And Then She Stopped

chapter four

The next morning Riley woke up to Topanga vigorously shaking her foot. Riley sat up and looked around, her window was open

"Peaches?"

"She's probably just a little late today." Topanga said with a smile, "c'mon I made cinnamon rolls."

Riley floated out of bed, a little confused, but not worried. Maya was never late, but there were always possibilities like a delay because of snow or having to walk to the front of the building because the fire escape steps were too slippery. She sat at her spot at the table and happily ate breakfast. When Maya still hadn't shown up Topanga grabbed a plastic Tupperware container from the cupboard and put the extra rolls in it.

"Give this to Maya when you see her at school, alright Riley?" Riley nodded and took the container. Since Maya wasn't there she had to walk with her father to school, which was possibly her least favorite thing in the world.

"You know Maya's mom let's her walk all over New York alone." Riley said walking faster because she saw a kid from school, it was bad enough her dad was a teacher but she didn't need a chaperone- 15 is a very responsible age.

"There's a lot about Maya's life you still don't know." Cory said, trying to figure out his lesson plan for the day. Nothing really happened that he could directly relate to his children's lives.

"I know everything about Maya you're being ridiculous."

Just like the day before when they walked into the school Lucas was sitting on the benches. It was partially because he wanted to talk to Riley, but mainly because his dad has needed to get to work early the past couple of days so Lucas started getting dropped off earlier. Cory, after being 'given the look' by Riley, retreated to his classroom to set up for the day without the help of Maya.

"Hi Lucas!" Riley smiled and sat next to him.

"Hey- where's Maya?" He turned over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't standing around somewhere waiting to pop out and go 'ha-hurrr'. Riley shrugged.

"She's probably sick, why?"

"Maya? Maya doesn't get sick and when she does she still shows up. Remember that week she came to school with the flu."

"No."

"Well I do, she threw up in my backpack."

"Hey Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do we only ever talk about Maya?" Riley loved Maya, she was her best friend, her sister, her partner in crime, but she didn't love having her as the only topic her and her boyfriend ever seemed to talk about. Lucas pressed his lips together.

"Maybe she's the only thing we have left in common." The doors near them pushed open and a few of the kids from their class came in, Lucas sat up a little straighter in case one of them was Maya. None of them were. He slumped back down and leaned against the wall behind him, their first class hadn't even started and already he was wishing the day was over.

Riley sat down in her spot, right in front of Farkle. Everyone was here, except Maya. When the bell rang Cory turned around and saw this.

"Huh, guess I have to turn in attendance today." He scribbled a note to himself down on a post it and then moved in front of his desk. "I'm not going to lie to you kids I've got nothin'." He flipped the name sign on his desk around so it said Farkle Minkus and traded places with Farkle. Farkle time went all the way up to the end of the class and even Mr. Matthews learned something. While leaving the classroom Riley looked around to find Maya, but quickly realized she wasn't there. On her way to second hour, French – her and Maya were taking it together – Lucas grabbed hold of her arm.

"Don't you think we should look for Maya?" He whispered to her, looking around to make sure none of the teachers heard him even considering ditching school for the rest of the day.

'Maya is fine Lucas, I think you're the one with a problem." She turned her head after realizing she had been shouting. "Maybe we need to take a break, figure some stuff out. Maybe then we'll have something other than Maya to talk about." She re-adjusted her bag on her shoulder and walked into her class.

Sixth hour, the bus ride to there and back was eerily quiet for Lucas. Maya always came to school. When he climbed in driver's seat of his mom car, after she slid over to the passenger's seat, he just looked out onto the road for a while, staying in park.

"You want me to drive sweetheart?" His mom asked, rubbing his shoulder with her hand.

"No, mom, I'm okay. Do you mind if we stop somewhere before going home?" She nodded and Lucas started driving to Maya's house. After turning into her neighborhood his mom reached for the door and locked the car until they were in park in front of her building. Lucas smiled at her, trying to comfort her because she looked like she was about the get mugged, and then he put the car in park and started to walk up the steps.

The door to the building was broken and left unlocked, and the intercom on the wall next to it sparked almost constantly and had wires sticking out at every single angle imaginable. That's got to be a fire hazard. He pressed on and started climbing up the stairs, not trusting the elevator after seeing everything else wrong with the building. Maya lived on the 2nd floor so it wasn't too difficult to walk up to her level and when he got to her door it was shut, but unlocked. Lucas turned the handle and entered carefully, Maya was sitting on the couch reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka looking very... peaceful.

"You really should lock this you know." Lucas said, startling Maya. She turned around and smiled after seeing it was him.

"Don't you worry about me Ranger Rick, I grew up with these people I've got nothing to hide."She patted a spot on the couch next to her and closed her book, he watched her set it down as he sat.

"You know not even the advanced English class is reading that until next year."

"I was just looking at the pictures."

"There are no pictures." He leaned back and looked around, the room looked like it was trying it's best to hide the fact that it was falling apart, and he respected that. There was some sort of beauty in destruction that he couldn't help but be intrigued in. "Maya, why do you always hide the fact that you're so intelligent." She shifted uncomfortably on the couch.

"I don't know what you were talking about Huckleberry, I was just looking at the pictures." She got up and put the book on the shelf. All the shelves were crooked and all the books on them were being held together by what looked like scotch tape and gum. "Riley told me what happened." Now it was Lucas who was shifting uncomfortably.

"Oh... " She leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder like she always did during the bus rides and they sat like that until Lucas' mom was honking the car horn to tell him to hurry up, she was most definitely freaking out. "Promise me you'll come to school tomorrow, no matter what."

"I promise." She gave him a quick hug and then he was off, and she was alone again. Maya walked over to the couch again, picked up her book and started reading.