And Then She Stopped

chapter fifteen

Maya Hart was scrambling around her bedroom digging through multiple dirty laundry piles looking for her favorite pair of black jeans before finding them tucked between her bed and the dresser. She did a quick smell check and decided no one would be smelling her legs anyways so she slipped on the jeans, hopping around the room still looking for her leather jacket. Had she woken up when her alarm first went off, or the seven times after, she wouldn't be buzzing around so frantically – but since she didn't she was in a mad rush to get ready because Lucas would be there to pick her up at any moment. Just as she feared, after buttoning her jeans with still no shirt on, there came a knock at the door. She ran to the door, leaping over the coffee table, and opened it just enough for Lucas to see her face.

"I swear I'm almost ready I'll be down in a minute." She said looking as panicked as she felt.

"It's alright, take your time, should I come in and wait or?"

Maya looked over her shoulder and saw her mom laying passed out on the couch clutching a Costco sized bottle of vodka. "You know what? I just need to throw on a shirt so you just stay right there and I'll be right back." She closed the door before he could say anything else and quickly threw on the first shirt she could find – which was a loose black shirt with splotches of paint all over it. The musk of dried paint covered any scent that may have lingered on the garment so she grabbed her back and rushed to the door.

"Hi again." She beamed up at Lucas, still trying to shove her right foot into her shoe.

"Hi there." He kissed the top of her nose and grabbed hold of her hand. Today they were wandering off to the Hudson River, which happened to be the only place Maya picked that was less than 3 hours away and Lucas had to be home early to greet his relatives who were flying in for the holidays.

The Hudson was a bit on the generic side since they wanted their adventures to be a little more than just a stroll through a history museum and tourist packed places like they figured everyone else's would be but it'd have to do.

The drive down, while shorter than other options, was longer than necessary because Lucas insisted on driving further down the river so they could get to a part with no skyscrapers and busy New York traffic horns in the distance. It was cold but they still rolled down the front windows and Maya had her hand out the window, twirling it around in the wind, practically the entire time the windows were down. At one point, however, Lucas closed the windows because when he looked over at Maya the tip of her nose was pink and he didn't want her to get a cold, she'd laughed and pretended to be upset with him.

Finally he pulled up to the river, it looked dangerous and beautiful. Snow led all the way down to the water and because it was winter the gaps of water that weren't frozen over looked pitch black. It was a mysterious sight and Maya was drawn to it. She slid down the mini hill that led to the water, walking closer to it and holding her arms to keep from shivering, the last thing she wanted was for Lucas to take her back into the car, after all the depths of the water were seemed to be singing to her. She thought about plunging into the darkness, how no one would know anything, someone could get lost in there forever. Without knowing the pull of the water drew her closer to the river until she was only about two steps in on the thin ice. Lucas turned around and saw Maya walking on the river so he ran towards her and yanked her back onto solid ground, holding so tightly onto her shoulders Maya could barely move. "What are you doing?" His voice was angry but his eyes were panicked as he studied her face- which was a combination of surprised and confused.

Maya's voice trembled as she spoke, "I guess my mind was just a little lost to the river."

Lucas's face softened and he loosened his grip on her to brush her hair back out of her face, "Just try not to get lost in the river okay? You may not know this but I've kinda got a thing for you." Maya laughed and leaned her head against his hand. She could write an entire essay about his eyes, how they were always grey and green and blue but never all at once, and how they seemed to melt her from the inside out.