4. Chapter 4

Maya anxiously awaits Carina arrival to AP Bio. She’s been thinking about what Carina did the entire weekend. She still can’t believe that Carina convinced her father to allow Maya to sit anywhere but next to him.

Her father questioned her the entire way home about who Carina was. Maya doesn’t quite know herself, so it was hard for her to give her dad a good answer. That made him think that she was lying to him about this Carina person. He scolded her as soon as they got home about keeping things from him and lying to him.

As a result, Maya had to do twice the work outs on Sunday that she would usually do. It’s just a reminder to stay in line. To not do anything that Lane won’t approve of.

She’s not sure what she’s going to say to Carina, but she knows she has to say something about what happened at her brother’s soccer game.

Carina comes in a minute later and sits down. Maya leans over as soon as she seated.

It doesn’t go unnoticed by Carina. “Eager to see me, Bishop?”

“What you did on Saturday can’t happen again?”

“What did I do?” Carina wonders what part Maya is referring to.

“You told my dad what to do.” Maya feels herself losing her calm.

“Did I? I think I just suggested that you sit with someone your own age.” Carina grins.

Maya rolls her eyes. “Don’t try to distract me with those perfect white teeth. I’m serious. He questioned me afterwards. He thinks I’m lying to him about you.”

Carina smirks. “What about me?”

“He thinks we are friends. Or something. That I’m hiding this secret friendship from him.”

“Ooooh, we could. That might be fun.” Carina thinks of all the good trouble they could get up to.

“You got me in trouble with him.”

Carina wrinkles up her face. That was the last thing she wanted. She just wanted Maya to relax, have a little fun. “I’m sorry.”

Maya sighs and sits back properly in her chair. “Don’t do that again. At the soccer game. Okay?”

“Okay.” Carina knew that Maya’s dad was uptight, that he was strict, that he had high standards for his children, but she didn’t know just how bad it was. To the point where Maya can’t even sit with her at a child’s soccer game. She realizes now just how short of a leash Maya is on.

“Thank you.” Maya breaths a sigh of relief.

Carina nods with a sad smile.

The week is spent in silence. In Bio, in PE class, anytime Carina is in Maya’s vicinity.

Maya has a track meet on Tuesday and Thursday this week. It’s a busy week. On top, of that she has an oral exam in Spanish class that she’s nervous about. She also has a quiz in History. And all the regular stuff. Morning training. After school practice on the days they don’t have meets. And the usual weekend training. Stressful, to say the least.

Saturday at the game, Carina doesn’t sit behind or near Maya’s family. She does see Maya get up at one point and go to the bathroom. She waits, away from the crowd, for her to return. As Maya comes back to her seat, Carina holds out a folded piece of paper.

“Just take it.” Carina hands it over and walks away back to her seat.

Maya stands there a minute and watches to see where Carina is sitting. Carina goes all the way over to the right side of the crowd, her lawn chair at the back of the last person in the crowd. A little part of Maya feels bad for making Carina sit all the way over there by herself. She knows she’s the reason why. Carina has been coming here for longer than she has. She should be able to sit wherever she wants.

She looks down at the square of paper in her hand. She flips it over and opens it up. On the inside, on a mostly blank piece of paper are a few words.

Meet me at the park. 2pm. Today or tomorrow.

Maya wrinkles her brow and looks from the sheet to Carina. The brunette is totally invested in the game that is taking place on the field, cheering on Andrew.

Maya scoffs and folds the paper up and shoves it in the back pocket of her jeans. It’s not likely that she will meet Carina. Why would Carina want to meet at the park? She’s not even sure which park. But she knows which one Carina is referring to. The one that they saw each other at when Maya was running, and Carina and Andrew were kicking the soccer ball around.

Maya shakes her head and returns to her seat between her father and mother.

But the note feels like it’s burning a hole in her pocket. She’s worried about her dad finding it. Like it’s a giant red blinking light that he’s going to be able to see as soon as she stands up.

Even if she wanted to meet Carina at the park, Maya doesn’t know how she could without her father knowing. She could always say she were going on an extra run. He’ll believe that. He won’t believe anything else though so that would be the only thing that she could say.

Maya bounces her knee anxiously as she waits for the game to end.

