April 12th 2020

Chapter 103
Their Sounds of Truth

It would have been perfectly normal for them to cancel their plans for the evening after the hours they had spent at Dot's shop. But since none of them had even raised the possibility of staying at home after they'd returned to check for secret compartments, they had just showered and changed and gone on their way toward Zay and Nadine's place. On the way, they made a quick stop over at the Friar house.

"Where did you find this?" Thomas Friar laughed when his son handed him the sticker-covered notebook.

"We were restoring the old wardrobe from your room and Dora showed us the trap underneath," Lucas explained as his father leafed through the pages. They could vaguely see a number of magazine and newspaper clippings mixed with handwritten charts of some kind, possibly sports statistics. Why it would have needed hiding, they couldn't say, though the looks on their faces had to be doing plenty of asking, as Lucas' father casually closed the book again, not halfway through it. The bulk of the added clippings seemed to stop around there, so maybe in the later pages the notebook had been repurposed. There was no telling what this new purpose was, but now that it had been returned to him, the man looked happy.

"I must have hidden it there once when my father was being particularly nosy and completely forgot about it," Thomas nodded.

"So… so much to unpack," Maya raised her eyebrow at him before sighing. "But we have to go now, have fun with your secrets," she teased, making her future father-in-law laugh. As they left, she just looked at Lucas with a smirk.

"What?" he asked.

"Whatever place he went to in his head just now, it was like he was our age again… It's like he turned into you for a second."

"No secrets here," he assured her. She smiled, tracing a cross over her heart.

It had taken a year following their wedding before Zay and Nadine went and achieved the next goal on their 'future plan,' but they had done it. They now had a house of their own. They lived just two streets away from Riley's parents' house, which had led to a growing relationship between the two couples that inevitably amused their friends. Zay especially would be going about this as though they were all just old friends and totally not former teacher/former students, or parents/daughter's friends. He would call them by their first names, which was unsettling for a number of reasons, but then you almost couldn't say anything because it was also funny as hell.

They were also very willing and nearby babysitters whenever someone was needed to look after two and a half-year-old Hunter Matthews. When Maya, Lucas, and Sam arrived, they discovered tonight was one of those occasions. The boy was standing at the window panel next to the door, looking out and waving at the approaching party. Having known both of Riley's brothers all their lives, Maya was always so amused at the sight of the littlest Matthews and how he bore an uncanny resemblance to August at that age. He could have been his clone.

"Hey, bud!" Maya laughed when, the moment she'd opened the door, he'd pounced to hug around her legs. She had to hold to the door frame so not to be knocked off balance. "Happy to see you, too, come here," she pried him loose and pulled him into her arms. "What are you doing out here?"

"His parents dropped him off like twenty minutes ago," Nadine came along with a smile. "Something about an errand," she explained, all the while signing late birthday present. Lucas had replied in kind, pointing out that Hunter's birthday was back in April, more or less exactly half a year back – or forward – at this point. Nadine shrugged. "Did you get the wardrobe done?"

"Yeah, check it out," Lucas pulled up a photo on his phone and showed it. Nadine laughed and nodded, sounding like she was remembering something. "What's up?" Lucas asked.

"Well, it's just… One of those summers where we all went camping with Pappy Joe, when we were still at the house, Zay and I were just… You know that point where everything's new and you're starting to get a bit… handsy?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible, even though the young Matthews would likely not understand what they were going on about.

"Yeah," Lucas chuckled.

"Definitely," Maya whispered, stealing a look to her brother when it sounded like he was about to chime in but caught himself at the last second. He did his best to act natural and failed miserably.

"Anyway, Zay and I were upstairs, and we were just…" she cut out the word and instead signed kissing with some intent. "We heard noises, so we bolted into the first hiding place we could find," Nadine went on, pointing to Lucas' phone. There was a beat of silence at this, even as Maya had to swallow back a laugh while Hunter played with her necklace. Lucas, for his part, was realizing…

"You broke the doors," he accused with surprise.

"Who broke what now?" Zay appeared at this, coming down from upstairs.

"No one, nothing," Nadine assured him, happily brushing off the whole thing. "You guys hungry?"

Heading into the kitchen, Maya attempted to set Hunter Matthews down on his feet, but the boy would not be released, squealing in complaint and gripping tight, so Maya stood back up, keeping him in her arms. She really didn't mind at all. Hunter was a funny little kid, happy and so, so curious. He was getting to be very close friends her little 4H Haley sister, the two toddlers running at one another the moment they saw each other, as though they hadn't seen one another in years, and pitching a fit whenever it was time for either of them to go away back home.

