March is a weird month for Maya.
It's starts out normal enough. If you count Max and Caroline coming home from Hollywood with a movie deal about Caroline's life and Max with a freshly broken heart normal. Maya ends up doing more than half of Josh's final project for his Intro to Architecture Drawing class for him, around trying to fix Max and Caroline dragging both her and Max around looking at spaces for their dessert bar, and trying to spend time with her old friends, who are feeling neglected by her, and still working about 70 hours a week.
And Maya just tried not to think about the Han/Evie thing at all. *shudder*
There was no small amount of relief when Maya made it to the third week of the month. The Minkii whisked her friends off to the Florida Keys for Spring Break, Josh's project for class was done, the Rando Randy guy had magically appeared from California to make Max as happy as she ever got again, and the whole dessert bar thing had worked out.
On her first night both off of work and free from any other responsibilities in weeks, Maya had accepted an invite from a group of coworkers from Joey's to go out to karaoke. It's not something she does often,but she enjoys singing well enough,and people tell her she's good at it, so she goes sometimes when invited, and she likes the group of early-20-something girls that had invited her along. It's one of the all-ages places by the college campus, so she doesn't even have to break out her falsie to get in. She doesn't *have to*, but she does, because she wants to have a couple drinks and relax, and she needs the neon green wrist band to be allowed to do that.
She's waiting at the bar for her vodka cran when she looks over and sees him. At first she smiles, until she realizes exactly what she's seeing. Josh, his arm around a girl, clearly flirting with her. It's a small table for 2 people. What Maya is witnessing can't be anything except a date.
Taking the drink that is set in front of her, she heads back to her group slowly, thinking. Josh had been flirting back lately. Thinking something was finally maybe going to happen, she'd stopped hooking up with other people. Apparently she'd been wrong. Had he just been using her for her help in that drawing class? Or was he just getting more comfortable with their friendship and flirting was what their friendship was? Is he interested in her at all?
Before she can get too deep into her thoughts, she's sitting back down and getting pulled into the conversation, and she decides that it doesn't matter at all, that he's here or that he's here on a date. She's here to let loose and sing a couple songs and hang out with some friends from work, so that's what she's going to do. And if maybe one of those songs end up being vaguely pointed, she is going to chalk it up to coincidence.
Logging into the app, she scrolls through their songbook and signs up for her first song, deciding to go a little pop-punk and fun. The girl he's here with is up before Maya, and Maya knows she shouldn't be as pleased as she is that the girl is terrible and sings a cliche Taylor Swift song. Three people later, Maya is making her way up, taking the mic from the stand and purposefully not looking Josh's way as the opening bass notes for Ida Maria's Cherry Red ring out and she sways her hips along, starting to sing with a smirk.
At the end of the song, she gives a curtsey with an exaggerated side hip-pop before walking off the stage back to her still cheering, now working-on-tipsy girls. She's surprised when Josh is up straight after her, but is less surprised that he has chosen a Blink-182 song.
Maya goes back to talking to the girls and scrolling through the songbook, firmly ignoring the text notification that pops up at one point. Manda and Sara get up and very badly duet a Christina Aguilera song, and Shandra NAILS a Selena Gomez song amid a bunch of other people she doesn't know getting up and singing. Three hours and 4 drinks later, Maya has gotten up twice more to sing, and she's feeling the right level of intoxicated and warmed up to hit submit on the one pointed song she's allowing herself for the night. The crowd is beginning to thin out at nearly 1, but Josh and his date are still there - Josh has only gotten up once more, but the girl had been up like 5 times, so she must really like karaoke, despite being horrible at it.
When her name is called, Maya makes her way to the stage, keeping her breathing slow, glad she'd dressed cute and worn fuck-me heels, because they make her feel like an Amazon warrior Topanga, and she needs it for this song. Not just because of the content, either; Demi Lovato does not make easy songs to sing.
There's no musical intro, so she sets her feet a little more than shoulder width apart to brace herself, takes a couple deep breaths and looks over to the host with a nod before looking back at the screen and cupping her hands around the mic. The four little bars disappear quickly and she belts "PUTTIN' MY DEFENCES UP, CUZ I DON'T WANNA FALL IN LOOOVE. If I ever did thaat, I think I'd have a heeaRRTTT aTTACKKKKKK!"
She'd promised herself she wouldn't look at him, but she's a little drunk, and, as the words "when it comes to you, I'm never good enough" flow out of her mouth, Maya can't help it. She consoles herself by immediately looking away, then making what she considers a very dignified, normal-walking-pace exit from the stage instead of the sprint she wants to. Getting back to her table isn't far, but it takes longer than she thinks it should as people at other tables stops her to compliment her.