Carina waits at the park. She has Andrew with her. He is sitting on the swings playing a video game on his phone. Carina thinks at least he is occupied if Maya shows up. She didn’t know what to do or say, but gave Maya the option of today or tomorrow. She knows Maya is busy, but she can’t help but wonder what her weekends look like.

Carina waits on a bench near the soccer field, Andrew within eyesight. 2pm comes and goes. At 2:15 she gets up and goes to collect her brother since Maya hasn’t shown up. She knows it was a long shot. Carina isn’t even sure it was the right thing to do. She just has this feeling that she needs to be around Maya. That she can’t just live her life without the girl in it. It’s a crazy feeling and she doesn’t know what it means but it’s what she feels.

On Sunday, she returns to the park solo. It’s 1:45 when she arrives. She walks over to the soccer field. She sits on the same bench that she was sitting on yesterday. There are three little boys and one little girl playing with a soccer ball that bring her entertainment as she waits.

Two o’clock comes and goes. Carina waits a little longer but the longer she waits she gets the feeling that Maya isn’t going to show up. She’ll give it until 2:15 like yesterday before she heads home.

She looks at her watch every minute. She doesn’t know what to expect but she doesn’t expect Maya to come running around the corner and stop right in front of her.

“Did you run here?”

“I did.” Maya nods, a little out of breath. She stretches out right there on the path.

Carina can’t take her eyes off of Maya’s form. The muscles in her shoulders, arms, and legs. The way her back arches when she bends over to touch her toes. Her ass. Carina closes her eyes, no longer being able to look at Maya without feeling like she’s leering.

Maya sits down next to Carina after she’s finished stretching. They sit in silence for a few minutes. Maya staring down at the ground. Her eyes keeping finding Carina’s orange shoes.

“How far did you run?”

“Now?” Maya looks over. Carina nods. “Only three miles. I have about four more to go.”

“Oh.” Carina thinks it’s impressive.

Silence falls over them again. Maya again finds the ground and Carina’s shoes very interesting. She’s never seen Carina wear anything like these shoes. Usually, she’s dressed in all the latest fashions and designer clothes.

“Do you like them?” Carina knows Maya has been looking at her shoes. She kicks her legs out and crosses them at the ankles.

“No.” Maya lies.

Carina flexes her ankles. The orange All Star Lo Chuck Taylors wiggling with her feet. “Are you sure?”

Maya rolls her eyes. “Why did you want me to meet you here?” She cuts to the chase. Maya has lots to do this afternoon. “I have to finish my run.”

Carina shrugs. “I just thought maybe we could like hang out.”

Maya laughs. She laughs loudly. So loudly.

“Why is that so funny?” Carina doesn’t see it as funny.

“You’re funny.” Maya shakes her head as her laughter dies down. “In what world do you think we could or would hang out?”

“Uh, this one.” Carina frowns. Maybe she’s got this all wrong. Maybe she’s reading Maya all wrong. “I thought-“

“What? That we could be friends?” Maya asks. “You’re the popular, mean, rich girl. And I’m the studious driven athlete. Those things don’t mix. I don’t come from money. I don’t have tons of friends. I’m not in the it crowd. I have to train and run and work out everyday. I have to keep my grades up so I can get into college. I don’t have time to ‘hang out’ with you even if I wanted to. And I don’t want to.”

“Oh.” If Carina wasn’t sitting down, she would have to after all that. She is disappointed. “I guess I thought-“ She isn’t sure she wants to share her feelings on the topic anymore. “I thought you-“ Carina gets to her feet quickly, feeling panicky. “I’m sorry.” She feels kind of stupid now. “I just thought-“

The thing is that, sure, maybe Carina has lots of friends and people that she knows, but those relationships are mostly superficial. Her popular friends are all friends with each other because of money and status. Carina moved to Seattle and worked her way into that group so that she could feel like she fit in. It’s hard being the new kid at school, but those relationships don’t give her anything other than a title, a status. They are vapid, void of anything real. She thought maybe with Maya she could find something real. She feels like there’s something real there already.

“So, you’re saying that there’s no possibility.”

Maya sighs. “I don’t know what you want from me. You pick on me, you’re mean to me in front of other kids. I can’t help but think there’s a reason for that. That you are trying to put me in my place or remind me that you are the one in power.”

