September 2019
"You're definitely not a teacher," Maya commented, stuffing her textbooks back into her bag.
"You're just unteachable," Lucas disagreed.
They'd been sprawled out on the floor of his dorm room, trying to get homework done, but Maya could tell that he was distracted. He'd been sending text messages for most of the night and he'd barely turned a page of his own math textbook.
"Riley's never had a problem," neither had Josh, but she was trying really hard not to think about him.
"Riley was raised by a teacher, she's genetically predisposed to be brilliant at teaching people," Lucas argued.
"I'll call you later," Maya suggested, pulling her bag onto her shoulder as she stood up.
"Is everything okay? You seem kind of off," Lucas asked and she paused with her hand on the doorknob.
"I'm fine," Maya replied, opening the door and moving into the hall.
She wasn't generally someone who walked around campus alone at night, but she wasn't about to admit a fear of doing it. She'd lived in the city her entire life and she'd been in much scarier places, then the walkways leading to her own dorm room.
However, there was something about tonight that felt different. The shadows seemed just a little bit longer and she could swear that she was hearing footsteps echoing behind her. The hairs on the back of neck shot up and she tried to ignore the pounding of her heart, as it pulsed in her chest.
"Hello?" she answered her phone, nearly jumping out of her skin when it started vibrating in her pocket.
"It's Olivia," Olivia's voice came over the phone, "Kent wants to see you."
"Right now?" Maya questioned, already trying to decide how long it would take her to get across town.
"I'm not sure that he's aware of any other times," Olivia pointed out.
Maya changed directions, pausing as she swore that she saw movement in the shadows of one of the buildings.
"I'm on my way," Maya promised, clutching the phone a little tighter as she hurried on into the night.
She's not sure how they've found their way into an almost-friendship. She'd had no intention of having anything to do with Olivia, in the beginning. But, somehow, they'd found themselves shifting into it.
"Maya," a voice called and Maya paused, turning around slowly to face the sister that she'd been trying to avoid.
"You need to stop ambushing me outside of my apartment," Maya complained, folding her arms across her body as she moved back the way she had come, "And I would rather that no one that I know sees you."
"When I asked you to read those letters, I kind of expected that you would contact me after," Olivia informed her, refusing to back down under Maya's gaze. They're only a few weeks into summer, but Maya had hoped that she could leave everything pre-graduation behind her, as she stepped out into adulthood.
"I know that you don't know me, but you had to have considered the idea that I'm not going to open them," Maya pointed out.
"Aren't you curious, at all?"
"To know why my father cheated on my mother or why he picked raising you over raising me. No, I'm good," Maya returned, "I don't think that there's any explanation that could make me understand this situation."
"I know that you've got this picture in your head that my life has been perfect up to this point, but it hasn't. My father is a cocaine addict, I didn't know him the first five years of my life, and when I finally did get him into my life he was a mess. I have memories of him snorting coke off of the bathroom floor and that was just when he was there. He didn't retire from touring with his band until three years ago and he wasn't exactly attending all of my piano recitals and science fairs. I, just, got my family back. A sober father and my parents happy and then I found out that you existed. So, I'm sorry that your life is hard, but everyone's life is hard. Everyone has to deal with things that they don't want to deal with, but out of knowing the truth or burying my head in the sand and cursing the world where my father cheated on my mother and abandoned me, I'd rather have the truth. I'd rather get some kind of closure out of this entire situation."
"I guess that's the difference between you and me," Maya offered, turning around and continuing down the street.
"You wanted to see me," Maya greeted Anton Kent, as soon as the door opened.
"I have a vision, Maya, do you know what it's like to have a vision?" he questioned, opening the door wider and ushering her inside, "You have such talent, such potential, but somehow you've entirely missed my vision."
"You asked me to paint trees," Maya reminded him, as he gestured to the backdrop that she had spent most of the summer helping to paint.
"Trees in fall; trees with dazzling colors and brilliance," he continued, "And you've painted me death."
"I see plenty of fall colors and that's what these colors come from, the leaves dying," Maya pointed out.
"I can't use this, I can't use any of this," he informed her, moving away from the painting.
"Do you want me to redo them?" Maya suggested, attempting to find what was wrong with the trees in the picture.
"What's going on?" a new voice asked, moving up the isle between the audience seats, "It's late, Anton, and my girls have school in the morning."
"Look at this," Anton gestured to the painting behind him.
"It looks great," the woman insisted.
"It lacks vision," Anton disagreed, "This is what we get for using an artist who has no experience in set design."
"I know that you're stressed out, but the backdrop is fantastic. Go home and get a good night's sleep and we'll talk in the morning," she instructed, moving up the steps to the stage.
"But, Dani," he argued, before she cut him off.
"We'll talk tomorrow," Dani repeated, gesturing him in the direction of the door.
Anton nodded once before retreating behind the curtains, the sound of a door closing, bouncing off the walls a second later.
"You're her, aren't you?" Dani asked, looking Maya over, "You look just like your mom."
"I'm sorry," Maya offered, looking at the woman in confusion.
