Beautiful Lives

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Brother (NEEDTOBREATHE)

"Hey girlie," Maya shouted through the phone. I reclined onto my bed, holding my cell slightly out from my ear so I didn't break my eardrums. Maya was many things, but quiet was definitely not one of them.

"Is there anything going on this weekend?" I asked, drumming my fingers absentmindedly on my stomach. "I'm going so stir crazy without you guys,"

The end of winter break was approaching, and much to my disappointment, my friends had been absent for the majority of the holiday. Maya had just returned from a ten-day trip to Cuba with her parents, and Sebastian was off visiting family until the second day back at school. Adam and Toby had been on a road-trip as well, so the only people left in town were Sydney, and Nate. I hadn't even considered texting him after our kiss at Sebastian's party – Sydney had become even more poisonous the morning after, so I could only assume she'd realized something was up. I didn't want to risk causing World War 3 just to get out of the house for a few hours.

"I think Toby's having the gang over, just a casual thing, but it's at least something," Maya announced. I narrowed my eyebrows.

"How would you even know that? I've never heard you and Toby exchange two words."

"I dunno, I think Adam told me or something," she said, suddenly brisk. "Whatever,"

"Maya!" I cried, sitting bolt upright. "Do you have a crush on Toby?"

"No!" she responded harshly. "Of course I don't, he's nothing like me,"

Maya had been an amazing friend all year – she'd supported me through all of the drama with Nate, and helped make sure I was welcomed at all times. But I still had a surprisingly small amount of information about her – I knew she loved to party, and she had a weird obsession with horses (that one she'd only admitted while drunk), but other than that, we rarely talked about her love interests, or deep secrets. It wasn't that I wasn't interested, it just seemed that she was too preoccupied with living the moment to think about her feelings. Maybe that was what brought on the wave of determination to be there for her when she seemed so helpless.

"Hey, if you do, I'm not going to judge you," I promised her. She exhaled loudly, and I could hear her moving around on her bed.

"I don't know, I never feel this way," she complained. "I mean, I do one-night stands, not relationships. But that kiss at Sebastian's house..."

"Well there's always a chance he feels the same way. Why don't you just ask him about it?"

"I've been texting him all break, but I don't think he's really reciprocating, he's just texting me back to be polite," she said, sounding a little disappointed.

"You're never going to know unless you talk about it," I said. "Just let it come up naturally, you don't have to corner him and tell him you love him,"

"Oh god," Maya burst out laughing. "Could you imagine? He'd probably never speak to me again,"

"You'll be fine," I reassured her. "Just be yourself, who couldn't love that?"

"Lexi..." she sighed heavily. "Where have you been all my life?"

* * *

As it turned out, Maya was right about Toby's party on the weekend. He texted me later that day with the details, and I quickly made arrangements with my mom. She'd been a lot more relaxed since Thanksgiving, and I could tell that our fight and subsequent talk that night had really taken a load off of her mind.