what the future holds

#8

☽MAYA☾

Sunday. Believe it or not I actually had nothing to do today. No work, no art class, and no meetings with anyone. Just a stay-at-home-by-myself-and-watch-Netflix day. But as I heard the cowboy trudging down my stairs I remembered I wasn't alone.

"Stop doing this." I tell him as I walk into the kitchen, wearing spandex and a crop sleep shirt. He looked at me, confused and tired. "I value my sleep, Friar, and you're making me want to wake up." I walk past him, but out of the corner of my eye I see him crack a smile.

"So you have today off?" Lucas inquires, I look at him quizzically. Stalker, much? He pointed to the Kardashian calendar on the wall, and on Sunday, March 20, it says 'Maya Hart's Day Off '.

"Apparently." I respond sarcastically. My sarcastic responses aren't the best, but you have to understand, it's seven in the morning. I grabbed a pancake from the greasy pan, or attempted to, because just as I reached for it the grease splashed and burned me. Just my luck.

I yelped and sank to the ground, trying to mask the pain. Lucas left the pan and crouched down beside me. He held my hand and examined the already-forming white mark.

"That was a lot of grease." He noted, turning my hand to have a better look. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Nice observation, Captain Obvious." I scoffed and tried to take my hand away from his grasp, but he was too strong.

"I'm trying to help, Short Stack, calm down." So I stopped. No, not because Lucas told me to calm down. And if I were any less tired I would've gone off on him, never tell a woman to calm down. But what stopped me was the nickname. Short Stack. Sure, when he first showed up he had "ordered" a short stack of pancakes to get my attention, but this was the first time he had called me it. He said it so casually, like we were friends, like nothing had changed. But we weren't, and it had.

"Lucas, I can take care of myself." I tried once again to yank my hand away.

"Maya, stop it." He continued to bandage my hand. Really bandages on a burn?

"Bandages won't help I have to–"

"Maya, I know what I'm doing."

"Look, I appreciate it but I can–"

"Hart, I said stop."

"Don't tell me what to do, I'm going to–"

"Maya!"

"Forget it, I can–"

And then he kissed me.

__________

"What, the hell, was that?" I growl, anger bubbling up in my body.

"I didn't know how to get you to stop! I panicked, I'm sorry, please listen, Maya."

"Lucas Friar, get out of my house." I said, my low tone showing how truly angry I was. I could see the fear in his eyes. He wasn't afraid of me though, not of me hurting him at least, he was afraid of losing me. That much was clear.

"Maya, please, I just wanted you to stop before you hurt yourself."

Well that's familiar...

f l a s h   b a c k

"–because you're a Huckleberry, because you're a Ranger Rick–" I was ranting.

"Would you stop–" Lucas tried to interrupt.

"Look if I had feelings for you, don't you think I'd just come right out and say it?" I questioned him. He stayed silent, so I continued. "Well, I don't, so what I do say is Hahurr–"

Then he grabbed me. He grabbed my face and brought our lips so close to touching. We were inches apart and the only thing I wanted was for him to close the gap. But he didn't. He stepped back, and my heart broke.

"Why did you do that?" I croaked, emotion overtaking me.

"I don't know, I just...wanted you to stop."

e n d   o f    f l a s h   b a c k

"Maya?" Lucas questioned, looking worried at my face. "Maya, what happened, you blacked out." Lucas was still holding my face, examining and looking for signs.

"Why–" I choked, looking down at the tiled floor of the kitchen. Tears were filling my eyes and I tried to fight them. I tried so hard.

"Maya?" Lucas asked. He wondered if I was ok. He wondered what the heck was going on. Well apparently, remembering your first heartbreak will splinter your heart, no matter how ok you thought you were. And that's all it took to break down my walls and start crying on the kitchen floor. "Shh, it's ok. Maya, you're not alone, it's all ok."

"Why did you do that?" I croaked, just like all those years ago.

"Maya, I–"

"Really, why? Don't lie to me this time, Lucas. I know you lied to me by the campfire. I know you didn't almost kiss me because you wanted me to stop. Why? I need closure after all these years." I try to stop my sobs, my emotions, but after all these years of holding it back I couldn't end it. 

"I–Maya, you were beautiful and bad and exotic to me. I had never seen a girl like you in my life. In Texas, I was always surrounded by nice girls. Girls like Vanessa and Elizabeth and Rose. All these sweet, Texan girls who only did what was nice and ladylike. They were going to grow up to be stay at home moms, that's for sure. So when I came to New York City and met Riley, I was comfortable with her because that was all I'd ever known. I had no idea what I would've done with you, but I wanted you. Really badly. When we were alone by that campfire, all I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss you. I wanted to, but when I had the opportunity I couldn't think about anything except–"

"Riley.." I finished for him. He nodded solemnly.

"I thought about how betrayed she would be, even if she did think of me as a brother." Lucas finished. "I didn't love her, Maya, we were just kids. I found that out when you left. I found out I didn't love her when my heart broke, because you had left town." Lucas held my hand, but not to examine my burn. He held it because he...

"You loved me?" I ask, now more confused than ever. He didn't answer for a while, he just stared into my soul with those green eyes of his.

"Present tense, Maya."

__________

team Josh
or
team Lucas ?

♡ kylie