A/N: So this chapter is a little breakdown of Maya and Lucas's immediate after-thoughts the morning after the party…

I don't own GMW, just the plot of this story.

Chapter 9: "Let's Take A Break"

Maya POV

Falling asleep was not an easy task. I tossed and turned for hours. Most of the night I was wracked with soft sobs, but I would try to keep them concealed in my pillow so I wouldn't wake Riley. I got up once to throw up again, although I'm pretty positive that time was completely because of the alcohol. I spent maybe 30 minutes of the night just sitting in the bay window, staring out at the moon light thinking. I thought about Lucas. I thought about what I had done and how I could have done it. I could no longer blame this on Taylor; now it was my fault.

When the morning light started peeking through the window, I was laying the bed, my eyes fluttering tired. I could hear Topanga get up and get into the shower. Even on Saturday she had work, probably a big case to work on or something. The sun was shining bright into Riley's bedroom by the time I heard the front door shut. The apartment was filled with morning silence once again and I was able to fall asleep for a little while longer. I was barely asleep when I felt the bed shift. I opened my eyes quickly, hoping this was all a bad dream that I was waking up from. I shot up to sit, looking around the room. Riley stood at the edge of the bed, looking at me wide-eyed.

"Sorry. I was trying not to wake you," Riley all but whispered to me. I ran my hand through my hair, tired from my lack of actual sleep.

"It's fine. I was barely sleeping," I said as I reached over to pick up a hair-tie from the nightstand. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun, just wanting it out of my face, then leaned back against the headboard of the bed. Riley sat down on the bed, not taking her eyes off of me. I knew she was curious about the night before. I knew she wanted to ask me about it, but I was hoping she wouldn't.

"Do you want some water or some juice?" she asked. I nodded. I felt a slight hangover come over me as a consequence to my drinking from the night before. The brunette got up from her spot and walked out of the room. I looked over at my phone sitting on the nightstand. I thought about looking at it, checking if I had a message from Lucas. I probably didn't. Just as I was about to reach for my phone, Riley entered the room again, two glasses of orange juice in her hands. She handed one to me then reclaimed her spot on the edge of her bed. I practically downed the entire glass of juice, feeling a small relief to the headache I had. We sat in silence for a while. Neither of us wanted to bring up Lucas or the night before. Riley was curious; I could tell from the little glances she kept giving me out of the corner of her eye. I knew she would ask eventually and I couldn't take the silence anymore, so I gave her what she wanted.

"You can ask Riley," I said, staring at my almost empty glass of orange juice.

"What the hell happened last night!?" she blurted out, without skipping a beat after I gave her permission. I stayed silent for a moment, trying not to get emotional as I told the entire story. I didn't even know where to begin.

"I messed up Riley! There was this huge misunderstanding and me and Lucas got into this giant fight," I took a second to pause as I felt warm tears fill my eyes. "I kissed this other guy," I said, cutting right to the chase.

"What?!" Riley yelled. "Maya why would you do that?"

"It was Taylor! I let her get into my head and I thought Lucas was cheating on me with her," I replied.

"Maya that's ridiculous!" Riley pointed out.

"You don't think I know that?" I knew how bad I had screwed up. My mind went to Lucas and the anger he had in his eyes the night before. "Lucas is never going to want to speak to me again," I said somberly. My heart broke thinking about how he must be feeling in this moment. Would it be a little better or 10 times worse than how he must have felt seeing me kiss Matt with his own eyes last night? I wouldn't be surprised if he hated me, I hate me. I felt Riley's hand land on my shoulder. She scooted closer to me to allow me to put my head on her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around me, comforting me.

"Maya you know that's not true. Lucas loves you," Riley tried convincing me.

"I don't know if he does anymore Riles. You didn't see him last night. He was furious! I've never seen him that angry before," I said, reliving the fight him and I had had.

"But this is you and Lucas!" Riley was always believing in things. She believed in Lucas and I so much. She would have to have hope enough for the both of us right now.

"I don't know if that's going to be enough this time Riley," I said, laying my head back down on her shoulder.

Lucas POV

I woke up with a headache. It wasn't from drinking the night before at the party, I didn't even drink that much, just a few beers. It was from my fight with Maya. Even now lying in bed, I was blinding by my anger. I was angry at Maya for kissing some other guy; I was mad at Taylor for telling Maya about the kiss, if it can even be called that seeing that it lasted for about .02 seconds and was completely one-sided; I was mad at that guy Maya was kissing, whoever the hell he was; I was mad at myself for being so naïve about Taylor. I couldn't focus my anger on just one thing, which I guess is good.

I sat up from my position on the bed. I looked at my phone, which had a few messages from Aiden, asking where Maya and I went and telling me he was staying at Cassie's dorm for the night. I thought about calling Maya, texting her if nothing else. I never thought I would do that: leave her alone at a party without even making sure she got home alright. But I was just so angry, I couldn't look at her. My finger hovered over her contact, thinking about pressing down the "call" button. But it quickly moved away. Instead, I dialed for Zay's number. It rang only a couple of times before he answered.

"Hello?" he answered, kind of tired. It was still early in the morning so I wasn't surprised he was barely awake.

"I have a problem," I said simply. In my frustration, my fingers rubbed my head at my temples. "It's Maya."

"Aw what's wrong with the power couple?" Zay asked, chuckling.

"We got into this huge fight."

"Lucas you know when you and the blonde beauty fight, it's usually nothing and it usually lasts for about an hour. Just call her and say you're sorry. She'll say she's sorry too and everything will be fine!" I didn't blame Zay for thinking this was just another one of our usual fights. This wasn't the first time I had called for Zay for advice on Maya or to vent about a fight we had. To his defense, calling Maya and exchanging apologies was usually the fix. Not this time.

"She kissed another guy last night," I replied. It only took Zay less than a second to react to the news.

"What!? What happened?" I wish I knew how to answer that. The truth was I wasn't too sure. The fight was a blur in my head.

"Taylor happened. She tried to kiss me last night and somehow she was able to convince Maya that I kissed her back," I explained. Words couldn't describe how hurt I was that Maya believed Taylor. After everything we had been through, she was so easy to convince that I had kissed Taylor.

"And Maya believed her?" Yeah I was still trying to figure out that myself.

"It might have had something to do with the fact that you told her I was hanging out with Taylor. Thanks for that by the way!" I said angrily. I had forgotten Maya mentioned Zay telling her about that until this moment.

"Hey hey hey! I didn't know it was some huge secret alright!" Zay defended himself.

"It wasn't a secret. I just-I just didn't want to make a big deal out of it," I said, trying to rationalize my decision to not tell Maya.

"Well it's definitely a big deal now. And maybe it wouldn't have been such a big deal if you would've just told her yourself."

"That doesn't excuse what she did!" I yelled. I jumped to my feet off of my bed.

"I'm not saying it excuses it! And I'm not saying you're to blame for what happened last night, but maybe you did contribute to it," he spoke. I guess maybe I did have a small part in how it ended. But Maya should know me well enough to know I would never do that to her.

"I don't know what to do Zay," I admitted. I leaned my head against the wall, just wanting this whole thing to go away. But no matter how hard I tried I was still angry.

"Just take a couple of days to cool down. I know you man, you're angry and you're no good when you're angry," he said. Zay was right, nothing would get accomplished right now. I would just end up getting frustrated and yelling and we would get into another fight. I had to cool down before I talked to Maya.

"I don't even know how she got home last night," I finally spoke, realizing I had left her at the party.

"Look she's more than likely with Riley. I'll call Riley and make sure Maya's ok." I breathed a sigh of relief that Zay would take care of that. I would get peace of mind of that subject knowing Maya got home safe.

"Thanks man," I uttered, leaning against the wall of my dorm. I could already tell cooling down wouldn't be easy to do, not with the image of Maya kissing that guy on repeat in my head.

1 week later

I walked through campus, making my way to the bench me and Maya had agreed to meet on. It was our bench; the bench we always sat at to do homework or eat lunch. I called Maya early this morning to ask her to meet me. Every day since the party, I thought about what had happened. I thought about what I had done to contribute to the mess and I thought about Maya. Every day my finger hovered over her contact on my phone, trying to decide if I was in the right mindset to talk to her. Now I was about to see her for the first time in a week.

