A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

August 19th 2020

Chapter 232
Their Visitors in Progress

There had never been signs of the fire to be seen from the front of the house. It had been visible only as you went around the side and then the back, the corner where the kitchen sat. You couldn't see it from the outside anymore. The broken windows had been replaced, the door, too, and everything else that might have been damaged on the outside walls had been mended. Even the inside, though it looked very much like a place in the midst of renovation, no longer looked like a fire had happened. Likely for that reason, today was the first time Melinda Friar walked into her own home since before Christmas. She'd been so nervous about it, Lucas could see it the whole way as they drove out, but she was convinced now, and she wasn't about to back out. That was the trick of it.

They were making a big push today. Just about everyone who had been helping here and there over the past couple weeks was helping today. The hope was to get the elder Friars back home by the end of January at the latest. It wasn't that Lucas and Maya didn't like having them at their house, but it was just going to be so much better for Thomas and Melinda to be here, in their own space, their own things, and that was always the end goal, wasn't it? By the end of today, they would have seen to the counters and cabinets, and hopefully the tiles.

Today also happened to be Maya's birthday. Her in-laws had insisted that they didn't have to do this big push today, that it should be about her, but today was the day everyone could be here, and really she could not have asked for anything better to celebrate her twenty-sixth. Besides, they would have a party that night, too. Right now, it was about the push.

She was set up in the living room already, painting away at her wallpaper. She'd made herself some stencils, easing the process of making everything come out like a repeated motif, as it had been, so it was easier, but it still took a lot of time and a lot of careful work. She was on her last panel though, and in a couple of days at the most, it would be set to the walls. She couldn't wait.

When Lucas arrived with his mother, Maya looked up. She knew he had to go with her to see the kitchen first, and she kind of wanted to be there, too, so she got up to join them. At the same time, she gave him a look that said 'after this, I need to talk to you.' He nodded.

"I don't know what made her cry more, seeing the kitchen, or all the people," Lucas breathed deep, like he had been about to cry, too, as he followed Maya up the stairs a few minutes later.

"Both, definitely," she decided, and he tended to agree. She led him to his old room, shutting the door behind them. Turning back to him, she let out a breath. "Remember I told you when the time came, I might ask you to speak to August?"

"Last week, yeah, of course," Lucas nodded. The Matthews boy was downstairs at the moment, helping his father and his Uncle Shawn with the installations. "Today?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I'm in this weird position where it doesn't feel right to keep pushing it off and at the same time we really need to do the work here, so who am I penalizing, you know?" Maya explained. She couldn't help but to be made to feel awkward about it all.

"How about you tell me what I need to know, and when I find my moment, I'll talk to him," Lucas offered. There really didn't seem to be a better way.

So, Maya told Lucas what she knew, about the boys who had threatened August, cornered him, beat him, until he'd agreed to steal test answers from his father and hand them over, how he'd done this for the better part of tenth grade and all of eleventh, until the boys had graduated and left the school the previous spring. Hearing it all, Lucas couldn't help but feel… so much. A lot of it was a jumble of… anger and regret, that those boys had not only done what they had done but also got away with it, and in the process left August trapped with emotions he couldn't resolve, not without trapping himself in the process.

"Do you know who they were?" Lucas asked, and Maya sighed.

"I wanted to find them at first, and then I decided not to. But then I kept thinking about it, and some things kept turning through my head. It was the basketball thing. He clearly loves it, and he's one of the best players on the team, so it makes no sense that he wouldn't be on the team…"

"Unless…" Lucas understood. Maya nodded.

"Wasn't hard after that. There were exactly two graduating seniors on the team last year. I managed to sort of casually ask some of the other teachers about them, and from everything they told me, it definitely sounds like those could have been the guys who went after August. I am trying so hard not to think about them too much, because as much as there's a part of me who would love nothing more than to give those two a very specific piece of my mind, I know that it won't actually accomplish anything. And it just kills me that they'll probably get away with it, and continue to cheat their way through life, going after people like August who are just… so much better than them in every way, and leaving them to feel that badly about themselves as though it's their fault, when it's not, it…"

"Maya, someone's outside," Lucas cut her off, quietly. She turned and opened the door, and there stood August Matthews.

"Auggie, I… I didn't tell…"

She was cut off again, this time by the tall boy bowing to hug her. It just about knocked the air out of her, but just as quickly she returned the hold, the power seemingly moving so that she was the one holding him, even as he towered over her. He was just a boy, and once upon a time she'd held him as a tiny babe. He had been in her class all year, but today might have been the first time he truly saw her as his teacher. Maybe for that, when he finally stood back, the first thing he did was to ask Maya if she would help him speak to his parents, tell them the truth.

"Absolutely, I'll be there," Maya promised him, holding his gaze. She was her father's daughter, and that gaze was one she had learned from Shawn Hunter. It told August that when she made promises, she kept them, always.

"I, uh, I was looking for you because I wanted to give you this," he pulled something from the pocket of his hoodie, a small box wrapped and topped with a bow. "I have to work tonight, so I can't be at the party, but I wanted to… well… Happy birthday," he handed her the gift.

"Thanks," she laughed, giving him a quick new hug. Unwrapping the box, she opened it to find a colorful glass owl.

"It's not much, but I saw it and it made me think of your tattoo, and the colors, I just…" August shrugged.

