Road Trip [#Wattys2015]

Chapter 10

It's been exactly twenty minutes since Maia left to go find Jackson. And for exactly twenty minutes, I've been walking around trying to wrap my head around what the hell had happened. First we were talking about song lyrics and then her hands were on my neck and mine were on her back, and then my brain started screaming again, a feeling I hadn't missed, get your hands off Maia Everson! She's like your sister this is disgusting! My brain went on and on about how this could be ruining my friendship with her and Jackson and also how awkward it was going to be when we broke the kiss and lastly how complicated it was gonna make everything, but I preferred to focus on the fact that she still tasted like milkshake and her hands were still cold from the glass.

And that's when her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pushed me back.

"It's Jackson." She informed me while typing something. That reminded me to check my phone, 5 missed calls from Jackson E., that can't be good.

"He got lost." Maia continued. "I'm gonna go find him." And with that she left, not making any eye contact with me during this conversation what so ever, and I was grateful she didn't.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I felt glad I had taken it off silent mode. A part of me kinda wished it was from Maia but I made it go hide in the back of my mind. This was way too much to think of, I needed more time.

Jackson E.: Maia found me and we're back at the hotel. We're thinking of getting some sleep and you should to because we have a lot to do tomorrow ;)

I cringed because I knew what the winky face at the end of the text meant, my date with Sidney. And even though I was trying to do the opposite, she was in the back of my mind were Maia was supposed to be. I sat on a bench next to a quiet guy who was reading a news paper, there was no way I was going back to that hotel now. Not until I was sure they were both asleep and since there wasn't much else I could think about, I let myself think about Maia.

When we first met was when two new kids came in our school because one of them had a scholarship. The one was thirteen and the other was my age so I hoped he would be in our classroom because I hated my friends. They hadn't done anything to me but they would always bully that chubby kid in the back or comment on girls butts even when they had their full attention. I was looking for a chance to ditch those ash holes and Jackson was it.

When I found out that he was going to be in our class I sat on that empty desk so he would have no other choice but to sit with me. We were both really eager to make new friends so we fitted together right away. I broke things off with my ash-hole friends, relieved that I was finally able to tell them how much I hated them without having the fear of being left alone, and hung out with Jackson on every break. And he was actually nice, nicer than I expected. He introduced me to some new kids from his German class and I really liked them to. My old friends tried to get back at me by saying things about my new gang but the coolest thing about them, they didn't care. And neither did I.

"You should come to my house today." Jackson told me one day. "So we can finish the project." I agreed and texted my mom to let her know what I was doing after school and took the bus with him to his house. When we walked in the Everson's had made dinner.

"Maia is in her room, she doesn't wanna eat." Miss Everson informed Jackson when he asked were his sister was. Geniuses, I thought. I didn't know her back then, I didn't know anything.

When we finished eating we went up to Jackson's room, talked for a while and then decided to start actually finish our English Project.

"The laptop's probably in Maia's room. Come with me." Jackson said and I followed him down the hole. He slammed a door open were a room, just as big as his was revealed. The walls were while but the lighting from a flickering lamp on a desk made them seem yellow. The floor was covered by papers with graphics and math equations on them and the trail of papers led up to a tiny figure which was working on one of them. I couldn't really see her face but I could tell how hard she was concentrating because she didn't even hear her bedroom door open

"Maia." Jackson snapped her out of whatever she was doing and her head jerked up to face me.

"Jackson I told you too keep your annoying friends out of my room." She dropped the paper and pen on her desk with a sight. I could see her face clearly now and man was she pissed. Jackson was looking around to find the laptop ignoring his really moody sister but I decided to mess with her.

"What if I was also your annoying friend, would I be allowed then?" She smiled at that and then quietly added.

"So we've verified the fact that you're annoying?" She said and for the first time I didn't have a response. "Great then," her smile got even bigger while I wasn't answering, she got to her feet and dug the laptop out of a bunch of papers. "Here" she handed it to Jackson "now get out."

Now I know why she was so pissed that day and why she didn't want to eat. She had left her two best friends behind when she moved out, and even though they had promised to keep in contact they seemed to have forgotten all about her. They were not texting or calling her, they were going to school events without telling her how they were, one of them even started dating her crush.

She explained all that to me the next day, I was at their house again because Jackson and I had gotten distracted by a cat video and didn't actually finish our project. She actually did come down for lunch that day and was in a much better mood which made me regret the harsh opinion I had of her being a pretentious know-it-all. I quickly replaced it with the new one which was that she's a funny and really smart girl that can do stuff with her brain that all of our schools Valid Victorians couldn't dream of doing.

We were not able to finish our project that day either because I spent more time in Maia's room than Jackson's.

Maia and I never hung out much at school because her class was at another floor and she had her own girl group to walk around with, but outside school we were kind of a package deal. We would blow off parties and school events together to sit behind and make fun of our classmates or compare each other to annoying side kick characters from movies and all this time it felt like we were the perfect definition of just friends.

I was not ready to change that. I was not ready to be in a relationship with the predictable ending of breaking up and then never speaking to her again. I wondered around for a bit longer thinking of topics to distract Maia from talking or thinking about what was about to happen half the time, and the other half I thought of some topics to distract myself from thinking about it. We were going to be fine, her and I are not made for that drama.

It was twelve o'clock so I decided it would be okay if I walked up to our hotel room again. I was crossing my fingers hoping they were both asleep as I was walking up stairs and thankfully they were. I buried myself under my beds covers and thought about something else, or at least tried.