I rounded a corner and saw Maya sitting at the bench underneath the tree that was now empty of leaves. She was looking down at her fingers as she twiddled them nervously. Her blonde hair blew in the soft breeze of the season and I watched as she pulled her big brown sweater tighter around her body. She noticed me when I got closer and sat up straight as I rounded the table to sit next to her. Her eyes were pink and tired, like she hadn't slept for days. I know I haven't slept in days, so I knew what that felt like.

"Hi," she spoke after I sat down. I saw her try to crack a small smile, but it was quickly deflated. Neither of us knew what to say or how to start. So we just sat and looked around at everything but each other. "Lucas I'm really sorry," Maya finally spoke when the mood got too tense. I looked into her eyes. I could tell she had been crying and truth be told, I hated seeing her so sad.

"Maya I don't even know how to feel right now. No one has ever hurt me as much as you hurt me," I said, wanting to lay everything out on the line. She didn't waste any time before tears welled up in her blue eyes.

"There has to be something that I can do. You have to forgive me," she begged. She couldn't understand how badly I wanted to. But as much as I wanted to forgive her and wrap my arms around her to make her feel better, I had this overwhelming sense of hurt inside me. I couldn't ignore it.

"If this whole situation was reversed, if we switched roles and I was the one begging for forgiveness right now, would you forgive me?" I asked her. She stared at me with those big, sad eyes. They were wet now, stained with tears. She sniffled before answering my question.

"I don't know," she admitted sadly. Truthfully I didn't know either. I wanted to forgive her, I just didn't know if I could. "But I love you, that's what I know."

"Really?"

"Why would you question that?" she asked, confused.

"Because you know what really upsets me? You know what hurts me the most about all of this? It's not that you kissed some guy. Trust me that hurts but what hurts more is that you honestly believed some girl you've never met when she told you I kissed her. You believed that I would cheat on you. I've never been that type of guy Maya and I thought you knew that! After 6 years of friendship and 3 years of being together I thought you would trust me enough and know me enough to know that that isn't even something I'm capable of! But you didn't. And that hurts more than I ever thought anything could hurt." I looked at Maya, who suddenly dug her face in her hands, sobbing. I looked away, knowing that if I kept watching her cry I would break down and hold her in my arms.

"Lucas I can't tell you how sorry I am! I don't know why I believed Taylor. I was just drunk and I knew you were keeping your friendship a secret from me…" her sentence trailed off as she was choked by sobs. She took a second to catch her breath, but before she could keep her speech going, I spoke.

"Maya I think we both need to think about a lot of stuff," I started. Maya looked at me confused.

"What are you saying?" she asked, visibly fearful of the answer.

"I think we should take a little break from our relationship," I finished. It gave me a lot more pain than I thought it would to say those words.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Maya asked, tears cascading out of her eyes like two waterfalls.

"No! Just take a little break."

"Lucas please don't do that. Ok I can't lose you this way!" she was practically begging. I could hear the pain in her voice. She was so mad at herself for what she had done. I could see sincere remorse in her eyes, but I couldn't look in her eyes for too long without getting carried away in them.

"You're not losing me Maya. I think this is best for both of us," I said. I didn't know what would be best. I was enraged, mostly at her but at the same time, I couldn't picture my life without her. She had been my whole world for the past 3 ½ years, what would I do without her?

"Lucas please," she pleaded. I started to get up to leave, not being able to hear her cry anymore.

"I'm sorry Maya," I said, walking away from the table, from that beautiful blonde who still had my heart. How can you be this mad at a person and still love them with every piece of your being? I walked away quick, fighting every instinct I had, trying not to look back at Maya. I walked until I rounded the corner of a building. I stopped. I leaned my back against the wall and let a few tears fall out of my eyes before wiping them away. Before I could compose myself, I felt my fist collide with the wall. Blood dripped from my knuckles and onto the asphalt beneath my feet.

But I was too blinded by rage and heartbreak to feel any of the physical pain.

A/N: I know, I know you guys probably hate me lol Just remember it will all get better eventually! But fyi, before it gets better….it's going to get a hell of a lot worse. Sorry guys lol

So many nice comments on the last chapter! Keep it up with the reviews and I'll be sure to update quickly! Thanks for reading beauties