14 Days Until The Wedding

The rain had stopped completely by the time Maya's Converse hit the wet gravel of the driveway. Frowning, she noted the uncomfortable squishing sound that accompanied any foot movement, meaning that her socks weren't exactly dry.

Lucas was grabbing something out of the backseat, and Maya looked away from him in order to take in her surroundings.

They were in a nice neighbourhood. Upper-class bungalows sat on decent plots of land, and the road curved downward towards a small but beautiful park. The cars that were parked nearby were all either newer models, old-fashioned vintage, or trucks similar to the one that Lucas was driving (except presumably 10x more expensive). Maya couldn't help but think that this was probably the kind of place where the neighbours knew each other and lent out a cup of sugar whenever it was needed.

What surprised her the most, though, were the trees. Numerous types of both tall and small trees were scattered on many of the yards, and the street was so abnormally full of them that Maya couldn't help but wonder what it looked like after a snowfall. Since she'd never know, she could only safely assume that it was very beautiful.

"Nice, huh?" Lucas' voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "You should see it in the wintertime."

Maya didn't turn towards him, but she narrowed her eyes at the odd mirroring of her thoughts in his words. "Yeah," she said, tucking a wet strand of hair behind her ear. "We were barely on the road for ten minutes. I can't believe that there is a neighbourhood like this so close to the heart of the city."

"I would say 'that's Calgary for you', but that's kinda how most of Canada is," he admitted when she finally looked over at him. "It's really amazing."

"Hmm." Whatever past familiarity she'd managed to tap into in the car had vanished completely, and Maya was once again unsure of what to say to Lucas. He wasn't doing anything particularly menacing (in fact, he was actually reaching into the truck to retrieve her bags for her), but Maya couldn't keep the awkwardness from creeping back in. The fact was that they hadn't had to spend more than a few minutes in the same room together for years, and the hours that they'd now inevitably have to share already seemed uncomfortable — even from a distance.

"Are you going to take your art stuff in with you?" Lucas asked, popping his head back out of the truck to look at her.

Maya pursed her lips in order to keep the miserable expression off of her face; she was aching to paint and was beginning to feel like she wasn't going to get any time to herself for quite a while. "No, it's fine. We're not going to be here for long anyway, right?"

Lucas shut the car door and walked around the truck to hand Maya her bag. "Don't worry — we're only going to spend the night, and we'll leave as early as you'd like in the morning."

"And tonight?"

He hoisted his own duffle over his left shoulder and started up the walkway towards the house. "Tonight we're going to the horse pull."

Maya hesitantly followed behind him, eyeing two short pillars that lined the doorway. There was a wood chip garden off to the side and a single potted plant on the edge of the walkway. "We?"

"Well I'm going." Lucas paused when he reached the door and gestured to indicate whoever was inside. "And so are they. I wasn't sure that it was your thing."

Her obnoxious squishy steps came to a halt beside him, and she rolled her eyes internally. Obviously a horse pull wasn't her thing, but what was she going to do in a stranger's house all alone with nothing to do (or paint)?

"I'll go," she muttered instead of voicing her annoyance.

Lucas gave her a look that she couldn't quite decipher before turning to knock on the door.

Maya realized that she had no idea what — or who — to expect in that moment. She instinctively angled her body away from the door and towards Lucas, as if to protect herself from impact.

Lucas must have noticed because he made a strange face before doing a terrible job of hiding a small laugh.

The door swung open, revealing a woman about Maya's age with light brown hair and olive skin.

"Lucas!" she exclaimed excitedly before leaping into his arms and wrapping him in a warm hug.

"Sophie!" Lucas mimicked, though it was muffled by his friend's hair.

Feeling more than a little awkward, Maya shuffled her feet and peered through the doorway. From what she could tell, the inside of the house was much larger than it appeared to be from outside. It was brightly lit despite the greyness of the sky, and white light bounced off of the plain cream walls. The front hall wasn't much to look at, but Maya anticipated being impressed with what was beyond the entryway.

"Where's Matt?" Lucas was asking Sophie, causing Maya to tune back into the conversation.

"He's here somewhere," the other girl said before turning away from him. Her light green eyes landed on the damp blonde by his side. "So this is Maya." Lucas cleared his throat a little too loudly, and Sophie quickly rephrased. "Lucas told us that he was going to have a friend stay over. Did you get caught in the rain? You're all wet!"

The whole thing was beginning to feel like a weird movie scene, and Maya almost imagined that she was watching the interaction from afar instead of experiencing it. Her mouth opened once, but closed just as quickly before she could think of anything to say.

"Yeah, she was in the downpour for a few minutes," Lucas responded when the silence stretched out for a bit too long.

Sophie continued eyeing Maya as though she was expecting her to do something besides just stand there. "Well, come in. You can put your bags down and get cleaned up."

She disappeared back into the house, clearly trusting Lucas to guide Maya through the door. He had to give the smaller girl a gentle nudge, but she eventually stepped over the threshold and into the front hall.

"Is that Lucas?"

Maya paused when she heard the new voice, suddenly remembering a crooked grin paired with friendly brown eyes. Before her brain could fully put all of the pieces together, Matthew — one of Lucas' former roommates — bounded around the corner and nearly tackled her companion to the ground.

They guy-ed it out (AKA shoulder smacking, hair ruffling, fake fighting) for a few seconds, and Maya was forced to try to stay out of their way while simultaneously hiding her panic. Dread slowly crept up into her chest, and she had to fight to refrain from hightailing it out of there.

When Matthew finally let go of Lucas, he backed up before looking at Maya for the first time and — fearing that silence would somehow trigger any memory that he might have of her — she forcefully stuck out a hand in his direction.

"Hi, I'm Maya — Lucas' friend. Thanks for letting me stay the night; I know that you hadn't planned on having any extra guests."

He didn't respond right away, and Maya impatiently waited for his eyes to quickly skim over her just like every other guy that she'd encountered in the past few years. Where was Becca when you needed her?

Please don't remember me. Please don't remember me.

Lucas seemed to be a bit surprised at her sudden outburst considering the fact that she hadn't said a word since the door had opened, but it wasn't him that Maya was worried about. She continued to watch Matthew, and her eyes took in everything that had changed since they'd last crossed paths.

He almost seemed taller, and the lazy stubble that had once protruded from his chin had grown into a full goatee. His dark hair had been shaggy and long, but it had clearly been trimmed since then, though it still wasn't exactly short.

"No worries," he said finally, grinning at Lucas over Maya's shoulder. "I've always wanted to meet one of Lucas' American friends."

Maya let out a relieved exhale and Matthew turned towards her again.

"Okay, Maya." He took the duffel from her hands and motioned for her to follow him. "I'll take you to your room and then you can clean yourself up, okay?"

Hello! We're nearing the end of my old stuff. You can tell I was running out of ideas lol. There will be at least one more update.

Thanks all.