It was, in fact, Boxing Day that Maya and Josh had to field some active drama.
Sometime over the summer, Nikki had apparently done some math and figured out that she had been born while Kermit was still married to Maya's mom, and that Kermit had left Maya to raise her. Nikki had not taken this realization well. She had been all but refusing to speak to Kermit, and was constantly fighting with Rachel, but she had not told them why she was upset for a few months, so they had been trying to force things at first, thinking that it was normal pubescent rebellion fueling her attitude, which only made things worse. Maya, also unaware that Nikki had figured it out, had done her best to be peacemaker.
The situation had come to a head one Saturday evening a couple weeks before Halloween, as Nikki subsequently put together why Maya had been Cassie's Halloween Party escort the previous year, and had blown up at her parents in the middle of costume shopping, before running out of the store. Maya had gotten a frantic phone call from Cassie on Rachel's phone an indeterminate amount of time later, Rachel being occupied mostly with sobbing into Kermit's shirt at her daughter calling her and Kermit a lot of rather unflattering things that Rachel had been trying not to think about for a very long time.
Maya had done her best to reassure Cassie over the phone, telling her that Maya didn't blame either of the girls for the bad situation between her parents, and was trying to pull on sneakers one-handed while still on the phone to go start looking for Nikki, when there was a knock on the door. It was Nikki, and Maya let her in while telling a calming Cass that Nikki was with her, and she would call back later. Cassie relayed this to Kermit with Maya still on the phone, and told Maya as he was leading them towards home before they hung up.
That dealt with for the moment, Maya had sat her little sister down on the sofa, and Nikki had broken down sobbing in between a series of heart-wrenching apologies. Maya had held her and done her best to comfort her and promise that she didn't blame Nikki for any of it, crying a bit herself at her sister's obvious pain.
Once Nikki had cried herself out and calmed down a little, Maya sent her into the bathroom to wash her face and collect herself a little, quickly texting Josh to ask if he would mind crashing at Cory and Topanga's that night, since he was there hanging out with Auggie anyway, giving a brief explanation. As soon as he confirmed in the affirmative, she followed it up with a text to both Kermit and Rachel's phones that Nikki was going to stay with her tonight to calm down and talk things over with Maya, that Maya would let them know what time she was bringing Nikki home tomorrow. As she sent that, another idea occurred, and Maya also texted her mom to confirm that she wasn't working tomorrow morning. The reply from Kermit came at almost the exact same moment as Katy's. His said ok, to let them know if the girls needed anything. Her mother's was a confirmation that she wasn't working and a comment that Shawn's trip had been pushed back and he would be home as well, asking if Maya wanted to do something. Maya gave the briefest summary possible of the current situation and asked if Katy would be ok with her bringing Nikki over for breakfast tomorrow to talk to her. Katy's reply of a simple 'ok' took longer this time, not coming until Maya was heating up some leftovers for Nikki, as she hadn't eaten dinner yet.
It was barely 9 when Nikki began yawning, emotionally exhausted from her day, and Maya said Josh was at his brother's babysitting for the night as she handed her sister some of her own pajamas to change into, asking if Nikki minded sharing the bed, or if Maya should take the couch. Nikki didn't mind sharing, and changed before crawling into bed and falling asleep shortly after Maya turned out the lights, to the sound of Maya's quiet typing on her laptop as she worked on homework on the couch for a couple hours before she went to bed herself.
Maya didn't tell Nikki the plan as she led her to her parent's apartment the next morning. Nikki was confused right up to Maya pulling out her keys to open the door, and she realized where she probably was.
As Nikki immediately tensed and opened her mouth to protest, Maya held her hand and said, "Sweetheart, you need this. And... I think my mom does, too." before swinging the door open and hauling her inside.
On the other side of the door, Shawn was in the kitchen whipping up what look like makings for breakfast burritos, while Katy stood in front of the breakfast bar with a cup of coffee next to her. As Maya closed the door, she turned Nikki to face her parents and put a hand on her shoulder. "Nikki, this is my mom, Katy, and that's my dad, Shawn." the hand moved from Nikki's shoulder to softly tussle Nikki's hair. "Guys, this is Nikki. My little sister."
