Chapter 7- Girl Meets The First Fight
Lonely after spending the day away from Riley, my Sunday dragged on for what felt like forever. Thankfully, a text from Josh cheered me up.
Hey, I know it's the last minute, but wanna go to a play with me tonight? It's NYU's summer production and it sounds great. -Josh
My eyes lit up at the message. Only two days had passed since our first date, but I longed to spend more time with him. This sounded especially perfect because Riley and the Matthews' would have no idea. Not only did he want to spend more time with me, but he also wanted me to come to his college campus, somewhere people he knew might see us together.
He informed me that he would pick me up a couple hours later, so I immediately jumped out of my bed and ran to my closet to search for the perfect outfit. I decided to call Smackle to see if she had any suggestions. "Smackle, I'm going to a play with Josh tonight, what should I wear?"
"Ooh okay! I don't know, I'm not great at fashion advice. But if I had to make a suggestion, I think you look fantastic in that cold shoulder red dress you wore to the art show last month." She squealed at the excitement of the date and I laughed a little, grateful for how happy Smackle seemed for Josh and me.
I loved the suggestion because the dress seemed like the perfect choice for this event. Dressy but not over the top, casual but not something I would wear to school. I hung up with Smackle after finishing the conversation and put on the red dress she had suggested. Feeling girly, I twirled around and fell back on my bed out of pure joy. After so many years of pining after Josh, he finally admitted to reciprocating my feelings and actually wanted to go out with me. I didn't think this feeling would ever get old.
He showed up at my front door an hour after I finished getting ready. I raced to open it before Shawn or my mom could beat me there and luckily, I made it in time. We started walking right away, on our way to the nearest subway station. "You look gorgeous, as always," Josh said as he took my hand. We entered the subway and sat close to the door. "Thank you for going with me."
My cheeks burned a bright red. "Thank you for inviting me."
"Of course," he squeezed my hand and I noticed a little red in his cheeks as well. "I have a few friends that might sit with us, is that okay?"
I nodded, overjoyed that he wasn't embarrassed to be seen with me. "Definitely." We arrived at the campus auditorium a little while later and he continued to hold my hand while we walked inside. We took our seats and waited for the play to begin and for his friends to arrive. Soon, a beautiful red-head sat next to Josh with her arm around a boy who formed the perfect representation of the tall dark, and handsome stereotype.
"Hey guys," Josh nodded at his friends. "This is Maya. Maya, these are my friends Cassie and Dante."
Cassie, the gorgeous red-head, pulled me into a hug. I cringed a little at how friendly she seemed right off the bat. I hated so much human contact with people I didn't know, but I decided to put up with it for Josh. "So nice to meet you! We've heard so much!" She grinned at me and then continued to Josh, "She's cute."
Dante nodded in agreement with Cassie as the lights began to dim for the beginning of the play. "Oh hey Josh, are you guys going to that frat party on Friday?"
Josh glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and then back at Dante. "I might go but she's probably not."
I turned to face Josh. Did I say I couldn't go to the party? I didn't even know it was happening. "What party?" I decided to make it known that I knew nothing about the party.
Josh's head turned to face me. "I figured it wouldn't be a good scene for you. Those frat guys can get pretty wild; I don't think it would be a good place for a high school girl." Cassie and Dante could clearly sense the awkward energy because they kept glancing at each other and trying to figure out how to interrupt.
"Got it." I nodded and turned my head to face the stage. Luckily, the lights had completely dimmed and the show was starting.
About two hours later, the play ended. Josh said his goodbyes to Cassie and Dante and they both said they hoped to see me again soon. Then the two of us started to head back to the subway. "I'm sorry I didn't mention the party, I just don't think it's a good idea. There's gonna be drinking and a lot of other stuff and I don't want you to get hurt or anything."
"I can protect myself," I said. He should have known all this by now. He'd known me since my early childhood.
He rolled his eyes. "I know that, Maya. It's not about you. It's about all the creepy older college guys that will be wasted this weekend, the ones hitting on you and trying to get you drunk and stuff. I don't want to put you through that."
"That's not your place to decide, it's mine." I continued walking and pulled my hand away when he tried to hold me back. We finally got passed the age barrier to having a relationship with each other but now he wanted to use it to limit our relationship. I hated it when he treated me like I was just some kid that he needed to protect.
He followed me all the way to the subway until we sat down next to each other. We sat in silence for a few moments until I finally turned to face him. "Look, I like you. A lot. But we need to be equals. Age doesn't matter anymore, okay?"
