question is what are YOU doing up, uncle boing? Maya texted.
Josh couldn't help but chuckle at his childhood nickname.
Cant sleep, wanna hang? Josh wrote he rolled his eyes at how really creepy that sounded. He had a bad habit of drafting his texts before actually sending them. Before he knew it a sneeze escaped him and his nose, his fucking nose hit send. Josh felt panic take over his body. Blood was rushing upward and he felt his mind go blank for a few seconds.
ahh, what a great cause of death.
Embarrassment.
Cool, im at one building's art rooms (F2:5)
He knew there was no way she meant anything she just sent; she was inviting him to what? Hang. After she ditched his niece and dumped his roommate?
He knew texting her was a bad idea, yet here he was, wearing his shoes, digging his own grave as he went to where Maya the fucking train wreck was.
Josh had arrived at the room; the door was closed, though he could see a line of light from underneath the door.
He knocked a couple of times, and quickly regretted it opening the door in a faster manner than what was originally intended.
Maya was there, clay in hand, sculpture on table, she smiled as soon as she saw him
"Hey." she sang
"Hey." he replied simply, josh pulled down a seat in front of her so he could observe her work better.
"Whatcha making?" He asked.
"You tell me." she raised a brow, smiling.
Josh tried not to show his falter, it's been years since he'd taken a good look at her. Maya had indeed grown up into a fine looking woman, but then he remembered her insides and subconsciously made a face.
He tried to play it off as if it was his reaction to the sculpture rather than to her.
"Hmm" He took a good look at the lump sitting in front of him "It's..a..an..abstract piece, addressing the social issues of our society, you know .." He bullshitted.
Maya laughed "My do you have an eye for art" She giggled. Maya had changed in terms of everything, but Josh swore her giggle remained the same down that small hiccup at the end. He couldn't help but feel disappointed she had turned into such a troublesome person.
He couldn't really pinpoint it really, but he felt that if he was to get involved with her in any way possible he would end up like Riley or Eddie.
Full of regret.
His gut was screaming at him to leave this room, to run away and never look back.
"Hello." Maya waved her hand In front of him "looks like you're feeling sleepy after all." Maya noted. She was standing right in front of him now, her hands were covered in gray clay, half dried he noticed. He doubted she would touch him.
Josh shook his head.
"Im fine, sorry I..I just..spaced out for a bit."
Maya raised a brow. A habit she seemed to do quite often, josh noticed. "Yeah, ok." she said before she sat on her stool again and started to massage her clay.
"If you wanna ask about Eddie I think this is your chance." Maya said, her tone hinted annoyance.
"Actually, I wanted to talk about riley." josh admitted.
"Oh." Maya said, surprised. Suddenly she was much more invested in her artwork than she was before. "What about riley?" she asked.
"She told me about your fallout, I just wanted to hear your side of the story." josh couldn't believe he was actually asking her about this, was he inhaling some of eddies second hand weed smoke?
"I doubt there are two sides to this story." Maya commented. Her eyes on her sculpture, though her hands had stopped moving several moments ago.
"Then you've got nothing to lose." josh raised a brow, " Im not gonna force you or anything" He assured her as he started to note her hands working the sculpture again.
"Did she tell you I slept with him?" Maya asked, her eyes on the clay.
"Yes." josh answered, not knowing whether or not it was a good thing.
Maya sighed and the room was quiet for a few seconds.
"I don't regret it." Maya said, and Josh felt twinge of hurt. "The fight, Lucas, the drugs, the parties…I really think I would do everything the same way all over again."
Josh nodded and Maya sighed, raising her hand to scratch her head, but refraining as she remembered the clay on her palms.
"I guess it started somewhere during our junior year? Im not sure" Maya raised a brow. "I remember that I was going to a lot of college parties that year, riley didn't like that." Maya smiled and she finally looked at josh instead of her work for once, josh nodded.
"I remember smoking, drinking, experimenting with drugs..amongst other things.." she smiled to herself. "Everything was in the name of good fun." she reminded herself.
"But Riley wouldn't have any of it, at first I started hiding things from her, but I just felt so suffocated. Every drag I took, every sip, every kiss.. was just waiting to be judged by Riley the great Mathews" Maya's voice was calm. Everything sounded so monologue-d as if she had practiced it a hundred times in front of her mirror..and who is to say she didn't.