Carina knows none of that is true. “When was the last time I was mean?” She challenges.

The blonde thinks about it. It’s been weeks. Sure, Carina has teased her recently, but she hasn’t been mean about it. She thinks back to what Travis and Vic said about Carina having a crush.

“I have to get back to my run or my dad is going to make me do more miles.”

“Your dad seems like a jerk.” Carina can’t hold her tongue about it anymore.

Maya wrinkles up her face. “Don’t you dare say anything about my father.” Carina doesn’t know anything about her or her family. She has no right to say anything.

Carina raises her hands, palms towards Maya. “It’s just what I’ve observed.” She doesn’t mean anything by it.

“I have to go.” Maya pops to her feet.

Carina nods letting Maya run off. To say she is disappointed would be an understatement. Carina isn’t sure what she was thinking. But she didn’t think she would be totally shot down and laughed at. Maya laughed right in her face. And that hurts more than anything she said. She’s never had someone be so opposed to something that she’s suggested.

She’s not sure what to do now. The petty girl inside her says ‘screw Maya Bishop’ but the rest of her can’t let it go that easily. Carina sits on the park bench for a long time before going home.

“Carina?” Vincenzo calls her into his office as she is walking down the hallway.

“Si, papa.”

“I need you to look after your brother next week. I’m going back to Boston to work on a project with a few of my former colleagues. I will be gone for a few weeks. Maria will be here daily to do the cooking and housekeeping, so you needn’t worry about that.”

Carina wants to roll her eyes because she always looking after Andrea. Her father is busy with work or checked out most of the time. Too busy with his own drama to have time for his children. It’s times like these that Carina wished that her mother was still alive.

“Okay, papa. I will.”

She goes to her room and lays on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Carina grabs her headphone from her nightstand and puts them on, starting the latest mixed CD she’s made and listening to it the remainder of the evening.

There’s school in the morning and she’s not really looking forward to that and usually Carina enjoys going to school.

She’s thinking about going to her Biology teacher and asking for a different lab partner, but Carina knows that wouldn’t be fair to anyone else in the class. So, she sucks it up and sits there next to Maya, dreading it the entire time. She doesn’t bother saying anything to her. There’s no point anymore.

A few weeks ago, Carina never would have imagined that she would have felt like this. She’s not even sure how she feels, other than crappy, just down, low energy. All because of the blonde girl sitting next to her.

She looks over at Maya as she takes notes. Carina should be taking notes too, paying attention, participating in class, but she just can’t. Maya is oblivious to her distress. It’s probably best that way. Carina sighs, audibly.

That gets a glance over from Maya, a questioning look.

Carina’s eyes move back to her notebook on the table in front of her.

At the end of class, when everyone is packing up, Carina keeps to herself. She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t interact with anyone. She just sits there waiting for the bell to ring to release the class. As soon as it does, she practically jumps from her seat and runs out of the room.

Lunch is a blur. Carina sits with her friends but can merely smile at some of their jokes. She starting to think that it was in fact stupid to try to start up a friendship with someone outside of the group of people around her.

“What’s up with you?” Andy Herrera slides into the spot next to her.

“Nothing.” She looks over and tries to smile at her friend, hoping Andy will believe her.

“So, where’s the party this week?” Andy asks.

Carina hums. “My place. My dad is gone for weeks. I’ll have to see if Andrea can do a sleepover weekend with one of his soccer friends. If so, we can do Friday night and Saturday night.”

“Did I just hear that right?” Jack Gibson buts into their conversation.

Carina nods. “Yeah, Jack. Party at my place Friday and Saturday nights.”

“Sweet.” She does a fist pump. “Dude, Dean.” He punches Dean in the arm. “Double dip at DeLuca’s this weekend.”

Dean gives him a high five.

“You’ve activated the frat boys.” Andy shakes her head.

Maya is completely fine with Carina not speaking to her in any of the classes that they have together. That’s what she wanted. But a teeny, tiny part of her misses the attention she got from the brunette; but other than that Maya is happy with how things have been the last few days.

