The Fight For Love (Joshaya)

Chapter 35

  "Hey, peaches, what's up?" her best friend answers on the third ring.

  Maya tells her about what happened in the previous phone call with Josh, "So Josh is acting very strange. First, earlier today he dashed out of the room when we started discussing weddings. And then when I called him up to see where he was at, he said he's not spending the night in order to spend more time with God. I think it's very good of him to spend time with God, however, he never usually sacrifices his time with me for that."

  "Well, the whole spending time with God thing, yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. Honestly, you said he spends the night quite a bit, didn't you?"

  "Yeah..." Maya isn't sure she follows where her friend is going with this.

  "You realize that isn't the Christian thing to do, right?"

  That catches Maya off guard, "What? Riles, don't not support our relationship again."

  "I'm not trying to," Riley assures. "I'm just giving you a possible reason for him needing to spend more time with God and turning down spending the night with you. Maybe he's feeling convicted about it. Do you feel anything about it?"

  Maya starts to search her heart for anything that may say spending the night with Josh is wrong, but nothing reveals itself. She tells Riley, "I feel nothing wrong about it."

  "Well, no offense, but he has been a Christian for longer than you have. He knows what the Christian thing to do is."

  "But what does God say about it? Not just other Christians."

  "I'm actually not sure," she admits. "Maya, don't get mad at me. I'm just suggesting a reason for Josh's behavior."

  She lets out a sigh and responds, "I know. I'm sorry for being so defensive. I just really care about my relationship with him. I want everything to work out between us. One more screw-up and our relationship could end up out the window. I don't want to lose him. He means the world to me."

  "Hey, what about me?"

  "You mean the sun to me," she jokes since Riley has a sunshine and rainbows type personality.

  "Aw! The sun does so much; I'm truly honored, Maya."

  "Well, good. I want my best friend to be honored, especially by me."

  The girls laugh at Maya's comment and stay on the phone for another hour before Riley asks a question that brings up the reason for the phone call in the first place. She says, "Peaches?"

  "Riles?"

  "Would you like me to spend the night with you?"

  Maya considers the possibility of spending the night with Riley for a long while. She thinks that it can ease off the pain and loneliness of not having her boyfriend by her side. On the other hand, it may make her miss her boyfriend even more since someone else would be beside her instead. She decides to reject her best friend's offer, "Hey, Riles, I think I would rather have the room to myself tonight. Thank you so much for offering, though."

  "No problem and no hurt feelings, I promise."

  "Well, I better let you get to sleep so that you're up and ready for school tomorrow."

  "If you need to talk more, girly, I'm not going anywhere."

  She knows her best friend would put anything on hold for her, but she wants to do her part and care for her friend. She asks, "Did you finish your homework?"

  Riley admits, "I just have a few more math problems, but that shouldn't take too terribly long."

  "That's what I thought. Finish your homework, Riles."

  "Did you do your homework?"

  "I'll do it last minute before class starts just like I always do. No need to worry about me."

  "But I worry all the time. We're best friends. How could I not?"

  Those words. Those meaningful words. She loves to hear those from Riley, but she really wants to hear Josh say something meaningful to her as she turns over to look in his beautiful eyes. But she won't hear those kinds of words from him tonight or tomorrow morning. The thought of that causes tears to rise to her eyes. She quickly says goodbye to Riley and hangs up the phone. 

~~~~

  Waking up the next morning proves difficult. No light breathing against her shoulder. No twirling of her hair in someone else's hands. No soft whispers of sweetness. None of it. What she wakes up to is an empty room, completely void of any reminders of Josh.

  Immediately grabbing her phone from the desk, she dials Josh's number and waits for him to pick up the phone. 

  He answers on the first ring, "Hey, girl, I love you. You mean a lot to me."

  Not what she had been expecting. She brushes past it for the time being and asks, "So, would you want to get together after school today?"

  "I would love to."

  "Great! You can come to my place and we can chill there doing homework and stuff."

  Suddenly, Josh's tone changes, "Your place? Maybe we could meet somewhere more public to do homework."

  She furrows her brow in confusion, "Since when do you want to be more public?"

  "I just feel like it would be better for our relationship."

  "Josh, is everything okay?"

  "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

  "Because of what happened yesterday."

  "You just kind of up and left when Riley and I started talking about weddings. And then when I called you last night, you didn't want to spend the night."

  "Yeah, I needed to spend some time with God. If you want, I can tell you about it when we get together after school. Want to meet at Topanga's?"

  Disappointed but happy to be hanging out with Josh, Maya says, "Yeah, that's fine."

  "Okay, great! I'll see you then," he ends the call. 

  She stares at her home screen as she says into the empty room, "Right. See you then."