"A Hunter and a Matthews, go figure," Topanga would love to tease, especially whenever her husband and her old friend would look upon their children like the sight of their friendship pleased them so. If ever they were around at the time, Maya and Riley would go out of their way to play up this feeling like 'oh, sure, just forget about us, it's fine.'

The impression started to come to Maya midway through dinner. They were all sitting here, eating, talking about the wardrobe, and the secret compartments, and the notebook, and the next night's gig, and her eyes kept going to her friends. Something was up there and there was no explaining it. At the same time, her memories pulled her back to when they'd had practice, and the look she'd sworn she'd seen on Nadine's face… She'd sort of let it go at the time, but now she was thinking about it again. Maybe she was overthinking it, but with the troubles Ramona and Robbie were going through, and now this breakup for Dora and Adam, she wouldn't have been surprised at herself for being just a bit concerned at the first sign of trouble with others of their friends.

When dinner had been over, an opportunity had suddenly gone and presented itself. The Matthews had picked up their son not long after they'd started to eat, much to the boy's dismay. When Maya, Lucas, and Sam had been about to go, they had noticed that he'd left behind his favorite toy. They offered to take it back on the way, but Zay insisted on seeing to it himself, taking the short walk over to the house. Before they knew it, Lucas was accompanying him, and then so was Sam, which left the girls to themselves. Almost as soon as the door had shut, Maya was turning to her friend and bandmate.

"Alright, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Nadine stood up straight. Maya pointed at her, shaking her head.

"You have zero poker face with me, Zhu, talk."

"You are so dramatic," Nadine whispered, chuckling.

"I'm fragile and I care about my friends, sue me."

"And here I thought I was the one who played the violin…" Before Maya could lodge another protest, Nadine raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, calm down, geez. Everything's fine, I swear." Maya tilted her head, pointing out without saying it that something was up. Nadine sighed, considering her options before indicating the couch and moving to sit there even as Maya did the same. "I might as well tell someone, just in case I need to kind of…" her sentence trailed off. "This is ridiculous, I'm in med school and I can't even say it," she rolled her eyes at herself. Letting out another breath, she turned back to the increasingly puzzled Maya. "Zay and I have started trying for a baby," she finally revealed, making her best friend gasp. "No thumbs up yet, just…" Nadine specified.

"Yeah, I get the picture… I mean…" Maya replied, almost immediately squeezing her eyes shut. She didn't want an actual picture in her head.

"Right," Nadine laughed. There was a beat of silence, and then Maya laughed back and hugged her. "This stays between us for now, yeah?" Nadine asked as she hugged her back.

"Lucas?"

"Knowing Zay, he won't be able to keep it from him much longer, go for it," Nadine nodded as they pulled back. She looked so happy, and now Maya knew that what she'd taken for concern had actually been Nadine's attempts to keep herself from displaying this smile right here. She pictured Zay right about now, bursting with excitement at the thought of having a kid, and it was just too good.

"So he's very… motivated…" Maya stated, barely keeping it together. Nadine shook her head at her, like she was trying very hard to argue the choice of words, but then she just gave up and burst out laughing.

The conversation had hit such depths of double entendre in the minutes that followed that, when the guys had returned, they'd found the bandmates in such fits of giggles as to be collapsed shoulder to shoulder and red in the face. They'd taken one look at the three of them standing there staring at them and the laughter had managed to redouble.

Maya had bid goodnight to their hosts for the night, following Lucas and Sam out to the car and back toward home. On the plus side, after the shop and then that giggle fit, she would likely go right to sleep once they made it home, which was needed now, so she might be rested before the following night's gig. Sam was very curious about what exactly had gotten into his sister, but she insisted that she would not corrupt him, which only served to baffle him even more.

"So, did you two just get very drunk after we left?" Lucas made his attempt at getting to the bottom of that curious scene they'd come to find.

"Completely sober," Maya assured him, as they walked into their room, by going along as though following a straight line. "If you don't know what this is about, then I really feel I need to keep my mouth shut until you do find out for yourself. It'll be a lot more fun that way, trust me."

"Doesn't sound fair to me," Lucas declared, trying to hold in the smile she was conjuring in him.

"Tough," she raised her chin, only to find herself swept up and pulled into a fall to the mattress and squealing for the surprise. "Hey!" she laughed.

"Tell me!" he 'demanded,' laughing along.

"Not doing it!" she insisted, twisting about until she could face him.

"I will break you," he insisted.

"You're welcome to try," she tapped his cheek. All it took was a kiss and he succeeded.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners