𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮 ~ 𝐛𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡

Chapter Twelve

Ellie Hart 

Maya smiled and pulled Beverly into a tight hug as she stepped into her house. 

"Ready for sleepover round two?" Maya asked teasingly, as Beverly threw her bag onto the bed next. 

"Always!" Beverly replied, a bright smile adorning her features as she flopped into the bed. 

The two girls read magazines and talked until Maya left for the bathroom to take a shower. Beverly decided to look around Maya's room some more. She rolled out of the bed and made her way over to the desk. 

She had been here many times before, but this time there was something different. A book laid on the desk. A photo book to be more specific. Beverly pulled out the chair and sat down. 

Friends Forever. She traced over the faded words before opening the book. 

It had a scribbled message, obviously written by Maya or whoever this girl was. 

Best friends forever and ever.  The message was written in purple crayon, surrounded by small drawings. 

Beverly flipped to the next page. The first picture she saw was of a young Maya, probably around five or six. She had a bright toothy grin on her face and her arm was wrapped tightly around a girl standing next to her.  Her curly hair was tied in two pigtails and she held an ice cream cone in her left hand. Her right arm was wrapped around the second girl in the photo. She had dark brown hair that was tied into a braid. A toothy grin also adorned this girls features. 

Beverly looked to the second picture on the page. It was a picture of the same two girls. This time, they were at a park. Maya sat in a swing, her legs out and her hair flowing behind her. Her face was lit up with a smile, Beverly giggled softly when she noticed Maya was missing a front tooth. The little girl, had her arms outstretched behind the swing set. Indicating that she was pushing Maya. 

The third and final picture on the page looked different. The two girls were asleep in someones bed. Beverly assumed it was one of the girls due to the Disney princess bedspread. Maya had her arms outstretched and her mouth open wide. Her hair was surrounding her messily. The second girl also had her arms outstretched. One of them laid across Maya's chest. Her mouth was closed and her hair was also unkempt, but slightly less than Maya's. 

She looked to the next page. It seemed to be Valentine's Day. The two girls wore pink and red sweaters while holding up the respective valentine they made each other. They had bright smiles and rosy red cheeks due to the cold weather shown in the photo. 

Beverly continued flipping through the pages, she saw pictures from several holidays. Maya's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, the girl's birthday. She watched as the girls got progressively older until the pictures just stopped. It ended without warning. 

Beverly jumped as she heard the door open. She jumped away and closed the book quickly, suddenly feeling a twang of guilt for looking at Maya's photos without her permission.

"What're you looking at?" Maya asked, walking over to the desk. When her eyes landed on the book her smile faltered slightly. "Oh."

"Who is it?" Beverly asked gently, "In the pictures."

"Oh.. remember the girl I told you about? The strange one I liked?" Maya asked, leaning on the desk as she dried her hair. 

"Yeah. The one you found out you liked girls from." Beverly nodded, looking up at her. 

"Her name's Ellie. Ellie Hart. She was my best friend before we moved here. She had the kindest heart.. I was devastated when we moved here." Maya started, sighing as she looked down at the book. 

"Continue." Beverly said kindly.

"She was a great friend. I liked her as much as a nine-year old could like someone. We promised to call everyday. And we did. For a while, at least. The calls got less frequent after a bit. Until.. they just stopped all together. That was two years ago. Haven't talked or heard from her since." 

"Oh.. that really sucks. I'm sorry.." Beverly said, putting her hand over Maya's comfortingly. 

"It's fine. I have you guys now," Maya shrugged, picking up the book and walking to the closet. "And that's all the matters."

"How old were you when you moved here?" Beverly asked, spinning on the chair to look at her. 

"Nine," Maya answered, standing on her tippy-toes to put the book on the shelf. She quickly pulled another down as she spun around. "This is the book I have from here."

 Beverly nodded as Maya handed her the book. "It's a lot of Richie and Stan, though. There's a lot of Eddie and Bill, too. Mostly Richie, though."

"Stan? I didn't know you were thag close to him.." Beverly asked, as she flipped through the photos. 

"Oh, yeah. We are, just not as close as Richie and I are." Maya shrugged, as she wandered over to her bed and flopped onto it.

"Do you miss her?" Beverly asked after a moment of silence. 

"Ellie? Hell yeah I miss her. But, It's okay. It was a childhood friendship. I can't see her at a moments notice or anything." Maya shrugged "And like I said earlier, you guys are my friends now." 

Beverly walked over to where Maya was sitting and sat next to her. She felt different. Beverly looked at the girl curiously, she had been hurt so many times in her life, yet she continued on. She seemed so sad right now. Beverly desperately wanted to change that. To make her feel happy. 

"What are you staring at?" Maya asked, her face flushing.

"N-nothing!" Beverly said slowly, glancing at Maya's lips for a short second. She wanted to kiss her. Beverly wanted to kiss Maya. 

She had for a few days now. It sent her into a panic when she realized, and she knew her feelings were definitely not recuperated. She wanted to kiss her so badly, though. 

Maya's face reddened when she realized what was happening, as her heartrate increased, she began to lean in as well. Just as their lips were about to meet, the long awaited kiss was interrupted.

A loud gasp from the doorway caused the two girls to jump apart.

"Shit! Uh, am I interrupting something?" Josh asked, cringing slightly as the sight of his beet red sister looking horrified at him. 

"Josh! Uh, no! Nothing at all! What do you want?" Maya asked quickly, her as Beverly stared nervously at Josh. 

"Um, dad wants you two downstairs. Dinner's ready.."

Beverly and Maya quickly stood, still shocked from the previous moment. 

Maya was horrified, praying and hoping Josh wouldn't tell her dad.

Beverly, on the other hand, was upset. She was so close to kissing her. So close, yet so far.

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{ Word Count: 1185 }

{ A/n: None if it wasn't clear, this is a flashback to before the fight at niebolt }

{ Edited: [ ✔ ] 8-28-19 }