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Maya stayed awake all night. Awake and freaking out.
The night before had been good, she and Riley had just graduated from high school, they danced, drank some colorful cocktails and laughed, and she was happy and hopeful about the future, so happy that she kissed her best friend on the lips, and she continued to do so desperately until Riley fell asleep.
And then Maya started to freak out, and hate herself. She had managed to hold on for so long only for one small slip to ruin everything, what she and Riley had was too precious to risk by mixing it with romance.
She considered leaving the Matthews house in the middle of the night but ended up deciding against it, running away was her natural reaction but for Riley she would stay and deal with the consequences of her actions. She owed it to her.
“Good morning.” Riley said stretching.
"Hey."
"Did you sleep well?"
"I did not sleep."
"Why not?"
“We kissed last night.”
“I know, I was there…want to do it again?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
"Why not ? You seemed to like it.”
“I liked it, I really liked it. But what if we break up, and I'm a terrible girlfriend and you start to hate me? What if our friendship can never go back to what it was before?”
“Calm down Maya. Look, I don't think it's going to change our friendship that much, this is just something that adds up, you'll always be my best friend but now you're something else too. And if we break up we'll still have this, I'm still friends with Lucas, and although I like him, what I have with him doesn't even compare to what I always had with you. Although I don’t think we’ll ever break up.”
“Promise?”
"I promise I’ll try, if you do too.”
“I will.”
“So at the risk of sounding repetitive: do you want to do it again?”
"Yes."
The kiss that followed was very different from the previous night, it was slow and deliberate and instead of making the adrenaline rush through her veins, it made all the tension she had spent the night feeling disappear like she could finally breathe in peace again.
This kiss feels like going home.