"Here comes trouble." Ethan murmured to his girlfriend with a sing-song tone. She didn't even bother to look at the group approaching, too focused on her conversation with Drake. He and Maya were having a very in depth conversation about whether zodiac signs could truly tell you everything you needed to know about a person. Drake's family happened to be pagans, which led to some pretty interesting conversations about birth charts, crystals, and patron gods. She could hardly believe the two had been in the same classes for years and had never had more than a five second conversations, the guy was insanely funny. Lucas cleared his throat loudly when he, Zay, and the rest of the group arrived at their table. When nobody paid attention to him, he tried again but a bit louder.

"What do you want Huckleberry?" Maya groaned, not even bothering to look him. When he looked over at her, he was shocked at what he found. She'd cut her once waist length hair to just below her shoulders, a shaggy cut that framed her face rather nicely. She was barefaced, the usual mascara and lipstick routine nowhere to be found. She didn't look bad though, in fact the lack of foundation on her clear skin wasn't quite missed.

"Maya, what... happened to you?" The boy stuttered out, the abrupt change throwing him for a loop. Her hair had been up that morning, the change barely noticeable until now. She finally looked up at him and glowered.

"A haircut, what does it matter? Is a moment of silence of silence too much to ask?" He seemed lost for words, and Riley suddenly took charge, standing next to her boyfriend.

"Maya, you have to come home. Your mother is going sick with worry. You can't just abandon us like this." Maya narrowed her eyes at her best friend, there was that damn word again. Abandon.

"Riley, I love you. I'm sorry about the fight, but you don't know jack shit about what's happening to me and my life. Don't pretend you do." Riley flinched, stepping back slightly seeming hurt and confused all at once. Tears pricked in her eyes and Lucas placed a consoling arm around her shoulders.

"Maya, leave her alone. What's wrong with you?" Lucas cried, pulling his girlfriend closer to him.

"What's wrong with me? What's-" Ethan placed a hand over her own, cutting off her sentence. He gave her a reassuring look, I got this, before standing up to face Lucas.

"Look man. You need to back off. If Mai wanted you here she would have asked, but she didn't. And we," he continued gesturing at the rest of the table, "Are trying to eat. So in the words of the great playwright William Shakespeare, thou shalt fuck off." He said with a sarcastic smile, winking at Maya, causing her to giggle. Riley looked at her in outrage, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Maya? You're going to let him talk to us like that? You're not going to say anything?" She rolled her eyes and stood up, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's waist from behind.

"What can I say? He's a wild cannon. Perfect for me, don't you think? At least that's what you always say. Watch out for Maya... you never know when she'll explode." She spat, the words leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. The group exchanged looks and Riley tried once more, eyes regaining their usual puppy dog look.

"Maya... please." Maya's hard look softened, she pulled back from Ethan to face her best friend fully. He glanced over at her, but she squeezed his hand, she had to face this one alone.

"Riley, you are like my sister. You'll always be like my sister. I just can't do this anymore. I need to be around someone who understands me."

"I understand y-"

"No, you don't Riley. You never have. You've made that plenty clear. I'm not a broken object for you to fix. Now, please, just go back to the table where you belong. There's no room for you here."

Riley stared at her friend in disbelief, jaw loose with shock. How long had Maya felt like this? How had she missed it? She wanted to grab Maya and hug her as tight as humanly possible. Instead her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she turned and walked towards their usual table, her friends trailing behind. She had lost Maya. They all had.

#################################

"Katie? I just got a call from Corey, apparently Maya showed up today." Topagana informed the worried woman on the other end of the phone. She had personally been handling the situation for the other woman, wanting her to focus on work.

"Oh thank God." Katie sighed into the phone, Sean wrapping an arm around her. He'd been her rock, understanding better than anyone that sometimes people needed space. Didn't make it any easier.

"Well, it's not all good news. Apparently she's gone off of the deep end. Corey had to give her detention and she told him not to expect her to show up. And she apparently got in a fight with her friends."

"No." Katie said in shock, sitting straight up. Shawn raised his eyebrows at the action, sitting up with her.

"She's got a boy as well, he said she keeps hanging off of and kissing. Apparently he's bad news." Topanga relayed, tutting away in her head. She was just glad Riley had never tried to pull anything like this.

"This is all my fault." Katie muttered crestfallen, and even Shawn rubbing her arms couldn't make her feel warm.

"No Katie, you can't blame yourself." Topanga soothed, feeling for the woman.

