Things Changed

Chapter 7

Maya's Pov:
As we were walking away, I turned around to look at Eric. When I looked, I saw Aria. I shook my head and kept walking. I hope this isn't what we think it is. We finally made it home. We walked through the door and saw my brother.
"Oh! Hey Max." I said walking into our home.
He turned and smiled at us. "Did you guys see Eric?"
"Uh. Yeah." I put my bag down beside me on the couch. "He was with Aria."
"I know. He told me before he left." He said as he was staring at his phone.
"YOU KNEW?!" I shouted. "AND YOU LET HIM GO?"
"Woah. Calm down. What happened while he was there?" Max looked at me shocked. "He was supposed to go there and end things for good."
I stared at him. Did we misunderstand?
"He didn't tell you the truth, dude," Jaz spoke up.
Max put down his phone and stared at us clueless.
"He promised me he wasn't going to get back with her." He sighed.
"Well he was holding her hand while they were talking, so I say he's lying to us," I complained.
We all sat there in silence. No one knew what to do, and no one had anything to say.
"I'm calling him. I want answers."  Max stood up and immediately called Eric.
The phone rang and rang, but no answer. He called again. We listened to the phone go straight to the answering machine again.
"He knows he's done wrong." Max sneered.
"We don't know the full story. There might be something we aren't seeing." I spoke softly as I stared at my feet. I felt bad for misunderstanding, but the actions didn't match. We sat there in silence again. We all hoped that they would never get back together, so this was upsetting to us.
"We should just wait it out. I'm sure the truth will show itself." Jaz spoke finally.
We all looked at each other and agreed. I got up from my spot and headed towards my room.
When I got up to my room, I ran and flopped on my bed. I grabbed my pillow and screamed into it.
Jaz entered my room and was entirely confused.
"You good?" She asked raising her brow at me.
"No. I'm not." I sat up looking at her as I ruffled my hair. "Why do I care about Eric? I hated him, so why do I care now?"
Jaz giggled.
"Are you sure you don't like him?"
I stared at her. I didn't like Eric. No way. He was the most irritating boy I'd ever met.
"Absolutely Not! EW!!!" I gagged at the thought.
"I'm just asking. From this point of view, that's just what it seems like." Jaz raised her hands surrendering.
"Not a chance. I can't stand him." I looked down at my hands. "I just don't like seeing him in pain."
Jaz shook her head as she walked towards the bed.
"That's always how it starts. However, right now with Aria in the picture again, I wouldn't advise you to try. Let's figure that out first."
I knew what she meant. It was a definite heartbreak situation. I laid back on my pillow and sighed. I knew we needed to wait it out and see, but I was impatient. I wanted him to call us and tell us it wasn't true. I wanted him to scream from the rooftops that he wasn't back with her. It wasn't going to happen because Eric had gone silent. It was like he'd disappeared. I didn't know it now, but this was going to become the new normal.

A few weeks had passed. Eric had missed a lot of classes and we were starting to worry about him. He had completely disappeared and it was concerning.
I was currently sitting at lunch with Jaz, Kevin, Jacob, and Max.
"I'm worried about him. This isn't normal at all." Max said staring at the 15 messages he'd sent Eric.
"We said to wait it out, but this wasn't what we expected." Kevin looked up from his lunch.
After a few days of Eric not responding, we called Kevin and Jacob. We told them everything and they were shocked. We had all decided to deal with this together and figure out the problem.
We were talking amongst ourselves when we heard a commotion on the other side of the cafeteria. We all turned to see what was happening. That's when we saw the person we were so worried about. Eric. And he was with no other than, Aria.
We stared at them watching their every move. He was holding her hand while they walked, but something was off about him. He was pale and skinnier than he used to be. He looked like the life had been sucked out of him.
"I should've bet money on this shit," Jaz said sarcastically.
"This isn't something to be joking about." I snapped. "He looks like death warmed over."
They had taken a seat at the table next to us when we all got up to leave. We needed to get Eric away from her and make him tell us what was happening.
We were about to leave when I heard my name be called. I turned around to see Jake, the cafe boy. I had forgotten to respond to him yesterday. I looked at him confused about why he was here.
"Maya!!" He said smiling as he ran up to me.
"Jake? What are you doing here?" I asked shocked to see him.
"I go to this school too! I knew you looked familiar." Jake's dimples peeked through as he smiled.
"That's crazy! How come I've never seen you?" I giggled.
"Probably because I'm in the music department." He sighed. "I actually know Jacob and Kevin. We're in the same class."
"You know them?!" I looked while pointing toward Jacob and Kevin.
"Yeah. We know him, but how do you know each other?" They asked curiously.
"They met at the cafe. He's the boy I was talking about hitting on your sister." Jaz giggled as she nudged Max with her shoulder.
Max was just staring at Jake when I broke the silence.
"Why don't you hang out with us today? That's if you don't have classes later." I grinned widely.
"I don't have any more classes, so if it's cool with your friends, I'd love to!" He motioned to everyone standing there.
I looked around. Everyone shook their heads agreeing for him to join except one person, Max. I stared at him basically pleading with my eyes. Finally, Max gave in and shook his head.
"It's settled then. Let's go!" I said locking arms with Jaz as we walked away. We didn't notice that someone was watching this entire interaction.