Shawn said a calm 'Welcome', but Katy didn't seem to know what to say at first. Then she took a good look at this girl, looking so very much like Maya had 4 years ago when Maya herself had been working through figuring out that it wasn't her fault her father had left, whole body tense, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, and, before Katy could do anything, out of the girls mouth came a choked "I'm so sorry!". Immediately, Katy did the only thing any mother with a heart could possibly do in that situation, stepping forward to fold the girl into a tight mom-hug, petting her hair and telling her it wasn't her fault.
Maya gave them some space, moving into the kitchen to help Shawn finish up breakfast and move all the dishes out to the living room for them to eat from the coffee table and talk.
Throughout the meal, tensions eased all around as they got to know each other, trading stories on their lives. By the end, Nikki was even smiling and laughing a little at stories of Maya when she was younger as she began to understand that, while Maya's life hadn't been fantastic, she now had a pretty cool dad, and hadn't been short on family experiences with the Matthews around.
After they left, Maya took Nikki to a nearby coffee spot to get herself a macchiato and her sister her favorite peppermint steamer. As they sat down and talked about what Nikki thought of Maya's parents, it looked like a massive weight had been unloaded from Nikki's shoulders, and Maya began to prepare them both to take Nikki home, as they still needed to deal with Nikki's parents.
When they got to Kermit and Rachel's apartment, it was incredibly tense. Rachel had tried to send Cassie to her room while the rest of them talked, but Maya put forward the reasoning that Cassie should really hear everything that was going on so she can understand too, and everyone was soon settled in the living room, Maya with her sisters on either side of her on the couch. Cassie was just sitting, watchful, but Nikki was tensed up again, one hand clutching one of Maya's hands tightly.
No one seemed to know how to start, so Maya did it by meeting Kermit's eyes and addressing him directly for possibly the first time since the first couple meals the group had had together. "So, I take it you've been avoiding me since that evening at the diner because you heard me call Shawn 'dad'?" Kermit had, indeed, been avoiding her. As he nodded his confirmation, everyone else looked confused. "I would apologize for you finding out that way, but I'm not really sorry. Mom's life is none of your business, and I gave up on you caring about me a long time ago."
Kermit looked pained. "I do care about you, Maya."
Maya's head shook a denial. "Regardless, you weren't there, so the only parts of my life that you need to know about are parts that might affect these two." she said firmly, gesturing to Cass and Nikki. Before anyone can respond to that, she continues, "Anyway, Nikki and I had a long talk about what happened, both when I was little and everything that has happened since." With this, she looks over to Nikki expectantly.
Nikki took a deep breath before starting to speak. "I'm sorry for blowing up at you guys. It's just, when I realized that dad was still married to Maya's mom when I was born, and that I was the reason Maya grew up without a dad, I was just so angry. I still am angry, really, but not as much, and not feeling guilty anymore. Maya and Katy both explained that, even if I was the final reason that Katy and dad got divorced, that it probably would've happened over something else anyway, and they don't blame me for anything." Maya snuck a look to her other side, finding Cass looking shell-shocked. She grabbed her other sister's hand as Nikki kept going. "I'm sorry for all the names I called you guys. And making a scene and running out. I know, now, that I should've talked to you guys about it when I figured it out… I can't promise it won't happen again, but I am going to try to be better at talking to you instead of letting myself be angry for a long time." At this, she threw a grateful look at Maya. "And Maya says I can come to her to talk things out first if I am not comfortable going to either of you, but that I still also have to talk to you guys after, since you are my parents and you need to know what's going on with me."
Maya's arm shifted to around Nikki's shoulders as Nikki scooted closer and leaned into her side. Maya nudged Cassie's side gently with her elbow and said, "That goes for you too, kid." prompting Cassie to follow Nikki in leaning into her oldest sister.
Rachel and Kermit looked like they were both a little overwhelmed, having obviously expected this to be another fight.
"Wait - what do you mean Katy explained to you?" The question came from Rachel.
