Hey guys! Sorry for the delay. I got sick over the week and wasn't feeling up to much, but here its the latest chapter with a bonus chapter coming soon too.
As always, thanks for reading. And thanks to Sandy-belle for reading this first ;)
Walk Me Home
Chapter 3: Dealing With It
Set After Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels.
It certainly had been an eventful week. Maya had never been at war with Riley before in all their years of friendship, and not talking felt like a part of her was missing. Maya hoped never to be as dangerously at odds with her best friend ever again, but also took comfort in knowing that if it happened again, she and Riley would see it through… though they might require the help of the mayor of St. Upid Town.
That only left one Ranger Rick to deal with and a perfect revenge to plan. Which had Maya, Saturday morning, still in her PJs plotting about it. It had to be something big, even though she had already admitted she was not mad at him.
A new nickname? Too easy… Messing up his hair? Farkle had already tried (and failed)… Maybe salt in his sloppy joe on Monday…
She was pondering this, and pondering if she should make the trip to the Mathews' for some breakfast or stick to cereal in her own house when the doorbell to her apartment rang.
Maybe she was too sleepy or something, because she opened the door automatically… and came face to face with Lucas.
"Why didn't you ask who was at the door? I could be a serial killer." Lucas said, frowning at her as he stood at the door.
"But you are a Ranger Rick instead and will keep me safe!" Maya said, still not moving to let him pass. "What are you doing here? And at the door. You never use the door. This is new."
"I thought you might push me out if I tried the window."
"I already told you I'm not mad at you."
"So there will be no 'dealing with me later'?" Lucas asked, surprised.
"I didn't say that. It's just not later, yet." Maya grinned.
"Salt in my sloppy joe on Monday?" Lucas wondered.
Maya glared and pointed at him "You are not playing this right!" She said, like she used to do all throughout the past year.
"That's what I thought, which is why I came here in a preventive strike."
"You want to negotiate?"
"And buy you breakfast…"
"Keep talking…" Maya said, interested and a little embarrassed when her stomach rumbled.
"You know you wanna go."
Maya glared but said, "Just be quiet, Grammy is still asleep so don't wake her up."
"Wouldn't dream of it." He said as Maya went to her room and came back in record time wearing simple jeans and a paint splattered t-shirt; a much simpler look than anything she would ever wear to school.
"So, tell me cowboy, where are we going?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Could it be pancakes? It's gonna be pancakes. Pancakes, isn't it? Pancakes?" She said, recalling the name he had called her.
"I would never…" he started but then just nodded, "Yeah."
"They better be good."
It was strange being at a different place than their little dinner – which was where they always wound up when they weren't at Topanga's with Farkle and Riley – but Lucas had felt like going somewhere different this time, and he also knew that Maya didn't like the weekend cook at their diner as much as she liked the one that was there Monday through Friday.
"He gets sloppy if there are too many people. " She said once when he had asked why. "It makes waitresses lives that much harder when the kitchen is sloppy."
He figured it had something to do with her mom working at the Nighthawk Diner before, but in any case, it was Saturday and they were forced to go a little father than usual for their breakfast.
The little café where they settled had big windows that looked to the busy street, and they sat on a table in front of one of them. And ordered before getting down to business.
"I'm sorry I called you a short, little stake of pancakes." Lucas said sincerely, "I was annoyed that day and it was the first thing that came to mind. I thought it was a bit lame, actually."
"Not your best work, Huckleberry." Maya admitted.
"And I didn't know you cared so much about your height. You're always so confident and-"
"I act confident so I don't feel short." Maya admitted. "Plus, it wasn't really about you."
"But I started it."
"Debatable, but you'll have to pay anyway."
"You don't mean just for breakfast, do you?"
"Nope." Maya said as they waitress set their order on the table, along with butter and three different kinds of syrup. "Now pass the butter." Maya said.
Lucas took one of the little foil wrapped squares of butter, and held it in his hands for several seconds.
"What are you doing?"
"Warming the butter? I hate when it's so cold it won't melt." Lucas said deciding the butter was warm enough, pausing to open the packet before passing it to Maya.
"Ain't you a right proper gentleman," Maya said with a grin as he repeated the process with another square.
"Shut up." Lucas said playfully, and they dug in, deciding to wait until they were done to discuss what Maya's revenge was going to be. Instead they discussed how weird Riley's Uncle Eric was and where exactly St. Upid Town was?
Later, feeling stuffed and generous, Maya decided on her punishment for Lucas as he stood up to settle their bill. She found a little printed menu for the specials on the table, and she turned it over so she could write on the back.
She was still laboring over it when Lucas came back. Wordlessly, Maya pushed the paper to him.
"Here by, Lucas Friar agrees to do the following things for Maya Hart every time she asks." Lucas read. "One. Get stuff off high shelves. Two. Lift her so she can see above people in crowds. And Three. Buy her pancakes any time she wants." He finished. "What's this?"
"My revenge." Maya said.
"You are going soft on me, Hart." Lucas said, but then he took the pen.
"It's the maple syrup. Syrup makes me happy." Maya said, watching as he signed the paper on the dotted line she had made over his name at the bottom of the page (where she had also included all the names she called him). And then wrote (Pancake) under Maya's name where she had signed at the bottom too.
Maya laughed as she took the paper back from him, "I'm going to frame this."
Lucas rolled his eyes at her, "Come on, we going to the movies with Farkle and Riley."
"We are?"
"Yeah, he texted all of us, like, five minutes ago. You must not have heard. Told him we would meet them there."
"What are we watching? Whose time to pick is, anyway?"
"Farkle's."
"As long as it doesn't have subtitles this time." Maya grumbled as they made their way outside and to the nearest subway station.
