~ I'm sorry that this took so long, I just finished a heavy semester but now I have 3 months off. Thanks for your patience!~
KING LUCAS
CHAPTER 28
It was crazy how fast things changed after Lucas was back in the group. They all fell together like pieces of a puzzle, it took them one lunch to go back to their routine, although Lucas could feel the little changes, like Riley and Farkle, the skinny kid who couldn't take his head out of the books actually participated in the conversations. Zay talked about more serious subjects, instead of hiding behind his humor, Maya smiled more often than not, and him, he didn't lose himself in his thoughts so easily.
"What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?" Farkle suddenly asked, calling for their attention.
"It's like in three weeks." Maya said, stealing more of Lucas' mashed potatoes.
"Well, I wanted us to be together. It can be our first Thanksgiving as a group, Riley offered her house to have dinner there." He said, Riley melted at his words, Lucas smiled at the couple.
"I already have a menu planned, my parents are going upstate to visit Shawn, so I was thinking of spiking the punch with alcohol." Riley said with a mischievous smile.
Farkle opened his mouth, genuinely surprised, the other three widened their eyes and nodded, holding their smirks.
"That sounds real nice, Farkle–" Zay began, "–but Lucas and I are going back to Texas for the holiday."
Farkle lifted his eyebrows, and Riley's natural smile faded as they both looked at them disappointed.
"We're going to my Pappy Joe's farm in Austin, help with the harvest, I do it every year." Lucas offered the explanation that Zay had failed to deliver. "There's plenty of room for everyone, you're more than welcome to come." He said, before he could stop himself.
Farkle looked at his girlfriend, they stared at each other like they were having a mental conversation that nobody else could understand, Farkle nodded and said that they would think about it, but that was the end of the conversation.
At least that's what Lucas had thought, two days later, Maya and him were outside sitting on the floor against a wall as they watched Zay trying to throw a three pointer in the basketball court.
Lucas was studying his form, none of the shots he had attempted entered the hoop, but it was because he was too short and he was trying to throw like a tall man. He needed to jump higher and put his hands at 7 and 5 o'clock in the ball to keep it straight.
"Zay, you suck!" Maya yelled from his side, Lucas snorted.
"You try it, Hart." He threw the ball towards them, Lucas thought about catching it, but he stopped himself, Maya extended her hands instead.
She stood up and bounced the ball a little, she was so tiny that she looked very amusing from where he was sitting. She reached Zay and without hesitating she folded her knees and jumped, the ball didn't touched the hoop as it went in. Zay's mouth dropped to the floor, Maya flicked her mane of hair, hitting him straight in the face just as she walked back to Lucas. He tipped his imaginary hat to her, with an amused smile in his face.
"What do you say? Should we teach him a lesson?" She asked him with a smile that could get them in trouble, she offered her hand to help him up. He grinned as she helped him up.
"Hey, Zay, I think it's time to work on your defense." He called for his friend.
"Oh no, I already have a three degree burn," he looked at Maya, "I don't need my ass kicked too."
"C'mon, you just need a little practice." Lucas asked for the ball, which Zay reluctantly gave him.
"Fine, but I want Maya as my offender." He added, Lucas pursed his lips, he didn't see the mistake he had just made.
"You sure, Sugarcane?" Lucas passed the basketball to Maya, she lifted one eyebrow.
Zay opened his mouth to protest but Maya had already launched herself towards him, bouncing the ball on the floor rapidly. Zay extended his arms to his sides, but Maya passed the ball through the opening of his legs, Lucas caught it and jumped to dunk it.
"We get it, Huckleberry, nobody likes a showoff." She said, picking up the ball from the floor.
He let himself fall, enjoying the look of disbelief still on Zay's face.
"You're just jealous that you can't do it, Shortstack." Zay made an 'o' with his mouth, it seemed like her eyes could burn a hole on his shirt, but there was a bit of amusement in there as well.
They set up again, Zay in front of Maya, and Lucas behind them. This time Zay had his legs closer together, which was a terrible mistake, Maya made for his left and when Zay moved to cover her she swerved and passed through his right. Lucas saw what she was doing, he ran towards her.
"Jump!" He ordered and without hesitating she did as he said, Lucas caught her in the air and pushed her further up until he heard the chains move and her body became weightless. He let go, she was hanging in the hoop, laughing. Zay was in the floor, looking at the sky, defeated.
"Okay, bring me down." She told him, he grabbed her hips carefully, when she felt stable enough she brought her hands to his shoulders as he lowered her to the ground.
He stopped when they were face to face, frozen by her eyes. What are you thinking? He couldn't help but ask himself. Her toes were barely touching the floor, her mouth parted open as she caught her breath, but his arms gave out and her heels hit the ground.
"Thanks." She said, looking at him and then quickly staring down at her shoes.
"No problem, Shortstack." He replied, turning around and fishing the ball from the tables where it had rolled away. Don't get involved, you have a plan, he told himself.
Maybe, just maybe, he was emotionally compromised to finish his goal, but that had never happened before. He didn't understand what was about Maya that made her so different from the other girls, but he knew that it was his curiousity that kept pushing him. It wasn't until you broke a person that you could really understand them. He would get the girl, it was part of his mission, but he wouldn't truly get her. He was Lucas Miller and a name change didn't correct the fact that he was the son of Johnathan Miller, successful business man, father, ex-husband, alcoholic, abuser... world's biggest asshole. The worst part was that he wasn't so far apart from becoming his father, he had anger issues, he was manipulative, a liar and apathetic... but hey, at least he was king.
His biggest fear was becoming his father. Somehow, his dad had married his high school sweetheart and built an insurance company from the ground up, he had a son who seemed to have a future as a baseball player, what else could he ask from the world. They were supposed to be the perfect american family, but his inner demons had finally caught him and he lost everything because he deserved nothing. In Lucas' eyes his own demons were following, so he made a conscious choice to have an empty life, because when you have nothing they can't take anything away from you.
"Ball..." Maya repeated for the third time, Lucas fell out of his trance and threw her the orange ball. "Jeez Huckleberry, were did you go?" She asked, jokingly, throwing another three pointer.
"Hey guys!" Riley screamed before Lucas could reply, they all turned to see Farkle and Riley walking fast towards them.
The tall brunette was practically jumping when she reached them.
"We have a surprise." She said, then proceeded to drumroll her hands against her thighs. Next to her, Farkle got two pieces of paper from his back pocket.
"We are going with you for Thanksgiving!" They finished the sentence with choreographed jazz hands. The trio lifted their eyebrows at the same time, Lucas had never expected things to get here, but there was no going back, he had offered to host them and it was too late to back down.
"And that's not the best part, show them." She told her boyfriend, he took one extra ticket and gave it to Maya. "We both chipped in and got you a ticket too."
Riley's face was expecting her grateful praise, but Maya's face had changed.
"I can't accept this." She said, giving the ticket back.
"Yes, you can, it's a gift!" She extended her hand, but Maya's expressions just seemed to darken. "It was my idea."
"I don't want it." She replied firmly.
"Why not?" Riley asked, frowning.
"Because I'm not a charity case, Riley!" She yelled at her, Riley was surprised by the anger in her words. She couldn't say anything else, the guys watched them fight, feeling the sudden change in atmosphere. "Lucas, take me home?"
Lucas widened his eyes at the mention of his name, he took some seconds to understand what had just happened but eventually nodded. Maya began walking away, furious.
"Maya, don't leave! Let's talk about this!" Riley tried to call her unsuccessfully. "Maya! Ring power!"
Maya's feet stopped for a second, but she kept going, ignoring the ultimate rule of their friendship.
Lucas looked at Riley for a second, tears almost in her eyes, but the blonde was further away and he had to chase after her.
In the car Maya complained all the way how it had always been like this. They would pay for her ice cream, or pay for her movie ticket, or pay for whatever they were having at a restaurant, and sure she would let them, why not, it meant free stuff for her, even though it always stang a little when they thought she couldn't afford a fucking ice cream cone, but she kept quiet. But this, this had finally tipped the scale, it was too much.
Lucas thought she was overreacting, that Riley and Farkle were just trying to be nice, but he knew better than to share his thoughts with Maya. So he remained silent, he nodded when she asked a retorical question and followed her to her door because she hadn't finished her rant.
Somehow they had landed on the topic of Riley believing she was so much better than her and so she treated Maya like a wounded bird ever since she had crawled through her window. When she finally took a deep breath and paused, they were in her room, she was pacing the floor and Lucas was resting sideways in her bed looking at her.
"When did we get here?" She asked, petrified.
"We've been here for like twenty minutes." Lucas answered like it wasn't a big deal, after all he had spent the night there once. Maya just blinked at him, so he sat on the edge of the bed. "Look, my advice is if you want to be with us for Thanksgiving then pay off Farkle's ticket."
"Does it look like I have five hundred dollars just laying around?" She asked.
"Then why not just take the ticket they got you?" He asked back, Maya made an exasperated sound as she massaged her temples.
"Did you missed what I was saying in the car?" She began pacing again. "It's not that they got me the ticket, it's that they believe that I can't get my own, their first automatic response was to suppose that I couldn't afford to pay it, they didn't even ask me. Do you think I don't want to pay it? I do! But where am I going to get 500 bucks in three weeks?!"
He didn't know what to say, this situation would be so much easier if she wasn't so stubborn, but now he kinda understood why she was throwing this tantrum.
Suddenly, his eyes fell on the paintings she kept resting against the wall, she had at least two dozen of them and it was like a lightbulb turned on inside of him.
"I have an idea." He said grinning, like he had just saved the holidays.
"I'm not sleeping with anyone for money." She warned him, he rolled his eyes.
"No, that's not what I had in mind." He walked to where the paintings were resting and grabbed the one closest to him. "Have you ever thought about selling these?"
Maya looked at him long, she didn't know if he was joking or not.
"What?" She chuckled, she couldn't believe he was being serious.
"No, think about it, if we can sell some of these I bet we can get enough money to get you to Texas and back." He began rummaging among the paintings to choose the best ones, Maya frowned, still very confused.
"Why would someone buy any of my paintings" She asked him, he found that question very stupid.
"What do you mean why? They are amazing." He said bluntly, but the message didn't seem to communicate with her. "You're a great artist Maya, and it's time to go out there and share it with people."
Her face turned to a crimson red, which she tried to hide by lowering her head and putting a lost strand of hair behind her ear.
"And how are we going to sell them? Just stand on the streets and see if there are any takers?" Maya asked, trying to keep her hopes down.
Lucas smiled mischievously, like he had everything under control, her heart was beating fast and she hadn't noticed it until now.
"Lucky for you, I know the best salesman in all of New York."