"Well, even after I talked everything out with Maya last night, I was still feeling guilty, so she took me over to her parents house for breakfast this morning. I met Shawn and Katy, and Katy said she didn't blame me at all. And her and Shawn told me funny stories about Maya. Shawn made breakfast burritos. He's a professional photographer! And really nice. I'm glad he's Maya's dad now." Nikki either didn't notice or didn't care that that statement made Kermit flinch. She had warned them that she was still angry, after all.
After a few minutes of silence, Maya rubbed her sisters' arms, asking "Think you are ok from here, or do you want me to to stay a little longer?"
Nikki locked eyes with Cassie before answering Maya. "I think we'll be ok. We need to explain what's going on to Cassie. Can I call you if she needs to talk to you?"
"Always," Maya answered, squeezing both of them briefly before standing to leave to let the family have the talk they needed to.
Things had remained tense as both Cassie and Nikki began dealing with their feelings about the situation, forcing Kermit and Rachel to do the same in the process, and also suddenly starting to understand more things that they had previously missed since Maya had been in their lives - how she never interacted with Kermit if she could help it, the low-key but ever-present tension between Maya and Rachel, exactly how much their parents didn't know about Maya. There was also a certain amount of resentment that they hadn't at least been told about Maya much sooner, if not known her.
So, Boxing Day, Maya and Josh had been invited over for dinner. They made their way to the apartment, with Josh carrying the gifts for the family, just as he had yesterday for his own family. Being on a rather tight budget, Maya had either drawn or painted everyone's gifts that year (with Josh's input) to be from the both of them. She was particularly pleased with the dual portraits she had gifted Shawn and Cory of them staring lovingly into each other's eyes (they had loved them, while Topanga rolled her eyes).
In addition to the pictures she had drawn or painted for her sisters, Maya had made a larger painting to give to Kermit and Rachel of the girls playing at the beach, based on a photo Rachel had sent her sometime over the summer. It was a gesture mostly for the girls themselves, Maya hoping they would see it as her forgiving their parents in a small way, so maybe they could do the same.
This did not take into account that Maya had not, in fact, forgiven Kermit or Rachel at all, but the important part was the girls' perception. Josh bit his tongue. That was a battle that he would have to wait for Maya to decide to fight herself.
She had been expecting the gifts from her sisters in return - they had made a fast tradition of trading hand-made gifts at Christmas and birthdays - but Maya had been stunned to receive a festively wrapped box from Kermit and Rachel in return after she handed them the oil painting. She had been tempted to reject it outright, wanting nothing from them, but held herself back in the interest of setting an example for her sisters. Opening it, she found a pretty stained-glass vase that Nikki had obviously helped pick out (it would fit well with the jewel-toned theme Maya had going with her general decor at home), and a generous gift card at a florist not extremely far away from her apartment to periodically get flowers to put in it. They were 'ooohh'ing over the painting still as she shot out a 'thank you!' that she hoped didn't sound too fake.
Maya dragged Josh out of there as soon as she reasonably could without being rude, grateful that Rachel hadn't tried to hug her like she expected.
At home, Maya stashed the box with the vase and gift card under the little table between the chair and sofa, where it would be mostly hidden and she wouldn't have to deal with it. She slipped off her coat and handed it back to where Josh was hanging his own on the back of the door, and turned to sit on the back of the chair to pull off her boots. She spread her knees apart as Josh came to stand in front of her, allowing him to get closer and wrap his arms around her waist as she hooked hers around his neck and nuzzled her face into his neck.
Josh asks, "How you doin', baby?" as his hands slide up and down her back.
"Better now. Glad we have almost no obligations for the next few days," Maya replied, before pulling back a little to shoot him an innocent look. "I could use a distraction."
"A distraction, huh?" Josh smirked back, "What kind of distraction are we talking about, here?"
Maya's answer was to lean forward and start kissing his neck as she reached under his shirt to run her nails lightly down his stomach before unbuckling his belt.