They get their Thursday quiz back on Friday in Biology. Maya looks at her grade. She only missed one question so that’s good. She glances over at Carina’s paper. The brunette doesn’t even move to pick it up, to look at it. She just sighs.

Maya looks at the 6/12 on the top of the page. Carina got half of the questions wrong. “What happened? I thought you were smart.”

“Gee, thanks.” Carina mumbles. She grabs the paper and shoves it into her folder, closing it in the folder.

“I’ve been a bit distracted. I haven’t been paying attention or studying this week.” Carina admits.

Maya frowns. “What could distract you?”

You. Carina won’t admit that though. “I’m having a party at my house this weekend. Tonight and tomorrow night.”

“Oh.” Maya wonders if party planning is really that distracting. “Okay.” She figures it is. She doesn’t know what happens with the popular kids and everything involved in a party.

At lunch, Maya is sitting with Travis and Vic.

“I know where the party is this weekend.” Maya takes a bite from her sandwich. “Though I don’t actually know where she lives.”

“Where?” Travis asks.

“That looks disgusting.” Maya points to his lunch tray.

“This is my favorite school lunch. Chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy. The dinner roll. The dinner roll is the best part.” He shows it to Maya. “You take a chicken nugget or two and stick them in the middle of the dinner roll. And then you go like this.” Travis swipes the dinner roll through the potatoes and gravy, coating the edge of the roll.

Maya grimaces. “Yeah, no.”

“Back to the party.” Vic says.

Maya hums. “It’s at Carina’s house.”

“And you didn’t score an invite?”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to. I don’t want to go to a party. You two might, but I sure don’t. I have better things to do with my nights then get wasted and rub up against other teenagers or whatever happens at high school parties.” Maya really has no idea. She never been to a party. One, her father would never allow it. Two, she’d be grounded and doing extra workouts for months if he found out she went to one.

“Now who’s better than who?” Vic scoffs. “You need to have some sort of fun Maya.”

“That doesn’t sound like fun to me.” Maya comments.

“It’s not.” Travis agrees with Maya. “But there are other things you could do for fun.”

“I don’t know why we’re even talking about this.”

“Because you brought Carina and the party up. What’s happening with that, by the way?” Vic hasn’t heard anything all week about Carina.

“How am I supposed to know what’s happening at the party.”

Vic groans. “You’re so- ugh.” Vic shakes her hands at Maya. “I meant with the girl with the crush on you.”

“Oh.” Maya shrugs. “I don’t know. I think she wants to be friends. Well, I know she does.”

“And?” Travis asks, his chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy sandwich hanging in midair in front of his mouth.

“I told her no.”

“Why?” Vic asks.

Maya scoffs as if it’s obvious, because to her it is. “Because we come from different worlds, we live different lives. I’m busy. I don’t have time for friends.”

Travis and Vic share a look. “And that makes us what?” Travis asks.

“You guys, you know what I mean.” Maya flips her hand at them. “New friends, more friends. She’s already gotten me in trouble with my dad.”

“What?” Travis and Vic ask at the same time.

“Yeah. My brother and her brother are on the same soccer team.”

“You didn’t tell us this.” Travis can’t believe that Maya is keeping secret Carina stuff from them. She knows they need to here all the latest gossip, no matter who it’s about.

“It wasn’t important.”

“What happened?” He asks.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Let me eat my lunch.”

Travis frowns. His favorite lunch now ruined by the complexities of his friend’s relationship with her Biology lab partner.

“So, you’re saying that you see each other outside of school? At soccer matches?” Vic is trying to put all the pieces together.

Maya nods.

“And are friendly enough to get in trouble together?”

“Don’t make it into something it’s not. My dad just thought I was lying. He didn’t know who Carina was and thought I had this secret friendship with her or whatever.” She can’t believe she is even talking about this. “It doesn’t matter. I told Carina we can’t be friends or whatever.”

“Or whatever.” Travis mumbles.

“She hasn’t even tried to talk to me at all this week.” Maya sits up straighter in her seat.

“Well, that explains it.” Travis says.

“What?” Maya and Vic ask.

“She’s in my Spanish class.”

“Really?” Maya asks. “I didn’t know that.”

“It wasn’t important.” Travis uses Maya’s words.

Maya frowns at his sassiness. “Explains what?”