"Girl, where the hell have you been hidin' THEM pipes?!" Shandra asks as Maya finally makes it back.
Maya smiles, actually a little shy about it. She shrugs before swinging her coat on and stuffing her phone into a pocket. "I gotta head out, guys, I have some stuff to do before my shift tomorrow." It's a lie, but she doesn't want to be here anymore. The girl chorus 'goodnights' as she slings her messenger bag across her body and makes for the door, getting more compliments on the way out, which she accepts with more awkward smiles.
She doesn't look at her phone until she gets home, at which point she has 6 text messages and 2 voicemails from Josh. She dismisses the notifications with reading or listening to any of them, strips down, and gets in the shower, where she can pretend those aren't tears.
Luck strikes and she gets a call early the next morning - too early in fact, but she isn't going to complain much - to fill in an early shift by the Navy yard, so Maya hauls her slightly hung-over ass out of bed, throws on enough makeup to look alive, and goes to make some money. She doesn't actually know it's lucky until she gets home afterward. She's checking her mail when Sophie comes in.
"Oh, Maya, dat cyoot boy waz at your door dis moorning for like an hour trying to get yoo to open up. Why deedent yoo?" Sophie asks.
"I was at work." Maya tells her, closing and relocking her mailbox.
Sophie nods as though it hadn't occurred to her that Maya simply hadn't been there. "Oh. Right. He seemed to tink yoo were juss ignoring him."
Maya shrugs, turning to walk to her apartment. "Oh, I am. But I wasn't home this morning. Won't be tonight either. I'm just here to shower and change, then I'm going to work."
"But yoo juss came from work!" Sophie exclaims confusedly, following her.
"I have two jobs, Sophie." Maya says with a smile as she unlocks her door. "Now, I really do only have time to shower and change. See you later." she steps in and closes the door quickly.
Turning, Maya sees a folded piece of paper on the floor, as if it had been slid under the door. "Nope." she says simply, stepping over it and dropping her bag and coat on the couch, tossing the mail on the side table and moving further into the apartment.
Josh turned up at her apartment every morning that week. Only once was she actually there, and she did ignore him that time. The collection of pieces of paper grows just inside her door, as do the unread texts and voicemails. The following week, he was back at school, and the visits stopped, but the daily texts asking her to please talk to him did not.
At the beginning of April, there came a text from Topanga on a Wednesday that Maya had no work. 'Haven't seen you in awhile. Meet me for lunch at Arletti's.'
Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Maya sends back 'Just you?' knowing Topanga isn't above trapping her.
'Just me. Promise.' is the answer.
Arletti's is an Italian restaurant near Topanga's firm that she frequents for lunch. Maya beats her there, and gets them a table, ordering them a pitcher of the fresh lemonade that she knows Topanga likes, and them each a chicken caesar salad. Their food is getting set on the table when Topanga arrives, apologizing as she sits down about a meeting running over.
Maya waves off the apology. "It's fine." she says as they both dig in.
After a couple bites, Topanga tries the small-talk approach. "You haven't been over to the house in a few weeks. We miss you."
"Whatever it is, just ask, Topanga." Maya says, sipping her lemonade.
Topanga sighs and gives a half smile. "Should've known better. Why are you ignoring Josh? I thought you guys had become pretty good friends since he moved to New York."
"Yeah, I thought so too." Maya says with a sigh before continuing. "He hurt my feelings." Maya tells her simply, shoveling another bite of salad into her mouth.
Swallowing her own bite, Topanga gives her a Mom Look. "So, your answer is to ignore and avoid him?"
Maya sets down her fork, giving a Look of her own. "He's a biological Matthews." Topanga makes a motion that says 'yeah, obviously'. "It's impossible to not forgive them when they're sorry." Topanga's expression drops a little to concede the point silently. "I'm not ready to be done being mad. The only way is to not see or speak to him. Unfortunately, it's something in their blood, so that also means avoiding all the other bio-Matthews' too."
The woman lets out a long sigh and reaches across the table to take the girls hand, rubbing it. "You ARE going to forgive him, though, right?" she asks.
"Eventually." Maya says. "I just…." she sighs, looking down and picking her fork back up and fiddling with it. "...need to accept that he is never going to be interested in me and figure out how to move on."
"What does THAT mean?" Topanga questions, going back to her food.
Maya chews through a bite of chicken as she tries to formulate an answer that even makes sense. "It's never really been a secret that I have liked him for years." She pauses as Topanga makes a 'mmhmm' sound. "Well, lately…. He's been flirting back. A lot. I tried suggesting we hang out more outside of me helping him with his drawing class, but he kept saying he was really busy with homework and studying. I…. basically did his final project for his drawing class for him." Here, she doesn't look at Topanga, knowing that there will be a look of disapproval on the woman's face. "I pretty much asked him out for sometime over his Spring Break, but he still insisted he was going to busy. Said he wanted to start studying ahead so that maybe next quarter wouldn't be as bad. Then, that Monday, I went out to karaoke with some girls from work, and he was there. On a date."
