The Fight For Love (Joshaya)

Chapter 48

  Maya can't believe Josh had convinced her to attend school today; she doesn't want to deal with classes and seeing Riley. She doesn't understand what was wrong with her game plan for life; it seems perfectly reasonable. She wouldn't have to go to school all the time, and she would get to spend time with her amazing boyfriend. What more in life could she want?

  Maya heads down the stairs to where the cafeteria is, but before she can get into one of the lunch lines, she feels a tug at her arm. Turning around, she spots the person she doesn't want to see. She says without emotion, "Hey, Riley."

  Riley wears a warm smile on her face and pulls Maya away from the crowd of students waiting for food. She asks, "Can we sit together at lunch? There's some things I want to talk with you about."

  Sticking her hands in her back pockets, Maya becomes determined to get away from Riley. "I was planning on just eating lunch in the library today."

  "That's okay! We can eat in the library if you want."

  Maya rolls her eyes in disgust and states coldly, "I wanted to eat alone."

  The statement takes Riley off guard and she peers her eyes downward. Right as Maya decides to jump into one of the lunch lines, Riley speaks up. "Are we still best friends?"

  At this point, Maya just wants to be done with this conversation. "Riley, that's for you to decide. If  you can handle me the way I am, then maybe I won't completely hate you and avoid you at every cost."

  With that, Maya turns away from Riley and gets into one of the lunch lines. She grabs a plate and places a couple slices of pizza on it. Then she heads into the library and sits at one of the windowsills.

  As she chews on one of the pizza slices, a guy walks over to the bookshelf near where she's sitting. She glances at him for a split second before quickly turning away from him. The last thing she would want is for someone to catch her staring at him or her; she does not need attention right now.

  Staring down at her two pizza slices, she thinks about what Josh said about her friendship with Riley. He seems to think that she can't ever be separated from Riley, but she wants to prove him wrong; however, Riley makes it difficult to prove Josh wrong when she decides to talk to Maya about wanting to eat lunch together.

  She shakes her head, shoving another bite of pizza into her mouth and looking out the window. As she chews on the bite of pizza, she can feel eyes on her and turns to look over her shoulder at the same guy from the bookshelf peering down at her. With a mouthful of pizza, she asks, "What do you want?"

  Suddenly, he seems to get all shy and shuffles his feet while looking at the floor. He stutters, "I'm ... sorry. I didn't ... I didn't mean to stare."

  He starts to turn away from her when she sets her plate of pizza on the windowsill and grabs his arm, making him face her. He seems surprised by the sudden gesture.

  She says, "What were you doing over here?"

  He stutters again, "I was ... I was..."

  Maya can't help rolling her eyes. "Speak, dude."

  "Your hair is really pretty!" His eyes go wide and he immediately covers his mouth, seeming like he can't believe he said that out loud.

  All Maya can do is stare at him wide-eyed for a second before she finds her composure again. "Look, dude, I just want some alone time right now, so I'd really appreciate if you weren't standing over me as I eat."

  Maya goes to sit back down on the windowsill, and she picks up the plate of pizza ready to eat as her way of distraction. However, when she looks over her shoulder, the guy hasn't moved; he keeps on looking directly at her.

  Right as she's about to shoo him away, he says without stuttering, "I don't know many people. Maybe we could get to know each other. I'm Nathan."

  Maya just stares at him. She can't believe that he is completely disregarding her wanting alone time by trying to get to know her. She glares at him, "Go away. I don't care about getting to know you; I just want to be alone."

  Appearing dejected, Nathan keeps his eyes on the floor, turns around, and walks out of the library. 

  Finally, she has her peace and quiet. She stuffs another bite of pizza into her mouth right as the lunch dismissal bell rings. 

  No frickin' way. She didn't even to get to finish her pizza, let alone have some time to herself. No way is she going to the rest of her classes.

  After taking another bite of her pizza slice, Maya walks out of the library and dumps the plate into the nearest cafeteria trashcan. She avoids going out the main doors and finds a side door in order to exit the school.

  Once she's outside, she spots the Nathan guy walking towards the dumpsters. Maya decides to follow the guy at a distance and hides herself behind a car when he stops at the dumpsters. He slides against the cold dumpster onto the hard pavement, pulling out a bottle of beer from his sweatshirt. Maya gasps at the fact that he's drinking alcohol when he's most likely not of age and immediately covers her mouth with one hand. She continues to watch him as he sits in solitude drinking his beer.

  Maya feels the teeniest bit of guilt for not conversing with the guy like he had wanted. He clearly needs someone to talk with since the first thing he turns to is alcohol when times get rough. 

  Suddenly, she's walking over to the guy and wanting to strike up a conversation with him. She doesn't know where this sudden pull to talk with him at this exact moment came from, but she wants to run in the opposite direction that she's headed.

  Too late, though. She reaches the dumpsters and sits near him cross-legged. Smiling at him, she says, "I'm Maya."