A/N Sorry it has been a while, life has been busy! Happy February everyone! Season 3 production has begun and the first live taping is tomorrow! They promised us more Josh so let's celebrate with a little JoshxMaya, shall we?

Enjoy!

Part IV

Saturday February 10, 10:00 am

Josh woke up feeling worlds better than he had a few hours ago. Only two thoughts suddenly bothered him. First, he was famished. Yes his headache was gone and he no longer felt like throwing up, but that nausea was replaced with the desire to eat absolutely anything to fuel his body. Once the baser instincts registered, the other realization was that he was alone. The beautiful angel who put him to sleep was now conspicuously absent. And, he seemed to recall, she promised to not leave. Josh began to feel disappointed when his room's door was flung open.

Andrew carried bags of food and greeted him with a booming voice "Hey, Sleeping Beauty is awake! Perfect timing!"

"He is? Great!" said the angelic voice he had been missing. He had wondered if he drooled in his sleep and scared her off or something.

"Hey there!" Jasmine entered last, also carrying a bag of food. She closed the door behind her.

Maya put down her tray of coffees, walked over to him and asked with concern "Are you feeling better? Headache? Stomachache?"

"Much better, thanks to you. Headache is gone and the only message my stomach is sending me right now is 'feed me now or I will die'" Josh said with a smile, holding her hand.

"Excellent! Told you I did my research" Maya said with a confident smirk "I enlisted these guys to help with the next part of your recovery. Doctors are dubious about it, but coffee and greasy foods are absolute musts to cure hangovers, according to the masses."

"'The masses' are right. I'm starving. It's like you read my mind or something" Josh said with relief as they sat on the floor around his coffee table and dug in.

"Besides, I figured Andrew kind of owed you one" Maya said with a smile.

Andrew protested with mock outrage "It wasn't me! It was the 'Birthday Bitch' code. I can't help it if he's a lightweight."

"Dude, you were completely playing it up. Just know I'll pay you back when I turn 21" Josh warned.

Maya noted "Yes, Joshua, interesting. I wonder how a certain older brother would feel if he knew about this underage drinking…"

Josh froze mid-chew and he asked with a full mouth "Wha-?"

Maya's serious face fell as she started laughing "Oh come on, Josh. Remember my wild party girl days? You literally held my hair back a time or two, I think. Fifteen year old rebel Maya?"

"Wow I completely forgot about that. That seems like forever ago" Josh said with wide eyes, realizing they were so different now.

"Well it was. And I grew up" Maya said with sweet smile to him.

"I noticed" Josh said as their eyes locked and they felt the ever present pull between them.

"Dude! Eating here! I'd say get a room, but we're kind of in it right now" Andrew interrupted, and they looked away embarrassed.

Jasmine reached over and smacked her boyfriend "Andrew! They're adorable."

"Baby, what did I say about stopping the violence?" Andrew questioned before leaning towards her and kissing her cheek.

"Dude! Eating here!" Josh said, mocking his closest friend. The four laughed as they continued to devour food.

Maya was surprised how easy it was to be around Josh in his element. There was no weirdness that she was too young or still in high school, she was just Maya. She then remembered she was the same age Josh was when she crashed the dorm party all those years ago. Her younger self didn't realize the long and difficult road those feelings would lead her down.

"So, Maya, what's new with you?" Jasmine asked "Are you looking at colleges? I know that Charlotte and I kind of forced NYU on you all those years ago, but that was just so that we could teach Josh a lesson about dismissing people's feelings."

"Lesson learned! You know I actually worried you guys would somehow follow through on your threat to tell 'every NYU girl' to stay away from me? God, I was such a tool. How did you even like me back then?" he asked, turning to Maya.

She chuckled "Well you looked pretty cute in a beanie."

The ensuing laugh of the group almost caused Maya to forget Jasmine's question, but now was as good a time as any to address something she had been keeping from Josh.

