The art of survival (Maya Hart/joshaya)

Chapter 21

Hello, it's me. :) So I have been having some writer block and have been very busy the last couple of days which resulted in a lack of updates. One more week, after that I will have a little break from school. I created an GMW-edits account on instagram. Feel free to check it out: Maya_Harts_hope

I don't know for how long we stood there, it felt like minutes but it must have been hours, hours and hours of saying goodbye, hours of grieving, hours of remembering. Riley had calmed down a little bit, now she was standing next to me, still holding hands with Farkle, letting her tears fall from her warm brown eyes. Lucas wouldn't want this, I realized as I looked at the people I loved the most. He would want us to cherish his best moment, remember the happy times, not crying over something that we couldn't do anything about. I sighed and looked around; no one seemed to be thinking of walking away yet. I slowly started to walk back to the houses. The sky was glowing in a beautiful orange color. The clouds had moved away and I knew what I could find to help me to get us out of this misery.

Josh Pov

I knew that Maya had walked away but I couldn't leave Riley right then. I don't think that she would leave again. She learned that the hard way. I ran a hand through my messy hair. Everything was in complete chaos. My niece was falling apart, Farkle out of all the people was the only one that could even calm her down slightly and Maya just walked away from us. What once had been the closest group of friends I had ever seen, was now broken. Split up by the loss of one piece, just like a puzzle.

"Wh-where's Maya?" Riley whispered softly after an hour or so since Maya left. She looked straight towards me. I rubbed my eyes with a hand.

"She left to go inside an hour ago." I said and Riley nodded. She took laid her hand gently inside mine, holding Farkle close with the other one.

"Then let's go find her." She said, focusing her attention on something that wasn't her dead friend. Focusing her attention on the blonde beauty that went by the name Maya Hart, for once I wasn't worried about Maya, she could handle herself and I trusted that she wouldn't walk outside on her own, not with Riley being this broken.

We searched through both mine and Shawn's house to no success. None of our people had seen her except for Sarah.

"I think she went that way." She said as she pointed towards the little group of pines in the southern corner of the walls. We didn't take these trees down when we started to build up the walls around this place, there were children here and we thought that we could all need a calm place without the fear of growlers eating people alive and all that.

"Maya?" Riley shouted, wanting Maya to come out from her hiding spot. When the only thing we heard was a quiet giggle coming from the trees, we continued to move closer. Maya Hart doesn't giggle. The pines made the sunlight crack up in spectrums, glowing in the pretty dark corner. In the middle of a circle of light sat the blonde girl, with a bottle in her hand. When she noticed us, she let go of the bottle and put her hands as if she wanted us to hug her.

"You found me!" She shouted, clearly not really in her senses at the moment. Riley went straight towards her, sitting down next to her.

"Your hair smells nice Riley." Maya whispered loudly as she put her nose in my niece's hair. Riley looked a bit taken aback by Maya's behavior, concerned for her best friend.

"What's wrong with her? Do you think she's in shock?" Riley said to us, Maya didn't have a care in the world at the moment as she was focusing on a little bird that just flew by. I looked at the bottle she had let go of. Vodka, of course.

"No, she got herself drunk." I chuckled slightly as I took the bottle up from the ground. Only then Maya reacted, suddenly looking pissed off. She quickly got a good grip on the bottle and before I had any time to pull it away again, Maya had it in her arms, rocking it like a baby. Yup, she is definitely wasted. Riley took it from her but this time Maya let her do it without complications. I held out my hand, expecting Riley to give it to me, instead she put it towards her mouth and took a good sip out of it. She grimaced as soon as the liquid touched her lips but she didn't spit it out.

"Riley, give me the bottle." I said, still holding out my hand. Riley shook her head and quickly took another sip.

"She looks like she is having a good time; I want to have that too." Riley answered, giving the bottle back to Maya. I sighed and slapped my own forehead. Farkle walked over and sat down next to Riley.

"Not you too." I sighed, if the continued like this I would have to drag them all home. Farkle just raised his shoulders and tilted his head. He didn't really care.

"What else can we do? I have been crying for a lifetime, why not make the best out of it?" Farkle said before Maya handed over the bottle. Maybe he was right? Maybe we should do something fun for once.

"Want a sip?" Maya slurred as she rolled the bottle over to me. I shook my head. She sighed, rolling her eyes as she took the bottle again. Riley had started to giggle uncontrollably next to her. Her face was turning red.

"Let's play truth or dare!" Maya shouted. Farkle nodded and Riley clapped her hands in excitement. Maya placed the bottle on the flat ground and then spun it. It turned a couple of times before stopping at Riley. She smiled a wide smile.

"Truth or dare?" Maya asked. Riley didn't even take a minute to consider her options.

"Dare." She said confidently. Farkle laughed at her. That boy loved her way more than she knew. Looks like Maya realized that too.

"Kiss Farkle."