complicated → zaya (hiatus)

o3.

a/n; new setting. we fast forward to the end of dance camp and we see what happens when they part.

"everything happened fast.
it was all so complicated
I just didn't know what to do"

• • •
maya

last day. it's the last day of camp, my last day with zay, the last day for before I see my friends. we are at breakfast right now, we are supposed to be picked up in less than an hour and a half. after breakfast we just chill and wait around for our rides.

"happy to finally get outta here?" zay and I have grew close. really close, I may or may not have stated to have slight ~romantic~ feelings, but I don't say anything, I don't want to ruin the friendship. "happy to see my other friends. not to happy about leaving you. what are you gonna do for the rest of summer?"

zay looks at me, then at his feet before responding. "nothing. probably just lying around." before I get the chance to respond I see that I have a text. it's from the volunteer leader, one of the people going to Haiti to volunteer is sick, and she wanted to know if I knew anyone. just as I want about to text back, I realized something. "hey zay. how would you feel about going somewhere with me. it's for two weeks, volunteer stuff. then when we get back you could hang with me and my friends."

zay doesn't say anything, he just smiles. he takes out his phone and starts texting, I suppose it's to his parents informing them of our trip.

"where we going?"

• • •

"no. maya, I don't like air planes. you can't make me go on this, I refuse." zay, not being the brightest, didn't know we would have to take a plane to get to haiti. he assumed we were going by boat. ugh, boys. "zay, it's gonna be fine. I've been on these things hundreds of
times." I say, trying to relax him. he's going on this trip no matter what.

after a couple long breathes and ten minutes of convincing, zay agrees. we wait for our plane to be called.

"flight 02685 to Haiti is boarding now." we hear over the loud speaker. I look at zay, standing up and grabbing my bags. I grab his arm to make him stand while he grabs his bag and we hesitantly walk towards the loading dock. after the long wait to get into the plane, we take our seats. after more waiting, we finally start to take off.

"nope, can't do it. maya get me off this plane," zay pleads. I giggle a little, relaxing back on my seat, arms resting on the arm rests. we start to lift up and I feel something cold and solid touch my hand. I open my eyes and look down at my hand, to see zay holding it. I look over at him and he has his eyes shut, trying not to flip out. "zay, you're gonna be fine, I promise."

for the next hour zay is asleep, and I'm watching a movie, all while zay holds my hand, I don't know if he's too afraid to let go, or he just doesn't want to. after another half hour, I finish my movie and try to sleep.

• • •

I wake up to the feeling and sound of turbulence. I open my eyes, without moving the rest of my body. it took me a couple second to realize I was lying on zay's shoulder. without moving my head I see him doing something on his phone, which means he's awake. he's awake and he's not moving me off his shoulder. I continue to lay on his shoulder while he does whatever on his phone, not moving a muscle because I don't want him to know I'm awake and then make everything awkward for the whole rest of the trip. after about five more minutes of resting, I casually lift my head off zay's shoulder and look at him. "morning, sleepy head." he speaks with a chuckle, not taking his eyes off his phone.

I nod while yawning, still not able to make words come out of my mouth from how tired I am. "how long was I asleep?" I asked, wanting to know how long the flight will be. "well," zay responds, "I woke up after about an hour and a half, and you feel asleep around the time I woke up, so 4 hours."

FOUR HOURS. I was asleep on zays shoulder for four hours, and he didn't move me? why wouldn't he move my head. whatever. if we've been on the plane for 5 and a half hours, we should be there in one hou- "attention passengers. we will be arriving in haiti in one hour. I repeat, we will be arriving in Haiti in one hour". and I was right.

• • •

"Maria!!!!" I shout as zay and I exit the cab we took to meet up with the other volunteers. maria is the volunteer leader, and she's a close family friend. I've known her basically my whole life, she's 5 or 6 years older than me.

"maya it's so good to see you," she says while turning to zay, "and you must be isaiah. it's lovely to meet you." she says shaking his hand. "it's nice to meet you as well, and you can call me zay."

"I'll show you to where you'll be staying. maya the only bed available was a king sized bed, so would it be absolutely terrible if you guys shared one?" maria pleaded. "of course, that should be fine," I respond back to her, turning to zay, " right zay?". he nods.

maria shows us to our room and leaves while saying, "I'll see y'all at dinner. it's at 8:30.". zay starts unpacking his clothes and I do the same. there's only one dresser so we divided them. o get three, he gets two because I have more clothes. I take all my makeup and hair stuff and put it in the bathroom even though I won't be wearing makeup the majority of the two weeks, but to dinner and on the second to last day we go out to dinner and do other fun stuff. last year we went to an adult arcade that had tons of virtual reality stuff and it was amazing. this year I think we are gonna play laser tag.

I finish unpacking and zay takes a shower while I practice sketching. after 15 minutes he comes out with no shirt on. wow. he has a six pack, and I was not expecting it. he gets fully dressed and I get changed in the bathroom and we are off to dinner.

• • •

we finally make it back to our room after dinner and we are both a little tired. I take off the little makeup I have on and put my hair into a messy bun. I then put on my pjs and wash my face. I grab my sketchbook and graphite pencil and start sketching while zay also prepares for bed. he jumps on the super comfortable king sized bed we have to share and looks at my drawing. "you're really good you know." he says. I give a small smile back. "I'd be amazing if you were as good at doing your hair as you were at drawing." this time I jokingly kick him in the arm and laugh. "like you could do any better. I suck at braiding." i say back.

"well, come sit in front of me. I can french, dutch, fishtail, and waterfall braid." hold up. he can do all that? "you don't even have hair how did you learn to do all those?" I question, while moving to sit in front of him bringing my sketch book with me. "I have 3 little sisters."

I continue to sketch as zay dutch braids my hair. every time he touches my head to pick up hair, it sends a shock of warmth and joy through my entire body. what is happening to me. I have a thing with a guy, I like him, sort of. I tolerate him. I honestly don't know why
I'm with him but I am. but I feel something for zay, not so much as romantic feelings, but like an infatuation.

zay finishes my hair and I go and put my sketchbook down on the desk. "is it okay if I sleep without a shirt on?" zay asks me. I simply nod and climb under the covers. zay takes off his shirt and does it as well. while reaching for the light, he speaks again "goodnight maya."

"goodnight zay."

okayyyy ! so hi again, I would like to dedicate this chapter to the like, two ppl who nominated this book for the summer gmw book awards in the best zaya book category bc that means a lot to me, this being one of my favorite books and all. I very much appreciate it and I'm sorry this chapter as taken so long to publish, but I made it a long one !!