So what were your guys predictions for what would happen when the Rubber Room kids took Maya to hang out? Was it what you THINK it is..hmm:)

(MAYA'S P.O.V.)

"So I told my mom I would be home at like, 8." I slid my phone into my back pocket, as we were walking down a street I wasn't really familiar with. It was almost dark.

"Okay, Princess. You said it like, five times." Grace snickered back. Zig and Tiny chuckled along.

"So who's house are we doing to?" I asked. Grace looked at Tiny, and Tiny looked at Grace, and they chuckled. Zig just rolled his eyes.

"We aren't going to anyone's house." Grace replied.

"Where are we going?" I asked. Then she pointed down a narrow street with some graffiti on the cement walls. It was empty.

"Here."

The street was actually kinda cool. Normally, I would think graffiti was like, I don't know, weird? Didn't the boys in skinny jeans and long hair who rode skate boards do this stuff? But the graffiti wasn't just pointless words, it was art. It was actually really cool.

Grace then stopped and sat cris-cross on a little corner of the cement wall, and Tiny and Zig followed.

"It's cool back here," I slowly said, looking around.

"It is." Grace replied.

"So...why are we here?" I asked. Grace chuckled to herself, and Tiny did also.

"Guys, can we not?" Zig asked. He was nervous for some reason, I could tell. I could always tell when he was.

"Chill the hell out, Novak. She doesn't have to do it." Grace replied.

"Do what?" I asked. Just then, I saw her pull out a little baggy from her coat pocket. Was that...weed?

"Is that weed?" I widened my eyes, looking closer. Grace nodded.

"The good stuff," Tiny nodded, and Zig rolled his eyes again.

"Dang," I said, examining the bag Grace was holding. I heard many things about weed in my life. Obviously, my mother, being a mother, always told me, "never do that stuff, Maya", and I would just nod. Yeah yeah, drugs are bad. But then I've heard good stuff about it.

Weed couldn't kill you, right? I mean, it may be illegal but, people don't die from it.

Just then, Grace reached into her school bag, and took out an empty water bottle. She began taking the weed out of the baggie and doing something in which I had no idea with the bottle.

"Guys seriously, Maya shouldn't do it." Zig sighed, shaking his head. I looked over at him. Why was he so concerned about me?

"If Blondie doesn't want to do it," Grace said, still continuing to do something to the bottle. "She doesn't have to."

"No," I quickly replied, not thinking. "I wanna do it."

"Have you even done it before?" Zig asked, throwing me a mean look.

"Yes." I lied. I mean, I had to lie. I couldn't let them think I was some kind of princess who got straight A's and did everything her mommy let her do.

"You have?" Zig asked.

"Mhm." I lied again. Then all the sudden, Grace put her mouth to the lid of the water bottle, and began breathing in. I watched her closely as she did it, so I wouldn't look dumb doing it. Then she blew out, and the aroma was god awful.

I'm not gonna lie, I was scared. I never did it before. It was like the first time you drink, you're scared, you have no idea how you will react to it. But, I was with safe people, right? I mean, I was with Zig Novak. When did he even begin doing drugs, anyway? Since when did he even start hanging out with people who did drugs?

Grace and Tiny seemed cool though. They were funny, a little too sarcastic at times, but they were fun. This was certainly better than crying in my room all night about some ass hole who fucked me over. I was gonna suck it up, and get high.

And boy, did I feel it.

"Oh my gosh," I giggled, caressing Tiny's arms. "Your arms are soooo long."

"Yeah," Tiny chuckled back. "They are, aren't they?"

I never felt this way before. Everything was just so...chill. Like, everything was kind of spinning, but in a good way. I don't think I've ever been this happy before.

"I think Blondie likes it." Grace chuckled, coughing. I saw Zig take some, but he was really calm. He was hardly even talking. He just sat there, hugging his legs.

"Zig," I laughed, leaning in closer to him. "Your hair looks so much better like that."

"Looks like Blondie likes Zigmund too," Grace laughed. I slowly looked at Grace, and for some reason I was smiling. I don't even know what I was doing.

"Do you ever just," I began, sitting back. "Do you ever just wonder like, the sun sets at like...the same time every night. Like, what if the sun just forgot to set?"

Tiny began cracking up.

