Lava lamps and perfect playlists
Maya smiled as she watched her friends leave for the night. Riley had decided to give her 15 minutes alone, stating that she wanted to talk to Lucas about something. Maya knew better though, Riley had noticed that Maya wouldn't open her gift from Josh while the others were there. Now that she was alone, she would open it. There was however one more gift that she'd ended up avoiding, but she doubted that anyone but Emily noticed it with how small it was. She picked up the envelope that she'd hidden away as soon as she'd read the front of it. Daimon had written in big bold letters 'Don't open this in front of the others' she opened it and unfolded the letter that he'd placed in it.
'I do have a gift for you and it definitely won't fit in this envelope. However, I want to give it to you in person. Send me a message if you can meet me at mine and Josh's dorm room tomorrow. Meet me alone.' If Maya didn't know Daimon as well as she did, she would have found that note incredibly sketchy. This was Daimon though, he usually did things in his own way, but there was usually a good reason for it. She sent Daimon a quick message to say that she would meet him the following day before she turned her attention towards the gift from Josh. She grabbed the gift and softly pressed against it. Immediately she recognized the shape of it, but that didn't mean that she appreciated it any less. She unwrapped the gift to find a picture frame. There was a power chord attached to it though, which surprised Maya. She plugged in the power and immediately a picture was displayed. It was of Maya with Josh, she was leaning into Josh with her head resting on his shoulder. Maya noticed that the picture seemed to be of them in her parents' apartment which meant that Shawn had to have taken it. The picture soon faded into another one. This one was of Maya lying on her bed reading a book. She couldn't see what the book was about, but she was completely focused on it and thus completely oblivious to the fact that she was being photographed. She lifted the picture frame once to take a closer look and noticed that a note fell down from the back of it.
'So I just couldn't resist putting a note in here. Even though I got to spend most of your special day with you I'm sort of disappointed that I couldn't see you open your gifts. You deserve everything that you got today and I enjoyed every moment that I spent trying to make the day special for you. You always make me smile whenever I think of you and so I just wanted to spend the day making you as happy as you make me. Happy birthday, I love you. Your Josh' She sent Josh a message thanking him for the gift and explained that she would have to spend time the following day working on a project of her own. Josh immediately replied complaining about her using stupid excuses. Maya grinned, it was sort of an excuse, but she couldn't explain to him that Daimon wanted to meet her in secret. She would also be working on a project that she'd planned for quite some time, just so that it wasn't a complete lie.
'I think you'll just have to manage one day without me. It'll be hard for me as well, if that helps. Good night Josh, I love you.' She texted and after sending a text to Riley that she could return to the room she started to get ready for bed. She settled on a softer ng and connected her phone to the speaker that she'd gotten from Emily before she remembered that there were still gift wrappings lying around the room. She finished throwing it all away and just as the song changed, she went out to get ready for bed. When she returned she had to smile to herself, Josh and Emily had really made a great playlist. With the refrain of a song that she'd had on repeat in her own playlist for the past few weeks playing she slipped under the covers. Riley opened the door and noticed that Maya had also plugged in her gift in the power outlet. Riley had given her a lava lamp, purple in color of course, because Maya'd been complaining about sharp light forcing her to wake up on lazy weekends.
"I see you like the gift that you got?" Riley asked as she gathered her toiletries.
"Yeah, I really did. I don't know why you were complaining about me not giving you gift ideas when you're able to come up with stuff like this so easily."
"It's still too much work so I feel like you could have helped me." Riley said only half-jokingly before she walked out the dorm room. Maya turned of the music and softly sang the refrain of the song that had been playing on her own.
'And I feel like I'm some kind of Frankenstein
Waiting for a shock to bring me back to life
But I don't wanna spend all my time
Waiting for lighting to strike
Ooooohhh'
She'd definitely had enough of waiting around herself, so she was going to take her own steps towards her goals in the weeks that followed. She took one last look at the electronic picture frame that Josh had given her as the pictured turned into one of her sitting in Josh's lap while he was resting his back against a tree outside their dorm building. Maya remembered the occasion. Maya had asked to borrow Josh's phone to take a picture of them and he'd reluctantly agreed. The happy and carefree look that he had in the picture hadn't lasted long when he realized that she was spamming the photo button which made it turn into a wrestling match for josh's phone.
"I love you so much." She said before closing her eyes,
So it took me quite some time to get this chapter out, but it's not because of a personal lack of interest in it. I therefore hope that I will be able to finish a chapter next week as well just to let you know that I'm not leaving this story unfinished. I had a great conversation with on you over PMs which absolutely made my day. I hope that there are others out there that are also enjoying this story and I hope that this chapter put a smile on your face at some point. If any of you end up liking the song that I put in the chapter then that's just a bonus. It is an actual song which I felt would be perfect for people wanting to listen to something soothing while they work on projects. It is absolutely perfect for me at least.
Until next time, byeeee!
