Chapter 3

I walked beside Maya, who didn't look as disgusted as I thought she would to be on yet another double date with me. She actually looked quite straight-faced, beside the slight twitch in the corners of her lips that made me debate whether she was trying to hold back a smile or not. That got me back to pondering if she liked me. Dates aren't supposed to required this much thinking, are they? Riley and Lucas kept their hands interlocked the entire time we were walking to the park. It was getting darker now. Lucas and Riley constantly kept exchanging glances. Each with a smile, and sometimes a slight blush. That's the way romance is supposed to be, not thinking and debating whether or not you like someone or if they like you.

"So, where exactly are we going again?" Maya asked.

"We're going for a walk around the park," I told her.

"How is it romantic for them if we're walking next to them?" she asked, but I was pretty sure that she meant for us too.

"We can split up," I told her.

"Oh, great," she remarked, with a scowl.

We got closer to the park. I could see my breath on the air. The slight fog from earlier on had cleared up, but it was still overcast and no stars were visible. It was silent for New York. But not an eerie kind of silent, more of a romantic type of silent. I took my notebook out of my back pocket and scrawled a few more ideas for my poem on a blank page.

"We're going over to the pond," Riley said, when we reached Central Park.

"Ok, have fun," I told her, and she and Lucas began to walk away.

"No! Take me with you!" Maya called, lunging forward as if she were to start running. That was, before I grabbed her hand to prevent her form chasing Riley and Lucas, who were already more than 50 yards away. She looked at me and shot me a hard look for holding her hand. I let it go immediately. Then she turned away for a second, pretending to examine the scenery, but I know it was really because she wanted to grin about our moment of hand holding without me seeing. Nice try, Maya, I know you like me.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. Maya snapped her head back toward me, as if she forgot I was there.

"I don't know," she replied.

"How about we just go over on that bench and wait for them to come back," I suggested.

"Yeah, and if you have anything to do with it, there'll be a catch and you'll end up making out with my hand again or, if I don't keep my guard up, maybe you won't miss and actually end up kissing my...mouth," Maya said, shuddering.

"No, I swear, we'll just sit down," I said.

"Okay, fine," she sighed, going over to the bench and sitting down next to me. She didn't looked too pleased. She has a really good pokerface, but I know better, I've heard about things she's said and done to prove it. Like, back at the beginning of seventh grade when Riley wouldn't tell me the truth about my acting, Maya said "You broke our little Farkle,". I like that. Also, there was the time in Ms. Kossal's art class when I posed for the class to draw me and Maya drew me in a bird's nest because she said I needed to be protected. All these little things are pointing towards it, but she won't admit it. I think the overdramatized thing for Riley's uncle Josh might be a cover up because she loves me the same way but she doesn't want proof that she's crushing on a nerd. She goes all out crazy on the hot guy she has a crush on so it's less obvious that she likes me the same way.

We sat there in silence for a while before I took out my notebook and started working some of my new ideas into the verses of the poem. I wrote for a few minutes before looking over at Maya who had taken the sketchbook out of her bag and had placed it on her lap to continue to colour her drawing. Maya's sketch of her older self was completely coloured in now. The grass and other details around her and the mystery man were too, now. Even the man's clothes were in full colour. But there was one detail that wasn't. The man's hair was still white as the paper it was drawn on. It was as if she couldn't decide which colour to colour it. I watched as she continued to colour in details around the image. Trees, fences, the children on the lawn. These were some of the things that were gaining colour with such a delicate precision. Maya noticed that I was looking at and admiring her drawing and looked over at the first few verses of my poem. I wasn't sure how she'd react to what I'd written. A few seconds passed as she read. When she looked up, she looked as if she was ready to punch me. I shielded my face with my arms and braced myself for the worst. But when nothing came, I turned around and saw that she had turned off psycho mode.

"You aren't going to kill me?" I asked. Maya remained silent and answered my question by placing a brief kiss on my lips. I was shocked. The last thing I saw before passing out from surprise was Maya getting up and fleeing from the park.

"Farkle, wake up," I heard Riley say in my unconcious state. I started to wake up. I rubbed my eyes and stretched into a sitting position. Blinking a few times to adjust to the dim light, I saw Riley looking at me. Lucas stood behind her, he looked confused. "Where's Maya?"

"She left," I yawned, stretching again.

"Huh?" she asked.

"She ran off and I fainted," I told her, without giving her details to respect Maya's privacy.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard," Lucas said. Riley turned around and nodded in agreement. The walk back to the subway station was very silent, because I was embarrassed and didn't want to say anything to tip them off and they were deep in though about what could've happened.