Northern Constellations
Summary: Explore a year in the life of Joshua Matthews and Maya Hart as they discover the wonders and woes of young parenthood.
Chapter Ten
Maya Hart knew that, as amazing as her sixteenth summer had been, it was bound to come to an end. The months of May, June and especially July had been golden. She worked her ass off, spend quality time with her friends and family, and for the first time ever, she felt like a responsible young adult. Although her grades had improved drastically toward the end of the spring semester with the academic guidance of her best friend and boyfriend, she dreaded the moment she had to step foot on campus. Her freshman year had went by unscathed even after she found out she was pregnant. Her body had been so small and petite back then, and she could easily conceal her growing bump. She managed to stay out of the spotlight, and outside of her friends and some of the classmates she had run into at the cafe, no one knew that she was pregnant. This time, however, things were different. Her baby weight couldn't be concealed with a hoodie or a flowing blouse. She didn't mind, of course, but she knew that she would be the talk of the school. Her sophomore year was about to begin, and she hoped and prayed that it would not end up in flames.
She had one week to prepare—just one week—and she was going to everything in her power to enjoy those seven days, even if it meant getting herself into a little bit of trouble. Motherhood was a good look on Maya Hart, but she would be lying if she said she didn't miss letting her wild side come out to play. In a few short months, she would have to shelf her knack for adventure, but in the meantime, she was down for one last ride. She called this one Operation Upstate. It didn't take much for her to convince her boyfriend to drive them up to her dad's cabin for the weekend. With her parents out of town for some movie premiere and Josh's schedule cleared at work, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to escape the city and relax. Although she made a habit of clowning on Shawn for not selling his quaint, rustic cabin in the woods, she secretly loved it. It was nice and cozy, quiet even, and she liked the seclusion.
"Maya, are you sure we're allowed to be here?" Josh questioned, raising an eyebrow at his blonde haired, ocean eyed girlfriend as she quickly typed in the home security system's four-digit pin code. It was 2438, and remembering the code was easy enough now that she knew the meaning behind it. The letters matched up to the letters C-H-E-T. Chet, like Chet Hunter, the man that her father both hated and loved with all his heart. "You don't have to answer that question. I know that we're not supposed to be here."
"Oh, grow up," Maya teased, shutting the door softly behind her. She made sure to lock it as she stepped out of her shoes. "Have a little fun, boing. They technically never said that we couldn't be here, and what's the worst we could possibly do? I'm already pregnant."
"I know that much," Josh laughed, shaking his head. It wasn't much of a secret that they shared a bed. Their baby served as proof. "It kinda feels like we're trespassing though. I don't think I've ever been upstate before. I've heard of Shawn's bachelor pad but I can't say that I've ever been inside."
"Just consider it a family home now," Maya asserted. She shrugged her shoulders because it was true enough. Shawn made sure that she had a key and a security code in case of an emergency. She didn't really feel uncomfortable sneaking up to Shawn's place. He was her dad after all.
"If you say so," Josh trailed off, placing their weekend bags on the nearest couch. "Ya know, it's actually pretty nice here. Not at all what I was expecting from Shawn. Love the guy to death but he lacks taste."
"Oh this," Maya began, making an exaggerating gesture with her hands. "This is not Shawn's doing. He slipped up once after like two glasses of bourbon and told me that he hired an interior designer to decorate the entire house. I think if it were up to him, he'd have a desk and a recliner...and that's it."
"That would be living the dream," Josh exasperated jokingly. He had been staying at his older brother's brownstone for the latter half of the summer, and since he opted out of student housing in order to save money to afford his own place without any handouts or creating outstanding student debt, he knew that he would be occupying their couch for quite some time. He wished that he had the luxury of having his own furniture, or even sleeping in a real bed when he wasn't able to stay with Maya. Katy and Josh were still getting to know each other on their own terms, and she was gradually becoming accepting of his presence at the apartment. He could spend the night sometimes but not always. "Anyways, what's the plan for this weekend?"
"No plans," Maya said softly, reaching out to take his hand suggestively. "Ya know, just livin' in the moment."
"Oh yeah?" Josh asked, failing to conceal that boyish grin of his that Maya loved so much. He leaned down to give her a kiss, and she practically melted into his touch.
"Yeah," Maya assured playfully in-between kisses, then made the grand gesture to lead him into the guest room she had claimed as her own personal safe haven during the last visit upstate she made with her parents.
Josh shut the door behind them, and Maya knew that it was going to be a weekend to remember.
"I feel kinda bad about lying to them," Shawn sighed, loosening his grip on his leather coated steering wheel. "Just a little bit though, not a lot."
Upon hearing the last part of his statement, Katy let out a laugh. It was genuine, airy and light. She felt young again, like she was the nineteen-year-old theater kid who left home to follow her dreams. "Welcome to parenthood, babe. Trust me, I don't lying to Maya any more than you do, but a little white lie never hurt anyone...and if I'm being honest, I think Maya was waiting for us to leave last night. Think about it. She's with Josh in our apartment, alone, doing God knows what."
"That is true," Shawn agreed with a level mind. Maya did seem pretty eager for their departure. They had left the previous night and made the decision to stay at a moderately pricey hotel on the upper east side for the night before heading upstate to spend the rest of their weekend. "Plus, we're the parents. We can do whatever the hell we want."
"Now that," Katy began, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at her husband, "...is what I'm talking about."
Shawn rolled his eyes playfully. God he loved his wife. She was the love of his life and second best friend wrapped into a single delightful package. He owed it all to Maya Hart, his daughter for all intents and purposes, for introducing him to her mother. He finally had a family of his own, a family just as intertwined with the Matthews clan as he had been as a troublesome kid in Philadelphia.
"I think spending the rest of the weekend upstate will be good for us," Katy said, adjusting the volume nozzle on the car radio so they could focus on their conversation rather than some fast-paced car advertisement. "It's been a while since we've been, just the two of us."
"Hey, you know what?" Shawn brought forth, putting on his thinking cap. "We should make this our thing, at least until we find someone to rent out the place. I come up here to write sometimes and it's nice, but it's even better with you."
"Aw shucks, Mr. Hunter," Katy swooned, placing a hand on his thigh. "You really know how to charm a woman."
"Ha ha," Shawn deadpanned as he turned onto the road that led to his home away from home. "Thanks...and Mrs. Hunter?"
"Yeah?" Katy smiled, looking up at her husband from the lit screen of her smartphone.
"Looks like great minds think alike," Shawn said with a look of pure discomfort on his face. He parked his Xterra in the driveway behind Josh's car. "Yep, my mood has definitely been killed."
"Maya Penelope Hart," Katy said slowly, shaking her head in disbelief. Maya was, without a doubt, her daughter through and through. "You sneaky little rat."
"What do we do?" Shawn asked, scrunching his nose. Their options were limitless, but Katy knew what he meant. They could bust their daughter on the spot, in turn, busting themselves, or they could simply let the young couple be. For Katy, there was only one right answer: they needed to get to the bottom of it. "Should we call her?"
"No," Katy objected, a smirk forming at the corners of her mouth. "I say we just go in. You said it yourself, we're the parents. We can do whatever the hell we want. Besides, I still wanna enjoy our weekend at the cabin."
As soon as they approached the front door, Shawn wanted to die. During times like these, he often felt caught in the middle. First and foremost, he took on the role of Maya's father. Although she wasn't biologically his, he considered her to be an extension of himself. Before Maya, however, he had taken great pride in being an incredibly cool older brother figure to none other than Josh Matthews. Truth be told, he didn't mind their relationship. He loved them both dearly, and he knew that his girls would be well taken care of because Josh was, without a doubt, a great guy through and through. That didn't change the fact that the mere thought of them engaging in intimacy made him want to gauge his eyes out. What made it worse was that he had been the main person that gave Josh pointers back when he had been an inexperienced high school boy.
"Come on, babe," Katy mused, reaching out a hand to unlock the front door with her tiny key to the cabin. "I wish you could look at yourself in the mirror right now because I don't think I've ever seen you so stiff."
"I'm fine," Shawn reassured, brushing her off. He placed a free hand on the small of her back and sighed. "I still think we should have called them first. Maybe there's a perfectly good explanation why they're here and didn't tell us."
"A good explanation?" Katy chuckled. "I'm sure they just wanted a little time to themselves. The cabin is pretty romantic, you know. I don't mind that much, not anymore, but I wish that they would have given us the heads up. It's your place anyways."
"I guess our romantic weekend is about to be a family weekend," Shawn said with a shrug. "Not that I mind. I love those kids more than anything, but we really drove up here thinking we'd be alone."
The next few minutes were, for lack of a better word, unpleasant as Shawn literally caught the youngest Matthews brother with his pants down. After combating a string of awkward silences and a lecture from Katy about both transparency and responsibility, the hybrid Matthews-Hunter-Hart clan had been able to enjoy a rather nice and homely family weekend.
"Oh God," Riley exasperated, suddenly the urge to plug her ears. "Maya, that is so gross. I can't believe your parents caught you and Josh...having sex."
"Relax, honey," Maya reassured her best friend, attempting to stifle a laugh at the brunettes naivety. "In that moment, when they came in, we weren't doing anything. We were just, ya know, in the bed."
"That's still gross," Riley continued, making a gagging sound with her mouth. Even with Maya's due date coming around the corner, everything still felt so surreal to Riley. She swore that just yesterday, she and Maya had been on the outs with their little friend group after they were targeted by Thor and his girl friends. "And Maya?"
"What's that?" Maya responded after taking a long swig from her water bottle. When she was finished, she placed it on the tabletop in front of her. The two young women had been sitting in the kitchen at the Matthews home for the past hour waiting for their friends to arrive for the last game night of the summer. Maya wanted to take advantage of all opportunities to hang out with her friends because she knew that nothing would be the same once she brought Aurora into the world.
