two young hearts

03

in which Lucas wants Maya to buy an apartment with him and doesn't understand why she's so opposed to it; juniors.

+ + +

"Maya, I need to ask you something." Lucas wonders if she can hear his heart hammering in his chest and hopes desperately that she can't. She glances up from her painting for half a second before continuing to brush red strokes across the canvas.

"Well, this sounds serious," Maya dips her brush in the cup of water set beside her easel and swirls it around, admiring the way the water fogs into a light red color. "Does it require my full attention, or can I keep painting?"

"Keep painting," Lucas dismisses. He's sat across from Maya, because she told him he can't see her painting until she's finished. Lucas has no clue as to what the painting is, but so far she's used a lot of orange and yellow and even more red, and he just wants her to be done so he can look at it. She's probably been working on it for half an hour.

"Okay, what's up, huckleberry? You seem nervous." She frowns, inspecting a skinny paintbrush before using it to create thin black lines.

"What? No, I'm fine." He doesn't even believe himself, and he has no idea why he's so nervous about this anyway. Maya practically lives in his room most of the time anyway, since Shawn moved in with her and Katy. She comes over after gymnastics practice every day, and doesn't leave until dinner. Sometimes, on Thursdays, she stays for taco salad night because it's her favorite and Lucas' mother always lets her take home the leftovers. She has a toothbrush next to Lucas' in the holder that she made fun of him endlessly for having, and a drawer full of paints and brushes in his dresser.

Of course, a whole apartment together would be much more responsibility. There would be bills and dishes and laundry and cooking, but most importantly there would be her. And that's all Lucas really wants.

"Alright, spit it out," Maya says impatiently. She's making long strokes of black now, across the top of the canvas. "But first, can you pass me the glitter paint?" He reaches for it, handing the bottle to her and watching as she squeezes the glitter onto yet another sized brush.

"Will you move in with me?" Lucas blurts it out quickly and isn't even sure he actually said it until Maya freezes.

She's quiet for a solid minute until her phone lights up.

"Oh, Riley wants me to come over so we can work on our physics project," Maya makes eye contact with Lucas briefly before starting to clean up her art supplies. "I'll leave this here to dry overnight and take it home tomorrow, is that okay?" Lucas nods, not sure why she's in such a hurry to leave. "Thanks, Ranger Rick. See you in the morning." She kisses his lips softly and grabs her backpack, swinging it over her shoulder before leaving swiftly.

What just happened?

+ + +

"He what?" Riley shrieks. Maya covers her ears, cringing. "Maya, that's huge!"

"Yeah," Maya says quietly, opening the fridge to retrieve a water bottle. Riley has a large grin on her face and her hands are doing that weird jazz thing that happens when she gets excited.

"We should sing our happy song!" She exclaims. Maya rolls her eyes.

"We don't have a happy song."

"We should have a happy song."

"We will never have a happy song."

"Not with that attitude," Riley scolds playfully. They've had this conversation thousands of times, every time something Riley considers fantastic happens (which is often). It's a tradition that stuck ever since eighth grade. Noticing her best friend's expression, Riley's smile fades. "Maya, why aren't you happy? You kinda live with him anyway. And this is big, he's asking you to move in with him!"