The next few days were, as Maya had said, fairly obligation-free. The couple went out for brunch with Josh's parents, just the four of them, on the 28th, the day before Amy and Alan headed back to Philly. Amy and Maya had a couple minutes alone as Alan was paying the bill and Josh was using the restroom. Amy thanked Maya for pulling her out of her ridiculousness over the Christmas location, saying that she got carried away sometimes, and occasionally forgot that her babies all had lives of their own that she needed to think about with things like that. Maya responded with a hug and a statement that she was just glad that Amy wasn't oversensitive, because she didn't think she could've pussyfooted around it much longer.
Other than that and studying ahead a little, Maya and Josh only had the Farkle New Years Eve party to go to. Maya had expected it to be a dressy event (because… Minkus), but apparently he had wanted it to be casual, just friends hanging out instead of a big bash. It would be the first time that Maya would be hanging out with more than one of her old friends at a time in 2 years. She and Riley were hanging out regularly again, though not nearly as much as they use to, and Maya had gotten together with Farkle every few weeks for them to have coffee and catch up since he had made his apology. Smackle, she knew, would not be an issue to deal with, but Zay and Lucas were supposedly coming as well, and Maya wasn't sure how that was going to go. Zay, she imagined, probably wouldn't be bad, as his easygoing attitude had never left, even as he and Lucas had drifted into the popular/jock crowd; she was expecting that they would simply pick up as two friends who hadn't been incredibly close who'd drifted apart, and catch up on their lives, then not talk again until the next event they both happened to be at, and she was ok with that. Lucas…. was another animal. He had seemingly become a different person than the one she knew in middle school, taking to popular jockdom with relish, to the point of managing to pull Riley along for the ride for quite awhile. From what Riley had told her, he had taken to using his looks to sleep around with whatever girls were willing since she had broken up with him just over a year ago. He had taken up the double-letter, star Quarterback/Pitcher jackass persona, with Zay and his laid-back, up-for-whatever attitude as his sidekick. Maya had never gotten along with those types anyway, forget her also being pissed at the influence he'd had on Riley. It wouldn't take much from him to set Maya off, and everyone in the group with half a brain was on high alert. There would be more than the 6 there, which she thought may help. Evidently, basically their whole class had been invited to this shindig, and about half of them had accepted and would be there, along with some others like siblings or significant others (like Josh). If Lucas just mostly stuck to his general crowd and pretty much ignored her, then they should be ok, but there's no telling what is going to happen.
Maya and Josh walk into the large loft that had been rented for the event around 10pm and find the party in full swing. In one corner, there is a DJ set up in front of a dance floor area, but outside of that area, the music is low enough to still talk without shouting. The rest of the space is taken up with tables surrounded by chairs, and groups of couches and armchairs for people to congregate and relax, as well as bowls of chips, pretzels, and various other snacks on every table. There is a "bar" set up off to one side, serving mocktails that Maya knows a number of people will be discreetly spiking from flasks. Several people say hi as they walks in, a few, like Sarah and Darby, coming over for short hugs with Maya. Josh was recognized and greeted as well, him having made periodic appearances in his brother's classes over the years, including the now-somewhat-infamous ski lodge trip.
Eventually, the couple made it first to the bar, each walking away with some mix of fruit juice and soda water imitating a cocktail. In walking around to try and find somewhere to sit, they ran into Smackle on her way from the bathroom.
In her Smakley way, she greeted Maya by saying , "I would like to extend my apologies for failing to maintain our friendship once our immediate peer group was paired off with mates." before pulling Maya into an unexpected, and surprisingly un-awkward, hug, before turning to Josh, looking him up and down, and saying, still in that special Smaklish way, "YOWZA, Uncle Boing. You got even hotter." before wrapping herself tightly around his middle. Josh held himself back from laughing ass he gently patted her on her upper back before she let go. Smackle motioned to the far corner of the room, continuing, "Farkle, RIley, and I have some sofas if you'd like to join us." before turning on her heel and heading back there, not checking to see if Maya and Josh were following.
