February 3rd 2019

Chapter 34
Their Reach to Home

They flew back to Houston that evening, walking back into the house shortly after midnight. They were all bone tired but also glad for it, if it meant that they'd gotten to do what they'd done today, flying off to be there on their friends' very unexpected wedding day. If it wasn't for having Sophie in their lives, and her 'access to a plane,' the whole thing would have been that much more complicated, but they knew deep down that it wouldn't have stopped them. They would have gone one way or the other, because there were just moments like these where you had to go all in.

"Just gonna… right here… yep…" Maya crawled over the top of the couch and thumped on to its cushions. Soon, Riley had piled on, too, and Sophie, and then the boys had followed, with Maya ensuring that her boyfriend came to sit at her side, the better to employ him as her pillow. "So quiet without the dogs now…" she breathed. They were still at Rosa's, where they would remain until morning. Their new bandmate and Lucas' co-worker had been sending pictures and updates throughout the day. They had brought her back some souvenirs from New York in thanks.

"They're married… actually married…" Lucas stated, still needing to adjust to the fact, as though he hadn't been there to witness it. He wasn't alone.

"Somehow never thought they'd be the first ones," Riley added, and Maya nodded in agreement.

"Wait until your mom finds out she didn't get to see it," she looked up to Lucas, and he bit back a chuckle. His mother had practically adopted Farkle Minkus as a second son, from the first summer he'd come to stay with them, long before she'd done the same for Ray Choi, when they'd taken the boy in. She cared so much, about all of them, that after a beat he felt bad for finding it funny, the prospect of her reaction. If nothing else, the newlyweds should expect a sizable gift in their future…

None of them looked particularly prone to move from the couch any time soon, even if they had class or work in the morning. They all just sat there, half huddled together, half propped up over one another, like a giant snake along the U-shaped couch.

Maya knew she would certainly be breaking out her paints and a fresh canvas soon, her own gift to her friends on the occasion of their union. She couldn't quite lose the image in her mind's eye, the way they'd looked to one another as they'd stood up there, making their vows to one another. For having known them as long as she'd known them, for having seen how who they'd been and who they'd grown into, there really shouldn't have been any doubt that they would end up at this point in their lives. They looked to one another like… like they were looking at a part of themselves, like they had never quite fit around most people because the person they were shaped to fit was each other, and now that they'd found one another… they were whole.

"So what do we call you now?" Nadine had asked Smackle, as the founding members of TXNY sat together, back at hers and Farkle's apartment, which they were gathered in and seeing in person for the first time. Smackle frowned like she wasn't following. "Well, are you taking his name and becoming Isadora Minkus, or is it going to be a hyphenate, like… Minkus-Smackle, or Smackle-Minkus." Both Maya and Riley had pinch or bite some part of themselves to keep from laughing; neither of those sounded entirely preferable.

"Or you could combine them, both of you, like… Sminkus… Minckle…" Riley volunteered.

"Not helping…" Maya muttered to her, even as her face was getting red from the effort of not laughing.

"I haven't decided yet," Smackle told them. She kept staring at the ring on her finger every few minutes, smiling to herself as though she forgot they were there for that time, and that happiness radiating off of her was just something to behold. "But maybe it would be time that you all start calling me by my first name instead, no matter what I choose."

"Well, at least we get to say we had the privilege to know you when you were at your Smackliest," Riley had declared, putting her arms around their friend and songwriter.

And though she and her new husband – who had very nearly lost his footing when she'd first called him that out loud – had started the day not wanting to make too much of a fuss over the event, the gathering/reunion, with their friends, their parents, food, music… by the time the Houston contingent had to catch their flight home, it was clear that this small bit of fussing had been greatly appreciated. It had been just enough.

"When we were kids, he totally wanted to marry us," Riley told the others, back on their couch pile-up. Lucas, Sophie and Dylan all stared at her, while Maya giggled.

"Which one?" Sophie asked, and the two old friends shared a look of agreement.

"Whichever one said yes," Maya grinned, and the others laughed.

It was still just mad to think about it. Just when they had all settled into this change happening in their lives, moving away from home, going to college, here they'd gone and seen the first of their group off to be married. The way things were going, it did feel like any of them could be next. And then… then… They couldn't imagine happening for any of them until after they finished college, but sooner or later there would be kids added into the mix, and that would easily be the wildest step forward they could think of.