"Its not like I didn't know what I fucking doing? I knew how to handle myself, but with her I would feel like a child, as if the whole world was black and white right or wrong good or bad, so one day I wake up, decide to stop hiding shit from her, she just had to take it or leave it..of course she couldn't let it go and went crazy on me, threatening to tattle..like we were in fucking first grade?" Maya sounded appalled but her voice was still calm as it ever was.
"So she did, and at first I was so angry at her, I felt so betrayed and 'how could she do this to me, I thought we were friends', and shit like that, you know?" Maya glanced at him. To that josh nodded. "So I shut her out…during my suspension time I had never been so relieved during my entire life." she shook her head, still working on her peace "I never really knew how suffocated she made me feel, I felt so free and I really thought I was the shittiest person on earth." She smile again, it was a sad smile, but it wasn't like the laugh riley had the other day, it was the kind of smile you make when you apologize to your mother for making her cry. Maya wasn't feeling regret towards riley, she was feeling regret towards herself, and how cruel of a person she was, but she was herself.
"After my suspension I told her to grow the fuck up." she smiled, it wasn't a sad smile anymore, but it wasn't a sincere one either.. Josh couldn't pinpoint her feelings. "And the whole situation was so fucked up because everyone had to pick sides and her own boyfriend told her that she shouldn't have done what she did, I can only imagine what a slap to the face that was." Maya wasn't smiling anymore. "It was this huge fight, the whole school was there for their breakup, then riley got bullied for tattling, and I got bullied for being..well..me, and that's that." Maya put her hands together indicating that she has also finished her model. It looked like two hands one on top of the other. Josh was impressed that she was able to make something this professional looking.
He wanted to ask her more about Lucas, but he knew that he was already on pretty thin ice. "Thanks for telling me." He managed to say. "Wow" Maya said, "I see you're taking how to make things awkward 101.″ Josh laughed a little too much.
"Man would I get an A." he laughed.
Maya washed her hands and asked him how things were with him, and he told her more than what she probably wanted to her, and things went on like that for a while before he knew it a bald headed man walked in on them, "Take you places please." he said sternly.
"Oh we're not in this class." Maya assured him, "we were just leaving.", Josh apologized and left the room right behind Maya.
"How could it be morning already." he said as he walked beside Maya.
"Time flies when your talking about what kind of supernatural creature you would be." Maya grinned.
"Oh yeah, I still can't believe you want to be unicorn, does that even classify as a supernatural being? It's just a horse with a horn!"
Maya laughed, "it's better than living off human blood like you, we live off rainbows and marshmallows…probably." She added.
"As if unicorns are better than vampires" josh scoffed, and before he knew it, he was standing in front of Maya's dorm room, she was obviously waiting for him to say something, but he just stared.
She had mud on her shirt and even some on her cheek, josh felt the need to wipe it, but refrained. She was a short girl and she was looking up to him teeth showing and all, and he fucking knew why Eddie felt hypnotized by her, it wasn't just that she was pretty, there was an aura she gave off, something that made her look that she was the best adventure anyone could ever ask for. Josh knew he was being a creep just standing there, staring.
And after enough awkward seconds of silence, Maya decided to break it.
"Did you get everything you want from me today?" she said. Her smile distracting as ever.
"Yes, that will be all of today " Josh assured her in a formal manner, to that, Maya laughed again, "well, that's good, does this mean I'll be telling you about other things some other time?"
"As long as you're up 3AM in the morning, we'll definitely have something to talk about" Josh smiled, he felt like an idiot. Like a goddamn idiot, because he couldn't wait to catch her and talk to her like this again.
"Hey man where have you been." Eddie said as josh walked into their room.
"Just taking a walk." Josh lied.
"Don't you have class?" as soon as the words came out of Eddie's mouth, josh felt fatigue rush all over him and he realized that he had just pulled an all-nighter comparing the Jonas Brothers with The Beatles.
"I'm feeling a bit tired so I think I'm gonna take a little nap for now."
"Whatever you say man."
AN:
Reminder that this story was written prior to girl meets ski lodge.. so maya and josh never had the talk, and shawn did not marry maya's mom (Katy), to sum it up this fic is slightly more AU that it was.