"What's it like having sex?"
"Nope," Maya protested, holding her hands up. "I hate to break it to you, but I am not gonna be the one to have this conversation with you. I actually think your dad would kill me. Well after Aurora is born because you know how he feels about his precious niece."
As expected, Cory Matthews had become a bit of a helicopter parent within the past few months. Sure, he had known Maya for over half of her life and loved her like a daughter, but now that Maya was visibly pregnant, everyone could tell that it was getting to him. At times, it seemed like he cared a little too much about his second daughter because she was carrying his very first niece, but it came from a good place in his heart.
"We're not kids anymore," Riley interjected. Maya knew that Riley wouldn't go out of her way to push the subject if Maya didn't really want to talk about it, but there was a seriousness to her tone that did not go unnoticed. "Obviously, I mean, look at you."
"True that," Maya agreed. They definitely weren't kids anymore. They were about to become sophomores, and they had grown up so much since middle school, but they still had a lot to learn. "But if you really wanna know...it just feels intimate. Like, whenever me and Josh—"
"Ew," Riley shuddered, cutting her friend off before urging her to continue. "Okay, keep going."
"Sex, for me, is about closeness," Maya tried to explain, hoping that the brunette would catch on. "Yeah, it feels good. Sorry, Riles. I know you don't really want to hear that, but it does. I think what makes it even better is getting to experience it with someone you love."
"You really love him, huh?"
"I guess you could say that," Maya rolled her eyes playfully. She honestly, truly loved Joshua Matthews with all of her heart, and there wasn't anything that could change that. "He's definitely in my top three."
"Hmm," Riley mused, pretending to be deep in thought. "Aurora would be the first on your list, obviously, then Josh, and I wonder who's next.
"You, you dork," Maya laughed, and in response, Riley flashed her one of the biggest toothy grins she had ever seen. Their relationship had taken a big hit in the beginning because change was a scary, scary thing, and they were taking on the world in vastly different ways, but it didn't take very long for the girls to realize that change was a good thing. They were happy now, taking things one day at a time at their own pace. Before Riley could respond, the front door of the apartment swung open to reveal a group of familiar faces: Farkle, Smackle, Lucas and Zay. Despite all of the chaos, she was eternally thankful for her friends for sticking around.
The rest of their night went by seamlessly as they phased through a number of card games, board games and shared an endless array of jokes and stories. Naturally, Riley partnered up with Lucas, Smackle with Farkle, leaving Maya to pair up with Zay. They didn't mind it, of course, because they worked well together. They worked well together like peanut butter and jelly, Maya had joked after they teamed up for a rather competitive game of Avengers themed monopoly. It seemed as though things were finally normal again after Josh and Zay hashed things out on her balcony.
"Ya know, I'm really glad that we can still hang out like this," Maya brought forth that night as they stood alone in the kitchen. They had volunteered to clean up for the night as the rest of the gang sat perched in front of the couch to watch some movie that Maya and Zay had already watched. Maya washed the dishes, Zay put them away, and for awhile, they had fallen into a comfortable silence. "It means a lot to me."
"Always," Zay reassured, stopping what he was doing to look up at Maya. He turned to face her direction and swung the dish towel he was holding over his shoulder. "I really am sorry if I made things weird for you. Imma be honest and say that it was pretty hard to get over my shit...but I respect you and our friendship. I would rather swallow my pride any day than lose my best friend. I love you dude, and if that means I gotta learn to love your boyfriend too, then that's aight by me. He is handsome."
"I love you too," Maya said, failing to stifle a laugh. Zay was an idiot, but he was still one of her closest friends. Zay acknowledging the importance of their friendship and a newfound respect for her relationship lifted a lot of weight from her shoulders. "And yeah, I admit, he is a lil handsome, but loving him is my job. I might get jealous if you guys suddenly decide to be besties out of nowhere."
"Yeah, I think that might be a pipe dream," Zay joked, leaning back against the side of the stovetop. "He does seem like a decent guy though. I know that he'll do right by you. It's just the age thing, ya know. It seemed a little weird to me, and on top of that, I was confused about my own feelings. I didn't mean to sound like an unsupportive asshole."
"I know that my relationship might seem kinda taboo from the outside looking in," Maya said, acknowledging his feelings. "But it isn't, not really. Josh and I are barely three years apart in age, and that's barely a gap in the real world. He was my first love, my first crush, my everything. I'm not sure if you know this, but our story goes way back. I've been in love with Josh Matthews since I was eight-years-old, and I can honestly say that I'm really happy with where I am right now."
"I can see that now," Zay nodded, coming to terms with everything that had been laid out in front of him. "And I'm happy that you're happy. I mean it when I say that we're friends for life. I know that ain't ring power worthy, but you can always count on me to be there...for you and Josh."
Note: The Josh/Maya/Zay drama has officially ended. Yay for friendship.