Chapter Eleven: Are You Coming Back?
A/N: Sorry for the late update guys. So, one of my brothers ended up getting arrested this weekend so I'm kind of bummed out about that, but let's put that beside for a moment and talk about the story. I have ultimately decided to make a sequel to Landscapes titled 'Oil Paintings.' If you hadn't noticed, the story has been mainly anti-climactic most chapters because we're leading up to well; this chapter where some things go down. But, that's the great thing about sequels. Or in this case more of a continuity story of all the things I wanted to add to this story but couldn't because I only wanted twelve chapters in the first place.
Aside from sequels and such, I think I'm going to take a short week-long break because of some family issues so I'm sorry but I will not be updating Landscapes or 1994 next week. Without further ado, I give you chapter eleven of 'Landscapes.'
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This whole situation was all-too familiar to Shawn.
He remembered being in her exact position. A rebellious teenager thinking that there was nobody who cared whether or not he had a place to live or not. He didn't know how good he had it with Cory and the Matthews but they were the ones who didn't want him. Then suddenly, there was someone offering to give him a home and he took it. Mr. Turner wasn't the best stand-in father there could be but he was the one there for Shawn and that's what Shawn wanted to be to Maya.
She barely made it out the window before Shawn had her by the arm, his grip tight as if he were afraid she would lash out if he let go. He was half on the fire escape and half in the window, his blue eyes meeting her glare of defiance as she tugged on her jacket sleeve.
"Let go, Hunter." She growled, trying to tug her arm away, but to no avail. He made his way out onto the fire escape fully, still not releasing his smarting grip on her pale arm.
"You wouldn't believe it, but I've been in this exact position before." He sighed, a small grin crossing his face as his eyes fell upon her, still trying to pry his fingers off her arm. She rolled her eyes, not entirely in the mood to reminisce about his childhood experiences at the moment.
"That's great, Hunter. Tell me about it when I'm actually in the mood to listen." She scoffed, finally giving up on her escape plans and leaning up against the apartment wall.
"Maya, I can understand what you're going through. You feel like it's just so easy to run away from everything or anyone. Am I right?" He laughed briefly, a look of nostalgia falling upon his face. She shot him another stone-cold glare, crossing one leg over the other and suddenly gaining immense interest in her boots. "I've been looking for jobs around here, y'know." He commented spontaneously, surprising her as she looked up from her boots.
"Why? You have a great job?" She asked, perplexed as to why anyone would just give up a job like Shawn had.
"Yeah, but I don't have a place to live. Permanently, that is." He elaborated, obviously amused by the confused glance that crossed her face. "Anyway, they offered me a job at LaGuardia; Teaching." He added and Maya thought to any place she knew of called LaGuardia. "Community College." He explained for her, obviously after seeing her trying to process what he had just said.
"That doesn't make sense." She muttered, noticing how Shawn finally let go of his grasp on her arm, having fully caught her attention. The man raised an eyebrow as if asking her to finish her thought. "Who would ask you to teach?" She questioned, a small smirk falling upon her lips as she joked around with him.
"Hilarious." He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "I dabbled in college and may or may not have accidentally gotten my teaching degree." He laughed to himself, only half-joking. After moving to New York with Cory, Topanga, and Eric, he decided for his last year of college he wanted to teach and gave up on that dream right after Riley was born and he left the state. But, photography was something he understood and maybe he could handle teaching a bunch of college kids. He certainly could never teach preteens like Cory or Feeny could. That took guts.
"Yeah do you want to live here anyway? I thought you left because you couldn't keep up with Mr. Matthews in the first place." She spoke suddenly, her tone harsh again. He could recall the conversation he had with the two girls last year at Christmas, explaining to her the reason why he couldn't stick around. He could also remember the sinking feeling in his stomach as she shared with him her home life the first time they had a real conversation together in Riley's window and how he realized that he had let himself grow up worse than her. Now, he had a chance to change her life. His childhood was over but that didn't mean hers had to end so swiftly.
