"Riley Elizabeth Matthews!"
The indignant shout came from the art supply closet at John Quincy Adams High and belonged to a particularly frustrated short blonde.
Maya should have known it was a trap. Riley had learned to scheme from the best; Maya had taught her well. Perhaps too well. But still, she had not quite mastered Maya's effortless cool, calm collectedness. She had been fidgeting all the way throughout art class that morning and the grin on her face when she had asked Maya to meet her in the art closet at lunch to help her choose materials for her final project, well now that Maya thought about it, it was out of character even for someone with a sunny disposition like Riley. Her smile was not just a normal 'Riley' smile; it was the smile of someone whose plan had just fallen into place.
"Maya move out of the way" sighed Lucas, "They're not going to let us out."
"And what are you going to do Bucky McBoing Boing? Break the door down?"
"I'm as strong as a horse and I don't even try" She said, imitating his Texan twang.
"Well yeah, I was going to try. Do you have any better ideas?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
She rolled her eyes but moved out of the way nonetheless.
"You know I wish she would have at least waited until after lunch to pull a Riley scheme. I'm starving." Right on cue her stomach rumbled.
Lucas smiled to himself but said nothing. Truthfully, he had missed Maya's sense of humour. The two did not speak to each other much nowadays. A drunken make out session at Darcy Ericson's 18th birthday party had made things rather awkward between them and the pair had opted to avoid one another (and the very awkward conversation that would ensue) rather than facing the issue head on. Maya had insisted that it would be best if no one else found out about the incident and that they should pretend it never happened for Riley's sake, given her history with Lucas. In reality, sparing Riley's feelings was only a small part of why she did not want to discuss the matter. The truth was that Maya had always been weary of relationships and who could blame her given her parents' messy separation? Maya was reluctant to open up to another human being about her feelings and didn't want to allow herself to be so vulnerable.
"It's no use." He said dejectedly, "The rest of the school may be falling apart put that door's not budging – it's too sturdy"
"Or maybe you're not as strong as you think you are sundance?" she teased
"I'm stronger than you Maya"
"I don't need to be strong I've got street smarts" she countered, plucking a bobby pin out of her hair.
"Hey move out of the way bucko, I've got an idea."
She bent the bobbypin at an angle and twisted it in the keyhole in a crude attempt at picking the lock.
"Maya if you manage to get that door open I'm going to be seriously concerned"
"Why? Are you scared I might break into your house and steal your cowboy boot collection?" She chuckled
"…I would hardly call three pairs a collection" he drawled sarcastically
Unfortunately, she too was unsuccessful at opening the door.
She eventually gave up and sat down on the floor, her back against one of the shelving units.
Lucas sat next to her. "Why do you suppose Riley and Farkle locked us in here Maya?" he asked.
"Well I suppose we haven't exactly been talking much lately. Not since you know…"
"Darcy's party?"
"Yeah"
"I never told her about it. I never told anyone; you didn't want me to."
"I know Lucas. I trust you."
He was slightly taken aback by her words. She was too, at the fact that she meant them. She really did trust Lucas. Perhaps that was what made it worse; she was afraid to trust someone as much as she trusted Lucas because of the devastation she would feel if he ever broke that trust.
"You know what Maya?" he paused "I've missed talking to you. I know I still have Riley and Farkle and Zay but it's not the same. Now that Riley and Farkle are going out I can't help feeling like a bit of a third wheel and well Zay… well he's just Zay. He's my best friend and all but he's probably not the best person to go to for advice – he doesn't exactly think things through."
Maya looked down at the ground. She could feel Lucas's eyes burning into her and she didn't feel as though she could look him in the eye without blushing. "…I've missed you too Lucas."
He said nothing but was taken by surprise at her sincerity. She never called him Lucas unless they were talking about something serious.
"I haven't exactly felt like I could talk to you lately. Things have felt…different."
What she meant to say was that it was damn near impossible to look Lucas in the eye after what had happened between them. She'd asked him to pretend it never happened but she was finding it hard to do the same. It was hard to pretend that they were just friends when she could still remember the feeling of his body pressed against hers, his fingers in her hair and how soft his lips had felt on her own. He'd been gentle at first before becoming more desperate, passionate… it was a dirty, hungry sort of kiss. Even thinking about it now made her feel hot and fidgety.
She crossed her legs subconsciously.
"Maya, I know you said you didn't want to talk about what happened but I think we have to if we ever want things to go back to normal. I feel I owe you an explanation…"
"No! No, no, no! Absolutely not!" she jumped up from the floor where she'd been sitting.
"Maya, you can't exactly run away. In case you hadn't noticed we've been locked in a closet together."
"Doesn't mean I have to listen!"
"La La La La La – I can't hear you!" she sang as she danced around the room, her hands covering her ears.
She knew it was childish but she hoped it might get him to change the subject.
"Come on Maya" he said "we're going to have to have this conversation sooner or later"
"Then I pick later."
He tried to hide his smile. "Maya…" he sighed, reaching out to pry her hands away from her ears.
She tensed slightly under his touch, momentarily disarmed. The feeling of his warm calloused hands on her forearms made her shiver…
"Maya please... if you never want to talk about this ever again once we get out of this closet then that's fine but we need to have this conversation."
"Ok..." she breathed the words softly.
He looked at her before sitting down again, indicating for her to do the same. She followed suit.
Maya waited in anticipation. Her world was about to come tumbling down. This was where he'd tell her that it was all a big drunken mistake; that he'd never have kissed her if he was sober, that he only kissed her because he was lonely, he was jealous of Riley and Farkle and he'd had a few too many beers that night. The only reason he hadn't let her down sooner was because he didn't want to hurt her feelings but now that it was out in the open could they go back to being friends like before?
These thoughts flooded Maya's head all at once.
"The thing is Maya... well I know that we both were both drunk that night and if it was just a drunken kiss to you and it didn't mean anything then that's ok…"
This was it. This was when he was going to drop the bombshell. She felt her cheeks burning with shame.
"…but sometimes I think that when people do stuff because they're drunk, well, it's stuff that they'd really like to do when they're sober but they're too scared. The truth is Maya, I would have kissed you that night whether I was drunk or not. I wanted to kiss you."
The silence between them then was deafening, heavy, suffocating.
Maya knew that this was her chance. She would either share her feelings now or forever hold her peace. Somewhere deep inside her she plucked up the courage to say those words that she'd wanted to say for so long… maybe it was Lucas's confession that made her heart suddenly feel light, ecstatic.
"…I wanted to kiss you too Lucas."