Maya and Josh did follow, linking their free hands and exchanging an amused look. As they approach, Farkle sees them first and moves from his spot on one couch to sit on Riley's lap on the sofa perpendicular to his. She is amusedly questioning why he did that before she follows his gaze and tries to stand, failing with her friend effectively holding her down. "Farkle! Let me up!"
Smackle reclaims what was probably her previous seat next to where Farkle had been as Farkle says, "In a minute, Riley. Let them set their drinks down and get settled first." as Maya and Josh go about doing exactly that, grateful, since they knew they'd've been in need of new drinks immediately if she had succeeded in tackle-hugging them as she was prone to. Maya pecks Farkle on the cheek with a 'thanks' as she sits down next to Riley, Josh settling on her other side. Farkle moves back to the other couch, and Maya immediately has armsful of Riley, who is just as excited as ever to see her.
Over the next hour and a half, easy conversation flows, with the group shifting positions as various topics crop up and the interested parties group together while the others talk something else. There is a steady flow of other people hopping in and out of the group as well, many stopping to chat with Maya, since no-one had known what happened to her, only registering that, one day, she was no longer there, and then a few weeks later she was blowing up on Instagram for getting onstage with DNCE.
It's nearly 11:30 when the noisy group arrives. They collectively look toward the door and recognize Lucas and Zay at the center of the group of obviously mostly-drunk teenagers. As Maya's group turns back to each other, Farkle asks, "Do you want me to get rid of them? Security has standing orders to kick out anyone causing trouble." There were indeed security staff positioned around the perimeter of the room, and periodically taking walks through the crowd. This had ensured that those who were spiking their drinks did so discreetly and kept them from getting sloppy drunk. Unfortunately, the new additions were obviously coming from elsewhere, already intoxicated.
Maya and Riley lock eyes for a long moment before Maya replies for both of them. "Leave them for now. You can always give the signal if they start actually doing anything to cause trouble." Farkle acknowledges that with a nod and they get back to conversation.
Several minutes later, Maya gets up to head for the ladies room, wanting to get back in time to kiss Josh at midnight. On her way back, she isn't paying much attention to who is around her and she dodges people to get back to her group, and accidentally runs smack into Zay and Lucas. Literally. In swerving around one couple that couldn't wait until midnight and were already making out, Maya walked smack into Zay's back. He turned around to see who bumped into him, and gave a bright smile as he said, "Hey! It's the lil' ball of fluffy rage!" before pulling her into a one-armed, sideways hug that also, incidentally, moved her to be standing with the group he had been talking to.
Maya conjures up the best smile she can, which isn't much, as she looks around the group and tosses out a general, unenthusiastic, "Hey, long time no see…" The rest of this group consists of Lucas, Missy Bradford hanging on his arm, a couple of guys she vaguely recognizes as baseball players, and a few of the girls from Missy's posse.
Lucas said "Hey, shortcake" and reached over in an attempt to tussle her hair.
Maya leaned back to avoid his hand, also removing herself from under Zay's arm in the process. "Lucas." She returned his greeting shortly.
Missy decided to butt in at this point, giving a sarcastically fake smile and spouting off with, "So, Maya, how have you been? I was sooo sorry to see you dropped out…."
Maya returned the bitchy smile, explaining as if she was talking to a toddler, "Actually, I g-r-a-d-u-a-t-e-d. It's not quite the same thing, but I can understand why you might get them confused." Missy's smile dropped into a scowl, and Maya's turned to a smirk. "I'm studying art at NYU, trying to decide what I want to specify in next year. I have an apartment with my boyfriend, who is pretty fantastic. Overall, I'm doing pretty great."
"Hah. That's a very 'Maya' move. Moving in with the first random guy you managed to get to ask you out, I mean," this comes from Lucas, who grabs a flask Maya hadn't previously noticed from his buddy and takes a swig from it.
Maya opens her mouth to respond, but stops herself as she notices Josh approaching from behind Lucas. Josh skirts around Lucas, cutting through the middle of the group to join her, putting an arm around Maya's waist, hand cupping her hip and pulling her into him. "Guys, for anyone who doesn't already know him from Mr. Matthews' class, this is my boyfriend, Josh." Maya smiles up at him through introducing him to the group. As Josh sends around a general 'hey', Maya looks back forward and notes that Lucas's expression had gone from smug to pissed.