"Yeah, but it gets pretty boring out there all alone." He sighed, only emphasizing a bit. She looked at him as if she didn't believe that he hated being alone every weekend, the only relief he got from the silence was when he visited the Matthews and her every month. "What about you? Where do you think you're going?" He asked the girl, somewhat hypothetically. She shrugged, bringing her knees up to her chest.
"Somewhere where I'm wanted." She snapped, furrowing her brow. "I can tell that they don't want me here anymore." He stared down at the blonde, her arms hugging her legs to chest and her hands interlocked with each other so tight they were turning white.
"How about I give you a home?" Shawn blurted out suddenly, not missing the flash of anger in her eyes as she glared up at him. She pursed her lips as if she wanted to speak but couldn't. "Let me help you, Maya." He pleaded, staring down at the girl. On the outside she pretended to be tough and had no emotions, most likely having to grow up that way because of her mother; but all Shawn could see was how broken and helpless she was on the inside. He could help her if she only let him.
"I don't need you to be my father, Shawn." She spat, for once using his first name rather than just Hunter. He stared hard at the girl, seeing right through her "tough" façade. She was lying and he could tell, she was most of the time these days and he did understand what she was going through, she just didn't understand what she was going through.
"I'm not gonna, all I'm offering is a roof and maybe a window to climb out of." He shrugged, exhaling slowly as he tried to find the right words. Maybe joking wasn't the most appropriate thing to do at the moment but it was one of the only ways he could deal with life sometimes. Maya was different from him in that way, she was dramatic and although most of the time she could laugh things off, she was worse than him when he was her age with the dramatic storming out. "Although it is three stories up." He grinned, staring down at the blonde as tears began to form at the corners of her eyes and her cheeks turned a light shade of red. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay to cry." He comforted her, his tone suddenly soft without it meaning to be.
A sob broke the barrier and then another one and immediately she was leaning on his shoulder, the tears coming out of her blue eyes like open faucets. He was trying his best to console the teenager, but it wasn't easy. Her lips quivered as she evidently tried to cease her sobbing and he placed an arm around her shoulder. "Shhh, shhh, it's okay, Maya. You're good, don't worry about it." He soothed quietly, gently rubbing her shoulder as she covered her face. Everybody knew that Maya wasn't one to cry often and it was discerning to see her in such a state of pain.
"I'm not crying." She choked out after a minute, feverishly wiping the tears from her face as she pulled away from Shawn. The two shared a look before they both laughed weakly. The situation wasn't funny at all but it felt good to laugh at thing sometimes and he supposed that Maya was beginning to learn that. "Thanks, Hunter." She gave a small smile, her voice so soft it could be a whisper.
"You ready to go inside?" He asked her, removing his arm from around her shoulder as she wiped her face with her jean jacket. She nodded, beginning to follow him through the open window. He immediately noticed Riley sitting on her bed, her face emotionless and blank and he could already tell that she had been listening to their conversation. However, Maya didn't react as quickly as she usually did when someone overheard her private conversations and instead sat down on the bed next to Riley, letting the taller brunette rest her head on her shoulder. "I'm gonna go call your mom up, figure some things out." He told the girls, wanting to get out of there before the emotions started pouring like he knew they would with Riley. They didn't acknowledge his leaving as he pushed open the door and stepped into the living room.
His sudden descent into adulthood was at first unwarranted and terrifying, but he had a chance to begin his life and he wasn't backing out now because someone needed him.
And it felt good to be needed by someone.
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She hated crying.
She hated the way it felt, how her face got all scrunched up and red, and how her nose got all runny. Even when she was little her mother would tell her that she hardly ever cried. Riley, however, cried enough tears for the both of them. Maybe that was why Maya liked her in the first place; she was sensitive and had real genuine emotions. Maya couldn't do that and maybe it was because she was raised that way but she absolutely hated when she was ever in a tricky situation. So, she just eventually stopped with the whole emotions thing and left that up to Riley.
"You okay?"
It was the fifth time in the past fifteen minutes that Riley asked her the simple phrase and Maya swore if she asked her one more time she was going to crawl back out that window again.
