SS 124
Maya didn't particularly care that her hair was in a complete state and her clothes were rumpled as she dashed down the stairs towards the main floor. SHe probably looked as if she had just been rolling around on a bed with her boyfriend, which to be fair, she had been. She was glad. It was exactly what she wanted Kate to assume. She hoped she looked like Josh had just plowed her repeatedly and thoroughly in a way that Kate would NEVER experience. Anything that gave off the message that Josh was with her, and that he wasn't going anywhere.
Maya could sense that Sasha was hot on her heels and could feel the excitement pouring out of her friend who was clearly eager for the front row seat to the altercation that was surely about to take place between Maya and her supposed competitor.
Sasha was the type of friend who liked to stir the pot a little. If it had been Cassidy who had known the situation and caught sight of Kate at the party, she would have done her best to get the girl out of there without Maya ever knowing, and while a friend like that came in handy more often than not, in that moment Maya was happy to have Sasha's meddling. The chance to come face to face with Kate was too good to pass up.
"Maya, wait!" Josh's voice carried down the few flights of stairs that separated himself and Maya. She had gotten a good head start on him, springing off the bed and heading straight for the stairs. Josh had had to scramble to find his shirt before taking off after his girlfriend.
"Maya!" she heard him call again as she reached the landing and began making her way through the crowd. She rose up on her tiptoes as she walked, trying to see over the shoulders of the party goers to see if she could spot her target.
She finally caught sight of Kate's freshly coloured platinum hair across the room, shining like a beacon across the party. Maya shuttered at the thought that it probably cost Kate more to get that color in her hair than it did for Maya's textbooks for the entire semester. She began to push her way across the room, not caring about the occasional glare she caught or the snide remarks to watch where she was going.
Maya was maybe five feet from standing directly in front of Kate when she felt someone catch her arm.
"Maya" Josh pulled her to face him. "You don't need to do this," he stated.
"There you are! I've been looking for you!"
Maya twisted to see Kate standing directly in front of them, her face sympathetic but her eyes glinting with mischief. She was looking at Maya directly, as though Josh wasn't even there.
"Funny!" Maya replied, matching Kates condescending tone, "you were just the person I was looking for"
"Perfect" Kate simpered. "Josh, would you mind giving us a moment?" Josh let out a hoarse laugh.
"Yeah fuck that. I think not"
"It's fine babe" Maya said, making a dramatic showing of taking his hand and squeezing it.
"This won't take long"
Maya twisted back to look at Kate, who looked far too comfortable with the situation at hand.
"Alright. What is it that you've got to say to me?" Maya asked cooly, slowly looking Kate up and down as if examining a particularly grotesque specimen under a microscope.
Kate flashed Maya another patronizing smile before reaching out and taking both of Maya's hands in her.
Maya tried not to recoil.
"I just want to apologize to you for the way that this happened. Neither Josh or I ever wanted to hurt you"
She squeezed Maya's hands.
"We just couldn't fight it" She sighed, looking at Josh wistfully.
Maya had to stop herself from laughing in the other girls face.
"Are you serious right now?" She asked. She twisted around to look at Josh.
"Is she actually being serious"
"I know this must be hard to understand and maybe when you get a little older it'll be clear to you, but some people just work better together" Kate stated, giving Maya a sad little smile as if she was telling a kindergartener that the classroom goldfish had died.
Maya couldn't keep a straight face anymore. She let a laugh escape her chest and once it began she could hardly contain herself. She yanked her hands back from Kate and used them to cover her own mouth.
"Josh" Kate turned to him "Maybe you should take her home. She's clearly hysterical. Maybe she isn't ready to hear this yet"
An even larger laugh burst out of Maya before she could stop it.
"Josh" Kate started again, reaching as if she was about to take his hand. Josh stepped away from her before she could make contact.
"I'm hysterical?" Maya asked through her laughter.
"More like you're fucking dolusional" she spat.
"No, what I am is an adult who can see the big picture" Kate snapped, dropping any semblance of niceties.
"This little thing that the two of you supposedly have? It doesn't work in the real world. Josh is playing house with you because you're a child and it's as close as he can get to a real adult relationship. He's playing pretend while he waits for you to grow up. Well did you ever think maybe he doesn't want to wait anymore? Maybe he's ready for real life? I can give him that, and from the looks of it, you can't"
"Oh Jesus Kate, would you just shut up?" Josh snapped.
"No!" She retaliated. " I'm standing up for you and what you deserve because you don't seem to be willing to do that for yourself. I want you to have what you want!"
"And how would you know what I want?"
"Because I know you! And I definitely know what you don't want. I know you don't want to be stagnated in your life with a little girl with no life experience or substance whose biggest adversity in life is freshman midterms.
A cord inside of Maya snapped. Josh had come to stand between the two girls while he and Kate had been arguing but the fire that had just started to burn red hot inside of Maya propelled her forward. She pushed by Josh until she was standing face to face with Kate.
"You don't know shit about me, or my life. You want to stand there and talk about adversity from your high horse? You grew up in a penthouse with a trust fund and I grew up in government housing with a single mother who died before my high school graduation. You want to say I have no substance? Well then what are you made of? You know you can steal my boyfriend and call me a child but I will not stand here and listen to you talk out of your ass about something that you know nothing about."
Maya turned on her heel and pushed through the crowd away from the conversation she no longer wanted to be a part of.
She would not cry. She would not waste anymore energy on this. It wasn't worth her tears. She could not believe that the evening had turned into such a shit show. This party was supposed to be about Sasha playing her games with Austin and setting up Cassidy and Randall on an innocent blind date. That had gone downhill quickly.
"Maya!" Josh caught her hand in his and intertwined their fingers.
"Are you ok?"
Maya gazed up into the eyes of her boyfriend, who hadn't run away despite all the drama that they'd been through.
"I'm fine" She answered honestly, "let's go home"