Topanga lets out a curt "Huh." and Maya has a feeling she might have inadvertently gotten Josh in trouble.
"I get it," Maya continues. "I flirt with plenty of my friends, I can see if he thought that that's what it was and just didn't know how to let me down easy or whatever when I asked him out. I just need to get over it. It's fine"
"Maya, he used you to pass a class that he probably should have failed, then lied to you instead of being honest about just not being interested in going out on a date with you. Yes, it's a complicated situation, but you best believe he is in the wrong on this one and he is getting a MASSIVE earful from me." Topanga says firmly. She stabs and chews through a bite almost viscously before saying firmly "No, honey, you are SO right to be ignoring him. Keep ignoring him until you are damn good and ready to talk to him again. Make him earn your friendship back."
"Please don't give him an earful." Maya says somewhat pleadingly between her own bites. When Topanga just raises an eyebrow at her while she chews, Maya elaborates. "It's between us, and…. well… I'm pretty sure he'll take it harder if you're just silently disappointed in him, while the rest of the family tries to make everything hunky dory without really knowing what's going on."
Topanga smirks, pointing her fork at Maya. "I like that. That's good. I've always loved how devious you are."
"One other thing?" Maya says a little cautiously. Topanga looks curious. "We all know my coping mechanisms are… not exactly, shall we say, healthy?" Topanga now looks cautious. "I've kept… certain aspects… of my social life pretty quiet in the past. If, in the process of me dealing with this, you happen to become aware of some things, please just keep in mind that I know what I am doing and am always safe about… things."
The older woman looks a little frozen, staring just slightly wide-eyed at the teenager. "O...kay… honey…." she eventually forces out. Maya takes pity and changes the subject, asking about how Auggie is doing.
Considering how little time she'd been spending over at the Matthews' anyway, it's kind of amazing how big of a wrench her absence throws into the works. From what Shawn and Topanga are reporting, it's like Cory and Riley have somehow gone into weird-hyperdrive.
'Fine. Brunch tomorrow.' she replies to Topanga's text. Maya'd been scheduled for a rare earlier shift that Saturday in late May, and so finds herself off work already at 9. Knowing she won't be able to get to sleep anytime remotely soon, she had stuffed her apron in her bag, traded her work flats for heels, fluffed her hair, and pulled out her fake ID, wandering into a bar. She is almost done with her first drink, and she catches the eye of a guy that suits her tastes - moderately tall, dirty blonde hair, muscled but not bulky, pretty eyes-, giving him a flirty smile.
45 minutes later, they're back at his place, down the street from the bar, mostly naked on his couch.
Pulling away from his mouth with some effort, Maya gasps out "Condoms?" into his ear as his mouth goes immediately to her tits. He immediately reaches out and starts groping for the drawer in the side table next to them without stopping sucking on her nipple, and she chuckles lowly. "Smart boy, keeping them where you need 'em." she says as she leans to grab the first packet she can see in the now open drawer, tearing it open quickly and reaching between them to roll it on him, which makes him finally release his mouth from her and tip his head back with a groan as her small hands stroke over his hard cock.
Much later, she's walking at a leisurely pace past the diner and dessert bar, on her way home from the train, at the same time that Max and Caroline are locking up and heading home for the night.
"You look different. Did you do something with your hair?" Caroline asks Maya as they join her walking.
Max looks over to examine the girl for a minute before grinning. "Oh, no, that is the glow of a woman who just got her brains fucked out GOOOODDD."
Maya crinkles her nose and smiles in agreement. "Yeah. I had an earlier shift than usual, so I stopped and picked up some rando in a bar."
"Rolled the dice? Love when that works out!" Max says, happy and a little jealous.
"Oh yeah," Maya agrees. "Worked out so well, I even got his number for future booty calls."
"Wait. Maya. You're 16." Caroline says in her judgey voice.
"And?" Maya asks, unconcerned.
"And… you picked up a guy in a bar?!" Caroline continues as if it obvious.
Max and Maya exchange a look like they don't get it. "AND?" they both ask.
"AND, it's illegal for you to be in bars, AND, it's illegal for that guy you picked up to have sex with you!" Caroline says. "Did you even tell him how old you are?!"
"He's a guy I picked up in a bar for casual sex, I didn't even tell him my name!" Maya says defensively.
Caroline just stares at Max and Maya uncomprehendingly for a moment before throwing up her hands and half-shouting, "I just don't understand the two of you!" and starting to speed walk ahead of them.
