I was sat in the corner of my studio room, arms resting on my knees, in silence when Riley came running through the main studio door.

"Peaches!" She yelled as she pounded on my studio room door, and I made no effort to get up and open it.

The door flung open and slammed against the wall and Riley's small figure came bursting through. I could feel her gaze on me as she let whatever she was holding drop to the floor along with her coat.

"Peaches?" She asked quietly, shutting the room door behind her.

I sniffled, unable to hold it in as the tears began flowing again, and she immediately rushed over and sat down next to me.

"Hey," She whispered, "It's okay," She brushed my hair out of my face and grabbed hold of my good hand in hers.

"I can't do this anymore," I choked out through my sobs.

"What? What can't you do anymore?" Riley gripped my hand tighter.

I pulled my hand from hers and wiped at my face before pushing myself to my feet.

"I can't do this- this damn tango with Lucas anymore." I spat, flinging my hands. "I can't let him back in, Riley. He left. I need to remember that. He left and he stayed away, he took four years to come back and there's no reason I should take him back...right?" I finished rambling and realized I'd been pacing.

Riley gave a small smile before standing up herself.

"Peaches," She said, taking my hand again. "Do you love him?"

I swallowed, feeling my face grow damp again as more tears made their tracks down my cheeks. I nodded slowly.

"Okay, then leap," She squeezed my hand, "Maya he's here, that's what matters. Yes, he did leave, but he also made the effort to come back. He loves you, Maya, and if you love him then take that leap of faith and let him catch you."


I sat in my apartment for the rest of the day, ignoring every call and text I got from Lucas, and barely responded to the ones from Riley and the few from Farkle that I knew had been sent by Riley using Farkle's phone.

I woke up Friday morning around six having realized I'd fallen asleep on my couch watching TV the night before. I sat up and realized that my face was sticky with dried tears and my neck was stiff from sleeping funny.

I reached over to my coffee table for my phone, hugging my casted hand to my body as I felt a wave of pain flash through it.

I looked down at my small device and realized I had even more missed calls and text messages than I'd had the night before. I scrolled quickly through the text messages and missed calls to find one near the top from Riley. 'Just leap, Maya.' it read. I let out a breath and looked at the message above it. It was from Jen and she was asking what time I'd be at the gallery tomorrow which was now today.

Shit.

The gallery.


I flew off the couch and into my room, flinging my phone down onto my bed and running over to my closet. I started yanking clothes off the hangers, trying to figure out what I was possibly going to wear to the showing. I finally decided on a dress I'd gotten with Riley a while back and some boots, tossing the items onto my bed. I yanked on my paint-covered jeans and an old Abigail Adams high school t-shirt before grabbing my nice clothes and doing my best to fold them and put them into a bag. I scrambled around the living room grabbing my phone and keys and coat and shoes before rushing out the door to the studio.

I managed to finish my last two pieces in a "measly" four hours. I'd gotten to the studio around 7 in the morning and it was nearing 11:00 AM by the time I'd signed the last canvas. It turned out that Jen had nearly spent the night there, and had gotten back about as early as I'd come in.

The van from the gallery was coming over at 11:30 to pick up our canvases to transport them over to the showing room and to set them up.

That said, I had a half an hour to kill. I'd already scrubbed my brushes as best I could and had wiped down the table I'd been using, so there was no real cleaning up to be done. I paced the room for a bit before I stopped in my tracks and let out a breath I'd been holding.

I closed my eyes and thought of all of the stuff that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. It was almost too much to handle. I shook my head and spun around, pacing again.

"No." I said out loud, stopping my pacing abruptly. "Dammit, Maya, no."

I scoffed at myself and realized the position I was in. Lucas I were once a thing. We used to be, Maya and Lucas, and now, we weren't. I realized that I'd never gotten over it. I'd convinced myself and everyone around me that I had for the past four years. I'd pretended like I was okay and that Lucas leaving was not my fault and that I was over him, and I wasn't.

Riley was right, I knew what I needed to do. I grabbed my sketchbook from the table and pulled out my stool before sitting down and getting to work. I was leaping, and no one was there to stop me.