4. Maya's Home Life

"You don't just disappear for two years and then come back expecting everything to be the way it was. So tell me, Maya, where were you?"

Her first day back at her old high school had been torture. There was no way for her to avoid the stares from everyone, whether she knew them before hand or not. But that's what you got for being a new student.

The looks that bothered her the most came from her old friends and teacher. There were many times throughout the day where Maya thought that they could see straight through her no matter how hard she tried to cover it up.

Maya was currently sat in the corner of her bed, trying to focus on the history assignment that Mr Matthews had set the previous night. She already found history somewhat difficult but coming in halfway through the year had thrown her off and she was relying heavily on the textbook perched beside her.

Her progress was cut off by a call from the main room, "Maya!" The voice was enough to cause an involuntary shudder to make its way down her spine.

Ever so carefully, she stood from her bed and quietly walked out of the room, down the short hallway and into the main room. Sprawled across the couch was Wyatt, her mother's boyfriend of two years.

At first, he was kind, buying all sorts of presents for her mother and occasionally for Maya herself. He had a lot of money going for him (and Maya swears that that was one of the main reasons her mother went for him).

But then he had a job transfer which took them all the way across the country away from everything that she had always known. Just before they had moved, Katy and Wyatt had gotten into an argument about moving, Katy not wanting to do so for Maya's sake, the apartment had been trashed to pieces by him. Occasionally before that he had hit Katy if something hadn't been done the way he wanted but that night he snapped and threw a picture frame at her, causing it to scratch the side of her face before pushing her to the floor. He had then stormed into Maya's room and told her that they were leaving that night – no arguments. And just like that, they were gone.

Throughout their time in Seattle, Wyatt had been getting drunk before coming home and beating Maya behind her mother's back since Katy was at work trying to keep up with the bills etc.

When Katy had found out what he was doing again, Wyatt had turned on her as well. It began with a smack here and there but it progressed to much worse beatings if he was in a bad mood that day. It had gotten to the point where Wyatt had given up on a job hunt and taken residences on their couch. Katy hadn't been able to support the three of them on her low-paying job in Seattle and they had been forced to move back into their old apartment in New York.

It had taken a lot of scrubbing to get the blood stain out of the carpet and Maya had nearly given up with it if it wasn't Wyatt's threat to severely hurt her if she didn't get it out.

The place looked a lot better than when they had suddenly left it two years ago, but it was just filled with dark memories for her and she could never call the place home again.

"Maya," The voice broke her out of her thoughts once more and she could see Wyatt in front of her getting more and more annoyed by the second. A sharp sting suddenly sprung to her face and Maya couldn't help recoil a little. "Go and get the paper from the store and make it quick."

Even though it was nearly nine at night and dangerous for a girl her age to go out in her neighbourhood alone, Wyatt didn't care and the consequences of her not going would probably kill her. She would be lying if she didn't hope one day it would.

Grabbing a jacket from her room, she pulled the hood over her face to hide the bruise forming and collected the change on the counter to by the paper. The store was a good ten-minute walk away from her apartment but it gave her enough time to think about a few things.

She knew that she would have to use cover-up in the morning to hide the dark bruise on her face. Maya couldn't help but wonder if anyone would notice how she walked in pain constantly or that she had a little extra make-up on that day.

Somehow, over the two years, she was there, not one person in Seattle noticed her pain, and if they did, they never said anything to her. She had spent many nights curled up in a ball, crying herself to sleep as she avoided Wyatt's drunken state.

Placing the change onto the counter, Maya picked up the newspaper and tucked it under her arm, "Have a nice night," She offered to the man behind the counter who smiled back at her. She remembered him from when she lived in New York the first time but she doubted that he even remembered her.

When she got back to the apartment, Wyatt was passed out in the same position as she had left him. Placing the paper down next to him, she made her way back into her room to survey the damage he had done that night. Maya had to admit that it could have been a lot worse than it was.

"Miss Hart? Are you there?" A voice from in front of her called out before a hand obstructed her vision. The hand in front of her caused her to involuntarily flinch back in her seat. Nobody seemed to notice the small movement apart from Mr Matthews who narrowed his eyes slightly, "Are you okay?"

She offered him a small fake smile, "I'm always okay, sir." She told him and watched his suspicion fade a little but not completely.

Cory nodded at her, "Then did you do your homework?"

Maya cursed internally. She had been exhausted when she had gotten back from the shop last night and had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had gotten into her room. "No, sir, I didn't," Her voice was much quieter this time as she looked down at the desk.

"Well, since you only came back to this school recently, I'll give you an extension, due Monday," Cory told her and Maya looked up shocked. He had never done that before. Cory also added, "If you need any help with it then come and see me and we'll sort something out."

All she could do was nod mutely as Cory moved onto another student.

I never seem to write much dialogue in these chapters but I'm going to try and work on it! Thank you for 2K reads :) Is anyone else annoyed at Girl Meets Triangle? Like Maya's getting good grades now and they're telling her to change, I mean, yeah she shouldn't want to be Riley bc we love our little Maya but there's nothing wrong with her good grades? But I LOVED AIB!