Roommates & Soulmates

Maia's Confrontation

Maia wished Simon would let go of Izzy. Sure, Maia had no issues having Izzy for a roommate, but that didn't mean she thought Izzy was good for Simon. Maia was so certain that Simon would get hurt no matter how their little 'friends with benefits' thing ended. Backup orgasm indeed! The guy deserved so much better. After all, Simon had been able to convince her to hear Jordan out, which she'd believed to be an impossible task.

The problem was that Maia didn't know how she felt about Jordan anymore. Seeing him in the halls was messing with her resolve. Her memories were betraying her as they clung to the good things, and tried to forget the bad.

Her mind went back again to that day in tenth grade. Jordan had just handed her the note, and Maia spend the rest of class with it clutched in her hand, thinking about the boy who'd given it to her. She'd never looked twice at him until that day. He'd been just another kid in her class until she'd seen the affectionate look on his face as he'd placed the worn piece of paper in her palm.

'You're cute.'

To her tenth grade self, that had meant everything. Though in some ways, it hadn't been the words that had moved her, but rather the attention they represented. Jordan saw her, and for a girl who'd spent her whole life living in the shadow of her older brother, being seen was everything. Maia could remember so perfectly waiting just outside the classroom door for Jordan to get out, holding the note in her hand.

"Hi," she'd said as he appeared. "I liked your note." The resulting smile on his face had lit a spark in Maia's heart, warming her from the inside. Maia remembered reaching out her hand to him. Then the glowing feeling when Jordan took it, and they walked down the hall holding hands.

It's funny how some memories were crystal clear while others blurred together. She remembered walking home from school with Jordan for many months after that, talking and laughing. She didn't remember when their first kiss had been, but she could remember the event itself with perfect clarity. It had been one of those walks. When they'd reached the point where Jordan usually turned back, he'd stopped and faced her. Maia could remember the determined look in Jordan's eyes as if he'd been planning this moment in his head for days. Then Jordan had leaned slowly forward and gently touched his lips to hers. It had been a brief kiss, a high schooler's first kiss, but she would always remember it just as she would always remember the expression on Jordan's face that day at the lake.

Other memories were burned into her mind as well. Less pleasant ones. Such as the horrible things they'd said to each other during their many fights. She couldn't forget how their relationship had exploded from the inside out. She and Jordan just weren't compatible. No one who truly belonged together could fight that well and that often. There was something fundamental about who they both were that created chaos. If she was the spark, he was the oil. Without him, her embers had nothing to burn to the ground.

Yep, she was going to regret agreeing to talk to Jordan, though since she couldn't really avoid him, agreeing to Simon's terms hadn't felt like such a big deal. Jordan had after all been stalking her for months, standing down the hall and watching her out of the corner of his eye, or sitting on benches across the room and stealing glances from time to time. She had to give him some credit for trying to be subtle about it - if Maia wasn't such an observant person she probably wouldn't have even noticed him hovering - but it was disconcerting, and frankly creepy, even if he never got without three metres of her. She supposed it was nice of him to keep all the stalking to public areas, but the bottom line was that Jordan had freaking come to school here just to be near her, and he wasn't about to just go away, therefore, she would have to talk to him sooner or later. She'd just been fooling herself in thinking maybe she could get out of this without having a face to face with her ex.