Chapter Two:
A blonde cowboy rushed past nurses yelling at him for running. He didn't care. All he cared about was that his best friend and not-quite-girlfriend had been injured and was currently in the ICU.
Lucas opened the door and inhaled deeply at what he saw. Maya was completely swollen head to toe. Her face was entirely bruised with blotchy purple and yellow spots every which way. The worst was the tumescent left eye and busted lip. Her arm was in a cast; wrist fractured in two places.
The sight in front of him of the obviously traumatised Maya caused him to break down in tears.
"Maya, oh my God. I'm so sorry."
Maya shook her head no. "You didn't do this to me, Huckleberry."
She had tears of her own escaping her eyes.
"But if I hadn't fallen asleep yesterday, I would have picked you up outside of your class like normal and you wouldn't have had to walk home by yourself! This is all my fault!"
"But I told you to stay. I knew you've been having trouble sleeping and I also knew you needed to sleep to function."
Lucas moved in to hug her, but she flinched away like she had with Riley. He tried again, more slowly, and she leaned into it. Maya rested her head on his shoulder.
"Lucas, I don't know if I'll ever be the same Maya you guys know." She revealed.
He pulled out of the embrace and held her at arm's length. Lucas watched as she did the cute little habit she had of biting her lip in anxiety.
"You'll always be the Maya I know. Eventually, you'll get through this and this will make you an even better person than you already are. I promise." He held up three fingers. "Scouts' honour."
Maya chuckled. "Were you even a scout?"
He revised and held the same fingers up again. "Cowboys' honour."
She smiled slightly. "Thanks, Lucas."
"Anytime, ma'am." He tipped an imaginary cowboy hat, making Maya laugh again.
Nurse Bruning walked in. "Oh good, laughter is the best medicine. Excuse me sir, would you mind moving to the other side of the bed, I just need to get her vitals."
Lucas nodded and did as he was asked. Maya grabbed his hand as the blood pressure cuff tightened around one of her bruised arms. The nurse wrote the vitals down and walked out, but not before telling Lucas to keep up the good work.
Maya gave a small smile.
After three hours of visiting, Nurse Franklin, the hard-ass type, made Lucas go home as it was time for Maya to go to therapy. They rolled her down in one of the hospital wheelchairs.
Maya made herself comfortable on the leather couch.
"Hello, Maya. I'm Dr. Strauss."
"I figured." Maya retorted. "Otherwise I wouldn't know why you were sitting at a desk with a name plaque that wasn't yours."
"I'd like to start today's session talking about anything. Anything your heart desires."
Maya thought about this for a minute or so. "I just turned nineteen a week ago today. A week ago I had felt invincible. Riley, my best friend since kindergarten, had thrown me a surprise party. The theme was Lucas' idea, he's one of my other best friends. We have this flirtation going on where I like him a ton and I think he likes me, but he's never made a move or suggested anything.
"Other than our bickering, I mean. He does care about me a lot, that I do know. One afternoon, he and I were at the mall and I saw Shawn, the man my mother almost married and the Matthews' family friend. Riley's dad's best friend to be exact. I was upset over it and he comforted me.
"So anyways, the theme was a rodeo, cowboy theme. I always tease Lucas because he's originally from Texas and so I always use stereotypical phrases around him. I have nicknames for him too, like Huckleberry and Ranger Rick. He usually calls me Short-Stack and Pancakes to retaliate." Maya paused and noticed the shrink's amused expression. She continued anyways. "So anyways, cowboy theme. I ended up having a lot of fun, actually. We played pin the cowboy on the horse which is a lot like pin the tail on the donkey, only funnier.
"Towards the end of the party, I had leaned in to thank Lucas for the party, when he leaned in too. We kissed for the first time. We both agreed that it was an accident and never spoke of it again. So tell me, what should I do?"
"Well, let me answer your question with a question. Do you feel strongly for this Lucas?" Dr. Strauss gently catechised.
"Yes, of course." Maya's tone held a duh tone.
"Do you think you could picture yourself in a relationship with him? Marriage with him? Kids with him?"
Maya smiled slightly. It wasn't too hard to picture herself as Mrs. Lucas Friar with little mini mixtures of Lucas and herself running around a big backyard.
"Yeah, I can totally picture the whole shebang." Maya looked at the therapist thoroughly with her good eye. "But since the incident, I can't have people even come in close proximity without flinching. Even with Riley, I flinch around her and she's a pacifist. Riley couldn't even hurt a fly and she's so sweet, she could cause a cavity."
Dr. Strauss wrote this down and nodded, "It will take some time to adjust, sometimes people never adjust. It's my belief, though, that eventually you will. It seems you have a great support system. Though I am curious, where is your mother?"
Maya smiled dejectedly. "She left me five years ago to pursue her acting career. She left me with the Matthews and a signed sheet of paper that relinquished her duties as my mother, leaving me an orphan. The Matthews immediately filed to adopt me and here we are."
"Well that can be heartbreaking, for anyone, even strong ones like yourself."
Maya shrugged. "It hurt, yeah, but she was always absent anyways. All the important people in my life end up leaving me, first my dad, then Shawn, and finally, my mom. The only ones who have never given up on me were the Matthews and Lucas."
"How does that make you feel?"
"Like a piece of shit."
The psychiatric glowered at Maya who immediately apologised. "I guess it makes me feel like the gum beneath people's shoes. You know, you're there with them, but once they really discover you, they pick you off and throw you away."
"Now tell me about the assault."
Maya looked anywhere but Dr. Strauss' hammering gaze.