22. Chapter 22

Maya nervously paces the living room. She’s not nervous about her date. Well, she is a little nervous about that. She’s more nervous, though, about Andrew coming over and what he might say to her mother or brother. Andrew probably knows more about Maya and Carina’s relationship than anyone else.

“Sit down.” Mason grumbles, annoyed.

Maya glares over at him. “Shut up.” She mumbles back and continues her pacing.

The doorbell rings and Maya nearly jumps out of her skin. She hops over to the door and throws it open. Carina and Andrew stand on the other side of the threshold with wide eyes. “Hi, bella.” Carina smirks. “Were you waiting for us?” She can’t help but think the quick answer to the door and Maya’s frantic look only mean one thing.

Maya rolls her eyes. She reaches out and tugs Andrew into the house. “Let’s go.” She takes his place next to Carina, pulling the door shut.

“Not so fast.” Katherine comes into the living room.

Maya let’s out a sigh. She just wants to get going so they can get back before her dad gets home from work. Today hinges on that. If Lane comes home and finds her gone and Andrew in the house it doesn’t take too much to add things up. “What mom?”

Katherine puts her hands on her hips. “Don’t what mom me.” She doesn’t appreciate the sass.

“Sorry.” Maya looks down at her feet.

“Hello, Carina.” Katherine says with a smile. “Maya told me you two were going to an aquarium today.”

“Yes, that’s correct. We are.” Carina says with a smile.

“Carina loves the aquarium.” Andrew says just to embarrass his sister.

Carina points a finger over at her brother, giving him a look to keep his mouth shut. “I’ll have Maya back home this afternoon.”

“We should go.” Maya is in a hurry to get out of the house. She shuffles backwards, trying to get away from the door.

Katherine studies Maya for a moment. She can see that her daughter is apprehensive about something, but she doesn’t ask what right now. She’ll let them go on their way. “Okay, have a good day, girls.”

Maya turns on a dime. She practically sprints to Carina’s car. Carina chuckles and shakes her head. She hops in and looks over at Maya. “That excited about the aquarium?”

“Shut up.” Maya looks out the window. “I’m just-“

Carina reaches over resting her hand gently on Maya’s leg as Maya clams up. “What, bella? Are you not comfortable with this? Today?”

Maya whips her head around. “What? No.” She shakes her head. “I just- we need to get back before my dad gets home from work. So, I want to get going.” She bounces her leg anxiously.

Carina hums. “Okay.” She’s not entirely convinced. She starts the car though and backs out of the driveway. Carina turns the radio on, and some pop station plays softly as they drive. It’s mostly quiet as they go. Carina thought about bringing Maya to her favorite aquarium in Tacoma, but she decided they should go to one closer to home. Knowing that they had a limited amount of time, they stay in Seattle, to save on time driving.

“Is Andrew going to say anything?” Maya asks, her worry finally getting the best of her.

Carina turns the radio down. “What?”

“Is Andrew going to say anything today about us?”

Carina smirks.

“What?” Maya doesn’t like that cocky little smirk right now. This is serious and Carina has the audacity to be smirking about it.

“You and I might be on the same wavelength.” Carina supplies.

“What does that mean?”

Carina glances over for a second before returning her eyes to the road. “It means- I told Andrea that if he said anything about anything he’s seen between you and I that I would kill him.” She laughs.

“Oh.” Maya fumbles for the right words. “Uh- thanks. Though, you’re not really going to kill him, right?” Maya smiles, hopeful.

Carina laughs and shakes her head. “Don’t worry, bella. Let’s just enjoy the day.”

Maya reaches over and wraps her palm around the crook of Carina’s elbow.

The aquarium isn’t as busy as Carina thought it might be. For that she’s glad. They get there right after it opens and pay for their entry and then it’s free rein. Carina looks over the map that the lady at the counter gave them. She’s been to this aquarium only once before and tries to refamiliarize herself with her surroundings.

“Is what Andrew said true?”

“What?” Carina asks without looking up from the map.

“That you love aquariums?” Maya wonders if that is even possible, to love an aquarium.

“Oh.” Carina looks around the room. “Let’s go this way.” She leads them on their way, avoiding the question. It’s a bit of a complicated answer. And one she doesn’t want to get into right now. “Do you want to go see the dolphins first?”

“Sure.” Maya shrugs. She wonders what Carina’s favorite exhibit is at the aquarium. And if it’s the dolphins. She hovers at Carina’s elbow as they walk through the gigantic building.

They walk around for a while after stopping at the dolphins. Which are really boring today. They were just sort of hanging out and not doing much. “Maybe they’re not morning dolphins.” Carina jokes as they move on. They come across a hoard of children and Carina gets excited. “Have you ever done this?” She grabs Maya’s hand and leads her over to the tank where kids are ‘petting’ the stingrays as they swim by in their shallow tank.

“No.” Maya says as they get close enough to see what’s going on.

“Do you want to?” Carina squeezes her hand.

“Does it hurt them?” Maya worries for a moment.

Carina thinks about the question. “I don’t think so. If it did, I’m sure they wouldn’t be doing it.”

Maya hums, not sure if she wants to touch a wild sea animal. Carina leans into Maya’s side and whispers in her ear. “You don’t have to. I won’t tell anyone if you’re afraid.” She teases.

Maya moves her face away from Carina’s and gives her an offended look. “I’m not scared.”

“Prove it.” Carina raises a challenging eyebrow.

Maya steps up to the tank and lets her hand hover over the water’s surface. As the stingray comes along, she slips her hand into the water carefully and touches the animals soft back with her fingertips. She’s surprise at how soft the stingray is. “Wow.” She says breathless.

Carina watches Maya as the stingray swims around the tank again. This time Carina steps up to the edge of the tank. She puts a hand on Maya’s back and reaches into the water as the ray swims by. “Cool, isn’t it?” Her hand brushing over the animal right after Maya’s.

Maya nods. They stand there for a few minutes and watch the couple of rays swim around as kids touch and pet them.

“Want to watch a film?” Carina asks, taking a step back from the tank. Maya nods again. They make their way to an auditorium and pick some seats near the back and watch as fish and sharks and octopus and just about every sea creature on the planet are featured in a movie on a big screen. The film is about 30 minutes, and it repeats as soon as it ends so they watch the whole thing even though the came in about ten minutes into the start.

Carina wraps her hand around Maya’s arm, linking their arms together, and lays her head on her shoulder as they watch, content with just sitting in the big room in the dark.

Once they see the whole movie one and a half times, they move on to get something to eat. “What do you want?” Carina asks as they stand in line for food after the movie.

“Oh.” Maya looks up at the board at the items.

“Don’t tell me you have a lunch hidden somewhere on your person.” Carina nudges Maya with her elbow.

Maya looks down at her feet and shoves her hands into her pants pockets. “No.”

“You look very cute today.” Carina whispers.

Maya wonders why Carina decided to say that right now. She looks over her outfit. It’s nothing special but she supposes it’s more than workout wear or track shorts or something. Just a pair of jean shorts and a crop top t-shirt, exposing her belly. “Thanks.” She blushes a little.

“Would you split an order of fries with me?” Carina ventures.

Maya looks up and nods, finding words difficult for some reasons. And when Carina grins at her, she knows why. It’s because Carina is the most caring, kind, considerate person she might have ever met. Carina is just talking about sharing at order of fries, but it seems monumental to Maya that someone would want to share their food with her. She’s been taught not to share anything. Food, space on the track, compliments for her competition, praise or glory after winning a race. It really makes Maya feel special that Carina wants to and has always wanted to share so many things with her; that Carina wanted to share this experience at the aquarium with her.

Carina gets an order of chicken strips and fries, and Maya has a cheeseburger.

“You’re such a child, aren’t you?” Maya points at Carina dunking a strip into a little container of honey.

“Adults can eat chicken strips.” She pouts across the table at Maya.

Maya shakes her head. “Go ahead.”

Carina grins and bites into her chicken strip, a little bit of honey dripping from her bottom lip. Maya wants to reach out and swipe away the little bit of honey on Carina’s chin, but keeps her hands to herself, wrapped around her burger tighter than she probably should.

After lunch, they go see the penguin exhibit. Carina stands right in front of the glass and watches them swim around their tank. Watching them swim behind a rock wall and then come out on the other side with a pleased smile on her face. This is what she really came for. Other than spending the day with Maya, that is. The penguins.

Maya is clear to the fact that the penguins have lit Carina right up. She smiles at the happy expression on Carina’s face.

