I am back, move went well, updates will continue as scheduled. For update order please visit my profile page.
Ch. 7 It Don't Come Easy
(MAYA)
"So you never did tell me what Luke did that made you so angry." Clare says as we sit at her kitchen table for breakfast.
The rest of her family had gone to church but Helen had allowed us to stay home, I think mostly because my family didn't go to church but Clare told me she was going less and less recently.
"It doesn't matter, he was a jerk like always, I don't know why I even date him. If that storm had never happened or if Becky had been with us we never would have kissed. You were in a room with Eli and Adam I bet there was no kissing in your room. Although I suppose you don't get scared of storms either." I tell Clare, I'm sort of ranting but I'm still angry at Luke.
"Actually I'm not all that fond of storms, there wasn't any kissing though but the three of us are best friends again. I do know what it's like to date somebody entirely opposite from you. Eli and I dated for several months and while we share a love of writing in every other way we're pretty different. Our relationship was intense and dramatic and didn't end well but we're friends now." Clare tells me.
"I don't want to be friends with Luke, I want to be with him I think, maybe I want to go back to the way things were. Back when I just despised him and the thought of kissing him never even entered my mind." I lament.
"You can't go back Maya, not without a magic time machine. Eli, Adam and I started as friends then Eli and I started dating but we started under…not the best circumstances." She says pausing to bite her lip, she's being vague but the memory seems painful to her so I don't want to press. "As intense and dramatic as my relationship with Eli was I wouldn't take it back. It put a strain on our friendship but with time we've become best friends again. Maya any guy you date is going to be different from you or it's like dating yourself which is boring." Clare advises.
"I know but they're not all going to be as infuriating as Luke! I always thought my first boyfriend would be someone like Zig or Cam, someone that's my age, not almost three years older than me or at the most a year older than me like you and Owen and you and Eli. Someone sweet and open minded and not a complete intolerant jerk that only wants to be with me to kiss me!" I complain.
"Oh I take it that's what Luke said last night. It's not just Luke Maya, that's pretty much all any guy thinks about. My first boyfriend K.C. left me for Jenna because I would barely kiss. Eli and Jake thought about sex all the time. Of course Jake brought it up more than Eli but I almost slept with both of them." Clare tells me.
"Almost so what…wait you dated and almost had sex with your stepbrother?" I ask as I start laughing.
"Our parents weren't married when we started dating but yeah. Look despite his faults you like Luke don't you?" Clare questions.
I have to think about this for a minute but as much as I don't want to admit it, as angry as I am at him all I want right now is to be in his arms.
"Yeah, I do." I nod with a defeated sigh. I really wish I didn't have these feelings for Luke but I do and I can't deny it.
"Okay so talk to him, make ground rules. He knows you're three years younger than him and he must now that means you're not experienced. If he really likes you and I know he does then he'll listen." Clare advises me.
"It's worth a try," I nod.
Clare smiles and goes to get her phone to call Owen, she comes back a few minutes later. "Owen says his family out all day and we should come over." Clare tells me.
After getting dressed and ready Clare drives us to Owen's house, she parks outside, we get out and Clare rings the bell. Owen opens the door, smiles at us and pulls Clare inside, I follow and see Luke sitting on the Milligan's sofa.
"You two talk we'll be in my room," Owen says as soon as we're inside.
"Uh we will?" Clare asks.
Rather than respond Owen bends down and tosses Clare over his shoulder and heads for the stairs. Clare squeals and giggles a little I watch them disappear up the stairs before I go sit on the sofa close but not next to Luke.
"Maya I'm sorry I didn't mean what I said." Luke apologizes.
"Yes you did that's the problem. I really like you Luke but we're so different and as much as I'd like to think our age difference doesn't matter that much it does." I tell him.
"No it doesn't our age difference isn't that big, please don't break up with me because I said one stupid thing." Luke pleads with me.
"You want more than I can give to you, I like when we're making out too. I feel good when we're kissing and like we're meant to be but I'm not ready to go farther than that. I'm only fourteen, you're my first boyfriend and we're a secret." I remind him.
"I know okay, I know all that but would it be any easier if we weren't a secret?" Luke asks.
"No I'm sure it would be harder, actually I'm sure we'd be forced to break up. Being secret is only part of the problem, we're so different and all you want to do is kiss. You got mad at Zig last night and at me for being there for my friend." I remind him.
"It wasn't just that you stopped our date, of which we get very few but after we dropped off Zig you didn't want to go somewhere we could be alone. You wanted to be somewhere public which meant we couldn't touch or kiss and pretty much have to ignore each other. We hardly get to see each other, especially alone and when we finally do you didn't want to be alone with me." Luke says.
"It's not that I didn't want to be alone with you, I like being alone with you but I didn't want to spend the next two hours making out with you in a car. I like making out with you but last time you tried to feel me up." I remind him.
"You stopped me and I apologized." He reminds me.
"I know but you have to remember that I'm fourteen not seventeen and I'm only ready to kiss right now." I tell him.
"You don't have to remind me that you're almost three years younger than me I remember every time I look at you." Luke says.
"What does that mean?" I demand.
"You look like you're fourteen Maya," He replies.
"This is a terrible apology maybe we should break up; I don't think we fit together at all. I'd work better with someone like Zig or Cam and you'd be better with someone like Jenna or Alli, someone you could be seen in public with and someone that doesn't look so young!" I snap back at him.
I get up from the sofa ready to walk home but Luke jumps over the back of the sofa and catches me, kissing me softly.
"But I want you Maya," Luke says when we break from the kiss. "I might make more sense with someone else, someone that I wouldn't have to date in secret but I want you." Luke says pulling me to the sofa and sitting me on his lap. "Our age difference is a bit of a problem I'll admit it but I can deal with it if it means keeping you."
"And when we're making out, you'll leave it at just making out?" I ask him.
He just smiles and puts his lips on mine again, after a minute of kissing his tongue peaks out and licks across my lower lip. I part my lips and his tongue slips in finding my tongue and dominating it. All my anger, annoyance and thoughts of breaking up slip away the longer we kiss, I begin to feel happy, safe and cared for. I don't know how long we make out because we don't break apart, not even to take a breath. We don't break apart until Clare and Owen come down the stairs anyway.
"Well you two seem to have made up," Clare says.
"Yeah I guess we did," I reply.
"I hate to tear you two apart but Maya's supposed to be home in half an hour and we have to stop and my place to get her stuff." Clare points out.
"It's okay I understand, I'll try and sneak over tonight gorgeous." Luke smiles at me.
"Mmmmm maybe I should sneak over tonight and taste you again, get some late night dessert." Owen says to Clare.
"My mom would castrate you if she found you." Clare says coming over and taking me from Luke's lap.
"So that's what you two were doing upstairs huh?" Luke asks.
"Okay we have to go now," Clare says pulling me to the door obviously not wanting to talk about what she and Owen were doing upstairs.
"So how's she taste dude?" Luke asks Owen.
"If you answer him you'll never taste me again," Clare warns him as we leave through the door.
"So did you guys work things out or did you just start kissing?" Clare asks when we're in the truck driving back to her house.
"We talked, he apologized and then we kissed. So what were you and Owen doing up in his room?" I question.
"Uh don't worry about it and don't tell Katie I was with Owen in his room." Clare requests.
"I won't say anything, I know she'd tell Jake but if you and Jake almost had sex shouldn't he realize you're at least sort of sexually active?" I ask her.
"We became siblings and stopped talking about anything sexual. For the most part we're okay as siblings but we don't talk about our relationships with each other, that's when it gets awkward." Clare tells me.
"But he knows you're going to Ottawa in a couple weeks and staying all weekend with Owen. I mean my family doesn't know I'm dating Luke so they haven't said anything about me and boys. Also they know I'm sharing a room with you and know that Mo and Marisol will be there and I'm pretty sure Katie has them making sure I'm not alone with a guy. But you're family does know you're dating Owen, aren't they worried?" I query.