“She slept through almost the entire class the other day. Until Mr. Hernandez saw her and kicked her out, sent her to the office.” Travis wrinkles his brows together. “Now that I think about it. She’s been moping around all week. Not her usual upbeat self.”

“And you think that has something to do with me?” Maya gets hot about the accusation.

“Yes.” Travis narrows his eyes at Maya. “You’ve, seemingly, taken down the most popular girl in our class.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Maya scoffs and waves the idea away. “You’re wrong. She’s got two parties this weekend. She’s just fine. Her usual annoying self.” As Maya says it she realizes that Carina has not bothered her at all this week. “Oh.” She mumbles.

“Should we call you Carina slayer?” Vic jokes.

Maya shakes her head.

“Maya, this is what you wanted, no? What do you want? Do you really hate her? Do you really care? Do you want her to fall from her top spot because it seems like that is happening right now. Or do you not want that. Do you want her to be the popular girl who picks on you? Do you-“

“She doesn’t pick on me anymore.” Maya whispers. “Well, there’s teasing but it’s not mean or anything. It’s like joking around. Or there was. Not anymore.” Maya has been so wrapped up in her own self that she hadn’t really realized the changes in her lab partner.

“I’d say you’ve successfully taken her down a few pegs. Smug, righteous Carina is nowhere to be seen.”

Maya doesn’t like this. She doesn’t like that she’s the reason behind the changes. She doesn’t want Carina to go back to picking on her, but she also doesn’t like that she’s the reason that she won’t talk to her anymore.

She’ll have to find a way to talk to Carina at the soccer game tomorrow.

But what Maya didn’t know was that Carina wasn’t going to attend the game. She sees Andrew there, so she knows that it can’t be a case of them both being busy with something. Carina did say that she was going to have a party at her house last night, so maybe that explains why she isn’t at her brother’s game. Then again, Carina goes to a party like every Friday night and that hasn’t stopped her from being at one of the games.

She thinks about going over to Andrew and asking about it, but she knows she’ll get the whole inquiry from her father if she does.

Maya doesn’t know what to do now. She wants to apologize. She doesn’t want to be the reason someone isn’t their regular self, even if it the popular girl. She decides to run through their park at 2pm on Saturday and when that doesn’t lead to anything she tries again on Sunday. At the very least, Maya gets two extra runs in.

But again, on Sunday see doesn’t spot anyone she knows in the park. She stops to sit on the bench for a few minutes. She knows it was a long shot, but Maya is really grasping at straws. She wishes Travis and Vic didn’t put a bunch of nonsense in her head before the weekend. But Maya knows it’s not nonsense. Somehow, she knows that much. Maya feels bad about the conversation she had with Carina the week before in the park. It really wasn’t much of a conversation. It was mostly Maya telling Carina how it was going to be.

Maya almost wants to search Carina out before school on Monday, but she doesn’t want to seem aggressive or crazy. She also doesn’t know if she could talk to Carina in front of her friends.

When she sees her enter the door in Advanced Bio, she takes in a sharp breath. There’s a big bruise on the left side of her face and a black eye.

“Oh my god, what happened?” Maya reaches out as Carina takes her seat. Her fingers ghost over the purple and blue mark on Carina’s cheek.

“You didn’t hear?” Carina pulls away from Maya’s hand.

Maya shakes her head.

“Let’s just say alcohol and egos don’t go well together.” Carina gets her books out.

All Maya can think is that something happened at the party, or one of the parties, that Carina had.

“I tried to break up a fight between Owen and Jack. Needless to say, I’m the one who came out with any damage. Stupid boys.”

“They hit you.” Maya whisper-gasps.

Carina shakes her head. “Jack grabbed a folding chair and swung it at Owen. One of the legs caught me in the cheekbone. Luckily, it’s not broken.”

“But that’s assault.” Maya whispers.

“And I was throwing a party with underage drinking.” Carina shrugs. “We shouldn’t have had two nights in a row.” She sighs. “That’s not happening again.”

The bell rings and the teacher starts the class.

Maya is left staring at the side of Carina’s face. It’s then that she remembers what happened last week.

“Stop staring at me, Bishop. I’m fine.” Carina whispers.

