It's About Time (GMW - Joshaya)

Chapter 25 Part 1

Josh's POV

"Please Maya, wait," I let out a sigh and softly grabbed her waist. It wasn't to be aggressive; it was to hold on to her for one last time. This was my last hope.

She abruptly shook me off her and then spoke, fighting back her tears. "I said goodbye Josh. After this wedding, whatever this is, is done. Let's just get through this wedding for Cory and Topanga and let things go."

I watched her climb clumsily out the window. More tears started to stream down my face.

"I love you Maya...oh and by the way, I'm moving back to New York. I got a promotion and accepted under the conditions that I could be here with you," I muttered once she was out of earshot.

She shuffled quickly down the street.

"Fuck!" I realized I was standing here moping and what I needed to do was go after her. I carefully stepped out the window and went down the fire escape step by step. I wasn't used to this whole fire escape thing. I grew up in Philly and lived in a two-story house. There was never really much opportunity to climb down fire escapes. Plus, I only lived in New York for a couple of years and by then, I was too afraid of heights to even try it.

By the time I reached the ground, I had lost Maya in the crowd of people bustling around the streets of New York. I pushed through a couple people and saw her blonde hair bouncing around as she speed walked. I jogged to get closer to her. Not even looking as I crossed the street, a car came to a screeching halt next to me. I pat my hands on the hood of the taxi to steady myself. I mouthed sorry and kept running. As I went up the curb, I twisted my bad ankle slightly. "Fuck!" I quietly mumbled to myself.

I kept going with a slight limp in my step as I thought about the time I hurt this ankle.

Josh's Flashback (3 1/2 years ago)

Today was my college graduation. Thank God. I don't think I could go through any more years of school and homework. I was so over it at this point. I would definitely miss my friends--there is no doubt about that--this included Maya especially.
Having her at NYU for the last year was great. I had never grown so close to someone in a matter of months. Although to be quite fair our relationship, whatever it was, has been years in the making. But within those months, the progression was exponential. Maya and I had so many "almost moments." All of which resulted in some sort of disruption. Whether it be me, or her, or Riley, or whomever. It was definitely frustrating but all worth it.
I was excited for this weekend. The most important people in my life were coming back to my house in Philly for the weekend to celebrate.
The day started with a long, boring ceremony. The usual: Blah. Blah. Blah. Today begins the rest of your lives. Blah. Blah. Blah. I will now announce the New York University Graduating Class. Blah. Blah. Blah. Joshua Matthews. Blah. Blah. Blah. Congrats. ***Cue the graduation song (whatever that is called)***
Following the graduation ceremony was about a 20 minutes venture to find all of my friends and family. Once I finally found everybody, I was bombarded by a million hugs and kisses. The real sappy stuff. Which of course led to an obnoxious amount of pictures. And not just one picture with each person but like 5 identical pictures before moving on to the next person or pose. It was tedious and tiring; my mouth felt like it was going to crumble from all of the smiling. It felt like I was being attacked by paparazzi. I had to take countless pictures with each individual person and varied groups; EVERYTHING was a production with this family. But to be honest, I didn't mind on this day. I knew my childhood was officially over as of today.
I previously thought that college marked the end of my childhood, but once I adjusted to living away from my parents, I realized I was probably more of a child than ever.
My days consisted of naps, bowls of Mac n Cheese, wanting to constantly eat junk food and watch tv, feeling completely lost half the time (and learning to be okay with it), becoming friends with random strangers, etc. College actually wasn't that bad and I definitely grew up quite a bit even though I tended to revert back to my childhood tendencies.
Mixed in with those endless pictures from the graduation ceremony are two of my favorite pictures. Both with me and Maya in them. Her skin was slightly tanned and her hair was extra shiny and golden. She wore a delicate, lacy sundress that was white; better yet, she looked stunning in it. It hugged her curves perfectly even though she always complained about how much she hated them.