The sluttier girls stare after her for a moment before Max hooks her arm through Maya's and says, "So, tell me everything."
"I came 5 times in 3 different rooms before he did the first time." Maya summarizes.
Max's mouth drops open. "Oh yeah, keep his number." she orders.
The next morning, Maya steels herself before throwing open the Matthews' apartment door, not knowing what combination of family is awaiting her. "Hey, losers!" she says brightly.
Her vision is immediately obscured by Riley throwing herself into Maya's arms yelling "PEACHES!"
Maya catches her. "HONEY!"
After a long minute, Maya pries Riley off long enough to hug Auggie, who is waiting nearby, as well as Cory and Topanga. Topanga waits until last, whispering, "I'm sorry, Cory told him." quickly in Maya's ear, giving Maya only seconds to brace herself as everyone pulls back and she finds Josh sitting at the kitchen table.
He's at least smart enough not to try and hug her. Instead, he gives a little wave and an awkward, "Hey, Maya."
She tries to keep her tone neutral and nods a little, saying only, "Joshua." in reply.
"You look different." Cory says, not seeming to be sure if he's complimenting her or not. "Did you do something with your hair?"
They all cock their heads slightly and examine her. Topanga, still closest, plays with her hair, pulling it out and running a critical eye over it, then her. Maya sees her eyes catch on what must be the spot where her foundation is covering up a mix of love bites and stubble burn. Maya knows it isn't obvious, but Topanga is more observant than most.
Eyes a little wide, Topanga rearranges Maya's hair again to cover the spot as it had been and says, "I think we just haven't seen her in awhile. Why don't we eat?" a little too fast.
Even as they all move to join Josh at the table, Riley and Cory's eyes narrow.
"You know something." Riley says suspiciously.
"What do you know?" Cory continues.
"I know many things." Topanga says too-brightly, pouring Maya a cup of coffee and maneuvering her to sit in Riley's usual spot next to Cory and across from her, foiling Josh's plan of getting sat next to her where he had taken a spot at the end of the table opposite Cory.
There's a full spread of french toast and scrambled eggs and hash browns and sausage, and everyone starts loading up their plates and blasting Maya with questions, which she tries to answer as minimally as she can without lying.
"Why aren't you telling us anything?!" Riley pouts after a few minutes.
Maya throws up her hands a little. "What do you wants me to tell you, Riles? My life isn't all that exciting. I mostly work and draw and surf the internet. About once a month, a few girls from work and I go out and do karaoke. That's pretty much it."
"Well, why don't you ever come over anymore? I know you can't be working ALL the time. I looked up the law. Even if you're emancipated, you can only do 48 hours a week until you're 18." Riley continues to pout.
"Oh, Riles," Maya sighs, reaching up to stroke her friend's cheek. "Please never lose that blind naivete."
"Maya?" Topanga somehow chides and questions at the same time.
Looking over at her innocently, Maya says, "We are not in a court of law, and I am admitting to nothing."
"Really Maya?" Cory asks, tiredly.
She slumps a little. "C'mon! My life is boring; there's only so much to do that's free, and very little of it can be talked about in front of innocent ears." she nods her head towards the other half of the table and Cory looks scandalized at the implication.
"Auggie!" Topanga abruptly changes the subject. "Why don't you tell Maya about your class's Spring Project!?"
They keep chatter up through brunch and Topanga sets Auggie and Josh on dish duty, allowing Riley to haul Maya up to the bay window.
"First of all," Riley starts out surprisingly calmly, "are you or are you not working illegally more than 48 hours per week as mandated by the state of New York?"
"I am." Maya says calmly.
"I don't like that, but I can't think of a way to stop you." Riley says.
Maya nods. "You can't."
"Alright." That gets accepted amazingly fast for Riley, and Maya's starting to see why Topanga was so determined to get her over here. "The next thing is driving me so nutty that I am going to use a curse word to ask because I need you to know how bad I gotta know, Maya."
"Okay." Maya acknowledges seriously.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH YOU AND MY UNCLE?!"
"I don't think your grandparents heard you in Philly, Riles." Maya comments blandly.
Riley's expression looks pained as she whines, "Maya."
Maya smiles weirdly and shrugs. "There's nothing going on to tell you about, Riley. Like, LITERALLY nothing. He made it clear he isn't interested, so I backed off and left him alone."
"What do you mean, made it clear he wasn't interested? What happened?" Riley spits out.
"I mean…" Maya sighs looking around. "I thought we were kinda flirting while I was helping him out with his drawing class, but then, I was out with my work friends at karaoke, over Spring Break and he was there on a date. It's not a big thing, honey, I just realized I need to back off and get over him."
Riley slumps, putting an arm around her friend. "I'm sorry that happened, Maya. That must have really sucked to see."