"Yes it is! I'm a terrible mother, and she hates me!" Katie's voice broke on the last few words, and Sean pulled into a tight hug. It was a bit awkward with her arm still clutching the phone to her ear but it was a welcome distraction.

"Katie, you can't do this to yourself. True, you've made mistakes in your past, but you've worked so hard to change. Maya doesn't hate you, not really. At most, she's doing what all teenagers do to their parents. Testing you." Topanga replied, trying to comfort the crying woman.

"No Topanga, this was something different. There was so much anger in her eyes, her words. She truly hates me. I can't fix this one." Topanga rolled her eyes slightly, she knew Katie needed some shepherding here, and she was more than happy to provide some advice.

"Katie, you're her mother. She can't hate you. She just needs discipline. You have to show her who the boss is. Don't let her be in control, you're the parent here." Katie sighed heavily, allowing Topanga's words to soothe her.

"I don't know... maybe you're right. I just have to take control."

###################

"God that's good stuff!" Maya sighed, flopping against the couch as her friend's laughed at her reaction. She passed the blunt to Anderson and leant back to allow to the buzz to flow through her. She was enjoying spending time with these new friends; Drake, Davis, Rey, Anderson, and of course Ethan. Maya grinned lazily, observing her new found friends through her welcomed haze. Drake and Davis were what her former friend group would have frowned upon. Children of hippies, freethinkers, and not afraid of a bit of herb. They were fraternal twins, originally from Orange County, but moved to New York when they were in middle school. They never quite fit in with the kids around them, and the hustle and bustle of the city weren't quite their speed. Whenever the weekend came round they escaped to Long Island, the subway making the commute quite easy. It was where they could clear their heads, and spend some time away from the craziness of living in such a big city.

The girls, Anderson and Rey, were two different sides of the same coin. Rey was into anime and cosplay, favouring darker colours and robotics club. She was wicked smart too, her quick wit making her a bit of a target for the 'popular kids' at their school. She didn't really understand impulse control, and was all too happy to shoot off at the mouth with no remorse. Her parents weren't around much, and she usually left to look after her six siblings by herself. Anderson on the other hand favoured pastels and art classes. She was a master at the pottery wheel, and could out smart Mark Hamill at Star Wars trivia. The amount of knowledge she held on the topic was pretty damn impressive, almost as impressive as her abilities to shred on the cello. Her parents were determined to get her into Julliard, and she could play pretty much anything you put in her hands. When they'd first met she'd been playing a stunning interpretation of the Zelda theme on an actual ocarina. They were nothing alike, but were the closest pair she'd ever seen. They almost reminded if her and-

Stop thinking about her, Maya reprimanded herself. She was doing herself no favours by constantly obsessing over her former best friend. She loved Riley, more than anything. The problem was that Riley thought the world could be fixed with hugs and rainbows. Maya knew the truth. This world would never be fixed. She had tried to trick herself with the idea of hope, but, she realised that that was all it was. A trick. Hope was just an idea. A lovely one, but just a fantasy. Because if hope was realistic, she'd have a loving mother and father. Her father would have never left, and Maya would have never been stuck with picking up the pieces. Maya Hart had stopped crying a long time ago. She was the one who raised herself. With an absentee father and a disaster of a mother, she was left to fend for herself. She adapted, hung with rougher types. She picked up their lingo, picked up some street cred while she was at it. She may have been a lone wolf, but she had picked up a pack or two.

That all changed when she just happened to walk into that one special girls room. She became attached to that perfect, innocent girl with the perfect innocent life. Decided to protect her from the world. Maya spent so long protecting that little girl that she threw her own life out of the window, forgot to care for herself. Yet somehow, she was the selfish one.

"Babe." She blinked up at her boyfriend who was shaking her shoulder, knocking her out of her thoughts.

"Sorry?"

"I was just saying you were the deciding vote. Mexican or Chinese?" She glanced around the room and smiled, appreciating the way all eyes were on her. They made her feel special, like she had a voice at all times, like she was being listened to. It was a new feeling, but it made her light up inside and out.

"How about pizza?" He grinned down at her as cheers went up around the room along with orders.

A/N: So, yeah. More drama, but god do I love that ending. I love imagining my Maya to be going through all this inner pain, but having this one little light. It warms my cold dead heart.

(UPDATED A/N) Dude, 2017 me was so dramatic. I swear my eyes are going to fall out from rolling them so much.