But besides how beautiful she looked, it was the story behind the pictures that I loved.
Right before these pictures, everyone had began to leave the ceremony, but I was distracted as I looked through the pictures on Shawn's fancy schmancy camera. Everyone was a little ways ahead of me when an elbow nudge to my arm knocked me out of my thoughts.
"You coming Boing?" Maya asked.
"Uhh yea."
Of all of the pictures taken, I noticed that I hadn't taken one with her yet.
"Hey Maya. I never got a picture with you."
"Eh it's fine, we can take one later this weekend. Everyone is already so far ahead of us," she nodded her head in the direction everyone from our group was walking
"Awww come on, this moment only happens once in a lifetime," I gave her the puppy dog face and prayed that my pouty lips and sad blue eyes would do enough convincing.
"Fine," Maya gave in but then continued, "you're a softy you know that Matthews?"
"Maybe. But you love me anyways," I winked playfully at her. "Hey Zach! Do me a favor can you take a picture of us real quick," I asked my friend who was standing nearby. We had Computer Aided Design class together sophomore year.
"Sure," he replied.
I grabbed Maya by the hand and pulled her close to me. I put my arm around her shoulder and she wrapped her arms around my waist. As Zach was about to snap the pictures, Maya stretched up on her tippy toes and kissed my cheek. Zach captured the scene of Maya kissing my cheek and my surprised smile in response. Right after she kissed my cheek, I playfully tickled her sides. In this moment, Zach snapped the second picture and caught the two of us candidly laughing.
"Thanks man," I took the camera back to look back at the pictures.
"No problem dude. I'll see ya around," Zach said even though we probably won't see each other...at least not like we used to.
Maya and I stood there admiring the pictures.
"Damn, look at that cutie," I gasped.
"Awww, thanks," Maya beamed.
"Oh shit. I was talking about me, but I guess you're not that bad either," she shoved my shoulder a little.
"I'm really gonna miss you Josh," she said out of nowhere.
"I'll only be a couple hours away. Plus, I'll be back to visit and you guys can come visit me. You better come visit or we're not friends anymore."
"Maybe I won't come visit then," she said with a smirk. But then I realized what she meant: she didn't want to be friends anymore. She wanted to be more.
Right as I was about to break the silence, Maya beat me to the chase, "We should probably go. Everyone is probably looking for us." She was twiddling her fingers as she spoke.
"Yea, you're right come on."
It was another "almost moment," but it was one of my favorites on one of the most important days of my life.
We walked close to each other as we met back up with the rest of the group. I shoulders and hands occasionally brushed, but I couldn't get up the courage to fully lock hands with her or tell her how I felt. I could tell that she was also feeling tense and nervous.
Dinner that night consisted of a buffet of all my favorite dishes. This buffet included my moms famous chicken cutlet, filet mignon, baked ziti, corn, carrots, peas, and homemade mashed potatoes.
After eating, I was stuffed. When it comes to your favorite foods, you can't just pick one, so I filled my plate with a little bit of everything.
While my parents, my siblings, their spouses, Shawn, and Katy sat around the living room chatting (they were carefully not to wake up any of the babies--Jo and Morgan were exhausted but pushed through to hang out), us "kids" we're outside playing man hunt. It was me, Riley, Lucas, Maya, Zay, Farkle, Smackle, and my best friends from high school/college  Julian, McKenzie, Ryan, Shailene, and Noah. Throughout the years I had stayed close to my friends from Philly, who also went to NYU and had grown much closer to Riley's friends (who had become my friends at this point). Julian and McKenzie have been going out since junior year of high school and Shailene and Noah have had this weird on and off relationship that started after our high school graduation--DISCLAIMER:they are on right now. Haha. The teams were divided as followed. Team 1: Julian, Shailene, me, Maya, Zay, and Smackle. Team 2: Ryan, McKenzie, Noah, Riley, Lucas, and Farkle.
(Flashback to be continued in part 2 of this chapter...)