And Then She Stopped

chapter twenty-two

Lucas tapped his pencil against the spine of his notebook, struggling to keep his eyes open throughout the last few minutes of class. The teacher was droning on about the importance of natural lighting and camera angles which best utilize the light during specific times of the day. Eric, the boy who sat next to Lucas, kept shoving him with his elbow to get him to turn off his phone. Lucas' phone was on vibrate sitting screen down on the table, and it kept buzzing with notifications. This caused the table to slightly shake, thus causing Eric to wake up and hence the nudging. Eventually Lucas just shoved his phone into his backpack and forgot all about it.

The seven minute bell rang and Lucas was one of the first people from Abigail to shoot up from their chair and rush out to the bus. His bus rides were now silent, Maya was not resting her head on his shoulder, where it so perfectly fit, and Maya was not there to talk to him about...anything, everything. Regardless of her absence, Lucas still made his way to their back seat by the wheel where he promptly placed his backpack where Maya would usually take her place and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the top rim of the seat. He must've fallen asleep because before he knew it people were bumping into him in the aisle to rush out to their other bus or their cars. Groggily, Lucas gathered his things and joined the line outside. Lucas had started to march out to his car when he spotted Riley and Farkle through the window of the school. Riley had her arms wrapped around herself and a look of worry sunken into her face while Farkle couldn't seem to keep still. He was running his hand through his hair, shoving his hands into his pockets, and dancing as if he had to pee. Curious, Lucas decided to figure out what was going on. He pushed through the front doors of the school and made the trek over to the area of the building he'd seen Farkle and Riley. As he approached he heard his name mentioned various times so he decided to chime in.

"Hey guys." He smiled as he looped his thumb underneath the strap of his backpack. Riley immediately stormed up to him and slugged him in the arm.

"Where the hell have you been?" She demanded, looking surprisingly cross. Lucas put his hands up and took a step back from Riley,

"Woah there, language little lady." He chuckled, not used to hearing Riley swear. She tucked her hair behind her ears and she slunk back to Farkles side.

"We've been texting you for the past hour Lucas," Farkle looked at Riley who now looked about on the brink of tears. Instinctively Farkle brought her into a partial hug, still maintaining eye contact with Lucas, "Maya texted both of us. We think somethings wrong."

Lucas threw his backpack onto the ground and hastily dug through it looking for where he'd crammed his phone. When he finally found it he fumbled to unlock his screen and open up his messages. Sure enough, there it was. One new message from Maya. Just as he had stopped getting in the habit of constantly checking his phone. His thumb hovered over the notification, not sure if he wanted to know what the message said.

"What did she say to you two? Was it the same message for both of you?" He asked, looking up at them from his position on the floor. Farkle was first to respond, his arm still wrapped around Riley,

"When we were kids, one night we were playing together and we both just stopped to gaze at this gorgeous, vibrant light in the sky. It seemed to flicker – red, blue and white. And that's because it did. We were just kids then so we didn't know it was an airplane, we thought it was a star. That night Maya looked at me and she told me that that was our star. That if we're ever apart we can just look at our star. That night is actually what got me into astronomy in the first place." He started, sighing and looking up at the ceiling before he continued, "Her message to me said, 'look up, I'm with our star'." Lucas knit his eyebrows in confusion and turned his focus over to Riley who was looking down at her shoes.

"She told me that she'll always be in our window." She barely croaked out. They all sat there in silence for a minute, then Riley broke away from Farkle and angrily flailed her arms around as she spoke, "Would you just read the message already?" She all but screamed at him. Quickly, before he could change his mind, Lucas hit the message and read it aloud.

M: I'm afraid that some times

You'll play lonely games too

Games you can't win

'cause you'll play against you

Lucas looked up from his phone screen and saw the confused looks on his friends faces, "It's a quote from Oh the Places You'll Go. We read it together in a library." He clarified looking back down at the text, trying not to be confused by the riddle that is Maya Hart. "Should we go to her house?" Lucas asked.

"No," Farkle blurted, "No the last time we went we saw everything she spent her life hiding from us, we can't invade her privacy again."

"I want to go." Riley spoke after a brief moment of silence, "If somethings wrong I don't want to find out by stumbling across it I want her to know that I care enough to look." Lucas nodded along. Farkle was still opposed to what was essentially breaking into Maya's apartment and decided to just head home while Riley and Lucas started off to Maya's place.

The exterior of the apartment was just as dreary as always, Lucas wondered how he always managed to overlook how worn down it was – maybe because he was always with Maya when he came and her smile can brighten up any area. He smiled as he hiked up the stairs thinking about what it'd be like to see a comedy with Maya, to hear her adorable little laugh echoing throughout a theatre.

"Alright dream boat let's keep moving." Riley said gently pushing on Lucas' back and startling him. He was so caught up in his fantasy he didn't even notice he stopped walking.

Finally they made their way up to her apartment, and the door unlocked as it usually was. Lucas was the one to push through the stiff door and when he got in the mug of different alcohols was so thick he could've sworn he could see it seeping out the door. The pair carefully stepped around broken glass and garbage until they found themselves in front of Maya's door. It was Riley, this time, who opened the door. She expected the door to be locked but it swung open with ease. Her bedroom looked exactly like it did every other time Riley came to visit. Crack running along the ceiling, mold in the corner, stain on the mattress, and yet it felt so empty. As if the moment Maya decided she wasn't going to come back to this place – if even just for a little while – she took the spirit with it, everything that made this bedroom feel like someone alive slept in the bed every night. Impulsively Riley began to rummage, it's what she does when she's nervous. She had pulled open a drawer and seen her name on a paper when Lucas gently pulled her away,

"She's not hiding in there Riles, come on, I'll drive you home." He led her out the door but curiosity tinged Riley's mind, she couldn't help but wonder what those papers were – and why her name was on one.