And Then She Stopped

chapter eleven

It's weird how you can feel people adjusting. The more time Maya was missing, the less people cared. Everyone, that is, except Lucas, Riley, and Farkle. They lost interest, when will Maya show up? Does it matter? They continued to smile, the continued to laugh, they started to be normal. After all, why shouldn't they? Riley didn't come in early with her father today, everyone was here except the two who, arguably, mattered the most. When the bell rang, Riley walked in, she gave a sort-of-smile to Lucas and walked over to her desk. Before sitting down she turned to Maya's desk and pulled the post-it out of her pocket, sticking it onto the desk. Lucas sat up a little bit to read it, ignoring a text notification on his phone.

"Where is that from?" He asked sitting down and flipping his phone over, whoever it was Maya was more important.

"She stuck it on my window last night." She said looking forward with a smile.

Class started and no one was paying attention. There were far more important things to be thinking about, like what the theme of the spring formal might be this year (gosh maybe it could be...spring?). Lucas tried his best to pay attention during the lecture but his eyes kept drifting down to that pink post-it note. He tried to distract himself further by going on his phone. He had 2 new texts from Maya.

Maya: What time is it? Is it – is it wandering time? I think it is, pack your bags Huckleberry it's my turn to pick.

Maya: You. Me. Bannerman Castle. Let's do this thing.

Lucas debated it, he was in class, and he couldn't just leave. Could he? He slipped his phone into his pocket and tried to casually grab his notebook. He looked around the room and assumed no one would notice so he stood up and made his way to the door.

"Mr. Friar where are you going?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Lucas you can't just leave class." Riley said, looking worried. Lucas turned to look at Cory.

"I'm sorry sir." And he walked out the door.

Sneaking to the parking lot was an adventure of its own. Janitor Harley nearly caught Lucas more than once, but he eventually made it without even bothering to stop by his locker on the way out. When he got to his car, before turning on the ignition, he unfolded the map Maya left in the glove compartment. Even if he was driving without her, he was still going to follow her rules.

A little over an hour later he pulled up to the castle, and he saw her. Maya was sitting on the steps of the castle, her hair was tousled from the days walk over to the castle but she still looked perfect, at least to Lucas. He locked the car and walked over to her, when she saw him she stood up, wiping her hands on her jeans, she was wearing the jacket he gave her the first time they wandered.

"Hey..." She said, avoiding eye contact. Her eyes started to water but she held the tears back, she taught herself how to do that long ago.

"Hey." He bit the left corner or his lower lip, he didn't know what to say. I missed you? Why didn't you break our promise? You can't just leave? What do you say to someone you're afraid is a flight risk? Maya turned and looked up at the castle.

"This place is beautiful." She said, smiling up at the sky. Thin layers of snow coated everything, and it was obvious that they were the first two to come here because there were no other footprints. Lucas stepped closer to her.

Maya led him inside the castle and they explored it together. There were big open rooms and small hallways with stairs the looked like they might fall apart. Everything was old and rustic in the most stunning way. The castle smelt like old, wet, stone, and outdoors, but it didn't bother either of them, they were too busy chasing after each other to even notice.

Soon, they grew tired of running around the stone halls and they found themselves sitting in in Lucas's car, Lucas was writing, Maya drawing. She didn't have to change anything about the location to show how it made her feel, the castle spoke for itself. She did, however, draw the castle from the perspective of someone standing inside the main entrance looking out. When Lucas finished writing he started the car and started driving back onto the road, this time they were going to really wander. No map. No location. Nothing but them. They took turns picking directions, and eventually they found themselves in the parking lot of an old library in a little town.

"Lucas, I think it's closed." Maya said laughing as he pulled her to the door.

"When has that ever stopped you before?"

She wasn't wrong, according to the sign on the window the library hadn't been open for years. Maya picked the lock with ease and they entered. The library was so uncared for they kicked up dust with every step and the shelves that still had books on them had a nice layer of dust as well. Carefully, Maya picked up books and brushed the dust off of them, examining not the cover but the actual words inside. She worked through the entire library and they met in the kids section. She picked up an old Dr. Seuss book.

"This one was always my favorite." She smiled cracking it open, "Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off an away!"

They started reading it theatrically, but this quickly evolved into them dancing around each other singing the words as loud as they could. Lucas twirled Maya and they hopped around the children's section doing their own unique style of a jive. They sang the book over and over again until they were so out of breath from dancing they fell into the dust laughing.

When the dust settled around them Maya got up and went to the table where they set down their things, opening her sketchbook to the first blank page. Lucas followed up behind her.

"What are you doing?"

She looked back and smiled at him, "We wandered here, didn't we?"

Her drawing captured the perfect moment that ended the perfect day, two people dancing in a library, with clouds of dust swirling around them. As she sketched she hummed to tune to their song, smiling down at the paper.