"Um, actually I may be a student here earlier than I thought" Maya said vaguely.

"What do you mean?" Josh asked.

Maya continued "Well, they cut school funding for the arts again, this time at the high school level. All arts classes have been removed from the curriculum."

"What? That's ridiculous!" Josh exclaimed "Maya, they can't do that! Let's do that thing you did before and fix this. I won't let them do that to you!"

Maya reached over and grabbed his hand, then held it in her lap "We tried Josh. You don't always win every battle. We tried everything and it wasn't enough."

The soothing way she was using her finger to invisibly paint pictures on his palm was very calming. It distracted him from his anger. Josh felt the tension leave his body and his shoulders slump as he leaned back against the edge of his futon.

"So, what does that have to do with NYU?" Andrew interrupted the sweet exchange, earning an exaggerated eye-roll from Jasmine.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry. Well our school has sort of reached a compromise. They will give credits for arts courses taken, they just don't have the money to offer them and employ the teachers. So they made a deal that would allow upper classmen to enroll in college arts classes and the credits would count for both high school and college. Kind of like how AP classes are considered college-level and most places give you credit for them? This is like that, except of course, they actually ARE college classes."

"That's amazing Maya! When do you start?" Jasmine asked.

"This fall, I hope. There is a stipulation that we have to pay for the courses but I talked with my mom about it, and Shawn is going to help. I'm going to use my money from the bakery to buy the books and supplies. I'm doing one class at first, but maybe in the spring I can do more. We get excused absence from school for it. Obviously NYU is the most logical choice, being closest to home and school, so I am hoping to enroll here" Maya answered with a shy smile.

"Also because other schools SUCK" Andrew said, voice full of NYU pride.

"Well that too" Maya nodded. She hesitantly looked at Josh for a reaction.

He looked at her and gently squeezed her hand "When were you going to tell me?"

"I don't know. It all kind of just happened, and I thought maybe it would be a nice surprise for your birthday or something?" Maya asked hesitantly.

Josh responded "Maya, you sound worried. Did you think I wouldn't want this?"

"Well, Andrew and I should be going now!" Jasmine interrupted, sensing this would be a good time to leave the two alone "So great to see you Maya we should hang out again soon!"

Jasmine pulled her boyfriend behind her, doing Josh a favor by taking all the trash and remnants from the meal with them. Josh and Maya were left alone with the question hanging in the air.

"That was such a good breakfast. I'm stuffed. Are you feeling better now?" Maya asked as she stood and stretched.

Josh stood as well but grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit with him on the futon. She curled into his side as he draped an arm over her shoulder.

"Maya, seriously. Why were you worried to tell me?" Josh asked, playing with the ends of her hair that rested on the shoulder he held.

"I wasn't really worried. I don't know. I guess I just didn't want you to feel like I was suffocating you or 'infringing' on your space or anything. NYU has always been your thing, but even before you went here I kind of 'forced' my way in."

"What, the dorm party? Maya, we talked that out years ago" Josh said reassuringly.

"Not just that, Josh. The acceptance letter, your entire freshman year, Lydia...I just worry I may be keeping you from really experiencing college or holding you back or something" she confessed and looked down.

"Um, pretty sure I am getting the full college experience here, Gorgeous. Hangovers and all" he joked and squeezed her shoulder, earning a smile.

"So you'll be okay if I'm here a little sooner than you thought?" she asked.

Josh leaned down and kissed her fully, showing her exactly how okay he was with the proposition.

To be continued…

Hope my little explanation of the school credits thing made sense. I personally benefitted from a number of AP classes counting as college credits. It's totally worth the work, kiddos! LOL

Special Note: I think the original idea for Andrew and Jasmine as a couple came from Brown Eyes Parker (Casual Observers) and it kind of subconsciously became canon in my head after that. So this cute couple is due to her :)

Up Next: More fluff and more doubt, because she's Maya 'Hope is for Suckers' Hart…