Maya doesn't feel bad about editing the story a little. She can't start drama with these people. And frankly, she kinda just wants to put it behind her already. At least this way, it sounds like nobody's fault. A simple misunderstanding. Just her, Josh, and Topanga know the truth.
"I mean, it didn't feel great." Maya admits after a long minute. "But it was my own fault for reading into things too much." She can feel Riley hesitating to ask her something. "Just ask."
"Well…. I was just wondering…. Does Josh know Manhattan Maya or Brooklyn Maya?" Riley asks quietly.
Maya sighs. "Honey, you realize I don't really… THINK about being different around you guys, right? It kinda just happens. I'm a different Maya at work too. You'd have to ask Josh what Maya he knows."
Eventually, Maya retrieves her bag and changes in the bathroom before heading off to work. She's unsurprised when Josh catches her up within 2 minutes of her leaving the building.
"How much longer are you going to ignore me?" he asks as the walk side-by-side down the sidewalk.
Maya sighs. "I'm done ignoring you."
"Look, I'm so-"
"Don't." she cuts him off. "Don't apologize. I get it. We were friends that flirted, and I read way too much into it. That's not your fault."
"What?" he asks, pulling her to a stop so they are facing each other. "Maya, that's not what happened!"
She stares at him for a moment then shakes her head. "God, guys are stupid. I'm giving you an out, here, Josh. Unless you're about to declare your undying love for me, the smart route is to take the out."
"I-I don't know about undying love," Josh stutters a little, "but I really like you, Maya."
Her mouth drops open before she spits out, "Oh, yeah, because turning me down when I ask you out because you 'have to study' then going out with another girl during that time frame instead just TOTALLY SCREAMS that you really like me!" With this, Maya spins out of his grasp and stomps quickly down the street.
It takes Josh nearly a block to catch up with her again. She can move pretty fast. "You're underage!" he says, physically putting his body in front of hers to stop her this time.
Maya throws her hands out. "What does THAT have to do with ANYTHING?"
Josh looks the Matthews trademark awkward for a moment before saying. "I'm a 19 year old guy. Dating someone I can't…. I have needs, okay. Physical ones. And with you being underage…."
She laughs. Right in his face. "Oh my god, Matthews. You want to have sex and you can't even say the word?! You are such a fucking goody-two-shoes. To be clear, I'm pretty sure I lost my virginity before you did. Also, just FYI, if we were to theoretically hook up, you'd be youngest guy I have ever fucked. The only person who would probably really care other than, clearly, you, would be Cory. MAYBE Topanga. She gets a little freaked out about any mention of my sex life." Josh looks shell shocked at this onslaught, having clearly not expected that kind of reaction. "So, howzabout you decide if you can pull up those big boy undies and have an adult conversation, and, if the answer is ever yes, then we'll talk. Otherwise, we can go back to being friendly at group functions and commenting on Facebook. Kay? Now, I really need to get to work." With this, Maya steps around him, leaving Josh standing, dumbstruck, in the middle of the sidewalk on a Sunday afternoon.
In most things, Josh goes to Cory or Topanga for advice first. He's just always been closest to them. But there are some things…. Well. He takes a deep breath and steels himself, standing in front of the apartment door in Brooklyn, dangerously close to the source of his problem, the day after he has taken his last final for the year.
*knockknock* He finally makes himself rap his knuckles against the wood.
It's only seconds before Shawn swings the door open, looking surprised to find Josh on his doorstep. "Hey!" he greets in the cheerful/cautious way he has, steeping back immediately to let the younger man in, shutting the door behind him before pulling him in for a hug.
"Hey, Shawn," Josh replies as they hug quickly and release.
"Want some coffee? Tea?" Shawn asks, gesturing to the couch, offering a seat.
"Coffee'd be great,"Josh says, sitting, but also looking around. So, this is where Maya had grown up. Maybe. He wonders how much has changed since Shawn had moved in a year ago. His musings are interrupted by a mug in his face, which he takes distractedly as Shawn settles at the other end of the couch, turned in toward Josh.
The man he's always considered nothing but just another older brother studies him for several long seconds before asking. "What brings you by? Thought you'd be packing to head home for the summer."
"I uh…." Josh sighs, stalling by drinking some coffee. "I need some advice."
Shawn's eyebrows raise incredulously. "From ME?"
Josh hitches one shoulder up in a helpless shrug. "It's kind of a niche topic."
The older man looks baffled as he almost visibly searches his brain about what could be considered a niche topic that he could provide advice about, and comes up short. "Allllriiiightt…."