"Like..the sun would just be like, oops, forgot to set."

"Oh god," Grace chuckled. "Your one of those..."

"One of what?" I asked.

"The weird highs."

"Come on," I said. "You've never thought about that before? Not once?"

Grace shook her head, giggling.

"So what happened with you and that rich guy," Tiny began. "Mark? Meter?"

"Miles?" I chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah that's the one."

I took a big deep breath. For some reason, right nowI felt fine about talking about it.

"Let's just say...he's a big, big, BIG dick. With a tiny one too...HA! See what I did there, Tiny? Tiny."

Grace then laughed out loud, and I think Zig did too.

"He thought it was fine...to go fuck some other girl." I spit out, and it was silent for a couple seconds.

"He cheated on you?" Grace asked.

"Mhm. He hooked up with that actress slut. AND THEN, he came over afterwards, smelling like some god awful coconut smell, and he was like, oh, it was FRANKIE." I imitated him. "Lies. I'm telling you, all guys are just so fucking disgusting."

Everyone was silent.

"Except you guys." I said. "Tiny and Zig."

"Tiny is disgusting." Grace chuckled, and Tiny playfully hit her.

"So then what happened?" Zig asked. I was shocked to hear words come out of his mouth.

"Well Zoe, that was her name by the way, the actress slut. She calls him within the first couple minutes he was over, and I could hear her say, you should toottally come over again later." I imitated her in a more mean way. "And then, well, I slapped him and told him to leave."

"You slapped him?" Tiny asked.

"I slapped him." I proudly nodded. "I would've done much more, but I was just...so shocked." I whipped my head back, and the spinning was still affecting me.

"And then I wrote that Zoe was a slutty whore on her locker, and well, now I'm here." I sighed. "In the Rubber Room, I mean."

"Wow Blondie," Grace smiled, nodding. "I gotta say I'm proud of you."

"And that on top of everything going on with my dad," I began, sighing. "It's just been...too much."

"And that's why you're here." Grace said. "Get your mind off of things."

"You know," I began, sitting up. "You guys are like...really cool. Much cooler than, well, my other friends who aren't really my friends anymore."

"Who, Tristan?" Zig giggled, and I laughed back, harder.

"Yeah, Tristan. He's so...ugh."

"Oh shut up, you guys were like obsessed with each other last year," Zig replied, but he was smiling.

"No, that was him and Tori. He only liked me because she left."

"Tori!? Zig's ex girlfriend?" Grace laughed, and Zig shot her a mean look.

"He told you that?" I laughed harder, and after a couple seconds, Zig was laughing along.

"He also told us how you guys kissed," Tiny added on, and Zig stopped laughing. "About how g-"

"Tiny..." Zig began, and Tiny shut his mouth. I looked at Tiny, and then back at Zig.

"What was he about to say," I smiled, pointing at Tiny, and Zig just shook his head.

"How gooood it was," Tiny cracked up. And then suddenly, headlights were blinding us, as a car slowly approached.

"Shit," Zig said under his breath.

"Who...who is that?" I asked, and then I was standing up. Grace quickly grabbed her stuff, as did Tiny, and they both began running, as Zig grabbed my arm firmly and was dragging me along with him.

"Run," Zig said, and I looked back and the car was coming faster at us.

"Where are we...what's going on!?" I asked, afraid. Was it the cops or something? There was no headlights.

"Just come on!" Zig yelled, and before I knew it we were out of the alley way, running down some street.

"Novak, take Maya with you." Grace yelled, running the opposite way that Zig and I were running with, Tiny going with her. Zig had let go of me by then, as I was just running behind him, trying to keep up.

"Zig what's going on?" I asked, while running behind him. He was running pretty fast. "Are those the cops?"

"No, just come on." He said, and then he made a turn, looking back behind at me. The car wasn't following us anymore, or atleast it wasn't behind us.

I wasn't feeling the feeling I was before. It was like all the weed was just out of my system. I was scared. I had no idea what was going on.

Just then, Zig stopped at some house, quickly looking behind him and at me, and then he began opening the window to the house.

"Zig, what are you doing?" I asked, out of breath.

"Shhh."

He opened the window completely, before quickly climbing in.

Were we breaking into an abandoned house?

He then was completely into the house before holding his arms out, motioning me to quickly come in.