Josh somehow manages to sound blandly friendly as he addresses the group as a whole, "Sorry to steal Maya away from you guys, but it's nearly midnight and I need to make sure she's the first face I see in the new year." This elicits some drunkenly loud 'awwww's from the girls that aren't Missy, and at least one bad imitation of a whipping noise from the others.
Maya raises a hand in goodbye as Josh pulls her away. They've only taken a few steps when she hears it. "Man, if I knew she was that easy, I would've tapped it when I had the chance. Must be pretty good if she managed to trap him after he made it so clear he wasn't interested." She gets a fleeting look of anger registering on Josh's face, but she has beaten him to reacting, whirling around and taking two large steps forward, grabbing the front of Lucas's shirt to pull his face down to her level, taking his distraction at the as an opportunity to bring her knee up swiftly to nail him in the balls. She kept a tight hold on his shirt as he jerked, pained expression on his now ashen face.
Just loud enough for the two of them to hear, Maya says, "Honestly? I don't even give a fuck what you think of me, or my relationship with Josh, but I promised Riley I wouldn't do anything to you unless you started it. So, you wanna go, you little worm? I have been waiting over a year for this. Let's rumble."
Lucas had the presence of mind to look scared, but before anything more can happen, Maya is grabbed around the waist and pulled back, and Josh's voice is in her ear, saying security is coming over. With that, Maya finally releases Lucas's shirt and allows herself to be removed from the group, but maintains eye contact with Lucas to make sure her point is sinking in. As the security guys bust into the group, they begin telling the teenagers to collect their things. One had been near enough to hear Lucas's insult, as he had hardly been quiet about his proclamation, so he makes a show of leading them away, but actually says "I'm sorry about that miss, Mr. Minkus gave directives to leave them be unless they made trouble."
Maya gave a tight smile, already aware. "It's okay, man. I was aware. He was just being an ass. Thanks for busting it up before I had to get really violent with him."
By the time they have separated from the security guard and Josh has led her off to a relatively unpopulated area by the wall between the bar and the dance floor, people are pairing up and getting ready for the ten-second countdown. Maya is keyed up, and doesn't care at this point. She reaches up with one hand and pulls Josh's face down and is kissing him as the room begins counting down. They kiss in the new year, ignoring the cheers around them, eventually parting just for Maya to wrap him up in a hug and nuzzle her face into his shoulder. Josh's arms go around her in return, and he kisses her head as she takes a minute to process what had happened in the last ten minutes before they rejoin Riley, Farkle, and Smackle.
As they settle back into their seats, fresh drinks in hand, Riley looks like she can't decide if she's happy or angry, and Maya knows it's because of her interaction with Lucas. On the one hand, she has always hated when Maya fights, and didn't want Maya to actually do anything to Lucas on her behalf. On the other hand, the security guy had told Farkle, and her and Isadora by extension, what Lucas had said about Maya and Josh. Not that she thought for a second that what Lucas said had anything to do with Maya kicking him in the nuts (she knew Maya WAY too well for that), but Riley was still upset on Maya's behalf that he said it.
Everyone settled back into chatting and laughing quickly enough, getting back to the previous flow of talking with each other, and other people that stopped by, until around 1:30, when people began drifting out at the gentle prodding from the security staff. As hugs went around, tentative group plans were made for a small get-together with just them around Maya's birthday the following week, and promises to talk or text were made.
Maya was counting the evening is an overall win as she and Josh finally re-entered their studio, happy that she had managed to get their core group and Isadora solidly back together. She was looking forward to next week.
Some odd confluence of events, there was no time within a week either direction that the Matthews/Hunter clan could find time in the various schedules to get together for Maya's birthday, so she and Josh ended up going to a few different dinners for secular celebrations. It was the weekend after her birthday that the friends managed to get together for the group festivities, which ended up being Farkle renting a karaoke room for them and ordering takeout for everyone for dinner. Being the oldest except Josh, she lorded her new status as legal adult over them playfully, joking about buying cigarettes just because she could, with no intention of doing it, but still earning a stern lecture from Riley with interjected tobacco-related statistics from Smackle.