Taking a deep breath to try and get as much out in one go as possible, Josh starts talking. "There's a lot of particulars that don't matter, but, basically, there's this girl and last time we talked, she literally laughed in my face about the fact that I want to... be… intimate… with her… and can't say the words out loud and told me to talk to her again when I decide if I can 'have an adult conversation' and I don't really even know what that means and you really seemed like the best option immediately available to ask because Topanga is still doing the Silently Disappointed thing about I'm not even sure what and Cory..." he trails off.
"Yeah, Cory would be useless here." Shawn agrees, before pausing to absorb that mini-rant and blowing out a breath. "Well, you're probably not gonna like hearing this, but, she's right." Josh's shoulders slump a little and Shawn continues. "If you aren't comfortable talking about sex with someone you want to have it with, then if-slash-when you do have it with them, how do you expect to be comfortable actually doing it? And if you aren't comfortable with that, then it ain't gonna be very good. Doesn't matter quite as much for you now, because teenage boys can get off staring at linoleum if there's a slight breeze for friction, but girls are another story entirely, and I can tell you now, as you get older, you'll start noticing the difference a lot more." He looks at Josh, who looks uncomfortable just listening to this. "Man, I'm not saying be porngraphic or even talk to most people about it. Just communicating comfortably what you want to your partner, or someone who is going to be your partner in the near future. And listening to what they want. Without turning this lovely color of purple that your face currently is- seriously, dude, this is barely even about sex! Breathe!"
Josh sets his half-empty mug on the table before shooting up to his feet and beginning to pace.
"Man," Shawn muses, "I have NO idea how you, Cory, and Riley turned out so damn puritanical. NONE of the rest of your family is like this."
"I blame Cory for me and Riley." Josh grumbles.
"Probably," Shawn agrees. "Still doesn't explain him. Especially with ME for a best friend."
"Can we get back on topic, please?"
Shawn chuckles before continuing. "Look, it's something you have to learn to do, just like anything else. I doubt this girl is expecting you to just suddenly turn into Rico Suave overnight. IF it's something you want to work on, tell her that and ask her to be patient with you. If she isn't willing to be, then she's not worth putting the effort into anyway, but there's plenty of other girls out there who are. A lot of them probably need the practice along with you."
Josh pauses, cringing a little as he turns to face Shawn's direction. "Thaaat's the other thing I wanted some advice on." Shawn raises an eyebrow a little to indicate he's listening. "The fact that she DOESN'T need to practice along with me. She's younger than me, actually by a couple years, and I'm pretty sure she's been with, like, A LOT more people than I have. She told me that if we do ever get together I'd be the youngest guy she's ever been with. And that kinda freaks me out a little."
Shawn crosses his arms over his chest, staring critically at Josh for several extended moments. Eventually, he asks Josh, "Why does it freak you out?" When Josh just looks confused, he elaborates, "Does it lower your opinion of her? If so, is it because she has been promiscuous, or because it has been with people much older than her, well into the illegal realm? Does her having more experience intimidate you? Are you jealous of her past partners? A combination of all of it? Something else entirely?"
"I….." Josh's eyes dart around frantically. "I don't know."
"Well, you need to figure it out, because, if you can't come to terms with whatever it is, it's going to ruin things with her before they even get started, and you may as well save both of you some heartache." Shawn is firm on this point.
Josh stares back for a minutes before heavy out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and running his hands through his hair. "Right. You're right…." he turns towards the door to let Shawn get back to his work, or whatever he was doing before Josh showed up, and go start packing. Just before he opens the door, he turns back long enough to say a sincere, "Thanks, Shawn."
"Anytime, kid." is the reply he hears as he shuts the door behind him.
Schmoozing editors is Shawn's least favorite part of being a freelance travel writer. Thankfully, he doesn't have to do it much. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. It's the middle of August. It's hot, and humid, and sticky, and Tuesday, and he does NOT want to be in this bland, boring, but for some reason packed-with-people bar in Midtown that doesn't even have the decency to be air conditioned.
He gets a break as the guy he's meeting with wades off through the crowd towards the bathrooms. The table they have is in the loft - which, come to think of it, might be why Shawn is feeling extra warm, heat rises, right? - and something catches his eye as he surveys the scene at the bar below him. That guy - he knows that guy. Where does he know that guy from?
Shawn takes another sip from his beer as he stares at the guy and tries to remember. College, he thinks. But…. where…. Wait. Yes. Tutoring. Shawn had tutored him in his senior year. The kid had been a freshman who was failing English 98. His name is…..Colin. Shawn's almost sure it's Colin.
Mystery solved, Shawn's attention broadens to what Colin is doing. Talking. Animatedly. To.. a girl… OH! Flirting. Wait, no, body language….. Huh. That is definitely a woman on the prowl, and she is working some expert game on a very lucky Colin. Go Colin.