"I love it, are you kidding? Thank you," Maya beamed, holding the little thing in her palm. The sun was shining into the room, and meeting the glass in her hand, it felt as though the colors were alive.

As they'd gone back down the stairs to carry on with their tasks for the day, Lucas couldn't get enough of seeing his wife all sorts of giddy all of a sudden. Whatever she had expected of this day, her birthday, the big push, she had not seen this small turn with August coming. But now that it had, it felt like she'd been given the most perfect present, to make this day one to be remembered.

They had called it a day in late afternoon, giving everyone the chance to go refresh and change before reconvening at the Friar house on the lane, for Maya's party. At the end of the night, when they were leaving, Maya asked Mr. Matthews if she could drop by the house the next day. She needed to talk to him about a student. He asked if it could wait until Monday, and Maya told him she'd rather discuss it the next day, if he was available. So, he told her to come over around lunch.

"You got this?" Lucas asked, the next morning, as he was getting ready for work. Maya looked to the glass owl on her dresser.

"Yeah, I'm good," she breathed out. All she wanted was for everything to work out for August. This would not be easy. She knew it, and most importantly August knew it, too. But after all this time, something had finally clicked for him, and he was ready to face the consequences, whatever they may be.

"Tonight, when I get home, birthday round two, you and me?" Lucas suggested, and Maya turned a curious grin toward him.

"What are you gonna do, kick your parents out?"

"Yes," he nodded, and she had to laugh. "Well, I'll suggest they go and hang out with yours or something. They can take Sam, too." Maya took this with a nod that said she liked this plan, pausing a moment later and centering herself once more. That was for later. She appreciated the mood lift it gave her, but now she had to use it to get her over to the Matthews' house so they could have their talk.

She found more courage in arriving at the house to find the face of three-year-old Hunter Matthews plastered in the window and waving at her. A moment later, he disappeared and the door was opened.

"Hey, bud, you're not supposed to do that, are you?" Maya asked, hoisting the boy into her arms.

"Not strangers, I know you," Hunter pointed out.

"Alright, fair."

Joining Cory and Topanga and the boys for lunch, it was hard not to feel like two of them at the table were holding back, but thankfully with a small child among them, there was little to worry about, the conversation would not be boring. After they were done, Hunter ran off to get back to his toys in the living room.

"I'll leave you two to talk," Topanga moved to rise, looking to her older son to say he should do the same.

"Actually, do you mind sticking around?" Maya told her, and as Topanga looked back at her, Cory was looking to August as he pieced together the reason for her visit.

"You're the student?" Cory asked. August found his resolve shaken, just a bit, but he nodded. Topanga sat back down.

"August? What's going on?" He looked at his mother, his father, to his art teacher. Maya nodded to him. You got this, I'm right here.

"I…" August looked to his parents again, cleared his throat. "When I was in tenth grade, there were these guys, juniors. They wanted me to… to get them a-answers, from… from your tests," he looked to his father, barely able to hold his head up. "I said no. I said it a lot. They wouldn't let it go, wouldn't let me… They were always there, they'd get all in my face, said they were going to hurt me."

"Auggie…" Topanga reached across the table, taking his hand. "Sweetie, did they?"

August stared at the table for a few quiet seconds where all they could really hear was Hunter out in the living room 'vroom vrooming' with his toy cars. Finally, he screwed up his courage and gave a nod. Maya knew it had been a lot for him to admit this, even when the bigger confession was still to come. This was the thing that had tipped the scales, the one that overturned his resolve, and he hated himself for it, she could tell.

Meanwhile, the Matthews were looking to one another. They'd known that there was something going on with their son for all this time, but there had been no accessing it, and all the while they could only do their best, to show they were ready to help him, whenever he was ready to talk. Now it was all coming out, and to see this pain finally manifested in their boy…

"I didn't want them to do it again, I… I did what they asked," he spoke now, his voice trembling with emotions, all of those which Maya saw in him, when they'd first spoken about all this. "I did it, and I did it again when they told me to, all that year a-and the one after that." Maya looked to the parents sitting across from them as they took in this information. They both looked stunned, thrown… It was so hard to believe, that he would do something like this, and worse that he would have done it for so long without their noticing it, Cory especially.

"August, why didn't you tell me?" he had to ask.

"Because they said if I did then they'd do s-so much worse, and I didn't… didn't want…" August blurted out, eyes welling up with tears. "A-and it… it just got worse, every time. I didn't want you to get in trouble, I didn't want t-to hurt you…" He was full on crying now, and even as Maya tried to rub at his back to calm him, Topanga was coming around the table to hold him.

Maya stood from her chair now, looking to Cory. Her colleague, her former teacher, her father figure of years past… He was looking back at her, and something like his son, it felt like he was seeing her as more than his daughter's best friend, his former student. She'd climbed a step now, and in doing so she had helped his son to open up. Whatever happened next, he was thankful for this much, and he wanted her to know it. She tipped her head to him. It was really no big deal; it was her job, wasn't it? It felt like so much more, especially now.

By the time she left the Matthews house, with August and his parents still talking things out, Maya walked to her car feeling like she'd been holding her breath since she'd walked in. Now, she could let it out. This wasn't over, no, but she had hopes for seeing someone closer to the August Matthews she had grown up to know when they walked into school the next day. Most of his classmates had probably forgotten the way he used to be after all this time.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners