A/N: Aaaaaaaahhh, I've been swamped lately but here's a new chapter for you guys... finally! Maya is getting herself in some trouble... I know a lot of you have been waiting for this chapter for a very long time, so please, tell me what you think of it in a review! Happy reading (:

PS. "My Paper Heart" has a Tumblr now! Check my profile page... ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines present in "My Paper Heart" are my own work.

MAYA'S POV

"What am I supposed to do again?" I asked Bonnie a little grumpily.

"I'm about to make some of these leaves shake. Try to spot them out with your hearing," she answered carelessly, focused on properly setting her candles.

"Are you serious right now?" I deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come on, Maya!" she scolded me. "We've been practicing for a week now! It's time for you to challenge your powers a little bit."

Our little sessions were kicking my butt, but at least with Katherine gone, my life had been returned to normal- to my relief. Well, normal apart from my secret meetings with Bonnie.

"But we're in a freaking forest!" I shouted exasperatedly.

"So what?"

"So I can hear shaking leaves everywhere!" I shot back. "Do you realize I can even hear the bugs crawling under the ground?"

"Really? Oh that's so cool." She had an amazed expression on her face.

"No, it's not! There are so many noises around here that this forest is as loud as a freaking brass band!"

"Oh yes, right. So noisy that I am this close to getting a massive headache." I stopped to look at her incredulously and actually laughed at her joke...

"Look, I know it will be hard for you to tell the different between the wind and my power. But anyone can tell if the wind is strong or light from the sound it makes through the leaves, right?" she asked cheeringly.

"I suppose…"

"Then you'll just have to look for a different sound. A sound that doesn't match the wind force."

"I'll just have to, huh?" I replied with an unconvinced look. From the expression on her features, I knew I wouldn't win this point without even trying first.

"Fine," I sighed heavily. I closed my eyes and first things first, I tried to shut out every sound beside the leaves. This little meeting was already far from easy.

"Are you ready?"

"Give me a sec," I answered a bit defensively. After a moment, I finally gave her a quick nod.

"Okay, here we go…" she announced and I could tell from her voice that she was starting to focus on using her own powers as well. I intensified my concentration, trying to hear something different, but came back empty handed. All I could hear was a general rustling of leaves.

I tried again but the stinging pain in my head distracted me and all the sounds rushed right back into my ears. The gnat flying at ten inches from me suddenly sounded as if it were an airplane landing right above my head. I covered my ears and pressed hard to muffle the noises, trying to ease the pain.

I suddenly felt delicate hands brushing mine, and my eyes shot open. Bonnie was standing in front of me with a sympathetic smile. I immediately understood what she was trying to do and mimicked her as I took a deep breath to calm myself down, hoping it would help me regain control of myself. After a few breaths, I slowly and reluctantly moved back my hands away from my ears. To my relief, the sounds around me were normal again.

"I think that's what we call an epic fail," I tried jokingly, but my disappointment was too obvious.

"On the contrary. You were so focused that you didn't even hear me when I spoke to you- and you succeed in calming yourself down. I say it's a good start." She flashed me an assured smile.

"You were trying to talk to me?" My brows knitted in confusion.

"Yes. I asked you if you were hearing anything different." To say that I was stunned I hadn't heard a word she said would have been an understatement. She reached out and squeezed my hand in encouragement. "So what do you say? Are we trying this again?"

I hesitated but finally nodded my agreement. Bonnie settled herself back in her cross-legged position. I closed my eyes, reluctantly and cautiously focusing on the leaves again. I was ready to break my concentration at any uncomfortable sound. But I managed to shut down the unwanted noises rather easily and only heard a small breeze blowing through the leaves. I took a deep calming breath and focused my attention on a variation of the sound. Suddenly, I heard a different noise coming from my left, and in my excitement I nearly lost my concentration.

"There!" I exclaimed, pointing precisely in the direction of the sound.

"Good job!" she shrieked happily. A pleased grin rose on my lips. I took another deep breath and dived back into my intense concentration. I heard another discordant sound coming from behind me, a little on the right.

"There," I said again, pointing out the place where it was coming from. I was trying to do the exercise without losing my focus, and was glad that Bonnie kept the silence and didn't try to cheer me on or anything. I pointed out four more spots, but was confused when I didn't hear another discordant sound coming. I wondered if Bonnie had stopped the training without giving me a heads-up.

Suddenly, I heard a faint murmur that didn't match the wind music, but I wasn't sure I had heard right. I pushed my focus even more, my eyebrows starting to cramp up from the intensity of my frowning. I was right; she was moving some leaves far in front of me. I raised my arm to point confidently in the direction of the noise.

"There." I was a little bit proud of myself for spotting this one since it sounded quite distant, but was surprised by Bonnie's lack of reaction. I suddenly felt something touching my thigh. The pressure was light, but I was so focused and the contact so unexpected that I jumped wildly in surprise, falling backwards on my elbow.

"For God's sake, Bonnie!" I stared at her, my eyes like saucers in disbelief. "Are you trying to kill me?" I shouted, clenching at my chest to keep my heart from bouncing out of it.

"I'm so sorry!" she shrieked with a face that told me my reaction had scared the crap out of her as well. "But you weren't hearing me," she added more softly.

"You didn't say anything!" I replied huffily, still trying to calm down my heart rate.

"Yes I did… three times." She was obviously trying to restrain a laugh. I looked up at her and couldn't help a smile from appearing on my lips. We both burst out laughing at the same time. After a couple minutes, our uncontrollable laughter eventually died out, and I rolled onto my back before sighing in contentment.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we found out I can't hear a thing when I'm too focused." She hummed her agreement.

"I think we've done enough for today," she declared. "Up for a drink at the Grill?"

"Nope! I can't. I've told everyone to meet me at my house," I said while standing up. "You have to come too."

"Are we celebrating something?" she drawled suspiciously.

"Not exactly…" I focused on dusting down the back of my pants to ease my discomfort.

"So that means bad news," she deduced with a frown.

"No!" I replied quickly, waving my hands in front of me. Well, I was sure hoping that it would not be one from their point of view. "I just... have to tell you all something." Her eyes opened wildly in surprise.

"Are you finally going to tell them about your powers?" The hope in her voice was obvious.

"No… I'm still not comfortable enough with all of this to talk about it just yet," I answered quietly. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I know you don't like hiding it from them."

"It's okay…" she sighed. "What is it, then?"

"I'll tell you when everybody is with us," I reassured her gently.

"Are you serious, right now?" she suddenly snapped.

"What?" I was a little baffled by her reaction.

"We've been doing this together for a week now, and I've been keeping your secret for longer than that! Yet you don't want to tell me what this is about?!"

"I… It's not what you think, Bonnie," I started in a contrite voice. "It's difficult enough for me to say it once; I really don't want to do it twice."

She stared at me, obviously trying to decide whether she would be going with me or not, and finally let out another sigh.

"Fine," she said, motioning to follow me toward my house.

When we arrived, Caroline was already waiting on my doorstep.

"You know, the least you could do when you summon people is to show up on-time yourself," she complained indignantly.

"Sorry," I replied, unable to restrain the amused smile on my lips.

"What are you doing with her?" she asked Bonnie.

"Hi to you too, Caroline!" Bonnie shot back.

"I met her on my way back," I answered for her, taking the lie on me. I moved toward my door and opened it, effectively ending Caroline's interrogation. "Make yourself at home," I added carelessly to my two friends, opening the closet to put my stuff away. They invaded my living room and crashed on the couch.

"So what is this about?" Caroline asked to Bonnie when I came in the room.

"I don't know," Bonnie shrugged.

"Maya didn't tell you?"

"You do realize I'm in the room, right?" I interrupted, a little baffled.

"No, she didn't. She wants to announce it once everyone arrives, apparently," Bonnie answered Caroline, completely ignoring me.

"Oh, come on! This smells like bad news," Caroline replied with a wince.

"That's exactly what I said."

"I'm still here!" I spoke up incredulously.

"Do you have anything to drink?" Caroline asked, finally acknowledging my presence.

"Sure… in the kitchen," I mumbled, pointing my thumb behind me and staring at them in disbelief as they made their way to the kitchen. I couldn't believe those two! The soft knock on my door snapped me out of my amazement. My heart suddenly sunk when I realized that with Elena and Stefan's arrival, everyone was finally here. I pushed that feeling away before it crawled through my entire body, knowing perfectly well it was pure panic. I braced myself and went for the door.

"Hey," Elena said quickly with a small smile.

"Hey," I greeted both of them back.

"We got your text," she blurted out, motioning between her and Stefan. Her gaze passed over my shoulder when she heard Caroline and Bonnie chatting on their way back to the living room.

"Is everything okay?" she asked a bit urgently, a slight frown creasing her forehead.

"Yes, everything is fine." I gave her a soft smile. "Come on in," I said, stepping to the side.

While they were getting rid of their jackets in the lobby, I couldn't help but notice that Elena was nervous. Something had been off with her lately. She had seemed distant for maybe a week now, but I couldn't place what was wrong with her. She wasn't exactly acting differently, but I could feel it in my gut. I would have to talk to her about that later, but right now, I had a more sensitive topic to deal with.

They finally joined the rest of the gang in the living room and started to talk about things that I couldn't possibly focus on; I was too busy maintaining my sense of self-control. I was purposely staying in the background and was being awfully quiet, but inside, I was pacing furiously, trying my very best to convince myself that everything would be fine.

The room became quiet after a while, and I realized that Caroline had said something to me.

"What?" I asked, bemused.

"Are we expecting someone else?" Caroline repeated slowly, in a clearly annoyed voice.

"Damon," I lied brazenly, desperate to gain some more time. I perfectly knew that he wasn't coming. Three days ago, I confessed him my intention to tell them all and we came to the same conclusion than we did a few weeks earlier. The last thing I needed would be for them to find out, on top of everything, that he had known for a while- and before everyone else.

"Okay… well, good thing he's not the one hosting," she replied, with a little hint of sarcasm to remind me of my own lack of punctuality.

We waited for a while longer, during which Elena kept sending me quick sideways glances and Bonnie kept burning holes in my skull in an obvious attempt to drag the subject of the day out of my brain. My panic had reached an incredibly high level and I was seriously asking myself why in hell's name I wanted to inflict this upon myself. When they finally came to the agreement that Damon should have shown up by now if he wanted to be in the know, I realized the moment had come. This was it. I couldn't back out now.

"Okay, fine..." A sigh of resignation passed my lips. "I'm going to tell you," I announced in a slightly strangled voice. They were all sitting quietly while I stood awkwardly. They were looking at me expectantly. I was twitching my fingers like a seven years old girl who had broken her mom's favorite vase- and my legs didn't seem to want to stay in one place.

"Anytime…" Caroline trailed off a bit teasingly. A tidal wave of heat crashed over me, and I was practically certain that my knees would give way at any second. I tried to take a deep breath, but I realized that I had stopped breathing for a while already- and that my tensed muscles would not allow it anyway.

"Before I tell you the reason why I gathered you together, I want you to keep in mind that every single one of you is my friend, OK?" I blurted out nervously. There was a united front of deep frowns as an answer, but I couldn't really blame them. A person would never say that kind of thing if they knew that the audience was going to like what came next.

"Okay, since there's no proper way to announce this, I'm just going to rip off the bandage," I said as an attempt to give me some courage.

"I'm gay."

I raised my hands slightly at my sides before letting them drop back down against my thighs. The silence that followed my coming-out was deafening. They were all staring at me with an expression between shock and disbelief on their faces, and none of them moved an inch, making me feel a powerful impulse to scream and run.

"What?" Caroline finally breathed out, her features perplexed.

"You're kidding, right?" Bonnie followed in an upset voice.

"No... I'm not," I answered hesitantly. I glanced over at Elena for support of any kind, or at least some sort of reaction but she was still frozen, confusing emotions passing through her wide eyes.

"Are you serious?" Caroline shouted, slamming her arms against the couch. "We've been friends for two years! Two freaking years!"

"I know," I mumbled with a deeply contrite look.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us this before?" she continued. "I don't know, like a month after we met? Or how about any freaking time we talked about our love life?!" she yelled, clearly betrayed. I raised my hands a little in front of me to try to calm her down, and actually answer her.

"Look, I lived in Chicago for my entire life. It's a big city, everything is different there. People are more... open-minded about pretty much everything," I started cautiously. "And then I find myself moving to a little, boring town in the middle of nowhere, where there are cute family events and the teenagers are all neat and nice. I know ninety-nine percent of the people here have never even met a gay person in their entire lives!" I explained. "I was new around here, and alone, so I did what I had to do to fit in somehow…" I admitted ashamedly.

"Okay, I get that," she replied a little more calmly, "but what about after you got to know us, and we trusted you with our secrets? When Bonnie said 'Hey Maya, I'm a witch', you didn't think it could have been a good time to tell us you were interested in girls? How could you have even thought that it was somehow more shocking than being a freaking witch?"

"Even after that, Caroline," I answered strongly. "I had no clue what your opinions on the subject were. I had no way of finding out if you were going to be okay with me being gay. The homosexuality topic has never even popped up once in two years!" I remarked, trying desperately to make them see the situation from my point of view. The room stayed quiet for a minute, during which they seemed visibly shaken by the fact that the matter had indeed been completely separate from their lives.

"I admit that it must have been difficult for you to anticipate our reaction at first, but you did learn to know us! How could you think that we would reject you once you got the chance to know us inside and out?" Caroline finally said, her voice laced with offense and hurt. I felt a pang in my heart. I looked over at Bonnie and Stefan, and their expressions matched Caroline's perfectly. Elena was still mute and apparently stuck, which was starting to freak me out.

"If it makes you feel any better, eighty percent of me was convinced that all of you would still be my friends- regardless of this hidden part of me," I admitted softly. "But ten percent of me knew from experience that you can never be sure of how people will react- regardless of how well you know them, " I added sadly. "The last ten percent was just irrationally terrified of being rejected." My voice died in my throat at the end of my words.

"I understand where you're coming from, Maya," Stefan spoke gently. "There's nothing more frightening and hurtful than to be rejected for who you really are…" he continued with a somber look in his eyes. "Come on, girls," he said after a few seconds of silence. "Put yourself in her shoes. Imagine that you've arrived in a big, foreign city where you don't know a soul, and after a couple of months, you have to tell the friends you've managed to make that you're a vampire or a witch."

"But we did tell her that!" Bonnie exclaimed in a markedly irritated tone, speaking for the first time since I revealed my secret.

"It's true!" Caroline added powerfully. "None of the reasons you gave us until now are going to excuse you for waiting two years before telling us!"

"I think what we're trying to say here is that it hurts that you didn't think we loved you enough to accept you as you are…" Stefan interfered softly, rubbing Elena's back. "So basically, this is their angry way of telling you that we love you no matter who you love," he added with a candid smile. His words spread a bubble of warmth inside of me and made my eyes water in relief.

"Yes, no… of course," Elena suddenly spoke awkwardly, like she was surprised herself to have finally snapped out of her frozen haze. "It doesn't change anything," she continued quickly with a small smile, but her tone and her behavior were noticeably uneasy. It made my heart break efficiently.

"Of course not," Caroline added with a sigh. "We do love you, silly! I hope you know that now!"

"Thank you, guys…" I said shyly, too overcome with gratitude to say anything else.

"But why now?" Caroline asked again, an intense and curious look on her face. "What made you tell us now?"

"Oh fuck, no!" Bonnie suddenly shouted. "Don't tell me this is the moment where you announce us that you slept with Katherine!" she yelled in disbelief, her pitch getting incredibly high.

"What?" Caroline and I said at the same time. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Elena had been startled by Bonnie's comment and was now frowning deeply. She glanced up at me, inquisition shining in her eyes.

"No!" I continued in an offended and disgusted tone.

"Are you sure? Because the timing is almost perfect," Bonnie insisted with a deadly look.

"Bonnie," Caroline chided.

"I didn't sleep with Katherine!" I exclaimed again in annoyance.

"Okay, whatever… I'm out of here," she said coldly, standing up.

"Bonnie?" Elena called out in worry.

"I had heard enough in one day. I'll talk to you guys later," she announced, walking out the door without even looking at me. They all seemed shocked and a bit sad about Bonnie's reaction, but I was hurt and worried. The fact that Bonnie knew a lot more than they did must have made it ten times harder for her; I was aware of that. She was probably furious that I had kept so many secrets from them, but I hadn't expected her to storm out like that.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to her," Stefan said in a soothing voice.

"No, it's fine... I'll talk to her," I answered, given that we had a practice meeting together the next day. Assuming that she would even show up…

"Okay then. We're going to let you recover," he replied in a light joking tone with a knowing smile on his lips. "But just so you know, your little plan to get rid of me didn't work. I'm still your friend." He hugged me slightly and went for the door to give Elena and I some space. I looked cautiously down in her eyes, afraid of what I was going to find inside them. She was still acting awkwardly, and her eyes were troubled, but at least they were a lot warmer and friendlier than earlier. She pulled me into a tight hug, but stepped back almost immediately. She opened her mouth to speak before closing it again without saying anything.

"See you later," she blurted out with an elusive gaze before leaving with Stefan. I was completely baffled by her attitude. I had thought that she would be the most supportive of them all- or the most angry. I couldn't even comprehend what had happened with her.

A squirming Caroline in the corner of my eye snapped me out of my shock. I turned my head to look at her and she seemed to have something to say to me, but was still debating doing it.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she finally said, a guilty expression on her face.

"Don't be," I replied, shaking my head. "I'm the one who's sorry for not telling you guys."

"I'm not going to say that I'm not mad at you for that, but… it must have been hard for you to keep this from us," she said in a caring tone.

"Yes, it was…" I admitted. Especially since one of the biggest reasons I kept my homosexuality a secret was because I couldn't afford my friends, and above all, Elena, to find out that I had feelings for her.

"Well… you can be who you really are, Miss Maya. I support you no matter what," she declared cheerfully, putting her arms around my neck to give me a quick peck on my cheek. I giggled nervously, all of the tension starting to ease out of my body.

"Thanks, Caroline..."

"Do you want me to stay?"

"No… I'm good. I'm just going to crash in bed, I think," I answered, a reassuring smile on my lips.

"Okay, then. See you soon," she said, going for the door. "Because we have a lot of catching up to do, lady killer!" She smiled mischievously before closing the door behind her.