Given their less-than-roomy budget, Maya and Josh had mutually agreed that they wouldn't be going all-out, and would keep things small for birthdays this year. Josh's version of that for Maya was taking her out to dinner, then leading her to their friend Andrew's off-campus apartment, where she found all their mutual NYU friends in full party swing. Maya decided to indulge for the first time in awhile and ended up downing several drinks through the night, which she normally wouldn't even consider on a Tuesday, but it was her 18th birthday, and she only had two classes the following day, both in the afternoon, so she thought 'what the hell?'. Being a weekday, the party broke up fairly early (around midnight), but a number of the attendees were stumbling in groups back to various dorms or other locales. Josh, having kept himself to a couple beers since he had a full day of classes and work tomorrow, ended up piggy-backing a very giggly Maya most of the way home, laughing quietly himself as she monologued and put one of her hands down the neck of his shirt to grope his torso as he walked.
It was almost the opposite situation for Josh's birthday six weeks later. Since Valentines fell on a Thursday that year, everyone had planned to celebrate the following day, so there was a family dinner the day-of, which almost never happened. This worked out well for Maya, who had thought along similar lines as Josh had for her birthday, but bigger.
She had connected with Noel, a guy in Josh's program that he was friends with, who also happened to be in a frat that had a townhouse. With his help, she organized a full-out kegger. It wasn't hard for Noel to secure the use of the frat house, between it being a Friday, the fact that half the guys would be out with their significant others' for Valentines anyway, and that it was Josh's 21st birthday. All their friends chipped in for a few kegs, as well as bringing various bottles and mixers, Maya making sure there were snacks available. She had debated just sending him out with the over-21 portion of their friend group for a pub crawl, and making sure someone had money to get Josh wasted, but Andi had pitched the idea of a party so that everyone could participate.
Maya followed Josh's example of just having a couple beers at the party, both to make sure they got home ok, and generally playing hostess, slightly paranoid about things getting too rowdy and the cops showing up and busting about half the people there for underage drinking. Being a Friday, this party was both bigger and louder than hers had been, running later as well. She called it at 3, when the party had wound down enough for her to be comfortable handing the reins over to a drunk Noel to make sure the remaining people either got home safely or stayed there. It was Josh's turn to monologue and grope her in public as she propped him up to keep them moving in a relatively straight line as they headed to the subway, then from the subway home. She was pretty proud of herself as she gently pushed him from standing to a sitting position on their bed.
He only stayed sitting for a moment, quickly collapsing back to lay down, saying, "Oh, this definifelee feelss better. Dis wuzza great ideea, babe."
Maya chuckled as she knelt to untie his sneakers and slip them and his socks off. "Yeah, we'll see if you're still saying that in the morning." With that, she put off undressing the rest of him and got up to grab him a glass of water and a few ibuprofen to take before he passes out. She's pretty sure she can maneuver him out of clothes while he's unconscious, but getting water and meds in him is another story. She has to take off her own shirt to coax him back into a sitting position, but manages to get him to swallow the pills and drink the water, also convincing him that a final bathroom trip to pee is a good idea. While he's in the bathroom, she stows their jackets and shoes, undressing herself and locking up as he slowly shuffles his way back to the bed.
A few minutes later, the lights are out, and they are in bed, Josh curled around Maya so his head is laying on her chest. She runs a hand slowly through his hair and thinks he's asleep until he sleepily says, "Know we aren ready yet, but I'ma make you a Maffews forreal one day…"
Maya smiles as she replies, "Not if I make you a Hunter first, Boing."
Josh lets out a giggle, squeezing her a little. "Don' care eivver way. Long as you my wifey. 'Ventooly." A moment after this, his breathing abruptly evens, and he lets out a soft snore.
A/N. I'm so sorry this is so short and took so long. I have had some major Life Stuff happening that hasn't let me time or energy to really write. I will try to get another, longer chapter up soonish.