Everything was moving so fast, at a pace that might have been the tiniest bit terrifying but also one that made them curious to know… What would their future be? They'd been thinking about it all for a long time already, especially as they'd been getting closer and closer to the end of high school and their transition into college, and back then it had been looped into a feeling of unknown and the tiniest bit of anxiety. Now… Now they had crossed this great big hurdle, setting out on their own, and maybe it made it so that the next step didn't feel so perilous to cross anymore. Now they wanted to experience more and more.

When they'd finally made themselves get up and start heading to their rooms to change and get to bed, Maya went over to Riley's room, to show her the text she'd just seen, from her father. Somehow it had gotten back to him, and to Riley's parents, not only that they'd ditched their day and flown to New York, but that they'd found out the reason why.

"To be fair, I would have done the same thing, but a heads up would have been nice that you were flying off to New York today? Found out about the whole thing when MINKUS wrote to let us know his son was getting married. Wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't sent pictures, and then there you were, all of you. Your mom says to say you looked beautiful, by the way, and no argument there. But those two got married already? Really? Are you back in Houston tonight? Call us whenever."

"I'm pretty sure he resisted the urge to say something like 'don't let it give you any ideas,'" Maya chuckled as Riley finished reading the text with a laugh.

"I got something similar from mine," she pulled out her phone to show. "I don't even have a boyfriend and my dad is just being…"

"Your dad?" Maya guessed, and Riley nodded. "Oh Matthews," Maya went on laughing, shaking her head to herself as she read the message, which definitely came off the slightest bit more frantic.

"I don't even know what to write back."

"Honestly, I wouldn't even try," Maya handed the phone back and Riley bowed her head in agreement.

With just the two of them together now, there was this brief beat of acknowledgement. Farkle and Sm… Farkle and Isadora had been their friends long before they'd been any of the others', had come into the others' lives solely through Maya and then Riley's move from New York to Texas. It didn't diminish the importance they had in the others' hearts, but it was still just a bit different, and that could not be ignored.

Their old friends were married. Married. Maya couldn't think how many times she and Riley had looked at one another today, a quietly shared sentiment of awe flowing between them. Now they parted for the night with a hug, like a wish toward a full life of happiness for the newlyweds back in New York tonight, and Maya headed back to her room to find Lucas.

"Told your mom?" she asked, guessing, from the look on his face as he was looking at his phone.

"Didn't need to, yours got there first," he revealed, and she gave a sheepishly apologetic look before moving to sit behind him on the bed, the better to read over his shoulders. After a few seconds, with her arms gripped around his neck, he turned his head to look at her. "Don't laugh," he said, though his own face couldn't help but split into a grin.

"Me? Never," she assured him, pressing a kiss to his cheek before letting herself tumble back on the mattress and roll over to her side.

"Not changing first?" he asked, giving a light tug to the hem of the shirt she'd been wearing that morning when they'd left and again once they'd changed back on the flight home.

"Meh," she shrugged, face down into her pillow already and waving her arm at him to incite him to join her. He turned off the light and did as told, pulling her close until she turned over to look toward him. "Hey," she beamed.

"Just how tired are you?" he asked, meeting her eye. Her eyebrow raised, intrigued.

"Why?" she asked back, the picture of innocence, even as her fingers started a teetering walk up the front of his shirt, intent for his collar. "Did going to a wedding today give you any… ideas?" she asked, twisting a dramatic edge on the last word. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but spare a smirk, thinking of her father's message and his unsaid words. She doubted they were referring to the same thing right about here…

"Do you know, I think it might have," he teased back, even as his fingers, were lingering lazily just at her back, grazing at her skin. "It is late though…"

"It is," she nodded slowly, even as she sidled ever closer to him.

"And we have class tomorrow," he went on, rotating them just slightly, until he came to rest over her. She craned her neck until she could brush her lips over his.

"True, true. Then again, we did all skip today, flew off on a day trip, the way I see it, I think we might have space for… one more venture before the day's over," she declared, keeping his eye even as he grinned.

"Technically, it's after midnight, the day…"

"You want technicalities or you want…" she cut him off, only to have him cut her off, sitting back to peel off his shirt. "See, that's what I thought." Tomorrow they would get back to the old rhythm of life, they would, but today, tonight, it was still all about the unplanned and the joy. That was how it had started, and that was how it would end.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners