June 13th 2022
Chapter 164
Our Steps Toward Discovery
Two days later, Maya had played a 'game' with the triplets all through morning, a very 'made up on the spot' kind of game that brought all of them – with Mackenzie strapped to her mother's front – all around the house. While the triplets went about playing this game, excelling at it as far as she was concerned, Maya worked her way through all those things she would have done later, while they were napping. This opened her up to have that time to herself, settled at her desk and working on her piece for the art auction. Since it was sort of her entire world these days – and happily so – she chose an approach of 'go with what you know' and inspired herself from her family, her daughters, down to the very most recent. Somehow having her so close still, even as she did this, guided her hand. As she'd see how her painting was advancing, she'd smile and look down at the baby, as though she could see what she'd done. She mostly just slept.
Maya wasn't the only one who'd be adding to her piece whenever she could these days. All her students, those who had chosen to submit something for the auction, would be doing the same. She was sure, even without anyone bringing it up, that the practice of wagers to see who would bring in the highest amount would be happening again. Whether there would be anything that brought in near as much as Stevie's piece had done last year, thanks to Stella's mother, she couldn't say. Right now, she was mostly concerned with her own self control, skewed as it might be by her attachment to those kids.
Gracie: Is it ok if I come over after school? It's for the auction.
Maya: Of course!
Her little sister would make her laugh, being all proper this way. As though she ever really needed to ask. She understood that, like Stella and the doorbell, it was just about being mindful, and she appreciated it, but Gracie could come busting down the door at three in the morning, and Maya would be… well, a bit grumpy from the hour and all, but she would still say 'come in' like it was nothing. So, she waited, working at her piece until she knew the triplets would be waking up. They went down for their habitual quiet time on the couch, where Maya had her half-awake nap of the afternoon. Everything was back to normal play by the time Gracie came along.
"Nellie didn't come with you?" Maya asked when she let her in. It wasn't as though her sisters didn't have lives of their own, but she was so used to seeing them both in one place that having just the one felt strange, or… maybe a bit too reminiscent of the time after Gracie had her accident and was in the hospital.
"Oh, no, she had a thing with Anton," Gracie explained before gasping in glee at seeing her little nieces crowd around her. Kacey and Remy were particularly close to their young aunts, the more they had picked up on how the four of them had this thing in common where they had a sister who was identical to them, in looks if not in personality. It wasn't as though they left Lucy out of this, but then it couldn't be helped, could it? She was their triplet, but they were twins, and that was starting to be something they knew.
"A thing…" Maya repeated, and Gracie looked up at her, a brief hesitation in her eyes as she stood back up. Finally, she said what she'd been thinking.
"They… haven't been doing too good lately," she confided, her tone showing that this needed to stay between them. Maya understood. "Nellie's worried that they might break up. She doesn't want that, but then…"
"How bad is it? I mean…" Maya asked, but Gracie shrugged.
It was hard to explain, and for being as young as they were still, she could take that as a valid response. Certainly, when she'd been their age, this whole world of dating, and romance… It was new, and unfamiliar, and very, very confusing. All she could do was be mindful of this information she'd been given and be supportive of her sister, and her student… Whatever was going on with those two, nothing was there to suggest that she should be harboring any ill feelings toward Anton Day. Between his parents, his brothers… He was part of this sphere almost like family to them.
"So, your auction piece…" Maya changed the subject as the triplets went back to their toys.
"My…" Gracie started, uncertain, then with a brief look of remembering, "Oh, right, I… I didn't bring it." That wasn't what she'd really wanted to come here for, that much was clear without Maya having to call her on it. The auction had been the means to an end, and a quick bit of thinking suggested something, primarily that she'd needed to talk to her big sister but, whatever her real intention, she didn't want to leave a trace where someone – say a parent – could see if they happened to look at her phone. As far as anyone would know – and if Gracie knew her big sister enough, she'd trust that she'd go along with it – she'd gone to see Maya to talk about her auction piece.
"What's up?" she asked. Gracie hesitated for a moment, looked to where her nieces sat, entirely concentrated on what they were doing. "Hey, Mouse-Mouse…" Maya touched her arm and their gazes rejoined.
"I wanted to ask you about something," Gracie started, determined again. "And I figured I could ask you because, if I explained it as it really is, you'd understand that that's all it is, you know?"
