I'm sorry this one is super late and super short but here you go!
"Done!" Lucas sat back, looking at his laptop screen. His 12-page paper was finally finished. He looked around at the empty library, then at his phone. It was now currently 1:47 am. When did that happen? He tucked his computer back into its case and stood up to stretch. He was about to leave when he heard the faint clicking of a mouse followed by small shouts of profanity. Curious, he walked toward the computer cubicles where the sound was coming from.
"God damnit!" *click click click* Lucas peeked his head behind the cubicle that was farthest back, tucked into a corner. He thought he knew that voice! Maya was sitting at the computer, watching some tutorial video and trying to mimic the hand gestures the woman in the video was doing.
"What are you doing, Maya?" Maya jumped and quickly closed out of the browser.
"Jesus Christ, Howdy Doody! Give a little warning before you sneak up on a girl in a dark corner in the middle of the night. I could've maced your ass!" She leaned back and put her hand over her heart a little dramatically. Lucas couldn't help but smile a little.
"Sorry, Pancake. I just thought I was the only one left in the library and heard sounds of distress so I thought I'd check it out." Maya made a "pssh" sound.
"I'm never in distress, cowboy, so why don't you go ride off into the sunset alone." Lucas tilted his head and studied her.
"Are you okay? You're being a little abrasive with the cowboy jokes. What were you doing?" Maya fidgeted in her seat and played with her hands.
"Nothin'."
"Okay, you don't want to tell me. That's fine, I can respect that."
"Good boy. Let's go home."
Lucas quickly forgot about the encounter. There was no use dwelling on it. If Maya didn't want to tell you, you weren't gonna get it out of her. It was a couple days later and Lucas had left for class without his textbook so he ran back to get it. When he opened the front door he saw Maya on the couch with her laptop, watching another tutorial. When she heard him she slammed her laptop closed.
"What the hell, Huckleberry! Do you make a living scaring the shit outta me? I thought everyone had gone to class."
"Uh, sorry Maya, I just forgot my book." He picked it up off of the coffee table. "What are you doing that's so secretive, anyway?"
"Nothing! I'm just trying to get some work done before I have to go to class later, that's all." Lucas stood behind the couch with his hand on the doorknob."
"You know… You can always confide in me. I don't judge, I have no room to judge, but I would never judge you. I know something's wrong, you've been chewing on your hair a lot more, lately. I'm going to respect your privacy but just know that you can tell me anything." She stared straight ahead, pulling the ends of her hair out of her mouth.
"I just want to get my work done," she said quietly, sounding somewhat on the verge of tears. He stared at the back of her head for a long minute before leaving. Whatever this was it was really bothering her. He had to keep telling himself that if she really needed help she would come to him. Or at least Riley. This didn't stop him from worrying and he spent the entirety of his class conjuring up possibilities for her emotional, secretive state.
That night, when everyone was asleep, Lucas did something he wasn't proud of. He opened the girls' bedroom door as quietly as he could. His eyes flickered between their beds to make sure they were really asleep. When he saw that they were, her creeped over to Maya's desk and picked up her laptop, then sneaked out into the living room. He opened it up and after, a few tries, guessed the password: Monet. Her favorite artist. She only had one page opened. It was Facebook and the chat was opened. She had been talking to someone named Kermit. He didn't get a chance to read anything though. The door to the girls' room creaked open. With cat-like reflexes, Lucas closed the computer and army crawled to the other side of the room. Once he was behind the couch he glanced up to see Riley getting something to drink. He stood up.
"Riley!" he whisper/shouted. Riley threw the contents of her glass in the air and spun around.
"Holy geez, Lucas!"
"Sorry, I need to stop doing that."
"Ugh, ya think?" She grabbed some paper towels and started wiping up the floor. "What do you need?"
"It's about Maya. She's been acting all secretive and sad. And… I saw something on her laptop…" Riley paused and looked up at him.
"You were snooping around on her laptop? You know she'll kill you dead if she finds out, right?"
"Yeah, I know my fate, but I was worried! She was chatting with someone I didn't recognize. Does the name, Kermit, mean anything to you?" Riley stared at him.
"If you're trying to tell me Maya's been chatting up a frog I'm gonna stick your head in the freezer."
"What? No! But she was talking to someone on Facebook named Kermit and I thought maybe he had to do with the way she was acting."
"Did it ever occur to you that you should stay out of her business and let her come to us if and when she's ready?"
"Of course I did, but something weird's going on. She's watching videos and making weird gestures with her hands and always looks guilty or upset when I catch her doing it." Riley narrowed her eyes then walked over to the freezer and opened it.
"Come here." Lucas rolled his eyes.
"I'm being serious." Riley closed the door.
"Okay, but still. Butt out." Lucas looked defeated but sighed and nodded his head.
"Fine." Riley walked into the living room and picked up the laptop.
"And don't let this become a habit. I'm telling Maya to change her password." She used two fingers to point at her eyes and then pointed at him, signaling that she was watching him. He stood there, looking sullen. Riley put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I love that you're showing so much concern for her. But you know Maya. She talk about it when she's ready." He nodded and she patted his cheek before going back to bed. Lucas ran a hand through his hair and retreated to his bedroom as well.