“But-“

Carina looks over and narrows her eyes at Maya.

“I have to talk to you.” Maya says quietly.

Carina gives Maya a shake of her head to tell her not now.

Maya folds her arms over her chest and slumps down in her chair.

It’s never been as hard to concentrate in class as it has this period for Maya. She wishes it were a day that they were doing lab work and they could talk to each other. Instead, their teacher talks the entire class.

The bell rings and Maya gathers her belongings as quickly as she can and follows Carina out of the room. “Wait.”

“Why?” Carina spits. “You aren’t my friend.” She’s still hurt about what Maya told her.

“But-“

“And you don’t want to be friends.” Carina grinds out.

“Carina, wait.”

The Italian stops and spins. Maya bumps into her with the abrupt stop and then takes a step back. “Sorry.”

“What do you want, Maya?”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about what I said at the park.” Maya mumbles, feeling pathetic.

“Are you taking it back then?”

The blonde shakes her head. “Well, no. But maybe I was a little harsh.”

Carina rolls her eyes and turns around, walking away from Maya.

“Wait.”

Carina ducks into an empty classroom, she spins on Maya again. “What?” She growls. If Maya is just going to tell her again that they can’t be friends then she doesn’t want to hear it.

Looking down at her feet, Maya doesn’t know what to say.

“Screw you, Maya Bishop. You talk about me being a mean girl but what are you?” Carina glares at the girl standing in front of her. “So, screw you.” She takes a step to the side and then goes to move past Maya.

But there is a hand on her arm that stops Carina in her tracks. The touch disarming her. Carina looks down at Maya’s hand that is wrapped around her wrist.

“I don’t know what I’m doing. Or why I do the things I do most of the time. If my dad doesn’t tell me what to do I feel like I’m flailing in the wind.” The blonde confesses.

Carina looks up at Maya’s face but Maya is still looking down at the floor. “I like you.” She whispers. “And I don’t know what that means. But I like being around you. I like listening to you talk. I like when you smile and laugh. Except when you laughed in my face. That hurt. I said that you were cute. And I didn’t mean that in like the way a kitten is cute. I know it’s too much for you. It’s too much for me too. And I know you don’t want to be friends because of your dad and your busy schedule. I get that. But I see you at school, in class. Can’t we at least try to be friends there. And you can’t be busy every hour of every day of every week.” Carina smirks.

Maya looks up at that. “I don’t know how this is ever going to work.” She whispers, her thumb stroking over Carina’s smooth skin.

“Will you try though?” Carina gives Maya a hopeful look, almost willing her to say yes.

Maya takes a deep breath. “You have all the friends you could ever want. You really want to be my friend? This isn’t some cruel joke? It’s not something Jack or Owen or Derek put you up to?”

“It’s not.” Carina shakes her head. “I swear.” She reaches up and makes a X over her heart. “I’m looking for something of substance. I feel more substance with you, and I barely know you. I don’t get that from any of my other friends.”

“Really?” Maya smirks a little. She can’t believe that.

Carina nods with a sad smile.

“I should get to lunch.” Maya says and bites her lip.

“I need you to say it.” Carina swallows thickly.

“What?”

The brunette closes her eyes. “That you’ll try.” She’s really going to have to spell everything out for Maya.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll try.” Maya grins. “Sorry.” She squeezes at Carina’s wrist.

Carina’s eyes flutter open. She feels her heart flutter too. “Okay. Get to lunch.” She nods at the door.

“Okay.” Maya stands there for a few more seconds though without moving. “Okay.” She says again and releases her grasp on Carina’s wrist. “I really wish your face didn’t look like that though.” She tilts her head to the side.

“I just hope it’s gone before my dad gets back.”

“He’s away?”

“In Boston for at least another week.”

“Oh.” That gives Maya lots of new things to ponder. If she does try then she’s sure she’ll get to know more about Carina’s parents.

“Go.” Carina tells her before Maya can ask any more questions.

Maya nods and takes a step back. And then another before turning around and exiting the room. Carina goes over to one of the desks as soon as Maya is gone and sits down. She throws her backpack on the floor and just sits there for a few minutes thinking about what just happened. She eventually goes to the cafeteria to get something to eat before lunch is over.