Someday Soon Chapter 10
Maya classified her dorm room in paris as more of a shoe box than a room. Maya had thought that Josh's dorm back in new york had been small, but it was like a palace compared to what she was spending the summer in. The room consisted of a slender dorm sized twin bed pressed against the wall, there was a thin and tall chest of drawers with a small desk cramped in beside it. There wasn't a bathroom connected to her room, but rather she shared a communal washroom with the other program students on her floor. The one upside of the tiny living space was the massive window that nearly filled the whole back wall of Maya's dorm room. The art school who was running the summer program was located in Paris's latin quarter and Maya thought that the view from her window was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Just like New York, Paris was alive at all hours of the night and while Maya struggled to sleep she enjoyed listening to the sounds of the city from her place in her tiny bed.
Maya was friendly with all the people she had met in her program and had started to make decent friends with a few of them, but she still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable. She really enjoyed the classes and the exercises that she took part in during the day, but at least at first the nights and weekends were harder for Maya. She went out with the others from her program, exploring the city and planning trips out for later in the summer, but as she tried to remain anchored in the moment, waves of sadness still washed over her at the least inopportune times. Maya thought that some of the people she had met could tell that there was something off with her, but she wasn't exactly forth coming with her information. After all there was nothing that killed a mood better than announcing to a group at large that your mother had recently died from brain cancer and that you were only being held together with tape and glue. After a while Maya thought that a few of the girls had figured out or at least guessed at her secret . It was possible that they had scrolled back far enough on her social media accounts to see the messages of condolence and support that people had posted on her wall after Katy had succumb to her disease.
Maya kept in contact with the people she had left behind back in new york the best as she could. Riley had spent the first two weeks of summer in Texas meeting more of Lucas family. The two did their best to video chat whenever they could during that time, but it was made even more difficult by the added extra hours of time difference between them. They emailed back and forth, and both sent pictures from their trips, Rileys of horses and a rolling ranch, and Maya's of the Paris city landscape. Maya also emailed back and forth with Shawn multiple times a day, and facetimed with him nearly every night and never less than three times a week. There interactions were mostly Maya explaining her day and sharing what she had seen that day around the city, and Shawn asking if she was okay once every thirty five seconds. Maya found it sweet how much he worried about her being away from home, and found it funny how Shawn seemed almost sure that they were going to have to play out the movie "Taken" before the summer was out.
They didn't talk much about Katy. She was almost a taboo subject. They had rarely talked about her outside of their therapist office when Maya had been in New York and now that there was an ocean between them, talking about Katy was even harder. The thought of her was always in the air around them, but they could barely stand to bring her up. It was hard enough to think about her, let alone say anything out loud. It was hardest for the two of them. The ones who had loved her the most. The one who had needed her the most, and now the ones who missed her the most. Shawn had lost the love of his life, and Maya had lost her mother, and the only person who had always been there for her since day one.
Maya spoke with Farkle and Zay a few times. They would text back and forth and email on occasion but they weren't in constant contact the way Riley and Maya or Riley and Shawn were. The only other person Maya was in regular contact with was unsurprisingly Josh. After their first video chat in the middle of the night in New York the two had been chatting fairly regularly. Josh was often online in the early hours of the morning waiting to round on his floor, and it happened to coincide with Maya's morning break in scheduled program activity when she often could be found in her dorm room. Josh had a lot of crazy stories to share about the different people who lived on the floor he was in charge of, and Maya had more than enough to share about the goings on of her program and all the people who was in the program and the dorms with her. The idea of staying up late each night he was assigned to round became a lot easier for Josh when he knew he could look forward to video chatting with Maya. One of the favourite parts of his day was seeing her face light up with laughter when he retold her the story of an exchange student who was attempting to breed hamsters in his dorm room. Josh loved to see Maya laugh, and he loved being able to be the one who could make her do it. He still saw the sadness in her eyes, and he still saw how tired and drained she seemed most days, but he could also see that she was getting a little bit stronger every day that went by. There was more than a few nights that Josh wasn't on duty but he still stayed up late to be able to talk with Maya. He was glad she was enjoying her trip, but at the same time he was looking forward to her coming home.
It wasn't always the middle of the night that Josh and Maya chatted. Sometimes when it was the middle of the night in Paris and Maya couldn't sleep she would call Josh. It would only be early evening in New York and Maya could have called anyone, but she always chose Josh. Maya knew she could call Shawn or Riley, but also knew that the both of him would jump on her with concern about why she couldn't sleep. Josh worried about her but he never pressed her about what was wrong, or pressed her for answers about why she wasn't sleeping.
One night Josh was over at his brother's house doing his laundry as always. He had his laptop open and balanced on top of the laundry machine, on a video call with Maya. They were talking and goofing around as usual, Maya teasing him about his inability to fold his laundry. Suddenly the door to the laundry room flung open and Riley flounced into the room with a pile of dirty shirts and socks in her hand.
" Maya!" Riley exclaimed excitedly dropping her laundry on the floor and rushing over to where Maya was depicted on the screen.
" How are you? I miss you! What time is it there?" Riley asked in a rush. Before Maya could answer the laundry door flung open again and Cory and Topanga entered the room, crowding into the tiny space.
" Did someone say Maya?" Cory asked heading over to the computer and pushing Josh out of the way in the process.
Shawn stuck his head into the room next.
" Maya?" He asked excitedly pushing his way into the already at capacity room. Within the moment Auggie had rushed into the room as well, not really caring that Maya was on the phone and more just wanting to be where the action was. With so many people in the laundry room, Josh had been forced out into the hallway. He shook his head, a smile on his face and walked away. There would be plenty of more time to talk to Maya later. In fact, they had all night.