"Yes and my mom gave me a lecture but she also knows that Audra's chaperoning and that Adam will be there and they'll both look out for me." She says as we pull up to her house.
I pack up my stuff and Clare takes me home, I hug her goodbye and tell her I'll see her tomorrow before going inside.
"Hi honey how was your sleepover?" Mom asks.
"Good, we had fun. I'm going to go unpack and take a shower." I reply and go back to my room.
(LUKE)
"Oh I almost forgot, some of us chipped in and got you a little something Milligan. It's for the tournament since you'll have a hotel room and your girl without any parents and don't worry I'll make sure Audra leaves you two alone." Dallas snickers handing Owen a plastic bag.
"What's in the bag?" I ask after Owen's looked in the bag.
"What's not in the bag is more like it, condoms, lube, massage oil. I think I'll give it back to Dallas he'll probably use it, I'm not even going to show it to Clare." Owen remarks stuffing it in his locker as we leave after a long practice.
"So you're going to be at a hotel room away from her parents and you're not going to even try to have sex?" I ask him as we get in his car.
"You have noticed that my girlfriend wears a purity ring right?" Owen questions.
"Yeah I've seen it on her finger but you guys have gone pretty far right and Maya told me Clare almost had sex with Eli and with Jake." I inform him.
"Yeah we have gone pretty far and I was pretty surprised she was willing considering…wait she almost had sex with Eli and Jake?" Owen asks.
"According to Maya but maybe you should ask your girlfriend, for a quiet Christian girl with a purity ring she seems to have a lot secrets like how she knew about the cave." I point out.
"Don't remind me, every time I ask her she just smiles and tells me not to worry about it." Owen sighs.
"Then maybe you should ask her best friends, girls always tell their best friends everything. I'd talk to Maya's best friends but no one knows we're dating except you and Clare." I comment.
"Yeah good idea one problem her only female best friend is Alli and she still doesn't like me because I was kind of a creep to her last year. Clare's other best friends are guys, one of which is an ex boyfriend." Owen retorts.
"Yeah but Adam isn't an ex and aren't you good friends with his brother, plus our team captain is living with him. If Clare won't answer your questions I'd say you have a right to talk to her best friend." I tell him.
"Yeah I'll talk to Adam, see you tomorrow." Owen waves pulling up to my house.
"Later," I wave getting out of his car. I go into the house to find Becky and Adam at the dining room table working on their project. "Hey Becks, Adam, where's Mom and Dad?" I question getting out leftovers to heat up for dinner.
"Wednesday night services, does coach have you guys practicing so hard that you forgot what day is?" Becky laughs.
"Honestly yeah, with the tournament next week we're still practicing 3 or 4 hours each day. I'm going to eat in my room." I say when I have my plate.
"You don't have to go; Dallas should be here any minute to pick me up." Adam remarks.
"Speaking of Dallas he didn't tell you what he and some of the guys got for Owen to take on the trip next weekend did he?" I ask sitting at the table.
"No why would he tell me what he's getting for…he got it for Owen to use with Clare you mean. What a box of condoms?" Adam asks.
"Yeah and some lube and massage oil," I smile and watch as my sisters cheeks go bright red.
"Oh that's a mental image I didn't need," Adam says scrunching his face and I have to laugh then a car horn beeps. "That's Dallas I need to go kill him, I mean go home. See you tomorrow Becky bye Luke." Adam says picking up his books.
"Bye Adam, see you tomorrow." Becky smiles walking him to the door. "Why did you tell Adam that?" Becky scolds me when she locks the door again.
"What? I'm sure he'd find out anyway." I shrug.
"Doesn't Clare wear a chastity ring?" Becky questions.
"Yeah but I don't think she believes in the chastity vow like you do." I comment.
"Luke that's mean, Owen is your friend you should talk to him and make sure he isn't going to pressure Clare into sex." Becky advises.