“Look.” Carina points as one penguin swims slowly right in front of them.

Maya slides up to Carina’s side, taking her hand discreetly, and hiding it by pulling their hands in front of her body and pressing tightly to Carina’s shoulder with her own. “Is this your favorite?”

Carina looks over to Maya and Maya can see now the tears in Carina’s eyes.

Carina nods and licks her lips before turning back to look at the penguins. She doesn’t want to cry, she really doesn’t. She doesn’t want to bring down the mood or ruin their day. That’s part of the reason that she saved the penguin viewing for last.

“What’s wrong?” Maya asks quietly, squeezing Carina’s hand. Carina shakes her head some more. “You’re upset. Is it something I did?”

“No. Maya, no.” She tries to convince Maya but knows the tears in her eyes and voice aren’t helping. “Can we just watch the penguins?”

Maya frowns. “Okay.”

They stand there for a few minutes. Carina takes a few deep breaths as she watches the penguins. Maya stands there worried about what is happening. She just wishes Carina would give her some sort of clue. They don’t have to talk about it right now, but it would be nice to not have to panic that something catastrophic is happening.

“Can we sit down for a bit?” Carina asks, feeling a little shaky.

Maya looks around and spots a bench about ten feet from the penguins. She leads Carina over to the bench and they sit down. Maya rubs at Carina’s back as the brunette is still clearly shaken.

“I’m sorry.” Carina whispers. “I ruined our day. I didn’t want to but-“ She lets out a shaky breath.

“It’s okay. It’s not ruined.” Maya says softly.

Carina chuckles a little at that.

“But I’m a little concerned about what’s going on with you.” She gives Carina a tight-lipped smile, hoping to convince her that she can talk about why she’s so upset.

Carina shakes her head in disbelief. Maya is just able to be so gentle with her and it only makes Carina love her even more. No one has been gentle with Carina in a long time. Her father certainly isn’t gentle.

“When I was little-“ Carina licks her lips and thinks about what she wants to tell Maya. “-I would go to the aquarium with my mamma in Boston. I loved just sitting in front of the big window and watching the penguins swim around. I could spend hours just sitting there and watching them. Yes, the penguins are my favorite. They are so cute. The bigger ones, but especially the little kind of penguins. We would go all the time. Andrea was a fussy baby so mamma would put him in his car seat and put him in the car and drive around so he would go to sleep. We eventually started driving to the aquarium. So much so that we got yearly passes so we could go as many times as possible. It seemed like we went once a week at one point.”

“That sounds like it was fun.” Maya tries to be positive.

“She died.” Carina reminds Maya. Not that she thinks Maya forgot, but just for context. “And now every time I see the penguins- I always still want to see them, but then I do, and I get sad cuz of my mamma. They are my favorite and I guess I just have complicated feelings about seeing them. But I really enjoyed coming here today with you and seeing them. I’m not saying that I didn’t. It’s just hard sometimes.”

Maya leans over, presses her lips to Carina’s shoulder before resting her cheek there. “I’m sorry, Carina.”

“Thanks.”

Maya straightens up. “Should we go?”

Carina scrunches up her face. “There’s one more thing I should tell you.”

“Okay.” She thinks it can’t be any more sad than what Carina just said about her mom.

“That day that I skipped class for the afternoon-“ She’s not sure if this is going to make Maya mad or not. “-after you said you didn’t need my help-“

Maya hangs her head. She doesn’t want to have to go back and think about it. She remembers the devastation she saw on Carina’s face that afternoon.

“I picked up Andrea from school and we drove to my favorite aquarium in Tacoma.” Carina sighs. It’s out now.

Maya wonders how it is that Carina has a favorite aquarium. But it’s not an appropriate question to ask right now.

“I was sad, and I wanted to see the penguins. They always made me so happy when I was little. And I was so sad in that moment that’s what I thought to do, where to go.”

Maya wraps Carina in her arms in a side hug. “I’m sorry. Really, so sorry.”

Carina takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “That was all.”

There is a bit of a smile from Maya at that. She releases Carina from her hold. “Is there anything else you want to do here?” Carina shakes her head. “Okay, let’s go.” Maya grabs Carina by the hand. They exit the building in a hasty fashion. But instead of going over to the car like Carina thought they would, Maya pulls Carina to the side of the building. As soon as they are around the corner and Maya doesn’t see anyone else, she presses Carina up against the building and kisses her hard, eager.

