February 4th 2018

Chapter 35
Their Plans to Imagine

That afternoon, Maya was to have dinner at the Friar house, and so she and Lucas had gone back there after hanging out with their friends for a while. Mr. Friar was off running some errand for his wife, who was busy at work – in hostess mode, as Lucas would tell Maya – and so they ended up off in Lucas' room, where they set out to do their homework. Even before this year, as she'd been preparing for this for so long before, Lucas would tend to finish much quicker than Maya would, and so he would sit at her side and try to keep himself occupied as quietly as possible, so not to bother her. For her part, she sort of liked having him there anyway, so it worked out perfectly for both of them.

Every so often he would steal a look, trying to see how much more she had left to go, which was easy enough now, as he'd learned her routine. When he could see he was on the last thing, he would sort of resettle his sitting position, and she'd smirk to herself.

"There, all done," she would declare victoriously, closing her books and returning them to her bag with the accomplishment behind her, punctuating this by leaning fully to her boyfriend's shoulder. He'd taken her hand and she'd held on gladly. "Were you texting with Farkle?" she asked, and he nodded. "Did you tell him about what we all talked about?"

"I did. He said if we needed any advice we should call him."

"Of course he did," Maya laughed, thinking of her friend back in New York. "Do you think we'll leave right after graduation? Not the same day, of course, but maybe a few days after?" He gave her a look she read as 'isn't this a bit early to talk about?' "I can't help it," she admitted with a grain of sheepishness which was guaranteed to be seen as adorable by him. "I know it's so far away, and we said we couldn't come up with all the details for a while, but I just keep imagining it."

"Yeah, I do, too," he admitted back. She sat up, curious.

"What do you see?" she asked.

"Well… I think about all the letters you sent me when you were on your trip last summer, the little doodles of you and me in all those places, and how we could actually make those real." She nodded at this, then just as soon let go of his hand to scoot back to her bag and fish out a notebook. "What are you doing?"

"Taking notes, force of habit," she explained, and he smiled. She opened to a blank page and marked it Senior Trip To-Do: Boyfriend Edition. He had to laugh, leaning to press a kiss to the side of her head as she went on to note his idea. There was no guarantee they would end up going to all those places with the others, too, but if there was any way for it to happen, oh, they would do it. "Anything else?"

"That's all of it so far," he shook his head. "You?" She thought for a moment, then got to writing again. He leaned in over her shoulder to try and see, only to get a face full of the palm of her other hand, keeping him from seeing. "Hey!" he complained, his voice muffled.

"Shh, it's a surprise, it's… hey!" she held the notebook away when he tried to reach for it, "You have to wait." Now he was the one making eyes at her, pleading just a bit, but she shook her head, giving him a kiss for his troubles. "Do you trust me?" There was no need to think there, he nodded at once. "Good," she smiled, "Then you can wait." His posture said plainly he wouldn't try and reach for the book again, though a moment later it was abandoned there on the ground as she moved to kiss him again, and his arms were made to reach to hold her close rather than to attempt and get a hold of that notebook.

More and more it seemed they would find it much easier to end up getting lost in these moments, where the world sort of faded away and all that mattered, all that existed, was him and her, was a kiss, and breath, a touch, and feeling… It used to be that he would be hesitant to hold her too close, to rest with her, but that wasn't so anymore, and certainly not that day as they lay there, wrapped up in one another's arms, kissing until breath was a rare commodity. It used to be that he would hold her, his hands staying much where they would, around her back, but then with time they had taken to migrate, only so far as to hold her face, or just under the hem of her shirt, just as her hand would seem to favor resting against the place where his heart beat could be felt.

When on that day his hand, following the thrumming of his heart and the trace of her spine, had brushed without intent against the very edge of what they both realized was her bra, the world rematerialized around them with such speed that they both froze, their eyes opening and meeting at once. Out of breath, they stared at each other, and then they moved apart, lying quietly, save for the breath that was working to return to them both. They stared at the ceiling, waited…

"Lucas?" she spoke after a while.

"Yeah?" he replied. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I… I just need to…"

"Me too…"

Silence, again. Was it their friends' assumption, still on their minds? They hadn't exactly addressed it, the two of them, had they? Now it felt like maybe they needed to.

"You know I would never… if you weren't…" he turned his head to look at her.

"No, no, I know," she looked back at him. "I wouldn't either," she vowed and he bowed his head. He could see a thought working its way through her mind still, struggling to come forth, but now that it was sort of on the table for them to talk about it, it almost felt like they needed to use that. "Do you… do you ever think about it?" she finally spoke, and her face said the rest. Really, you can tell me.

"I…" he hesitated at first, but then, "Yeah…" They were being honest, right? They weren't always going to be able to hide behind shyness and time. Here they were, nearly a year a couple, but then sometimes he couldn't help but feel like the count started on the day they'd kissed in New York. And now they were planning this trip almost three years away, and it was forcing them to look to the future, their futures, as people, as friends, and for the two of them as a couple… He didn't think it too forward to claim, if only to himself as of yet, that he saw the two of them being in this for the long haul, and sooner or later, there would come a time where there wouldn't be any stopping or hesitating. And he had thought about it, yes, he couldn't deny it, even if a thought was all it would be for the time being.

"Me too," she admitted right back, and for a while they just lay there, with their returning breath and their mutual revelations. "You know, just because we don't… yet… that doesn't mean we can't keep…" she motioned between the two of them, calling back what they'd been up to up until they'd been brought to a halt.

"No, absolutely," he agreed, and she laughed. He found her hand again, and she held on. All this talk of the future, it was going to keep creeping up on them, wasn't it? "Hey… I'm glad we talked about it, you know?" She nodded, agreeing. "Probably best we don't talk about it with the others though…"

"Yeah, no, we got lucky as it is with their whole misunderstanding," she sighed.

"So… can I see the list now?"

"Yeah, still no," she crooned, and he cranked up the pity pout. "That is not going to work again today, Huckleberry. Besides, we're going to get called for dinner before long, it might not be a good idea to show up down there all sort of breathless and blushing," she gestured to her face and his.

"Okay, fair enough," he sat up, helping her do the same.

"Hey," she reached to the front of his shirt, pulling him until they were eye to eye. "I really love you so much, Lucas Friar." He smiled, his brightest smile always for her.

"And I really love you so much, Maya Hart, and I can see you hiding that notebook…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners