October 4th 2020

Chapter 278
Their Vacation With Community

July 14th 2028 – The Hex

Maya had written a lot of songs over the years. Like her art that came on paper, and canvas, she never lacked in ideas when it came to music once she started making her own. Over time, it was very possible, in both cases again, that she would forget about some piece or another that she'd made until she saw or heard it again, but this only because she could only keep so many of them in her conscious mind at once, which would have been true of most anyone. And once they were brought back to the forefront of her mind, they would feel as close as her most recent creations. She could look at them and remember exactly where she was when she'd made them, exactly what she'd been feeling. She could listen to the songs and remember just what had inspired them and what that first nugget had been, that first bit of melody, those first words.

As she sat with Ree in the booth of the Hex, playing her the songs she'd written out in Hawaii over her vacation with her family, she could practically feel the breeze, sitting on that balcony, could catch the occasional scent on the air, recall the sounds of the city. She could remember the feelings…

She hesitated when she got to the fifth song. Obviously, she had meant to share it, or else she wouldn't have included it, but she hadn't accounted for how bringing it back up would also bring back the feelings she'd been feeling at the time she wrote it, or the memories that came with it.

"Maya, is everything alright?" Ree asked, and Maya looked up at her.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded at once. "It's just, you know how songs can be sort of… emotional bombs? Not in the sense that they're bad, more like…"

"No, yes, I understand," Ree promised. "And this one is one of those for you?"

"Kind of," Maya admitted.

"Please don't feel obligated to…"

"No, it's fine, really. My mind just sort of went back there for a minute, that's all. I'm good."

X

July 9th 2028 – Honolulu, Hawaii

Just about every time they had returned to their room since they'd been here, one of the twins had insisted on being the one to open the door with the key card, and so they would take their turns. The door would barely have swung open that they would dash in, leaving the card on the nearest surface before climbing off to their loft above, like it was their secret fort and no one else was allowed in.

Today was no exception, as they returned from a day of sight seeing to drop off any souvenirs they might have picked up and to freshen up before dinner. Nellie and Gracie disappeared up the stairs, each with the bags they'd gotten slung over their shoulders and carrying items they'd now be inspecting closer, sat on the island of their big bed. They had told Maya and Lucas about how much they loved that place… a lot.

"Don't settle in too long, we have to go in twenty minutes!" Maya called after them.

"Okay!" the twins replied in unison.

They kept up their end of the bargain, and before either their sister or Lucas had time to call them down, they returned, changed and ready to go. So, off they went to find their family in the lobby. They ran into the elder Friars on their way to the elevator, and Maya had to bow her head to turn her smirk away in time, aiming it solely to Lucas, who would know what had brought it on. Thomas and Melinda weren't exactly tightly-wound and straight-laced when they were back in Austin, but it had to be said, they had adopted a very relaxed state of being while out here in Hawaii, and it was as startling as it was… well, kind of amazing, really.

Nellie and Gracie were telling the two of them about the books that they got that day when they all stepped off the elevator to find the rest of their group waiting. They were headed out to a restaurant that night which required them all to get in their rented vehicles. When they got to the car, Thomas Friar offered to drive, and so Lucas and Maya got in the back. This was just as well, as it afforded them some amount of privacy, once again turning to their tool of sign language, keeping it as localized in their laps as they could, so on the outside they would be talking with the elder Friars, but then they'd also be talking to one another.

"Was it just me or did Sam and Cecilia seem a bit off back at the hotel?" Lucas asked, after tapping Maya's knee to get her attention. She looked at him, and her eyes kind of said it all.

"I was hoping that I was just making things up in my head. But you saw it, too?"

"I'm not sure what I saw. They just looked sort of quiet and in their own heads. Maybe they were just tired. We did do a lot today. We did a lot every day."

"I hope they're just tired," Maya breathed, letting her hands drop in her lap. Lucas reached over to take hold of one and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

When they arrived at the restaurant, much as they tried not to, they found it difficult not to steal looks over to Sam and his girlfriend as they took their seats, across from them and at the other end of the table. Maybe it had all been in their heads, and they really had just been tired, distracted for a moment. They looked better here, happier. Then again, what was consciously shown and what was telegraphed when you thought no one was looking… those were different things, weren't they?

