Tangled in Love

Chapter 17

Maya stared at the copper coin, making out the shapes and cuts of the surface. An outline of a head began to appear - Abraham Lincoln's head - and she saw the letters spell out, "In God We Trust," as a rush of relief overwhelmed her.

Mixed in with disappointment.

The coin slipped off the table into her hand, wrapped together tightly by her pale fingers. Loading herself with a deep breath, she bursted it back out into the air, covering it as the sound of the edges rubbing against the table sounded.

Slowly, Maya raised her hand again, feeling excitement consume her when she saw the Lincoln Memorial building. But when she took a closer look, all the emotions drained out of her, leaving behind one when she realized that it was actually her hallucinations that caused her to mistake Lincoln for his memorial building.

Dread.

One more time. Just one more throw and it'll count for everything, Maya thought to herself. As the light of her lamp hit the surface of the coin, she felt her breathing stop, her mind hoping for the coin to turn so that it was at the side of the building and was carved with, "One cent."

But it didn't.

It felt like waves of emotions splashing into her brain, her heart - everywhere - when Maya shot a quick text to Nolan, the content reading, "I'm staying."

She felt happiness from being able to stay with her true love, but she had a feeling at the pit of her stomach. It was her gut poking at her so hard that she felt discomfort radiating from every inch of her body. It was telling her to go to Chicago University.

Maya sighed, reminding herself that fate allowed the coin to drop heads. And thrice, too! It wasn't within her decision whether or not she left for college. Fate clearly wanted her to stay.

Just as the little voice at the back of her head convinced her otherwise, just as her fingers were going to tell Nolan that she was leaving, just as she was going to follow what her intuition was telling her, her phone beeped.

She knew it was too late when she saw the letters "n", "o", and "l", and when she entered her chats, the page was covered by white chat bubbles. No, not just colored in with simple black text. Colored in with capital letters, exclamation points, and to top it all off, groups of emoji summarizing Nolan's happiness.

Writing as much as he did with enthusiasm and relief, Maya knew she couldn't change anything now. Maya was a woman of emotions and empathy. There was no way she could break the bad news to Nolan, for she hated making people have negative emotions directed towards her.

So she just decided to leave it at the facts, that she would stay in New York to be with Nolan.

Setting her phone down, her eyes filled with the lack of sunlight, darkness evading her ability to see as clearly. Sighing, she turned to her clock. She made out a number 1 followed by a 0 with a colon right after that. Squinting her eyes, she saw the 5 that could pass as a "s" and the curved shape of a 2 a centimeter away.

Time passed by too quickly, Maya complained to herself. Normally, she would have slept later, but her eyes drooped with heavy bags and her brain always felt like it was full of honey and bees. She needed all the sleep she was going to get.

Not bothering to reply to Nolan's strangely extended message, she slipped into her bed, thankful the light was already shut off. Maya was too lazy to get up once again, for she was rather comfortable snuggling along the covers of her blanket.

No matter her tiredness or desire to sleep, Maya's eyes kept wide open and her brain was buzzing with thoughts, allowing no room for the dreamy state to rush over her and take her into the wonderful land empty of stress and worry.