"I'm fine, Riles. I think I finally know what I'm going to do." She admitted, staring around Riley's room. She had always been jealous of Riley and her apartment on a relatively nice side of town. To her, the girl had everything. A room, a brother, parents; she had never had the gall to express her jealousy to her friend in fear of Riley not liking her anymore. Her childish anxiety was soon replaced with genuine envy as she met more and more of Riley's family. It wasn't fair that some girls had all the nice things, but Maya didn't hate her for it like she did all the other rich girls at their school because Riley didn't flaunt herself around like those other girls did whenever they got a new expensive outfit or a pair of shoes. Riley knew how to be humble and she didn't even have to try.
"What's that?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow in concern which was flattering but nauseating at the same time. She had enough pity to last a lifetime at this point.
"I'm done with my mom, if she really wants me she can come back and act like it and if she doesn't than that's fine too. I'm moving in with Shawn." She concluded, her voice shaking with the sincere anger in her statement. Riley nodded, lifting her head up off her friend's shoulder and placing a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"I understand what you mean but-" Her argument was cut off as Topanga and Cory opened the door, holding out their cordless phone for Maya to take.
"It's your mom." Cory mouthed as he passed the phone to Maya; she hoped he noticed her purposefully trying to avoid his gaze. Apparently, she was too much of a handful for them which was fine by her. But, just as she was about to head out the door with the phone he pulled her back, both him and Topanga wearing guilty looks. "You've always been a part of our family, don't forget that." He added in, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Topanga stepped forward, only meeting Cory's gaze for a brief second.
"And although you're not a perfect angel all the time," She rolled her eyes and smiled for a moment at Topanga's comment. "You know we do love you and that's not going to change." Riley moved off the bed too, claiming her spot right next to Maya.
"Thanks guys, I love you too but this is too Hallmark for me." She laughed, as she held up the phone to her ear, looking at the small family one more time before she headed out the door.
The funny thing was, she didn't feel the familiar pain of her jealousy in her stomach anymore as she looked around the open apartment. It was more like a feeling of belonging.
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Cory didn't hate Katy Hart.
He didn't hate anyone. (Well maybe Minkus a little bit) But, when he heard his friend explaining to Katy on the phone that he was in fact going to let Maya stay with him because she was out of town for an indefinite amount of time, the woman was totally indifferent to it all. The conversation was mainly one-sided, but before she could hang up Shawn asked:
"Well, are you coming back?"
And evidently she was not because he heard the phone go silent after that, Katy obviously having hung up on Shawn purposefully. So, they had no idea where in the country she was, what she was doing, or when she was coming back and her daughter was in agony over the entire ordeal. It was sickening to watch and even though he didn't hate Katy Hart, he sure as hell wanted an explanation as to what she was thinking just up and leaving and not even caring about a single thing her daughter did. He was glad that Shawn was going to take Maya in and not only because she was out of her element at their place but because they both deserved someone in their lives and they seemed to understand each other pretty well after all.
"I don't know how to raise a kid." He admitted sheepishly to Cory after Katy hung up and obviously wasn't calling back. "What am I even gonna do?" He sighed, taking a seat next to his best friend on the bed he shared with Topanga.
"Mr. Turner didn't know what he was doing either." Cory smirked to his friend, placing his hands in his lap. He had always seen the parallel between Shawn and Turner resemble that of Maya and Shawn and it was honestly kind of cute. Now, it was finally happening and Cory felt like history was repeating itself right in front of him.
Okay, so history was repeating itself a little differently, but it was still repeating.
"Yeah, but Mr. Turner worked with kids everyday. I have no idea what I'm even doing." He shrugged, flopping back on the bed in despair. Cory reclined back with him, copying his movements.
"Then I guess you're just going to have to figure it out." Cory smiled gently, getting back into a sitting position as the phone rang once more. "I'm sure you'll know what to do." He answered the phone, the blood draining from his face as Katy Hart asked for her daughter, insisting that she deserved to at least speak to her daughter.
Cory didn't hate anyone, but in that moment he hated Katy Hart for some inexplicable more than anything.
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