"I knew that there was a possibility of running into you when we moved to the city, but I just figured, what are the odds? Kermit was so insistent that nothing was going to change, it would all just go back to normal," she paused, snapping herself out of her rant, "I'm sorry, I'm Danielle Barlow, the director of this play and Kermit's wife."
Maya's back hit the wall, as Lucas's hands moved to the wall behind her, caging her in. Her own hands were pressed against his chest, as she tried to forget the fight that she'd just gotten into with her sister. No one would argue that Lucas was attractive, but she was finding it harder and harder to get lost in kissing him.
"Okay, stop," Maya demanded, using her hands to push him away and trying to catch her breath.
"You want to talk about it?" Lucas questioned, in between gasps of air. He'd leaned his head against the wall next to her and she pushed him back again, as she slid out from the wall.
"It's nothing," Maya sunk down in his desk chair, trying to overcome to claustrophobic feeling she got whenever she started to feel caged in. She assumed that it was a remnant from what had happened with Logan, though she liked to think that she was mostly passed that incident.
"It doesn't seem like nothing," Lucas spun around, leaning his back against the wall that she had just been pressed against.
"Well it is, I'll see you later," Maya insisted, leaving his bedroom and making her way towards the front door.
"Is this how it's going to be now?" Lucas asked, following her out into the hallway, "We're just going to stop talking and keep doing whatever it is that we're doing."
"I don't know; I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm even doing it. I just know that everything feels different now," Maya pulled open the front door, she turned back to look at him once, before letting the door close between them.
Maya sat in the middle of her bed, slowly flipping through the letters that Olivia had given her. She wanted to call and talk to Riley, she wanted to call and tell her how badly she'd messed everything up, but she wasn't sure how to bridge the distance. She wasn't sure how to make anything in her life work anymore.
She slid her index finger under the flap of one of the letters and closed her eyes, before slitting open the top. The paper was lined and folded into a square and Maya mechanically unfolded it, smoothing out the creases. She hadn't seen her father's handwriting very many times, but she knew enough to know that this writing wasn't his.
The paper that she had torn apart had been filled with a careless scrawl, the letters formed without thought. They had a way of blurring together and she'd had to squint to pick out what some of the words said.
This writing was the exact opposite. It was deliberate, each letter formed like Maya remembered her teacher instructing them to do it in school. It flowed and there was something intrinsically artistic about it.
Almost, unconsciously Maya found herself reading the first line, before the paper fluttered from her hands and into her lap, "My husband's daughter."
"How did it go?" Olivia questioned, from where she had been waiting outside of the stage door.
"You didn't think to maybe tell me that I was working for your mother's show?" Maya returned, folding her arms across her chest.
"You were looking for a job and my mother needed someone to help with painting the backdrop. I didn't think that there was any chance of the two of you meeting," Olivia replied.
"Well we did meet," Maya pointed out, throwing her hands in the air in frustration, "And I told you that I didn't want anything to do with your family."
"I get it, okay? But we are family, all of us, regardless of what you want it to be. You're my sister and Kermit is your father and my mother is," Maya cut her off before Olivia could continue.
"She's not related to me, she's the woman that our father left my mother for. And being related doesn't make all of us family," Maya said, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets, "Genetics are just genes, family is made up of people that are there for each other."
"I've been there for you. You needed someone to talk to when everything else in your life was falling apart and I was there. I know that this situation is awful, but it's the situation that we're in. You're my sister, Maya," Olivia argued.
"I have a sister, I have Riley, Shawn, and my mother. I like you, Olivia, but we're not all going to sit down one day at the same table and celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm not going to suddenly become a part of your family."
"So, Riley comes back and you don't need me anymore. You get someone else to talk to and now I'm back to being the unwanted part of your past that you don't want anything to do with. I should have known that you were just using me. You're an addict and that's exactly what they do," Olivia turned, making her way towards the main street.
"Olivia?" Maya called out, closing her eyes as she tried to think of what to say.
"You're going to have to forgive him, someday. Holding onto all of that hate that you have for our father, is just dragging you down," Olivia turned around before continuing into the night.
Maya slipped through the door to her dorm and saw Riley already asleep in her bed. She kicked her shoes under her own bed and quietly stripped out of the clothes she'd been wearing, before pulling on an NYU sweatshirt of Josh's that she'd stolen and never bothered to return. The smell of him had rinsed out a long time ago, but it was still warm and if she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that his arms were wrapped around her.
"Peaches, are you back?" Riley groaned, stretching, as she turned to face Maya's side of the room.
"Yeah, I'm back," Maya replied, pulling back the sheets on her own bed, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," Riley agreed, her voice still heavy with sleep.
"Why is it that I can't forgive my father? Why can't I just let everything go?"
For a second, Maya thought that Riley had gone back to sleep, but a second later Riley's bedside lamp turned on and Riley sat up, her feet hanging off the edge of the bed. Her hair was a mess, but Riley didn't seem to mind, as she pursed her lips and looked at Maya across the room.