The girl flips her hair over her shoulder and Shawn chokes on his beer. WHAT THE FUCK IS MAYA DOING IN A BAR? ON THE PROWL?! PICKING UP A GUY THAT SHAWN WENT TO COLLEGE WITH?!
Unfortunately - or fortunately, Shawn's not quite sure - the editor guy arrives back at the table at that moment. Shawn makes some excuse about getting them fresh beers, and the already half drunk man says he'll hold their table as Shawn winds his way hurriedly through the crowd and down the stairs, directly for the spot at the bar where Colin and Maya are sitting.
Coming up to them, he plants a hand on the man's shoulder and makes his tone surprised as he exclaims, "Colin?!"
The guy looks over and has to think for a minute before he recognizes that he knows this person, but obviously doesn't remember Shawn's name. Shawn doesn't blame him, he'd taken awhile, and just happened to have a head start. "Hey, man!" Colin plays it off, shaking his hand in a friendly way. "It's been years, how you doin'?"
"Not bad," Shawn says, "Here schmoozing some editor. I'm a writer these days. I see you're doing okay, in popular bars in New York, picking up underage girls."
Colin's face doesn't seem to know what to do with itself. "What?" he asks.
Shawn looks over at Maya, who is just working on sucking down a drink that Shawn isn't naive enough to think isn't alcoholic. "Hi, Maya."
She gives him a little finger wave before releasing the straws from her lips. "Shawn. Didn't expect you to be here."
"Obviously." He says.
"Wait, you two know each other?" Colin asks, still confused, motioning between them.
The bartender stops in front of them for a a second and Shawn shouts out his order for two more beers while he has the chance, and the bartender is gone again with barely a nod of acknowledgement, and Shawn turns back to Colin. "This is my step-daughter, Maya. Technically, she's not allowed in this establishment for almost 4 and a half more years. Which reminds me." he holds his hand in front of Maya and makes a 'gimme' motion with his fingers.
Maya gives him a deadpan look. "Really? You know I'm just going to get another one."
Shawn smiles insincerely at her. "You know Topanga prefers physical evidence." Maya rolls her eyes, but pulls her fake ID from her wallet and hands it to him. "Now, I am going to be done here in about 45 minutes, then I am going to go to your apartment. If you are not there when I arrive, I am going to call Minkus and have him pull out whatever stops he has to locate you as visibly as possible and make a massive scene. If you do the smart thing and are there waiting for me, then we will talk about this with just us, though I make absolutely NO promises of not telling Cory and Topanga."
Maya somewhat defiantly sucks down the last of her drink before shrugging her shoulders and bobbing her head in some approximation of an accepting nod, before sliding off her stool and adjusting her bag where it is slung across her body. Without a word, she starts winding her way towards the door, and Colin looks a little pale as Shawn grabs the two bottles of beer that are set down in front of him, which he throws down a couple bills for.
"Sorry, man," Shawn says, clapping him once on the shoulder as he turns to make his way back up to the editor that henow REALLY doesn't want to talk to anymore. This is at least beer number 3 and hour 2, which fulfils his obligation. Not that he's really looking forward to what's coming afterward.
An hour and a half later, Shawn wishes he was a block away, in a cool shower, washing away the stench of too many people packed into a bar and getting ready to crawl into bed with Katy. Instead, he's knocking on Maya's door.
She lets him in quickly, and he steps inside, amazed as always at how clean she keeps the place. He shouldn't be. He'd realized a long time ago that she had been in charge of the house more or less her whole life. Katy's kind of a slob - if he weren't home all day, the apartment would be much more messy than it typically is. When he's off on trips for more than a few days, it gets really obvious that she didn't do housework for over a decade.
"You look tired, so I assume you wanna keep this as short as possible. I'm not going to offer you anything to drink."
"That's fine." Shawn says, collapsing down in the sinfully comfy chair set off to the side at an angle to the couch, while she settles on said couch. She'd told him once that the set was the one thing she'd splurged on when furnishing her apartment - a comfy couch and chair set - and he still maintains it was a smart purchase on her part. They stare at each other for a minute before he sighs out. "What the hell are you doing, Maya?"
She leans back into the couch and gives a little shrug, clearly resigned. "I go out occasionally to have a couple drinks and pick up people for for some no-strings fun."
Shawn rubs his hands over his face a few times trying to figure out what he wants to say. "Okay." he sets his hands down on thighs in decision. "I'm… not even going to go into the fake ID and underage drinking, because…. I only have energy for one discussion, and, frankly, I kinda weirdly trust you to be responsible-ISH about that part of this whole situation."
"So I can have my ID back?" She asks hopefully.