It was just a couple days later when Lucas was sitting, bored out of his mind, in his Psychology 101 class. He heard his phone buzz and normally he would ignore it because he was in class but he needed a distraction before his brain melted.
From Shortstack: Lucas… I think I'm ready to tell you what's wrong. Could you come home? I really need you right now. I understand if you can't leave class.
That got his attention. He quickly shoved everything into his bag and, scanning the room to make sure no one was looking, slinked out the door. Good thing he sat in the back row of the lecture hall.
To Shortstack: I'm on my way.
He was walking through the door no less than ten minutes later. He dropped his bag by the door, in search of the blonde.
"Maya?"
"Over here," came a small voice. He looked to his left and saw her sitting on the ground in the little crevice between the armchair and then couch. She was yet again sitting in front of her laptop. She had tears in her eyes but she was smiling. He was really confused but he crouched down in front of her.
"What's going on, Maya?" She didn't say anything, just raised her hands and made different gestures and signs. She was talking in sign language.
"I don't know what that means." Maya patted the ground next to her and he sat down. She raised her hands repeated the gestures.
"It means, 'I'm more than fine.' I-I've been learning ASL for a little while now. I'm not fluent or perfect or anything but I'm getting there."
"Well that's great, Maya, but I'm still confused as to why you had to hide it or why you were getting so upset." He had such a strong look of concern on his face but her eyes were just full of wonder. She picked up her laptop.
"I want you to meet someone, if that's alright?" He nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I guess." She turned the computer so they could both see the screen and sat it on the ground in front of them. Skype was opened and they were looking at a little girl with short blonde hair and big eyes. She bore a slight resemblance to Maya and looked excited. Maya spoke to her with her new sign language skills. She also spoke out loud so Lucas would know what she was saying.
"Hi, Polly! This is my friend, Lucas." She spelled out his name. "He's the one I was telling you about." Polly smiled and signed back. Maya laughed.
"She says you're really handsome." She turned back to the screen. "One second." She turned back to him. "My father contacted me." Lucas' jaw dropped.
"Really? Maya, I'm so sorry. Was it at least civil?" Maya chuckled a little.
"Yeah. I was so upset at first. Like, how dare he try to make nice this far down the road, you know? But I heard him out and he heard what I had to say and, I don't know, it was very therapeutic. Anyway, he told me about his new wife and...his new daughter, Polly." She wiggled her fingers at her and the young girl smiled and waved back. "She's seven years old and completely deaf. My dad said that he had told her about me and said she really wanted to meet me. I've been learning ASL nonstop so I could talk to her as soon as possible. I don't want to leave her hanging. I couldn't let another one of his kid's down. God knows the first one," she pointed to herself, "has been let down enough in her life. And the first time I ever talked to her I saw so much of myself in her. I immediately wanted to do nothing but protect her. I mean, look at her. She's innocence and childlike wonder personified. This girl is precious." Lucas glanced at the screen and back to Maya.
"Oh, Maya, that must've been a lot of emotion you had to deal with. I can't even imagine. I'm happy to hear you're on good terms with your father, though. I'm so happy for you." He reached out and hugged her briefly. When they let go, Maya wiped away a stray tear.
"So! Would you like to meet her?"
"Yeah, I really would." They turned back to the screen.
"Sorry about that, sweetie. Anyway, this is Lucas. He likes animals just like you do. He's gonna be a vet and help them get better." Polly smiled a toothy grin and signed back. Maya smiled and shook her head.
"She asked if you can do sign language."
"But I would really like to learn!" he jumped in, looking at Polly. "Could you tell her that?" Maya looked at him, longingly.
"Yeah. Of course," she said softly.
After an hour or so Polly said that her mom was making lunch so she had to go.
"Okay, I'll talk to you soon!" She waved at her as Polly quickly signed something else before logging off. Maya sat there with a slightly shocked expression. Lucas eyed the computer.
"What did she say?"
"Uh… She said she hopes she can talk to my boyfriend again sometime. That little monster knew she was being cheeky. With that smirk of hers. God, I love her already." Lucas looked at her, admiringly.
"You're the perfect big sister." Maya looked down into her lap and shrugged a little. Lucas put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm serious. Not many people would jump at the opportunity to learn a language just so they could talk to someone they don't know, who is associated with someone from their dark past. You really are amazing. And I would love to talk to Polly again. But not like this." Maya gave him a skeptical look.
"What do you mean?"
"Teach me?" His eyes were big and blue, like a child's.
"Teach you sign language?"
"Yeah, you inspired me so much in the last hour. Plus, that little girl is adorable and means so much to you." Maya raised her hands as she spoke.
"Thank you so much." Lucas tried to mimic her gestures. Maya took his hands and faced his palms toward her. She then touched her hands to his and had him follow the movements to a couple simple sentences. It took a while for him to catch on because his eyes kept drifting up to her face but he eventually got the hang of it. And soon he was coming to her a few times a week to learn more. A couple months later he was able to talk directly to Polly and Maya could only watch them in awe.