Timing // Gabe x Maya

Prologue

<December 24th 2009>
Christmas Day.

Her mother hummed a festive tune as she strung the red and green lights onto their small tree. The little blonde girl resided upstairs, playing with her dollhouse. She stopped making noise as soon as she heard her mother's melodic voice. It was her favourite sound during the holidays. Being as silent as a mouse, she tip-toed her way to the stairs and stuck her pale legs through the openings between each railing. Leaning her head against one of the poles, she shut her eyes and focused on her mother's music.

"Silent night.." Her mom sang softly, "Holy night..All is calm.."

"All is bright," she spoke quietly, and fluttered her sapphire blue eyes open again.

Her father wasn't home yet, she was used to it. He worked late, at least that's what her mom had told her. However, she couldn't help but wonder why he'd be working on Christmas Eve. Their neighbours all had the day off, why not her dad?

"Maya-pple, it's dangerous to sit like that up there," her mom called from downstairs in the living room. "Come down and help mommy put the star on the tree, I know it's your favourite part." Her mother's voice had a sing-song undertone to it at the end.

"How did you know I was up here? You're not even looking at me," she replied, sliding her legs away from the stairs and getting up.

"I have eyes at the back of my head, M." Her mom chuckled, and hung up a few more ornaments.

"Really?" She ran down the stairs, steps thunder loud. When she got to the living room, her mom was sat on the sofa, staring at her cellphone, biting her nails. "Mommy? What are you doing?"

Taken by surprise, her mom immediately set her phone down, "Texting dad, he's..In traffic."

"Is he going to be home soon?" She climbed onto her mom's lap, and looked up at her.

Her mother moved a strand of hair out of Maya's face and brushed it behind her ear, "Of course sweetie. He wouldn't miss Christmas." She wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her to her chest.

Maya touched her mom's hand, "Promise?"

Hesitantly, her mother nodded her head, "I promise, Maya-pple."

~~~~~

A few hours later, the doorbell rang, Maya had fallen asleep in her mom's arms. Her mother set her down upstairs and then went to answer the door. "Kermit, what took you so long?" she asked, "Maya's been asking about you all day." She stepped aside and let him in.

"Katy, you know how hard I've been trying to get that Christmas bonus," he responded, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She shook it away, "Bullshit, no one works on Christmas day. You talk about bonuses and promotions so much yet where's all the money? I've had to pay for this entire house by myself for almost a year now, Kermit. I'm a waitress for fucks sake, I get paid mininum wage. So tell me, where is this bonus?"

He pursed his lips, "It's on it's way, Katy." His expression suddenly harshened, "Quit nagging me about it! If you had gone to college, we wouldn't be in this fucking mess right now!"

She snapped, "At least I still have a job!" His jaw slightly dropped but recovered itself.

He tried to play it off, "What are you talking about?"

"Your boss called today, he said 'Happy holidays Kermit, sorry again about the job. You know its hard to keep a business running and nowadays we need youngsters to work here. Fresh faces.' I asked him for how long have you been fired. He told me it's been over a year already. When were you going to inform me about this?" She threw her arms up in frustration then crossed them.

His face turned pale, "Katy..I didn't want you to know that I--" His tone changed, "Why were you  asking my fucking former boss about that? Its so humiliating! You nosy little--"

From upstairs, Maya heard it all, every word. She sobbed under her covers, scared her family would fall apart. She heard a slapping sound coming from downstairs, and tears streamed down her face. All she wanted was a happy family. For once, there not to be yelling, fighting, or anger.

"Maya! Come downstairs, sweetpea," her mom shouted from downstairs. She crawled out of bed and wiped her tears away. Doing as asked, she went downstairs to where her parents stood. Her mother's cheek was red, her eyes watery. "Go play with the Duncans while mommy and daddy cook dinner okay?"

Maya stifled a sob and nodded. She looked at her father, who waved with a small smile. She waved back, her small hand shaking.
She choked back her tears as her mom helped her zip up her winter jacket. With a kiss on the top of her head, Katy sent her daughter off and shut the door.

Her boots left small indents in the snow as she made her way through her yard and onto the sidewalk. One of her neighbours spotted her and grinned, sprinting over.

"Maya, wanna join our snowball fight?" He offered as he ran over. She looked down and nodded, a tear slipping past the threshold. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm..F-fine," she stuttered, not meeting his eyes. He reached for her hand and held onto it. Walking her back to his house, where they played with his siblings.

"No you're not, and that's okay. One day you will be, and I'll be right there beside you to see it."

~~~~~

Hai, so I know I really haven't been posting much at all lately. I'm really sorry!! I said I'd write in the summer but my procrastination took over. I know I always use the excuse "I haven't found inspiration/felt inspired to write" and honestly it's true. Sometimes I get bored of my stories and don't really know how to revive them. I'm currently in the process of rewriting Good Luck World and you can definitely tell I haven't made much progress. Again, my apologies, I procrastinate way too much!!

Unfortunately, like my other stories this one will also have incredibly slow updates. I just had an idea for a story and decided to run with it, even if I haven't fully planned it out, which could come back to bite me later on but oh 🐳.

Thank youuu for reading this chapter/prologue, I hope you enjoyed it! Hope to see you in the next one (I hope I get it up soon!), bai!!

P.S. wowiee I said "hope" a lot.