Before long, the meal and the company around them was enough to pull Maya and Lucas away from these concerns over the young couple. Anytime they were all of them sat together, eating, talking, it was hard not to feel caught up in the spirit of it all. So many voices, so many stories… Throw in the fact that they were somewhere so far from home and their day to day lives, and they never lacked for conversation, especially once the kids got into it.

Of course then, sooner or later, the meal had to end, and when it did, the bubble would pop, breaking this instant of peace and community, of family. Somewhere around dessert, as everyone seemed on the whole not as tired as they had been on their evenings so far, they had started discussing the possibility of convening in one of their rooms, all together, to make a movie night. They could get snacks, treats they had discovered out here especially… This had led to everyone throwing movie titles around as options, voicing their agreement or disagreement. It was around that time when Maya and then Lucas, too, picked up on the voices they were not hearing.

At their end of the table, Sam and Cecilia both looked distracted again, the way they'd done in the lobby. Now more than ever, it really felt like something was going on, something between the two of them, it had to. If it was happening to one or them, or both of them, they would turn to one another for support, for reassurance, something. If they didn't, if they couldn't, then it meant that whatever was going on was because of the other.

It wasn't as though it went completely unnoticed by others around the tables. Abigail and James had both shared in those furtive glances, directed at their son. But then they were all headed up to the elder Friars' room – because Melinda Friar wasn't about to let the fact that they were not at home in any way prevent her from being the born hostess she was – for the movie. Maybe it was better to leave it alone for now.

"What do you think is going on?" Maya asked Lucas later that night, after they'd gone back to their room with the twins, who were presently meant to be brushing their teeth.

"I don't know. If I had to guess, maybe it has to do with what happens after next year," Lucas replied, before looking past her to the bathroom door, where Nellie and Gracie were spying once more, toothbrushes brushing away as they stared. Lucas cleared his throat and Maya turned.

"Hey, hey, over the sink, come on," she motioned, and the girls scurried back. Maya turned back to her husband, expressing without having said a word the sentiment he shared with her. They both hated to see any kind of trouble between any of the couples around them, whether it was their friends, or a younger brother…

A knock at the door made them both turn at once, and after Lucas went up to the door and looked through the peep hole, he pulled it open.

"Sammy?" Maya stepped up.

"Can I sleep out here tonight?" he asked, barely meeting their eyes. Maya came and ushered him into the room, as though he even needed to ask. She brought him to sit on the couch with her. Once he'd shut the door, Lucas went to look in on the girls, leaving the siblings to talk.

"Are we talking about this, or do you just want to lie down and go to sleep?" Maya asked. He may have been taller than her now, but he was still her little brother, and looking at him right now, she just really wanted to hold him.

"I don't know, I…" Sam shook his head slowly. "I think… I think we just broke up." Maya let out a breath, running her hand over his back.

"You think?" she asked. He didn't respond. "Okay, look… You stay out here tonight, and tomorrow we'll see what happens. Tomorrow morning, things might look different." Sam made a noise like he didn't believe her. "I'm serious, Sam. Do you think Lucas and I never argue?"

"No, I know," he turned his head away, like as true as this was, the last thing he needed to think about now was the two of them ever having issues.

"It sucks, and it can't be over fast enough, but it happens. You just can't go all in and decide you're better off giving up, because then you're definitely going to lose her. I don't think that's what you want, is it?"

"No," Sam responded at once, firmly, definitive, but at the same time Maya could see another thought play against the back of his mind, and she had a feeling she knew what it boiled down to. He was thinking of their father, of how he'd left her and her mother when she was a kid. All the way back when she'd first met him, Sam was already expressing concerns that he would ever do just as their father had done someday, like it was in their blood and they were subject to it no matter what they did. Those thoughts were so far away now, practically disappeared, and yet all it had taken to bring them back was moment, this fear.

"Take a night, take a breath. Talk to her in the morning."

"Okay… Yeah… Maya, I…" Sam looked to his sister, and she put her arm around his shoulders, tipping her head against his.

"I know," she promised him.

She wasn't aware when exactly Lucas had gone by with them, but after getting Sam settled on the couch, she'd gone up to find Nellie and Gracie already in their bed, perusing one of their books together as they waited for her to say goodnight. They didn't ask about Sam, only hugged their big sister when she leaned to them. Headed back down the stairs, Maya could only look off to where Sam lay curled up on the couch, her mind humming in a melody she didn't yet know. She settled on her own bed, Lucas at her side, and there was that familiar pull for the sketchbook, to pull the thoughts from her mind into a song.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners