6: Home

On days where nothing much was brewing amongst their group of friends, Maya and Riley would spend time at the latter's house engaging in their own activities. But whatever they did, they would do in Riley's room such that they were never apart. It was a routine that had been specially cultivated over their many years of friendship.

While Riley was attempting to catch up on her embarrassingly long list of 'to-be-read' books, Maya was perched on the bay window, stringing together some tunes on her guitar which she randomly plucked from her brain.

Altogether, a lazy, peaceful atmosphere hung about them that made the two girls wish they didn't have to interrupt it when the time came.

But someone had to, and it was Riley, who closed her book with a soft thud as she turned to face her friend.

"Maya," she called.

"Hmm?"

"I have something to tell you."

Maya resisted a smirk at the way Riley said it, which tittered on the edge of someone trying to hide a big reveal. She laid her guitar down at her side and smiled.

"What is it, sweetchumps?"

Riley unconsciously traced a finger up and down the spine of her book – which had the title Six of Crows emblazoned on it – as she figured the best way to put the news across. She decided that short and sweet was the way to go.

"Uncle Josh is coming back to New York today. My dad just told me about it last night." Riley paused, waiting for Maya to react.

This sudden reveal caused Maya to freeze for a second, a second which brought back a flurry of unwanted emotions. She obviously knew that Josh would be returning one day. After all, school at New York University was starting in September and soon she'd be seeing him all the time.

She imagined that the old Maya would have jumped about ecstatically at the thought of having more time to spend with 'Uncle Boing', but after their encounter at the subway months ago, they had both reached some sort of conclusion that the pursuit of any kind of romance with anyone would be useless and futile.

That was probably why Josh's impending visit made her feel awkward. It was like she had broken some sort of unspoken agreement between them when she started having feelings for Lucas. But she supposed that he would never have to know – unless, of course, he asked.

"Maya? Hello, earth to Maya?" Riley waved a hand in front of her face in an attempt to get her attention.

The girl suddenly snapped out of her thoughts, sitting up straight. "Oh, right, cool," she smiled without further elaboration.

Riley appeared confused at her friend's response. "That's it?" She questioned. "You'd usually be jumping up and down or raiding my wardrobe for a new outfit by now."

Maya gave her look, which Riley managed to pick up on, as evident from her slow nod of realization.

"Right," she said. "Lucas. I almost forgot."

Lucas was still not an easy topic for the two to talk about. Although Riley no longer harboured any feelings for him, Maya knew that it still pained her to know that her first relationship did not turn out the way she expected it to. That was why despite Riley's constant reassurances that it was perfectly fine for them to date, the idea of it still felt uncomfortable and foreign.

"So do you still like Josh?" Riley gently prodded, her head tilting to one side like it always did whenever she was asking a question or attempting to figure someone out.

As much as she would like to, Maya did not have an answer to that question. Both boys meant something to her, and likewise, both of them didn't – or wouldn't – work out for several reasons.

She shrugged in response. "You know as much as I do, Riles."

The brunette frowned. "Which is…nothing?"

Maya laughed, playfully ruffling her best friend's hair. "Exactly!"

It was late in the afternoon when the doorbell to the Matthews' apartment rang.

"He's here!" Riley exclaimed, rushing past her father to pull the door open.

She was greeted by Joshua Matthews, who didn't look any different apart from his shorter, cropped hair. He had with him a large red suitcase and a bar of chocolate from the last country he visited, which was Australia. It was a tradition that the Matthews had adopted when Cory and Topanga first moved to New York and gave their families chocolates that could only be found in the city when they returned to visit.

"Heyya niece," Josh greeted with his usual toothy grin, opening his arms to invite Riley into a hug.

"Heyya Uncle," she said as she wrapped her arms around him before letting go. "You're looking real good these days."

Josh grabbed the handle of his luggage and dragged it into the house, closing the front door behind him. He stifled a laugh at Riley's comment. "And tanner too, I hope. All that Australian sunshine better have done me some good."

"You do know that too much exposure to sun causes skin cancer, right?" Cory butted in, stepping forward to receive him. Although his words sounded threatening, there was a large smile on his face that was reserved only for his precious little brother.

"I applied sunscreen, I promise," Josh replied, putting an arm around Cory's shoulder and patting it. "It's good to see you again, brother."

"Likewise," Cory said, taking the luggage from him when he spotted the bar of Bahen & Co chocolate in his hands.

He batted his eyelashes, pointing to himself. "For meeeee?"

Josh grimaced. "Not after that – Riley, catch!" He tossed the prettily packaged bar of chocolate to his niece, who caught it with much delight.

All of this Maya watched from the entrance of Riley's room, a smile tugging at the edge of her lips. Just watching the Matthews' interaction made her feel so warm and homey inside. That was partly the reason why she allowed herself to get so close to her best friend in the first place – their joy and love was infectious.

"Where's Maya?" Josh asked all of a sudden, swivelling his head around to look for her.

The girl took this as her cue to make her appearance. She stepped out from Riley's room and waved, her face unwittingly breaking into a grin.

"Hey there, Uncle Boing," she greeted. For old times' sake.

Josh raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Not going to jump on me this time?"

Maya laughed. "No," she shook her head. "Unless you want me to."

Josh smiled in response, looking her straight in the eyes for a moment before shifting his gaze back to Cory. "So anyway, I'm not lingering here for long today," he said. "I've got a couple of apartments waiting for me to visit. Riley, want to come with?"

"I promised mum and dad that I'll babysit Auggie while they go for dinner today," Riley shrugged. "Sorry, Josh."

"How about you, Maya?" He asked, nodding towards the blonde girl.

Maya had not seen that coming, but she supposed there was no harm in wanting to catch up. "Yeah, sure. Why not?" she asked rhetorically. "Now?"

Josh took off his black leather jacket and hung it on the clothes rack beside the door before beckoning for her to come forward.

"Yeah, let's go!"

The plan was this – three apartments in two hours, all of which were within walking distance of each other.

With this in mind, Maya and Josh made their way to the first apartment, walking side by side along the pavement that felt warm and blistery under the heat of the summer sun. They had never gone out together like this before – just the two of them, without any of the other Matthews around. It made Maya's hands tingle, causing her to cross and uncross her arms as they walked.

Up till now, they had been making small talk that kept drifting off into silence, something which dissatisfied Maya. She was never a fan of pointless beating around the bush, but despite being as direct and confrontational as a girl could get, she somehow couldn't get herself to spit out the question that was itching at the back of her throat for the past hour.

"Look, a rainbow!" Josh suddenly exclaimed as he pulled to a halt.

Maya snapped her head up, irritated. "I'm not a kid, Josh. You don't need to use that kind of tone with me."

"No, but really – just look," Josh continued unperturbed, tapping her shoulder to divert her attention to the bend of the rainbow that sliced the sky in two.

They were directly beneath it, such that they couldn't see where the two ends stopped, seemingly going on for miles and miles above the brick buildings of New York City. It came out of nowhere – one of the beautiful, random occurrences that Maya had come to appreciate of the city over the years.

"It's pretty," she found herself relaxing as she said so, looking towards Josh with a smile.

He dug his hands into the shallow pockets of his jeans and resumed walking, nodding his head slowly at her comment. "You should definitely paint it," he suggested. "Riley told me…how much you like art."

The fact that he knew that came as a surprise to Maya. She should've known that Riley talked to Josh about her, but it was just something that never really came across her mind before. Not that she minded, really. Art was a passion of hers that she couldn't bother to hide from others.

She grinned at the thought of setting one of her thick stroke brushes to paper. "Yeah, I enjoy it," she finally answered. "A lot. In fact, let me try and capture this moment so I can paint it after. It's not every day that we get to see a rainbow in the city, you know."

Josh shook his head, chuckling. "Actually, I don't know. Back in my home town, we see rainbows so often that they hardly excite us anymore. I guess it isn't the same here."

Maya ran her eyes across the arch of the rainbow, taking in the seven faint, translucent colours that seemed to amalgamate together under the backdrop of the sky. She observed the grey rooftops of the brick buildings around them, and the way the clouds drifted lazily above them.

Unbeknownst to her, Josh was observing her thoughtfully, admiring the gentle way she put down to memory the surrounding sights. He could see other passers-by whip their smartphones out to take multiple shots of the rainbow in different angles, but for Maya, all of this was done in her head.

He realized at that very moment that this was a girl who lived in the present and for the present – something that was extremely rare these days. She was a girl who plunged headfirst into conversations, expecting to enlighten and to be enlightened in return. And there he was, letting events of the past reduce him to meaningless small talk for the better part of this trip.

"Hey Maya," he said, the mention of her name causing her to look up at him. "Tell me more about the city. I want to get the authentic New York experience."

The right side of Maya's lips tugged up into a smile. "Authentic New York experience, huh? You've come to the right person."

The two had made it to the final apartment with twenty minutes to spare and were presently taking stock of the various furniture and amenities that were available while being shown around by the owner of the studio, a woman named Emma Chapman.

She was rambling on about the Wi-Fi connection when she stopped at the foot of the bed and swept her gaze across Maya and Josh. "If it concerns you, the mattress is extremely comfortable and springy, so…"

Josh quickly shook his hand in a frantic attempt to mitigate whatever assumption the woman had about them.

"It's not like that!" he said the same time Maya shouted, "I'm 15!"

Emma stepped back, startled by the sudden outburst of her potential new tenants. "Alright, alright. You're all still kids to me anyway. As I was saying…"

Maya was blushing furiously at the scenario that Emma had implied and tried her best to compose herself and brush it off. But it didn't help that Josh gave her an awkward smile behind the woman's back as she eventually found herself spending the rest of the house tour trying to get the thought out of her mind.

After the tour had ended and the two bid farewell to their guide, they found themselves standing on the porch of the apartment building, the sky above them already darkened and the streetlamps lined along the street lit up.

Before Maya could say anything, Josh piped up, "do you want to grab a bite before going home?"

Something inside the girl said to turn the offer down, but her stomach had other plans, choosing that very moment to growl, giving her state of hunger away.

Both pairs of eyes dropped down to look at her stomach for a second before the air was punctuated with their laughter.

"I guess it's a yes then," Josh said. "Lead the way, Maya. Where can we get a good meal around here?"

"Wait," Maya said, finding the words to the question that she had been wanting to ask all day. "Before we go, tell me, Josh. Why are you suddenly so nice to me?"

"What?" Josh raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"You were never really keen on hanging out with me before this. Why the sudden change today?" Maya made sure that her arms were crossed to show that she was being serious.

Sensing the previously amicable atmosphere drop, the boy cast his gaze down at his feet, kicking against a stray pebble and sending it bouncing down the steps of the porch. He appeared somewhat abashed.

"That's because I've always looked to you as Riley's best friend," he started. "But after that day on the subway, and after the night you sneaked into the party, I realized that I should stop looking at you that way."

Maya nodded in understanding. She had come to terms with that fact a long time ago. "But I never thought of you as Riley's uncle," she said. "To me, you were always just Josh."

He couldn't help but smile at the term. "Just Josh – it's quite fitting isn't it? I used to think too highly of myself when all this while I was actually just Josh."

Maya wanted to tell him that he meant more than that to her, and that a 'just' couldn't possibly sum up all there was to him – as a brother, an uncle, a friend. But to be frank, there was no denying that he had been a horrid friend, although that could be attributed to the fact that he never really entertained the possibility of her being one in the first place.

Seeing that she remained silent, Josh continued. "I'd like to get to know you as you are now. Will you let me?"

His eyes were bright with anticipation as Maya considered his explanation for a moment. She had always been wary with who she gave her heart to, but when she did, she would sing their praise from the rooftops. Josh had been her first and last of such, but she knew that what he was currently talking about was exclusive to friendship. And strangely enough, Maya found it awfully relieving. She simply wasn't interested in jumping into any relationships after seeing what it could do – case in point, Lucas and Riley.

After what felt like the longest pause, Maya bounded down the stairs and beckoned to Josh the same way he did to her earlier during the day.

"I will if you let me bring you to get dollar pizza for dinner," she said, to which Josh grinned and let out a sigh of relief as he followed after her.

The pizza place was just a block away from Riley's apartment, and due to its shockingly affordable prices, it was crowded all through the day, with dinner being no exception.

Thankfully, Maya was all-too accustomed to the crowd, and she grabbed the sleeve of Josh's shirt as she led him through the thick line of adults who were merely queuing for takeaways. She was bringing him to a small seating area at the back of the store which was hidden out of plain sight, unknown to most who only dropped by from time to time.

But being a frequent patron and having built good rapport with the chef, Maya was often reserved a seat for whenever she came. In fact, there was even a smiley faced sticker stuck to the metal chair where she usually sat.

However, it was presently occupied by a group of teenagers who were laughing away at a joke, the white paper plates in front of them wiped clean save for a couple of leftover crumbs. Maya nudged her way forward and was about to put in a word when she froze upon realizing who they were.

Her gaze was fixated on the boy sitting right across from her, staring at her grip on Josh's arm with his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Lucas?"

A/N: Hey there, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! :) I've recently had time to write because we just had a four-day long weekend due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, but it's back to work for me again tomorrow. Boohoo. But anyway, I really had fun writing Maya and Josh's interactions, so much so that I actually had to leave out some of their other conversations and keep them for later chapters. I really do miss Josh's presence (and cute face ha ha) in the show and I'm so glad that Uriah is returning for season 3! On a side note, I wish you guys a great week ahead and please leave a favourite or review if you're liking this story so far! It means a lot :') See you in the next chapter!