"If you forgive him, then it's over, your entire relationship becomes nonexistent," Riley mused, "But by hating him, by hanging onto all of the mistakes that he's made, your relationship with him is still unfinished. Neither of you get closure."
"Do you think that I should reach out to him?" Maya questioned.
"If you're ready to really talk to him," Riley replied, giving Maya a half-smile.
"Hey," a familiar voice said and Maya spun around.
"What are you doing here?" Maya asked, her eyes widening, as she nearly dropped the textbook that she had been studying.
"My sister-in-law does, kind of, own the place," Josh offered, pulling his hands out of the pocket of his jacket, as he sat down in the seat next to her.
"I know that, I just haven't seen you around in a while," Maya forced her eyes back onto the book in front of her.
"I'm doing a semester abroad in the Spring and so I've been trying to spend more time with my family before I leave," Josh explained.
"Bethany must be excited about that," Maya offered, trying to ignore the way her heart lurched at the idea of all that distance between them. It wasn't like they were seeing each other regularly, while he was in the city.
"She's going with me, actually. What are you studying?"
"I'm not actually even sure, anymore," Maya replied, checking the binding of her textbook, "The subjects have all just started to blur together."
"It gets easier, once you get the General-Ed stuff out of the way," Josh promised.
"I just don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything. I spend so much time doing math and studying history that I can't remember the last time I just sat down and painted for fun. What's the point of going through all of this, if it's keeping me from the things that I really want to do?" Maya vented.
"Are you taking all General Education classes this semester?" Josh asked, his eyes meeting hers in surprise.
"My adviser suggested that I get through all of them before working towards my major, make sure that art is really what I want to pursue," Maya explained, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"Next semester, take an art class. Don't let yourself get so caught up in the hoops that you have to jump through to graduate, that you lose sight of what you're really working towards," Josh suggested, standing up as his order was called from the main counter.
"Thanks for the advice," Maya called, as he brushed passed her with his bagged food.
"I enjoyed talking to you," Josh admitted, his eyes studying her for a minute, before he disappeared out the main door.
Maya stared after him before her phone started ringing and she grabbed it off the table in front of her, "Hello?"
"Where are you?" Lucas demanded, his voice panicked and annoyed.
"Studying," Maya replied, biting the tip of her pen, as she turned back to her work.
"You said that you would go with me to my father's big dinner, tonight," Lucas reminded her and Maya groaned as she realized the event had completely slipped her mind.
"I'm on my way," Maya said, shifting the phone to between her ear and shoulder, as she hurried to pack up her bag and head for the door.
"Maya, it starts in half-an-hour," Lucas reminded, as Maya calculated Subway schedules and tried to determine what items in her closet were nice enough for dinner with the Friars'. She probably didn't even have time to go back to her closet.
"I'll be there," Maya promised, hanging up the phone, as she sorted through her options. She and Riley were well beyond the years when they actually fit into each other's clothes, which ruled out running over to the Mathews'.
Groaning, she shifted through her contacts for another number and waited for the call to go through.
"Hello?"
"I need a favor," Maya admitted, pulling her bag onto her shoulder as she headed for the door.
"This should fit," Olivia offered, handing over the dress, so that Maya could change in bathroom stall of the hotel that the Friars' were having their dinner in.
"I'm sorry about what I said, about how I treated you. I ran into your mother and being in front of her, I freaked out," Maya admitted, taking the dress from her hand, but making no move to put it on.
"I should have told you about my mom, I don't know what I would even do if I came face-to-face with your mother. I just like having you around and sometimes I get caught up in the feeling of having a big sister. I guess, in the back of my mind, I hoped that someday things would be different, but if this is all that they're going to be, I can accept that," Olivia replied, leaning back against the sinks.
Maya slipped into the stall and unzipped the designer dress from the garment bag that Olivia had been carrying it in.
"You should do something with your hair," Olivia called through the door.
"What wrong with my hair?" Maya asked, pulling off her shirt and moving onto her pants.
"Nothing, it's just kind of wild for a formal dinner," Olivia replied.
"What did you have in mind?" Maya questioned, as she opened the door to the stall and stepped out.
Exactly eight minutes later, Olivia had managed to pull Maya's hair into the same twisted arrangement that she'd been wearing when Maya had received the letters from her, what felt like a lifetime ago, and they were both doing a final examination of her in the mirror.
"We really do look alike, don't we?" Olivia mused, as Maya rubbed the smeared eyeliner from under her eyes.
"Yeah, we do," Maya agreed, handing over the things that Olivia had agreed to hold onto for her.
The two exited the bathroom and Maya paused as she saw Lucas pacing just outside.
"There you are," he said, pausing as he took in the two girls.
"This is my sister, Olivia," Maya introduced her, watching as Olivia's eyes scanned over him, "And this is Lucas."
"Your impression nailed his accent," Olivia joked, as Lucas looked between them incredulously.
"Right? Come on, Huckleberry, let's get you to the ball before the carriage turns back into a pumpkin," Maya grabbed his arm, waving over her shoulder at Olivia, as the two headed in the direction of the ballroom.
Edited as of July 26, 2017.