"I… I'm not sure, but go on…" Maya invited, screwing on what felt like a melding of sister brain, mom brain, and teacher brain all at once. Gracie took a breath, let it out.
"Just to be clear, I'm not asking because I have any intention to do anything about it any time soon. I just want to know, so that I know when the time comes, and I want to hear about it from someone that I trust. I trust Mom and Dad, too, obviously, but the idea of even mentioning anything like this to them… They'd never let Ethan anywhere near me again…"
Again, Maya was already set on the track before the actual words came, and as much as she heard what she was being told and, outwardly, gave the face of that very person her little sister was seeking in this instant, inwardly… Oh, she was very honored to know that her siblings looked to her for help in these matters, at one time or another… and she'd had these conversations with the majority of the Hart-Lane kids throughout the years… To hear it from one of her Hunter siblings all of a sudden, it made her brain scream… This could not have been happening already, could it? They were just babies, they were… fifteen, coming on sixteen. Much as it made her uneasy to think about any of this in relation to them, who was she kidding? She definitely had all those thoughts in her head back then. It had been a mess, and she'd had to suck it up and talk about it with her mother, as much as it had made her want to crawl in a hole and never come out. Gracie had her… Big sister extraordinaire… That was a good thing, as was the fact that she'd come to her.
She took a breath, let it out. Okay, keep going… All this happened in her brain in the span of those two or three seconds before Gracie carried on. She shouldn't have been surprised that she'd be the one to come to her first about something like this. She fully expected Nellie to do the same sooner or later, with how Maya had long championed her relationship with Anton, but right now, all she had to focus on was Gracie.
"I need to know, whenever I'm ready, how it all works… with sex, and protection, birth control, all of it," she said, and Maya had another flare of not knowing whether to admire or be thrown by how her little sister's voice never wavered, not a bit of that usual quaver she'd heard a hundred times from teenagers, like they'd gone to climb down a step and missed one.
"Okay…" she slowly nodded. "Ask away."
For a while after that, Gracie would ask a question and Maya would answer it as fully and honestly as she could. This wasn't the time for cutting corners or shielding her sister. She wanted to know, and she needed to know, so that when the day came when she needed this information, she would have it. Gracie listened, nodded, asked extra questions if they came up. It was all very direct. Once they got started, Maya could almost forget that this was her baby sister. Only when it was all said and done did she let out a breath and feel that tiny quiver at her heart again.
"You know that if and when this all comes up again, you can still come to me, yeah?" Maya asked, and Gracie nodded.
"I do," she promised. "Thank you for all that," she added, with a small smile as though to say, 'I realize this couldn't have been easy for you.' Maya reached out and hugged her little sister as best she could while minding the baby. Mackenzie had dozed peacefully all this time. "And if I need anything else, or just to talk, I'll let you know," she promised. She was a Hunter, and just like Maya had followed in their father's footsteps, she, too, kept her promises.
"And this will be in a while, yeah?" she asked, her small smile feeling very big sisterly, which got one in return from Gracie.
"I can't know that, can I?" she pointed out. "That's why I came now. I know that I don't actively plan for it to be anytime soon, but there have been a couple of times where… well, we didn't get close or anything, but there was just a sort of… we thought about it." Maya nodded. She'd had moments like those with Lucas, too. "And maybe one day, it won't just be thinking, and we'll decide to go through with it, because we'll be ready, or… just because we want to, in the moment."
"I can still remember when we decided," Maya shared and, seeing the curiosity on her sister's face, she briefly recalled the day she and Lucas had first slept together, in the basement, back when it had been her room. She revealed also how their parents had come home, bringing Gracie and Nellie as well, babies as they'd been at the time, and so Lucas had ended up crawling out the basement window. Gracie had to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle her laughter.
What it boiled down to was that she understood exactly her sister's position, which made this conversation they'd had today feel that much better in her heart and mind. There was no way of predicting and preparing for everything, ahead of this undefined moment when Gracie would end up losing her virginity. The best that could be done was exactly what they'd done now, while the rest would be forced to remain unpredictable until then. It wouldn't stop Maya from quietly hoping for the absolute best for her, whenever it came… maybe not so soon… Gracie took these wishes with earnest gratitude and she left her big sister's home, the better to go see how her twin was faring with her own relationship issues.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