"Becks relax I don't think Owen is going to pressure Clare into anything. Have you met Clare? I don't think you can pressure that girl into something she doesn't want to do." I point out.
"Maybe but you should still talk to him." Becky insists.
I decide a change of subject is in order. "So how did the project with Adam go?" I question.
"Really well, Adam is so nice and smart. I loved working on the project with him and I think he likes me but he hasn't asked me out." Becky tells me.
"So why don't you ask him out?" I question.
"What if he doesn't like me?" She asks.
"Then I'll beat him up for having bad taste," I tease.
"Luke!" Becky admonishes.
"Then he'll say no, big deal." I shrug.
"Well I'd ask him to your game on Friday but we have play rehearsal and then he has Whisper Hug practice." She says.
"You'll think of something Becks you always do." I reply and Becky smiles.
Finishing dinner I go up to my room to do my homework and pass out when I'm done. I wake up the next morning when my alarm goes off realizing I slept through the night, normally a good thing but I wanted to go to Maya's last night. I get ready for school quickly and hope that Maya can meet me in our spot during lunch or at least morning break. Becky leaves me as soon as we're at school when she sees Jenna. Dallas is here talking to the twins and rookie so I know Adam's here. When I get to my locker I see Owen at his and wave.
"You talk to Adam yet?" I ask.
"No just got here," Owen says.
I open my locker and start getting out books; Owen closes his locker and comes over to me leaning against the locker next to mine. Closing my locker we start walking down the hall, going around to the niner lockers but I don't see Maya, she must be with Tris because I don't see him either. We do however see Tori pathetically flirting with a couple of guys and she's doing it right in front of Zig. Tori is giggling, batting her eyelashes and stroking the guys arms and poor Zig is watching them and looking a little sick.
"Should we go rescue the poor boy?" I ask Owen feeling bad for the niner.
"Yeah let's go rescue him," Owen nods.
We walk over to Zig getting on either side of him and each putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey Zig you looking forward to Ottawa? You know a bunch of the puck bunnies are coming up and a lot of them love musicians." I say loud enough for Tori to hear.
"There's going to be a ton of hot girls at this thing and they all love musicians. Plus you'll your own hotel room lots of opportunity for sexy time." Owen says.
Tori looks annoyed, the three of us smile and walk away.
"Thanks guys she's trying to get to me even though she broke up with me." Zig tells us.
"Tori's a bitch just ignore her," Owen says as the bell rings and we all split up to go to class.
My morning classes go by pretty quickly, at morning break I send Maya a text asking her to meet me at lunch at our spot, she says she'll be there. Lunch can't come quick enough and I can hardly pay attention in my classes but finally it's lunchtime. Dropping my backpack in my locker I go out to the bleachers and wait for Maya. She finally gets there and I pull her to me locking our lips together.
"I feel like I've barely seen you since Sunday," I complain temporarily taking my lips from hers to sit down and put Maya in my lap.
"I know but you've had three hour practices every afternoon and I've had Whisper Hug practice getting ready for this tournament. When we finish with that we both still have homework." Maya says.
"I can't wait for this tournament a whole weekend with you. Owen and I are sharing a room, you and Clare sharing a room." I smile and then put my lips on hers again.
My tongue slides across her lower lip and she parts her lips for me, my tongue slips into her mouth as her hands start raking through my hair. My hands wander along her back; tickle her neck and tunnel into her hair. This is when our relationship is the best, when it's just us in each other's embrace. We don't have to worry about being seen by other people, our age difference doesn't matter, our friends and families don't even enter our mind. Time flies by and before I know it lunch is over and we have to return to school, return to ignoring each other and stealing looks in the hallway.
"You go I'll follow in a few minutes," I tell her helping her up and kissing her one last time. "I'll try and sneak over tonight but with practice and homework I might conk out again."
"It's okay I understand," Maya smiles then takes off running for the school.
I wait a couple minutes then go around the back anyway just to be safe. English class is boring and all I can think about is kissing Maya again. When I leave English class and start walking to my locker I see Maya coming out of her social studies class with Rookie who has the class with her.
"So I'll come over after practice, you sure it won't be too late?" Cam asks her.
I freeze and clench my fists, feeling myself getting angry and jealous. Why the hell is he making plans to go to Maya's house this evening?
"No I have Whisper Hug practice this afternoon anyway." Maya says not even looking at me as they start walking to their next class.
My class is in the opposite direction so I can't follow them but I get out my phone and text her.
SB: Why is Cam going to your house?
I get to civics class and sit at my desk but never get a reply from Maya. When school is out for the day I try again but still don't get a reply so I wait for her near the music room. When I see her approaching I pull her around the corner and into an empty classroom.
"Why the hell is Rookie coming over to your place tonight?" I question her in a slightly angry tone.
"Why are you asking me like that?" Maya questions in an annoyed voice and expression.
"You're flirting with other guys in the hall, in front of me how am I supposed to react?" I ask her.
"Oh my god Luke are you serious? You think that little of me that you think I'd flirt with other guys in front of you or at all?" She questions sounding offended.
"You were and you said yourself Cam would be a better fit for you!" I remind her.
She doesn't answer me just huffs in annoyance and storms out. My instinct is to follow her but I can't there's other kids in the hall. I kick a desk out of anger and wait a short time before leaving the class room. When I get to practice I'm still pissed off and start angrily changing into my gear.
"Baker you're late, you can run suicides for the first half hour of practice." Coach says coming into the locker room.
I don't argue with coach but when Cam tries to walk past me I trip him.
"Dude what's your problem?" Cam asks when the twins help her up.
"Maybe you should watch what you're doing Rookie!" I snap back at him.
"You tripped me!" Cam barks at me which is dumb because I'm already pissed at him.
I pull back my arm and curl my hand into a fist ready to punch him out but someone grabs my hand.
"Whoa, save it for the ice." Owen tells me and he's the one that kept me from punching out Cam. "You guys get out to the ice I'll help Baker finish getting his gear on." Owen says. Everyone else stares at me another minute but finally leaves for the ice. "So what bug crawled up your butt?" Owen asks when we're alone in the locker room.
"Cam and Maya were flirting and he's going to her house after practice. She's cheating on me and with Rookie no less." I gripe in a low voice while pulling on my shoulder pads.
"That's the biggest jump to conclusions I've ever seen anyone take. Did you talk to her?" Owen asks.
"Yeah but she just got mad at me, she didn't dispute that they were flirting." I reply.
"Okay I really doubt they were actually flirting and he does have some classes with her maybe he's going over to do homework with her." Owen suggests.
"Yeah maybe, I can get the rest of my gear on you better get out to the ice." I tell him.
Owen shrugs and leaves the locker room, I try to tell myself Owen's right but the worry that he's not supersedes everything else and I'm extra rough on Rookie in practice because of it. When practice is over I text Maya several times to ask her why Cam is coming over but she ignores all my texts.
(MAYA)
After Luke's eleventh text in twenty minutes I turned off my phone. I know not answering his question was fueling the fire but I was angry at him for even thinking I was flirting with Cam and wanted him to stew in his jealousy for a while. The doorbell rings and I answer it to let Cam in.
"So you ready to start on this project?" Cam asks.
"Yeah we can work at the kitchen table, if you're hungry my mom made chili for dinner." I offer.
"Starved those practices are tiring and for some reason Luke was being mean at practice, I think I'm bruised because he hit the puck at me so hard." Cam tells me.
I grit my teeth and clench my fists, I can't believe Luke would purposely be mean to Cam and I can't believe he thinks we were flirting. I serve Cam some chili and we sit down to start on our social studies project. We work for an hour, when he's done eating we each have a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.
"You have some frosting on your lip," Cam smiles wiping his thumb across my lip.
"Thanks," I smile and then lick my lip out of habit. "So next I think we shoul…"
My sentence is suddenly cut off by Cam's lips on mine!
Update Soon