the only exception, a maya hart story

t w e n t y - t h r e e

My feet thudded against the staircase with echoes that seemed to come from every direction pointed at me. An ominous mood encircled me as I tried to calm myself down enough that I wouldn't have a full blown anxiety attack right there on the staircase.

Social anxiety was the worst. Most things were normal. But other stupid things like buying clothes from stores and not having my money ready in time at the register and new people approaching me in new places will cause me to nearly hyperventilate.

Does my face still look blotchy?

I wonder if Lucas will be at breakfast.

What will we talk about if he is?

What will we talk about if he isn't?

I'm literally the biggest fucking idiot ever.

I made the right decision.

No, I didn't. He's gone now.

That' s a good thing.

NO, it's not.

I finally had to shut my brain off so I wouldn't hear the echoing opposing arguments within my head constantly raging on while I tried to forge normal conversations with others around me.

I was mere footsteps away from the kitchen.

Why am I so stressed?

Because you're going to fuck up and look like an idiot in front of him.

So!?

SO you'll look like an idiot!

I stopped walking right before I rounded the turn to enter the room. I tried to survey the voices in the room before me.

"You know what Riley would do if she was here? Put ketchup on this leftover MacNCheese.. I'll never ever ever ever understand that about her," a voice sounded from the kitchen.

Farkle. It was clearly him.

"Aw, the sugarplum and the idiot genius together. How cute!" another voice teased as the clinking of forks echoed on bowls.

Zay. I would recognize his cute teasing anywhere.

"Shut up, you're both ignorant twerps. And for the record, ketchup and MacNCheese is delicious. You wouldn't know though because you're both too wussy to try it," a metallic sounded voice said as the sound waves reverberated through the kitchen. It almost sounded like the voice was on speakerphone. The voice was extremely familiar. It had the same exact breaks in the voice and enunciation of the vowels as a voice I'd been hearing for years. The same tendencies to not use real curse words because the person behind the voice was too innocent to try a real one.

Riley.

I slowly turned the corner into the kitchen and wandered aimlessly towards the apparent sound of Riley's metallic voice. There sat Farkle and Zay. With an open computer in front of them, they snapped their heads back towards me at the sound of my bare footsteps on the immaculate tile floor.

"There's my girl," Zay said quickly as he smiled seeing my presence.

I felt the blood rush to my face when I processed his words. My girl.

Calm down, Maya. Why do you even care?

"Welcome to our breakfast surprise... HERE IS MS. RILEY MATTHEWS," Farkle clapped slowly as he moved away from in front of the computer to reveal my best friend's face staring back at me from the computer screen.