"No." he answers immediately. Her face falls and he says, "I said I trust you to be more or less responsible about it, not that I'm going to enable you." After a second, he goes on, "As for the rest…. I really wish I didn't know ANYTHING about your sex life. But, here we are. With me knowing that you pick up guys that are only a couple years younger than me in bars. I LITERALLY went to college with that guy, Maya. I tutored him in English."
Maya gives him a sarcastic look and says in a matching tone, "And, what, you're somehow shocked and appalled that I have daddy issues?"
Putting his head in his hands, Shawn whines in a small voice, "I don't want to know any of this."
"Feel free to forget about it," Maya says as if it's the obvious solution.
"I can't, Maya." Shawn says, looking up at her. "Because as much as I don't want to know, I do, and now I'm worried about you. About you being safe, about what it is you're feeling that's making you go out and fuck strangers almost 20 years older than you, about you potentially doing yourself even more damage trying fix something the wrong way."
There's a stretch of silence between them, and a telltale sheen of tears builds in Maya's eyes before she quietly says, "You were me. You always knew this was coming."
After a moment, Shawn admits, "I was hoping you were stronger than I was."
Maya keeps talking, still quietly, "I don't really feel ready to try and fix it for real. There's…." she has to pause to take a deep breath. "It hasn't been enough time. In the meantime…. I'm going to keep putting bandaids on it. I'm as safe as I can be."
"Birth control?" He asks, getting a nod of confirmation. "Condoms?" is the next question, another nod. "Every time?" A more vehement nod. Now it's Shawn's turn to nod, knowing there's nothing he can really do about it. "And the age thing? Do you HAVE to go for guys so much older?" This part is a little desperate.
Maya smirks, but her eyes are still kinda watery, which ruins the effect somewhat. "You're REALLY not gonna like hearing this, but, older people tend to know what they are doing better than younger ones." Shawn looks like he's in physical pain. Deciding to extend an olive branch, Maya says, "But, if it will make you feel better, I'll try and hold it down to people, like, 10ish years older than me instead of people you went to school with."
Knowing it's the best he can hope for, Shawn stands and heads for the door, only to stop a couple feet away and turn back with narrowed eyes. "People?" he questions. "Not guys. You said people."
Maya smiles fondly in remembrance as she tells him, "Oh, yes. I started out on Catholic schoolgirls when I was a spritely little thing of 14."
Now officially overwhelmed, Shawn simply turns and leaves without another word.
The next afternoon, he walks into Cory and Topanga's apartment around 4. Topanga looks like she's just gotten home from work. Cory's still off for the summer, so he's in casual clothes. "Where are the clones?" Shawn asks, hoping they aren't home.
He's in luck. Cory says, "Auggie's at Dewy's, and Riley's out with Lucas." Lucas's name is almost spat out. Even though he likes the kid, and he and Riley have been dating for almost 3 years, Cory still dislike his daughter's boyfriend on principle.
"Good, because you two will NOT FUCKING BELIEVE the night I had last night." Shawn exclaims, throwing himself down on the couch next to Cory, curling up in a ball and laying his head in his best friend's lap.
Cory is immediately doting. "Shawnie, whatsamatta?" he asks in a baby voice as he stroke Shawn's hair. Topanga comes down from where she is in the kitchen to sit in the nearby chair.
"Was the meeting with the editor really that bad?" she asks, sounding a mix of surprised and sympathetic.
"It wasn't that. That was just normal bad. But while I was there, I noticed this guy, right? It took me awhile to figure out where I knew him from, but then I realized. It was that kid, Colin, that I tutored in English back in senior year of college." Shawn start explaining.
"And… what, he told some embarrassing college story in front of the editor?" Topanga tries to prompt.
Shawn shakes his head, still in Cory's lap. "No. A girl was in the process of picking him up, and I was watching from up in the loft, cuz I was bored, and thinking 'Yeah, go Colin!', but then she moved, and I saw her, and it was Maya!"
Topanga and Cory's eyes go wide. "Maya?!" "OUR Maya?!" "Maya HART?" are the jumbled exclamations, and Shawn nods jerkily.
"So I had to do the thing - be the adult - right in the middle of schmoozing the editor guy. I went down and told Colin that she was underage, and I took away her fake ID, " here, he fumbles in his pocket for a moment before pulling it out and thrusting it toward Topanga, "and sent her home to wait for me, and then after, I did the adult thing more and went over there and had to talk to her about it. She's, like, kinda, sorta, practically my step-daughter and I had to talk to her about the fact that she goes out to bars and picks up random strangers that are almost my age to go have casual sex." By the end, his voice is about 2 octaves about his normal speaking voice, and he's rocking back and forth slightly.
Cory, in shock, curls around Shawn's rocking form protectively. Topanga stares down at the amazingly convincing fake ID in her hands, mouth hanging slightly open.