Carina hums into the kiss, smiling a little as Maya’s lips slip around hers. Her hands find Maya’s waist, her palms sliding over soft skin.

Maya pulls away from Carina after a minute and looks into her eyes, biting her lip. “I’ve been waiting all day to do that.” She smirks, pleased with herself and the dazzled look on Carina’s face.

“That’s one way to make it all better.” Carina says about her previous sad state.

“Is it wrong?” Maya ducks her head a little.

Carina chuckles. “Not at all, bambina. But it won’t work for every situation.” She tips Maya’s chin up so they can look at each other again. Maya nods subtlety and Carina leans in again for another kiss. This one slow, gentler than the previous. Carina pets her thumb across Maya’s cheek, until she reaches her lips, stroking over her lips as she pulls away with a soft smile.

“Every time I get to kiss you it’s different. It’s like magic or something.” Maya mumbles. “I wish I could do it every day.”

Carina licks her lips. There might not be anything better than the feeling of being wanted. Whether that’s physical, or if it’s mental, emotional. Maya wants her. She wants to know her. She wants to be around her. She wants to comfort her when she’s sad and ask what’s wrong. Carina doesn’t feel used or neglected like she has in the past. “Maya, I-“

There’s a commotion further down the side of the building and Carina looks over. Some kids are yelling and running their way.

“Come on.” Maya takes Carina’s hand, pulling her off the wall and running. They run all the way to the car, holding hand, giggling, and grinning like idiots.

The nerves take over again as they drive back but they make it back to Maya’s house by 2:30 that afternoon. Plenty of time to spare. Carina collects her brother and thanks Mrs. Bishop for looking out for him today before leaving. She does promise Maya one thing before she leaves though.

“I’ll see you at your meet on Saturday.”

Maya’s eyes go wide. “But it’s like two hours away.”

Carina grins before turning to leave.

It’s about a two hour drive, but Carina doesn’t mind. She even brings Andrea with her. He’s done with soccer for a few weeks. They have a break between the spring league and the start up of the summer league. Of course, Andrea wants to be in soccer all year round so he’s in all the leagues. Fall, spring, and summer with little breaks in between. He does end up missing half of the summer league though with them travelling to Italy for a month. That’s probably why he wants to be in all three phases. It’s really more like two, spring and fall when it comes down to it for him.

They arrive at the meet about halfway through. Carina knows it’s going to be a long meet and she also knows that Maya doesn’t run until the end of the meet.

She sets Andrea up with a mini bag of Cheetos and a turkey sandwich that she brought from home. And they share an order of nachos with cheese. Carina finds them a spot to sit and watch and eat. A spot that is partially shaded by the announcer’s booth on the top of the grandstand.

“This is kind of cool.” Andrew mumbles after they watch a few races.

“Something you might be interested in?” Carina asks her little brother, giving him a nudge in the ribs.

“I don’t know about running. But that, over there, looks cool.” He points down to the end of the infield where the pole vaulting, long jump, and high jump are set up.

“There are also throwing events.” Carina points over her shoulder. “Do you want to go watch them?”

“What about Maya?”

Carina knows there are announcements for the races before they happen. She’ll just have to listen carefully for the announcement but she also knows they’ve got plenty of time before Maya runs. “We’ve got time.” Carina smiles at the excitement in her brother’s eyes at the prospect of seeing the other events.

“Can we?”

Carina nods and stands up. She gathers her purse and throws it over her shoulder and picks up their garbage. “Let’s go.” She was impressed when she and Maya watched the throwing events so she knows Andrea will get a kick out of it.

Andrew is amazed at how far some of the guys and girls can throw the discus and the shotput. Carina is too. Most of the throws are further than the ones at the last meet she was at. Which makes sense considering this is the next round. The competition is better than at the previous meet. Longer throws and the separation between the distances of each thrower seems to be less as well.

They watch the discus until it’s finished and head back to the stands. Carina looks around, getting reacclimated with everything that’s happening out on the track. She spots Maya warming up on the opposite side of the infield from where they are sitting so, she knows it probably isn’t long until her race.

