Maya's eyes fluttered open as sunlight peeked through the windows of the hotel room. Josh stirred and pulled her closer to his body in his sleep. Maya melted into his touch and reacher over to the nightstand where her phone sat and picked it up. Unlocking it and scrolling through her socials she noticed that she was being tagged in the same post over and over. Her eyes quickly darted over the screen as she processed the information in front of her. "Oh no," she whispered. "No, no, no" she stammered as she sat up in quickly, hovering over her phone.
Splattered across Maya's phone were countless tweets, posts, and tags in content surrounding her elimination the previous night. She saw petitions and campaigns were started. But what really got to her the most was the stuff she was seeing surrounding her and Josh there. The internet was completely divided and picking sides. This hasn't happened before.
He should've given up his spot for her!
She wasn't gonna win anyways.
I wish they both could have made it to the finale.
My money is on Josh winning, Maya was just floating by from the love votes.
Maya should've made it! It's the shows fault!
Maya drowned reading the comments. There were a few positive ones but a lot of negative ones. She was so drawn in by them that she didn't notice Josh wake up beside her. As he awoke Josh noticed Maya's fixation on her screen. Making very little movements, Josh peered over her shoulder and looked at what she was reading. Sighing inwardly, Josh swiftly swiped the phone out of her hand. "Don't do this to yourself," he said as he stood up with her phone in his hand.
Startled, Maya looked up at him shocked. "Are you kidding me? Josh do you see what people are saying? This could mess up your chances at winning!"
"A few disgruntled teenagers with nothing better to do will not affect anything." Tossing her phone to a chair on the other side of the room Josh turned back to Maya. "You know reading that was a terrible idea. You shouldn't believe any of it."
Maya sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I know. I just-"
"Couldn't help yourself? Yeah I've been there too." Maya looked up at him and frowned. "Don't make that face. Just forget about it. There are more important things to worry about."
"Such as?"
"What you want to do now. What's your next move after the show?"
Maya paused her worry and actually thought about what Josh was saying to her. What did she want to do now that her time was up? She didn't make it to the top four so she had contractual obligations to the show, so what was next? "I actually don't know," Maya responded quietly. Bringing her knees to her chest Maya wrapped her arms around them and found herself in deep thought. "I haven't given it much thought. In the midst of all my relief I hadn't gotten that far."
"Well," Josh began as he leaned over the blondes head kissing it softly. "Maybe it's something you should consider. I have to go. I have filming and rehearsals and everything."
Nodding her head Maya smiled up at him before she eventually heard the hotel room door close shut. Josh was gone and she had a lot to think about. Walking to the other side of the room and picking up her phone, she dialed a familiar number. "Why hello baby girl. I was waiting for your call."
Katy's sweet sounding voice was music to Maya's ears. "Hey mom," she smiled. "How'd you know I call?"
"Well because I know my child. How you holding up sweetie?"
"I'm actually really good. Relieved actually. I don't even know how much I could take." Pausing she took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't win mom. I know we missed graduation for all of this and I just-"
"Oh you stop that right now Maya. Don't you dare think you disappointed me. I could not be anymore proud of you. You are a beautiful dancer honey. I can only imagine what you'll do next."
Looking down at her feet where she stood Maya sighed. "That's actually why I called. I need your help mom."
Beads of sweat dripped down Josh's face as he walked into his hotel room that evening. Exhausted from the day Josh just wanted to shower and sleep his life away so that he could do it all again tomorrow. He was so tired that he didn't even notice Maya's absence from the room. It wasn't until the next morning when he awoke that he noticed she was gone. Frowning he called her cell and waited for an answer. "You've reached Maya just leave a message and I'll get back to you." Her voicemail echoed in his ear as Josh frowned even more.
"This is weird," he thought to himself as he got out of bed. While brushing his teeth Josh tried to think back if he even saw Maya when he came in last night. Realizing that he didn't see her last night, Josh thought back to yesterday trying to remember if she said she was going anywhere. Nope. She didn't say anything. Hearing his alarm go off, Josh realized he didn't have any time to think about this. He had to get to his rehearsal. Sighing aloud Josh put a pin in his thoughts and raced out the door so that he wouldn't be late.
The day passed and Josh eventually received a text from Maya letting him know that she was okay she just had some business to take care of and that he'd see her later. Later that evening Josh came in and saw Maya in his hotel room waiting for him. "Nice to see you can answer the phone," he said as he set his dance bag on the ground.
"I know you're annoyed with me right now but can we not argue right now? I just want to see you." Maya said as she stood from her seat on an empty chair in the room.
"Well I wouldn't be annoyed if you would have just explained where you were going before. Or at least said something to me instead of going awol," Josh replied back with a snappy tone in mind.
"Looks like we're doing this," Maya muttered under her breath as she put her hands in her back pockets. "I was taking care of stuff for myself Josh. I don't need to tell you when I need to go take care of some things. It's not like I was gone for days without saying anything. You called and I didn't answer right away and now you're upset. I literally texted you as soon as I saw I had a missed call."
Josh scoffed and threw his sweatshirt onto the bed. "You still didn't say anything when you left. I had to call you for you to say something."
Maya laughed in disbelief and pulled out her phone. "Let's read the text I sent you shall we?" Clearing her throat she read, "Hey sorry I missed your call. I was just about to call you and let you know what's going on. I'm super busy right now but I'll see you later. Love you, bye."
Josh rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "But you still couldn't say anything when you left the day prior. I came home and you weren't even here!"
Growing more and more frustrated Maya began to raise her voice. "I don't live here Josh! This is isn't my room its yours! I don't know if you noticed but my room is down the god damn hall."
Angered at her response, Josh raised his voice too. "You basically do Maya so it's not ridiculous of me to wonder where you were and want to know where you were!"
"We're not married Josh! I'm not gonna sit here and play house with you and answer to you like I'm your fucking wife! I had things I needed to do and you need to understand that. You can't keep pushing how this relationship is gonna go down my throat. Yes, I love and yes I chose to be with you but I didn't choose to fast forward my life in less than a year. So when you're done bitching about this let me know."
Walking out the room, Maya pushed past Josh and slammed the door behind her. Angrily entering her room she paced back and forth while mumbling to herself trying to calm herself down but finding nothing to ease her. Hearing her phone ring, Maya looked to the caller ID and saw it was an unknown number. "Hello," she answered.
"Good evening sorry to call so late. This is the number of Ms. Hart correct?"
"Yes this she," Maya answered puzzled. "And who is this?"
"I'm Ava Gutierrez calling on the behalf of the New York Contemporary Dance Company. We were pleased to hear your interest in our company. We saw your reel from your time on America's Best Dancer and would like to invite you to join our company for next years season. You'd be a great addition to our troupe."
Maya's breath stopped as she realized what was happening. She was just offered a full time job dancing with one of New York's best companies. "Thank you so much," Maya breathed. "Can I give you an answer later?"
"Absolutely," Ava replied. "Just know we'll need an answer by this time next week. You can call back on this number provided. We're looking forward to hearing from you. Have great evening Ms. Hart."
The sound of the phone being hung up rang out in Maya's ears as she was in disbelief at what just happened. She was about to be a professional dancer. The only thing that kept her from saying yes right then and there was Josh. Josh was her deciding factor in this choice about her future and she didn't really like how she felt about that.