Secrets She Keeps

Perfect

It was the end of the school day, and Maya was nearly home when she heard her name being called from across the hallway.

"Maya!" someone was shouting to her.

It was Riley. She had heard from Zay that Riley had been looking for her, but never made an effort to be found.

"Maya, are you avoiding me?" the brunette asked her.

Maya was avoiding Riley, but she definitely wasn't gonna tell her that.

"I've just been really busy lately."

"Okay," Riley bought the excuse. "Would you be able to squeeze in time to come over after school?"

"I don't know, Riley. I don't really feel up to it."

"Come on. Everyone's gonna be there, Farkle, Lucas, Zay. It'll be fun."

"No thanks. I think I'll pass," Maya said plainly.

"Ok," Riley quietly said, clearly disappointed. "If you change your mind, everyone's coming around 6."

Maya watched as Riley sadly walked away. She hated making her best friend feel this way, but she couldn't take seeing her best friend with her crush. 

Maya went home and immediately started searching her room. Her anxiety was taking over as she frantically searched everywhere. When she found what she was looking for, she quickly rolled up her sleeve. And for a moment, her anxiety had faded.

But when Maya realized what she had done, she was even worse off than before. She got into bed and tried to fall asleep to silence the demons in her head telling her she was worthless and didn't deserve to be happy.

She ended up sleeping for three hours until she heard her doorbell ring.

Maya awoke to blood on her sleeve and sheets.

"Shit," she muttered to herself. "Coming!" she yelled to whoever was knocking on her door.

She threw the covers over her entire bed and threw on a sweatshirt. She looked at the clock, 6:30.

"I swear, Riley, if you came over here to drag me to your house I'm not going," she said as she walked to the door.

She looked through the peephole and was surprised to see Zay.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Hi, Zay. How ya doing?" he imitated her voice. "I'm great, Maya, thanks for asking."

"Shut up," she cracked a smile and let him in.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Riley's?" she asked him.

"Yeah, aren't you too?"

"I didn't really feel like going out."

"Perfect, that's why I came to you. I brought some snacks and drinks and we can watch movies or whatever."

"Thanks, Zay."

She figured, why not hang out with Zay if she can't stand being with Riley and Lucas and Farkle.

"How about you pick the movie and I'll make the popcorn?"

"Sounds perfect."