Carina sits on the edge of the bleacher bench as the runner’s line up for the 10,000 meter race. The gun goes off and the race starts. Carina claps as it gets underway.

Maya is middle of the pack as they make the first lap but keeps a steady pace and maintains her spot towards the front. Halfway through the pack has started to separate. The real contenders are at the front now with the rest dropping off. Maya stays in second position until the final lap and then kicks it into high gear.

Carina sees Maya make the pass into first place and jumps up from her seat. “Come on, Maya.” She raises her hands in the air and claps. She brings them back down to her chest after a moment, clasped together, and anxious as the runners turn the final corner. Maya is holding off the second place girl by a few paces. With 100 meters left, Maya turns on the jets, sprinting across the finish line. Carina jumps up and down and turns to Andrew. Andrew just stares up at his sister with a little smirk on his face. “Get up here and give me a hug.” She pulls her brother to his feet and wraps him in a celebratory hug. She then turns and runs down the steps, and walks to the end of the stands, down to the ground.

Lane pulls Maya to the side, gripping around her left elbow, pulling her away from the crowd of students and coaches near the finish line.

“Listen to me, young lady. And listen to me carefully. I don’t know what’s going on with you.” Lane points an accusatory finger in Maya’s face. “But you haven’t been focused the last few weeks. I don’t know if it’s the end of high school that has you this way. But you aren’t going to win at State if you run like you did today.”

Carina watches this from the other side of the fence that separates the spectators from the track. She just came down to see if she could flag Maya down and congratulate her on winning her race and advancing to the State meet.

Lane pulls Maya along, towards the fence. “You’re going to do your cool down run and stretches back here, where I can see you.” He doesn’t want her just going and hanging out with her teammates on the infield.

Maya knows not to argue as her father marches her away from the track over to a grass area behind the stands.

Lane is yelling at Maya about not breaking her record time as Maya runs some cool down laps when Carina finally decides to come over.  She knows she shouldn’t, but she feels like she needs to intervene. She puts a hand on the top of his shoulder from behind. Maya’s eyes go wide as she sees this. Lane narrows his eyes at his daughter and then looks over his shoulder to see who is behind him, who is touching him. He expects it to be Mr. Larson.

“Coach, look. Maya is my daughter. You may think-” Lane turns as he is about to explain to Maya’s track coach that he can handle and discipline his daughter how he sees fit. “You.” He forgets about Maya for the moment. He doesn’t expect it to be Maya’s know-it-all Italian friend. The girl who embarrassed and disrespected him in his own home. “What are you doing here?” He snares.

Carina ignores the question. “She just won the race, sir. Give Maya a little slack.” She doesn’t like that he is going in on Maya even after she won.

“Slack?” He folds his arms across his chest. “Slack. Are you trying to tell me how to coach my daughter now too. I don’t know how you talk to your father, but I don’t like that backtalk from you.”

“I’m not talking back. You’re too harsh on her.” Carina points over at Maya. The blonde stands there, mouth agape, as Carina faces off with her father, again. “She won the damn race. She’s going to the state final. You should be congratulating her and telling her how proud and happy you are for her. I sure am.” She looks over Lane’s shoulder towards Maya and smiles. She nods for Maya to come over to them.

Maya takes a step before her dad turns to her. “Stay there. Finish your stretches.” He growls.

Maya frowns and plops her butt down in the grass, stretching out her legs.

He turns back to face Carina, staring her down. “You can go now.”

Carina scoffs. “I’m not leaving until I talk to Maya.”

Lane scoffs. “Fine.” He throws his hands in the air. There’s not much he can do that won’t cause a scene and he certainly doesn’t want to do that. He knows enough not to get into an argument with a child, especially in a public place. Or to bring more attention to himself than is necessary.

He moves, away from Carina. Lane goes over to Maya and stands above her, stalking over her, as she does her stretches.

Carina glares over at the man. He ignores her but that isn’t going to stop Carina from the amount of contempt she holds towards him. She wonders how Maya can even stand it. But she knows that Maya doesn’t see her father the way that Carina does. She doesn’t want to force Maya into anything or jeopardize their relationship because she hates Lane and how he treats Maya. Carina knows on some level that what he is doing isn’t good for Maya. Mentally. She also knows that Maya is an athlete and that she wants to be successful and her father is her coach. A path to success.

