Mary Mae and the Boys

Chapter 13

"Mary!! Open the door!" Loud banging came from downstairs as Mary jolted out of bed, rushing downstairs and unlocking the door immediately.

"What the heck, Luka! You scared me! I was sleeping." She said as Luka barged in and grabbed her shoulders.

"You kissed Zachary. Why didn't you tell me the moment it happened!?"

"What are you, writing my biography or something? I didn't know I had to run every detail of my life past you, Luka." She said, trying to hide her smile and look stern. It had been a long time since she'd spent one-on-one time with Luka and she desperately missed him.

"This is big though. The guy has been in love with you since elementary school." Luka placed his legs on her couch, leaning backwards as he looked at her upside down.

"What?" Mary Mae asked, her brain taking a couple more seconds to process the information now.

"Luka, I don't know what to do and I'm too tired to hold a conversation right now." Mary Mae said as Luka sat up and made enough room for her on the couch, he held his arms out as she fell into them, hugging her friend.

"Shut up booboo. It'll be okay. Decisions aren't hard, just pick one."

"What?" Mary looked at him, Luka clearly knew a lot more than she thought he did.

"Gilbert's cool but he's new and we don't know anything about him. Zach's been there for you your whole life. The decisions isn't exactly hard."

"Well, Aren't you a love doctor, huh?" Mary Mae asked sarcastically, "and what about you and Rita?"

"We don't talk about that."

"Why not."

"Because I'm scared! I'm going to see her at the party tomorrow and freeze up."

"Why though? Just talk to her like how you're talking to me now."

"I can't Mars." Luka said, "I see you as one of us, she's a total mysterious outsider that I want to get to know, but can't... Ah, I see your point about Gilbert now." Luka paused, solving the puzzle in his mind. He looked confused momentarily. "He was the catalyst for Zach."

Mary Mae realized Luka would just hold this entire conversation with himself anyway, so she shut her eyes as he continued talking.

And moments later, another knock on the door woke her up again. She hardly stirred as Luka stood up.

"Zach, what're you doing here?" Luka asked as Mary Mae's eyes shot wide open at the sound of his name.

"I'm here to talk to Mars." Zach responded, entering Mary's house with Luka behind him. They were about the same height and were both of similar builds. She supposed that half the basketball team resembled these two. In a way, so did Gilbert.

"About what?" Luka asked, taking his seat on the couch with his arms crossed.

"Stuff." Zach said.

"How specific." Luka chuckled sarcastically, laying flat on the couch and taking up all of the cushions as he pulled out his phone.

Mary Mae approached Zach slowly, as though he was a tiger ready to pounce and she didn't want to be the prey.

"Let's talk outside?" Zach suggested, but that only seemed to upset Mary. She was angry that he disrespected their private relationship and went ahead and told Luka and Brian about what they'd done.

"No, here is fine." She said, a frown line forming on her lips. Zach gestured toward Luka, as though telling her that Luka would listen to their conversation, but she shook her head, "you're going to tell him later anyway."