fireproof (lucaya)

chapter 1.

"I swear, Riley, it was the worst thing ever!"

Her friend Riley looks at her with an amused smile on her face. "What? A guy hitting on you is the worst thing ever?" Before Maya could answer for herself, she continues, "Maya, you have 4 jobs in a day, your boss practically cusses you every single day, you get F's during college like, practically every single damn time, and you're saying to me , having a guy hit on you is the 'worst thing ever'?"

"Actually, I got a B on my last test," Maya says nonchalantly, earning a slap on the arm from the brunette sitting next to her. Maya cringes. "Okay, okay, I may have exaggerated a little bit but it's true! I don't like getting hit, okay Riley? You may like it, but no one ever does that to you, so you have no idea how it feels."

"I hope you meant that as a compliment," Riley makes a face.

"Actually, it is. You got yourself a boyfriend who would actually protect you from getting hit by strangers. Not a lot of people have that you know."

Riley beams. "Yeah, I know. Oh, by the way, did you know Farkle got me tickets to see broadway for tomorrow? Isn't he the sweetest?"

Maya rolls her eyes, but she can't bring herself to feel annoyed at her best friend when she's all excited and smiley like this. "That's great of Farkle," she comments with a small smile on her face. Riley smiles back, happy to get the approval of her best friend. "Wait does that mean we can't hang out tomorrow? But tomorrow's our girl night!"

Riley frowns apologetically, "I'm sorry Maya, but hey! You're getting a 2 weeks break after this right? We can have as much girl nights as we want!"

Maya wants to point out that she's probably going to spend that special 14 days camping out drinking tea and coffees at Starbucks but for the sake of their friendship, Maya smiles. "Sure."

-----

So the next day, instead of having a girls' night with Riley - comfy inside her pjs and under her blankets - Maya goes out. As much as she wants to do that, she doesn't like being inside the flat alone. Besides, she also doesn't want to be there when Riley comes home (Riley usually comes home with Farkle after watching broadways, and they tend to get, uh, flirty as well)

So she goes out.

Maya admits, New York at night is beautiful. Okay sure, the crowds tend to get really really annoying but she always enjoys walking around the big city at night surrounded by the colorful lights.

She passes Starbucks, and is about to go in when she suddenly stops. She doesn't want to see that guy again today, and she's not in the mood to get hit on again.

"Oh well, bye Starbucks," she says. Starbucks is one of Maya's favorite places in the world, but surely she could skip it once in a while, if it meant not seeing that boy again.

Fortunately, there's another coffee shop near the place, so Maya decides to go in. It's not as comfy as Starbucks, but it's a coffee shop so eh, Maya doesn't really care.

Just as she was about to sit, she gets surprised by a voice behind her. "Oh my god."

She knows that voice (how she wished she doesn't) and she knows who was behind her.

"Oh hey," she fakes a smile as she turns her head to see him. The boy who drops her tea yesterday. The boy she was hoping she wouldn't meet today.

I should've gone to Starbucks, Maya mentally slaps herself.

"You're the girl who got mad at me yesterday for dropping your tea right?" he says, smiling, completely oblivious to how Maya looks like she was about to die.

"Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout that," not really.

"Oh, it's okay, that was kind of my fault anyway." kind of? Maya rolls her eyes. "Can I buy you coffee - to make up for yesterday-"

"You already did," Maya says, smiling. "I think I'm going to go now, Starbucks, uh, calling me."

"Don't be silly! This coffee shop is far better than Starbucks," he grins at her.

"How can you say that?" She's ticked off now.

"They have really good coffee," this boy says, smiling. "And they don't cost that much as well. Why don't you just try? It's on me."

"I don't even know your name!" Maya says. "What if you poisoned the coffee and kill m-"

"Relax, wow," the boy says. "I'm Lucas Friar. There. So you'll know who to blame if you suddenly died here after drinking this coffee. So?"

"Uh, yeah sure," Maya answers awkwardly. "This isn't a date right? and you won't like, do stuff -"

"What did I tell you to do? Relax. People knows me here. I'm alright. By the way, I haven't got your name yet."

"It's Maya. Maya P. Hart."

"Maya," the name rolls off his tongue smoothly. "Nice. What does the P stand for? Pretty, like the woman who has the name?"

"Stop it!" Maya says, her cheeks are red (not sure why. It could be because she's flattered but maybe it's just because she's getting really annoyed at this boy in front of her.) "It's Penelope. There. Happy?"

"Kind of," Lucas grins.