Andrew comes over and in all Carina’s rage she forgot he was even with her. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Carina grunts.

“What did you say to him?” Andrew asks.

“That he needs to not be so hard on Maya. She won the damn race, but that’s not enough for him.” Carina finally tears her eyes off of Lane. She looks around the slowly dispersing crowd. “Have you seen Travis or Vic?”

“I saw them on the infield after Maya’s race. But I don’t know where they’re at right now.” Andrew informs.

Carina nods, her eyes scanning for any sight of them. They missed Vic’s races but were there to see Travis run the hurdles. He didn’t come in the top three and won’t be moving on to the next round. She wants to congratulate him on making it this far and on a great season. She knows he’ll be bummed and could use the encouragement. She also wants to invite both Travis and Victoria over for brunch in the morning.

“Dad?” Maya asks her father about her.

“Are you finished?” He doesn’t bother to look down at his daughter.

“Nearly, but could I ride home with Carina and Andrew?” Maya doesn’t know why she asks. Well, because she wants to. But she knows the answer is liking going to be no.

Lane laughs and walks away.

“I guess that’s a no.” Maya scoffs. It was worth a shot to ask.

“It’s okay, bella. You don’t want to ride with Andrea anyway. He’s super annoying in the car.” Carina jokes from the ten feet or so that she was keeping from Lane and Maya.

“You heard that?” Maya stands up and comes over to where Carina and Andrew are standing. The boy rolls his eyes at his sister’s joke at his expense.

Carina wraps an arm around Maya. “I did.” She grins. “Congrats, bella.”

Maya ducks her head. “Thanks.”

“I’m going to see if I can find Vic or Travis. I would like to have you all over for brunch tomorrow morning. Or if you see them, you can tell them. Or you could give me Travis’ phone number. It would be nice to have my boyfriend’s phone number.” Carina wiggles her eyebrows.

Maya smacks her on the arm and Carina laughs.

“Sorry, bella.” She wraps Maya up in a hug, rubbing one hand up and down her back. “You’re all sweaty.”

“What did you expect?” Maya looks into Carina’s eyes. She wants to just lean in that little bit and kiss her, but knows that she can’t. “I want to come to breakfast, brunch tomorrow. But after today-“ She sighs. She knows she not focused enough on her races. She knows she could do better.

“I’m so so proud of you. Fuck your dad.”

Maya raises an eyebrow.

Carina rolls her eyes. “Not literally, of course.” She takes a steading breath. Lane agitates her so much. “I want you to know how proud of you I am and that you did a great job and ran a great race. You won. That should be enough. It is enough.”

It’s such a difference between the way Carina treats her now after winning her race. Nothing but warmth and pride wafting from the girl, whereas her father has a scowl and a lecture about doing better. “He just wants me to do my best. And he knows I haven’t been doing my best the last few weeks.”

“Is it because of me?” Carina knows that it is.

Maya opens her mouth to say something. She doesn’t want to lie but she also doesn’t want to put any blame on Carina. “I just need to compartmentalize better. Focus on certain things at certain times.”

Carina hums, not entirely satisfied with that answer. She feels like Maya is leaving something out. “How’d Vic’s races go?”

Maya is thankful for the change in subject. “She won one and lost one.”

“I’ll have to make sure I get to the meet in time to see her run at State.” Carina makes a mental note to prepare to arrive at the beginning of the meet next time.

“You’re coming?”

“You’re silly.” She boops Maya’s nose. “Of course I am. Maybe Travis and I can sit together.” She’s already formulating a plan.

“He would love that.” Maya grins.

“Well, then it has to happen.” Carina teases. “I can’t not sit with my boyfriend, right?”

“You’re awful.”

“I know but you guys would be utterly bored without me.” Carina runs her hand down the back of Maya’s neck, over her vertebrae, and discreetly presses her lips to the side of Maya’s head. “I’m going to go see if I can find Vic and Travis. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Maya likes the confidence that Carina has when she says that statement even though they both know that Maya coming to brunch is only a maybe and not a certainty. “Okay.” Maya whispers and they pull apart.

“Bye.” Carina winks and backs away. She turns to find her brother. He’s over leaning against the fence, watching whatever is happening on the track. “Andiamo, Andrea.” She calls out. He spins around and falls into step with his sister.