"Come on," He whispered. And before I knew it, I was climbing through the window, my blonde hair swooshing everywhere.

(OK CAN WE JUST PAUSE FOR A SECOND BECAUSE I CAN PICTURE THIS SCENE SO WELL IN MY HEAD OK RESUME)

When I was completely in the house, Zig quickly closed the window, locking it. I looked around. It looked like someone had been living here. In an abandoned house. There was empty Chinese food cartons, a pillow and blanket on the pull out bed. I turned around to Zig, who was looking out the window.

"What's going.."

"Shh, for one second." He said, examining the streets out the window. I could feel my palms getting sweaty, my entire body shaking.

"I think we're good." He sighed of relief. He then turned around, passing me slowly.

"Zig what the hell just happened?" He ran his fingers through his hair, breathing out slowly.

"Those guys in the car, they aren't exactly on good terms with me right now."

"What guys? What do you mean? What's going on?" I asked so many questions a mile a minute, but I was just so nervous. I had no idea what was going on.

"Just, not very nice guys. It's okay, we're fine now."

"No, Zig. What's going on? Why are we in here?" I asked quickly, looking around. I then noticed a shirt I remembered Zig wearing the night of the party.

"You live here?"

He was silent. And then he nodded.

"Why are you living here? Zig, what the hell is happening? I'm so confused."

Zig sat down at the edge of the bed, and I sat down on the chair next to the bed.

"My parents kicked me out."

Wow.

"Your parents? Why?"

"It's a really long story. A story you shouldn't know." He shook his head.

"Zig I'm your friend, I have been since last year. Just tell me what's going on."

He was silent, and then slowly looked up at me.

"I'm your friend? Really? You really mean that?" He said in an angry tone. "You just, get drunk at a party, kiss me to get your anger out on Miles, come here and hang out with my friends and act like nothing even happened?"

"I thought we were good..."

"You ignore me, all summer." He stood up, and I followed. "Especially after what I said to you the last time I saw you, before you got on that plane to Paris or wherever the hell you went."

Where the hell was this even coming from? We run from some person in the middle of the night, come into this abandoned house, and he wants to talk about the past?

"And then after your boyfriend cheats on you, you suddenly want to be best friends with me again."

"Zig that isn't how it is." I shook my head.

"Oh really? Because that's how it looks. That's what it seems like."

Everything was an eerie silence then. Just him looking at me, me looking at him.

"Zig I'm...I'm sorry." Was all I could say. I had tears in my eyes. I had thrown away this amazing friendship, for Paris. For Miles. And that broke my heart.

He didn't say anything at first, but I guess he noticed the tears in my eyes, and his face softened.

"I'm sorry about tonight, you didn't need to see-"

"No, Zig." I stopped him. "I'm really sorry for being such a bitch to you. I mean...come on." I threw my arms up. "I'm so freaking stupid."

"No you're not."

"No, really I am. I'm so dumb. I let in all the wrong people, and push away the people who really actually care about me." I was crying now. "You really fucking care about me."

Zig looked down, like if he saw my face, his hard, tough shell would crack. I could tell he felt bad.

"Please...just-" I began.

And then he was hugging me. And I have to say, it was a very, very much needed hug. Everything bad in my life, with my dad, with Miles, with Tristan, with whatever happened tonight just came pouring out, as I cried on his chest.

"Shh, stop crying." He softly said, resting his chin on my head. We stood like that for a minute or so.

"I really needed that," I chuckled, whipping my face.

I looked around again. Zig was actually living here.

"I should get you home," Zig said, walking over to the window, looking out of it. "It's almost 8."

"Come with me." I walked over to him.

"Yeah, I'm going to walk you home obviously."

"No, come home with me."

I think he thought it was a sexual invitation at first, because his face was shocked.

"I mean, I'm not just going to let you stay here."

"Maya, it's fine."

"No, I'll talk to my mom about it, my sister is at college and we have a spare bedroom and-"

"Maya, stop. It's fine I'm okay."

"One night." I insisted. "My mom probably won't mind. And plus, those guys, whoever they are, might still be around."

"I'm a big boy, Maya. I'll be fine."

"Please." I begged. "Just one night."

I was worried about him. I was worried those guys would hurt him.

And then we were climbing out of the window again.