"I disagree. I want to be with you but sometimes things happen that just won't work because of the age difference. I will try as hard as I can to prevent those things from happening but it's pretty much inevitable." He looked down, realizing that he couldn't reason with me. I made up my mind.
My eyes rolled inside my head as I turned to face him. "It's just a dumb party, I don't get what the big deal is."
"I don't want to argue with you about this. Why can't we stay happy?" He reached for my hand and I let him take it. After all, I did really like him and I wanted for this to work out. I needed to prove him wrong, to prove that we could work and that age didn't matter. But to do that, I couldn't let our age difference start getting in the way so early on. I squeezed his hand in mine, still in love with the way it felt. He let out a small smile and then continued, "If it means this much to you, I won't even go to the party. It doesn't sound that fun to begin with."
I shook my head. "That's not the problem, Josh."
"I get that." He avoided looking at me as the subway doors opened for my stop.
We both started to stand up until I turned to stop him. "You don't need to walk me home, I'm gonna stop by the Matthews' and see if Riley's ready to talk."
"You sure?" He asked. I nodded and got off the subway, heading towards Riley's apartment. When I got there, I walked right in, like I always do, and noticed Lucas's shoes at the door. No one noticed I walked in as everyone either already went to bed or had plans other than sitting out in the open waiting for me to walk in. As a result, I walked over to Riley's room and just as I lifted my hand to knock on the door, it opened and I came face to face with Lucas.
He grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door whispering. "Riley can't see you."
"What the hell, Lucas? This is none of her business. I came to talk it out with her, not to yell at her." I pulled my hand away from him and started to walk back.
"Maya, seriously, will you listen to me please?" He looked me right in the eyes and I couldn't resist giving him that small favor. That's what friends are for, right?
"Fine." I rolled my eyes and followed him out of the apartment and into the hallway. "What do you want, Huckleberry?"
He took a breath before speaking. "She needs some time to think about all this stuff with you and Josh before she fully accepts everything. For us, this thing between you guys happened really fast and no one expected it, so we need time to process it. To her, all of a sudden you started dating her uncle who's told her about all his crazy party nights from high school and the girls he's broken up with for superficial reasons. On top of that, he has a lot more...like, physical experience than you do. She doesn't want you getting hurt. And from her perspective, you're not even open to listening to her. So give her a couple days. She'll come around, I promise. She needs time."
I listened and then sighed. "Fine. But if I can't talk to Riley, I need to talk to someone. How do you feel about walking home with me and giving some advice?"
Lucas shrugged. "I guess. But if you don't like my advice, don't blame me."
I walked him all the way home because he hated walking through my neighborhood, and then left him at his doorstep. I filled him in on everything with Josh and all he did was stare at me, pretending not to have the same opinion as Riley. When we reached his house, he finally gave me his two cents. "Look, I want you to be happy. If that's with Josh, date Josh. But if he's already making you feel like this, you deserve better, Maya." His hand cupped my cheek and I stared at him, somehow feeling frozen and unable to respond. "See you tomorrow."
He left me standing there on his doorstep to think about what he said. I deserve better? What does that even mean? Josh has always been the best. No one in the world compares to how I feel about him. And why did Lucas care so much? He chose Riley. He always wanted Riley. He never liked me at all. And the only reason I thought I liked him was because Josh wasn't an option.
I finally regained the ability to move and started walking home. I picked up my phone and decided to call Josh because I couldn't possibly fall asleep after the conversation we had on the way home. "Hey." He answered, regret evident in his voice.
"Hey." I realized that I had absolutely no idea what to say. I kind of just wanted to hear his voice.
I heard his breath sigh through the phone before he opened his mouth. "Okay so here's the deal. I know you want me to treat you like my equal. I can work on that; it will just take time because I've known you for so long. I also know you want to go to the party and I decided that I'm okay with that as long as you stay with me the whole time. I don't want any creepy older guys getting any ideas about you. Deal?"
I smiled, thankful that he had finally come around. "Deal."
"Okay. Text me when you get home, okay?" He sounded concerned for my safety, and I loved that part of him.
"Okay." I hung up and continued walking until I got home, grateful that I could sleep peacefully knowing I worked things out with Josh.
A/N: So so so sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've wanted to for so long, I've just been so busy with the new school year and my summer was pretty chaotic this year. I will try my best from now on to have an update every two weeks but at least once a month. Hopefully, it will be more often than that. As always, my biggest motivation is feedback, both positive and negative. So please let me know what you think, give me predictions and opinions! If so, I'll probably update a little faster. Thanks for reading!
