Photograph [Maya Hart]

11 ~ the bakery

Harley nodded.

***

After school ended that day, Maya grabbed Harley's wrist and dragged him to the bakery, making sure he came and didn't ditch them last minute.

"Can you let go of my wrist now?" Harley demanded when they finally got to the bakery.

"Yes," Maya said, letting go of him.

"Thanks," Harley said, rubbing his wrist. "Where are the others?"

He looked around at the tables, but none of their friends were there yet.

"Oh," Maya said, her face dropping realizing that they weren't there.

"I guess we left them at school," Maya said.

"I guess so," Harley agreed.

He got a few texts from Cassie, asking where he disappeared off too as well as a few texts from his mother and James.

"Yup, Cassie is on her way," Harley informed Maya as he responded to his best friend's texts. "So are the others," he added.

Harley began responding to his mother's and James's texts as he sat down at the group's usually spot.

He dropped his backpack next to him, reading his mother's response.

Maya sat next to him and glanced at his phone.

"Who're you texting?" she asked.

"My mom," Harley said.

"If you - if you don't mind me asking," Maya said, "but what happened to your dad?"

"Oh, um," Harley hesitated.

"I completely understand if you don't want to talk about it," Maya said.

"I, uh," Harley said, "this piece of information has to wait."

Maya nodded, understandingly.

"Speaking of fathers," Harley said, "what happened to yours, if you want to talk about it."

"He left my mom and me when I was little," Maya said.

He looked at her, finally.

"It was just me and her for years," Maya said. 

"I'm sorry," Harley said.

"It's fine," Maya shrugged.

Despite her not showing it, Harley knew what she was feeling. It was obvious to him that even though it happened a long time ago, being abandoned by her father still affects her.

"So, um -" Maya began.

Right at that moment, their friends finally showed up.

"Where did you guys go off too?" Riley demanded. "You two just disappeared."

"Yeah, Maya," Harley looked at Maya with a smile on his face, "where did we go off too?"

Maya glared at Harley.

"Just making sure that Harley didn't ditch us," Maya shrugged.

"And I ditched everyone but you in the process," Harley pointed out.

Maya glared at him again and this time, she punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. 

"Oh, did it hurt?" she mocked him.

"Yes, it did," Harley said. 

"Oh, too bad," she continued to mock him.

Cassie looked between the two.

Harley noticed the expression on her face.

"I'm, uh, I'm gonna order something," Harley said, getting up.

"Yeah, me too," Cassie said.

She dropped her backpack next to Harley's and followed Harley to the counter.

"What's going on between you and Maya?" Cassie asked.

"What do you mean?" Harley said, turning around to face Cassie.

"You know what I mean," Cassie said. "Is there something going on between you two?"

"I have no idea," Harley shrugged. 

"Do you like her?" she raised her eyebrow.

"I don't know," Harley shrugged. "She seems... I don't know."

Cassie stared at him, biting her lip.

"Can we not talk about this?" Harley requested. "Please."

"Fine," Cassie gave in.

Harley turned to order. 

Harley and Cassie placed their order and went back to join their friends and joined in their conversation. 

A few minutes later, the waitress, Katie, who is also Maya's mother, brought Harley and Cassie what they had ordered and the two thanked her.

The group spent the entire afternoon at the bakery, working on their homework and hanging out.

Once it started becoming dark outside, Lexi began texting Harley to come back home and pick up Peter from his friend's apartment on his way home.

"I, uh, I gotta go home," Harley said, looking up from his phone. 

"Already?" Riley said, disappointedly.

"Yeah, sorry," he said. "I need to pick up my brother and... I'll see you guys tomorrow at school."

Harley packed his things and said goodbye to his friends.

Harley put in his earphones and began listening to music from his phone as he headed to pick Peter up and head home.

Lexi was home when Harley and Peter got home. They found her at the dining table, with papers scattered across the table as she went over all of her contracts and paperwork.

"Hey, Lexi," Harley greeted her.

"Hi," Peter said.

"Hey, guys," Lexi said, glancing up at them.

"Where's Mom?" Peter asked, noticing that Elizabeth wasn't home.

"Did she come home yet?" Harley raised his eyebrows.

"She's still on set," Lexi said.

"Oh," Peter said, disappointedly.

"I'm sure she'll be back home," Lexi assured the 12 year old.

"Yeah," he said, sadly. "I'm gonna go to my room."

"Did you have dinner yet?" Lexi asked Peter.

"Yeah, I did," he shrugged as he headed to his room.

"Is he okay?" Lexi asked.

"He was fine when I picked him up," Harley shrugged. "I don't... I don't know what happened to him."

Lexi looked to Peter's bedroom door. She abandoned her work and headed into the bedroom to talk to him.

Harley took a deep breath and went into his bedroom.