She hangs her keys on the Betty Boop hook on the wall, and then turns toward her bedroom. There's a tall figure there, one that's not female, and not Shawn. She can barely make it out in the dark, she almost thinks she's seeing things, but then it moves. She freezes. As carefully as she can, she reaches behind her, hand sliding up the wall to find the light switch. She flicks it on, and when she recognizes the face in front of her, her mouth drops open.
"You're-"
"Maya." He steps forward, awkward. His arms twitch, as though he's about to hug her but thinks better of it.
"Kermit." She says, because that's who he is to her now. "What are you doing here?"
His face falls when she uses his name. Did he really expect her to call him Dad after all these years? Why would he even want her to?
"I, um, I wanted to see you." He looks different. His hair is salted with grey, and so is his beard, and he looks old, she realizes. He is old. He's also wearing a suit that looks like it probably cost more than a couple months of Katy's rent.
"After ten years?" She asks incredulously. The whole thing feels surreal. "Why?"
"Well, you're graduating soon, and I realized I…made some mistakes with you. Big ones." His green eyes are big and sad, and she doesn't feel sorry for him at all.
"That's true." She acknowledges. Katy and Shawn must be staying at his place tonight. She wonders if Katy knows he's here. "Does my mother-"
"She knows I'm here. She wanted to give us some space. John didn't like that." He muses.
"Who?" Maya asks, frowning. She doesn't like it either, doesn't want to do this right now, or ever. She accepted a long time ago that her father was no longer important in her life.
"Uh." He scratches his beard. "Her boyfriend?"
"Shawn." Maya corrects. "Look, Kermit, it's late. I'm too tired to do this, whatever this is." A remarkable calm has settled over her, but it's possible she's just in shock. Her father looks surprised.
"Right, right. Well I'm going to crash on the couch tonight, Katy said it was alright. Maybe we can talk tomorrow?" He offers. Maya stares at him.
"Mom said you could stay here?" She asks, dubious. He looks down.
"We had a pretty long talk. She said it was okay."
Something here is off.
"What are you not telling me?" The man in front of her is a stranger, it's been too long and too cold for any lingering paternal feelings between them. But she knows what it looks like when people aren't being honest with her. And it looks a lot like this.
Kermit sighs, walking over to the couch and collapsing onto it. He looks exhausted, she realizes.
"My daughter, she's sick." His words hit her like a punch to the gut. It shouldn't hurt like this, hearing him say that word and mean someone else, someone who's not Maya, who's better than Maya, because Maya wasn't good enough for him. Her replacement. Then she realizes what he said.
"She's sick." She repeats. She doesn't sit down. He nods.
"She's been…well it's been a hard year. And I know I've been a terrible father to you, but it's become clear that family is precious. And you're family. I want to know you, Maya. I want to be in your life." He looks up at her, hopeful. She thinks he's the most pathetic thing she's ever seen. She scoffs, hands shaking with anger.
"You haven't been a terrible father, Kermit." She says. His eyes widen in surprise. "You haven't been a father. Not to me. So no, I'm not your family. Your replacement daughter is getting sick, so you decide it would be good to have a backup?" She growls, eyes practically glowing. "I don't give a shit what you want."
"Maya-" He looks startled at her outburst, but then again the last time he saw her she was eight and looked at him like he hung the moon.
"You crash here." She waves at the couch, and grabs her jacket and her keys as she turns back towards the door.
"Where are you-"
"I'm going to stay at a friend's." She cuts him off. "Sorry about your kid." And then she slams the door behind her.
Chest heaving, she fishes her phone from her pocket. She's dialing without thinking, and when a sleepy voice picks up on the other end, she realizes it isn't Riley.
"Maya?" Lucas slurs, clearly already asleep. She considers hanging up, considers calling Riley, who she meant to call in the first place. But he's already up, and it's two in the morning, and Riley is sick.
"Um, hey." She feels stupid now. She should have just kicked Kermit out. But now she just wants to get away from him as quickly as possible.
"Are you okay?" He asks, much more awake than he was five seconds ago. Always worrying, Maya muses.
"Can I crash at your place tonight? I would have called Riley, but it's late, and she's sick, and it's a lot farther-" She rambles, sad and confused, and it's all suddenly catching up to her.
"Maya." He cuts her off. "I'll be there in in five minutes. Wait inside, I'll call you." And then he hangs up. She sighs. She really appreciates that he doesn't ask questions right now. As much as she loves Riley, it would have been a solid half hour of Q&A before she let Maya off the hook. And she doesn't need that right now. She makes her way down to the front door, waiting inside like Lucas asked. Her hands are still shaking, but it's not with anger anymore. She doesn't know what it is. By the time her phone chirps, alerting her to the fact that Lucas is here, her teeth are chattering too.
He really didn't need to call, she can hear his truck as he pulls up. She tugs open the front door and jogs up to it, jumping inside without a word. Her eyes drift to her living room window, and she sees movement. Kermit is still there. It wasn't a hallucination. She mashes her teeth together to try and stop the chattering, but it just makes it worse. Lucas looks at her in alarm, taking in the shivering and the chattering, and his eyes linger long enough on her face that she figures she's probably not looking quite like herself in that aspect either. He's wearing a black hoodie, and grey sweatpants, and it's obvious she got him out of bed.
"What happened?" His hands are shoulders, gentle, and she knows he's checking her for some sign of injury.
"I'm fine." She says, the words slightly broken due to the chattering. "Just drive please."
He hesitates, then puts his hands back on the wheel. They're at his place in minutes, and she's silent as they make their way up to his unit. His building is nicer than hers, they have a doorman, and she likes his family. It feels safe in a way she hadn't realized was missing tonight. It's completely quiet inside, she figures his family is sleeping, and they tiptoe towards his bedroom. He turns to her after he closes his door, arms folded across his chest.
"Are you going to tell me?" He asks. It isn't a demand, it's an offer. She considers it.
"I have a half-sister." She tells him. He blinks, because they already knew that.
"Okay." He says.
"I think she might be dying, or something." Maya mumbles collapsing onto the loveseat under his window. Lucas stares at her.
"What?"
"Kermit was in my apartment, he said his kid is sick, he said he wants to be in my life. I told him to go to hell." She says, eyes closed. She knows he's looking at her though, can feel it.
"Maya." His voice is a lot closer than it was a second ago. She opens her eyes to see him crouching beside her.
"That's pretty much it." She shrugs. It's not that she doesn't care, she's just too tired to even process the past hour.
"Are you okay?" He asks, looking like he's pretty sure she's not. She sighs.
"Yes. No. I don't know." She yawns. The couch smells like Lucas, and the shaking has stopped, and all she wants to do now is go to sleep.
"Okay, just-go to sleep. We can talk in the morning." He eyes her again. She's still wearing her jeans from earlier and a skull-print button-up blouse. He walks over to his dresser, and she closes her eyes while he's rummaging. Something soft hits her in the face, and she sits up, sputtering. She blinks, and sees that he's given her a pair of sweats and a white t-shirt. She smiles.
"Thanks."
He turns out the light, then lays down on his bed facing away from her. She quickly changes, throwing her clothes into a pile beside the couch. She's swimming in the pants, has to hold them at the waist to keep them from falling down completely. She snorts as she settles into the couch, pulling down the blanket that was folded over the top of it.
"Freak." She mutters, the extra fabric from the sweats pooling around her legs.
"What?" Lucas asks.
"You're a freak. These pants are huge." She says. But the shirt smells like him, like soap and fresh air, and she really doesn't mind that as much as she should.
"Well, you know what they say…" He mumbles, and she can tell he's already half gone.
"What do they say, Bucky?" She asks, amused.
"Everythings…bigger..in…" And then he's snoring. She sighs. But his breathing is slow and rhythmic, and it lulls her to sleep in no time.