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It was yet another year when Lucas Friar visited Maya. He'd been visiting her for four years. And it now would've been five today as he walked slowly down the cemetery, biting the inside of his cheek hard. He smoothed out his black shirt and jeans as he knelt down. Then, right next to him, two other girls and one boy, two with brown hair and the other with shoulder length black hair, knelt down also. Girl one, Riley, former best friend of Maya Hart, set flowers at her stone as tears filled her eyes. They slid down her cheek as Lucas leaned over and hugged his friend. They pulled away, and Riley leaned against Farkle's chest. The other girl's name was Caroline. They started going out two years ago back when they were seniors in college, and recently, he proposed to her. Now, they were 23 years old and time was flying by too quickly.
"It's too fast." Riley whispered, her eyes fixed on the stone. "Time."
"She knows exactly how life has been treating us. Maya hasn't missed a thing." Farkle commented. Caroline looked at Lucas, and eyebrows furrowed sadly.
"I'm so sorry." She said, leaning over and hugging him tightly. "I know how important she was to you."
Lucas hugged his fiancé back, and held back his tears. "She was something."
They pulled away, and he looked back at her stone. He set down the basket of roses, and bit his lip. This was so fucking hard.
"5 years. Where did everything go." He questioned, almost to himself rather than anyone around him.
"Everything's still going. We're still changing." Zay said as he began walking up. The friends all smiled at him. He smiled back, and patted Lucas on the back.
"Look at us now. I wonder what Maya thinks of us now." Riley added, her hand caressing the top of the stone, being gentle around the edges.
"She probably thinks of us everyday. And wishes us well every night."
"Unless we do something stupid of course." Riley kid, lightly chuckling. The rest smiled, but sat in some silence. They were all surprised for how long it had been since her passing. All she had been doing was trying to leave a party she was invited to. A party she did not know had drinking going on. A party she didn't know she'd get injured. A party she did not know that would've been her last, alive. The memory made everyone have trauma fill their heads. They were all at the party back then, but still to this day unsure of what happened.
"Lucas, I'm not sure about this party. It's a summer-going-off-to-college party." Maya said, tucking a strand of blonde hair back, standing at the front of the door of the party. Lucas pulled her closer by the wait, caressing it with his thumb. "Anything can happen here."
"We'll be fine. Don't worry. Just hang around me." Lucas leaned over and kissed her cheek. She smiled back hesitantly before going inside with him.
Later on
Maya began to walk away, and Lucas looked back at her.
"Where you going?" He called behind her. She stopped and sighed, putting on a smile as she looked back.
"I'm just gonna get some air, that's all." Maya replied, rubbing her arm from the cold coming inside from the night. Lucas nodded.
"You sure you don't want me to come with?"
"Don't worry, I'll be okay." Maya nodded with an assuring smile before walking outside in her black stilettos.
She looked up at the night sky and exhaled, her breath looking visible into steam. Maya sat down and looked out at the front yard, a beer in her hands. She took a small sip, and looked at the damp summer grass.
All of a sudden, she heard shuffling in one of the bushes. Maya felt her heart pounding, and knew something was up. She stood up, and looked at the bushes again, her hand about to be on the knob. As she turned back, she was suddenly grabbed from behind by an unknown figure. She gasped, and struggled to release from their grip.
"HELP!" She said, but her voice hadn't been loud enough. The figure had picked the short girl up, threw her into the backseat of his car, and drove on as soon as possible, her distant scream heard from inside of it.
"It wasn't your fault." Caroline kept whispering as Lucas had tears unknowingly running down his cheeks. He didn't feel it or his pain. Lucas grew used to it. He nodded, and sniffled before standing up, caressing the stone once more. She bit her lip sadly, and pulled him into a tight embrace as she kissed the crook of his neck.
"I should've heard. I could've helped. I should've-" Caroline held his hand, and cut him off.
"Sometimes life does really stupid things. It wasn't your fault, I swear it." She said, caressing his face while her other hand rubbed his arm. Riley and Farkle had still exchanged gloomy looks as they stood up. "If you don't mind, I have a few things I wanna say in private. I barely knew her." She said. Lucas and Zay nodded understandably, and the two walked into the car. Caroline looked at the stone and bit her lip. It was a picture of Maya caught off guard, on a tire swing, mid laugh as her hair was in the middle of flying up. She couldn't of looked more alive in that one photo that expressed her feeling and personality. All Maya had to do was walk out of it, and she'd be real. Right there.
"Why don't you two wait in the car? I've never really talked to her before.. And I want to do it in private." She told Lucas calmly, standing up. He nodded in understanding.
"I'll wait." He said, before caressing the stone once more as the two walked back, joining the others.
Caroline looked back at the stone, and sighed. "You really must've been something. Every one of your friends seriously loved you." She smiled. "Maya, why did this have to happen? Why did life push you this way? You were finally happy, I mean, that's what Lucas told me." Caroline paused, taking a breath. "Lucas tells me a lot about you. Of course he does his share with me, and he's happy. But whenever we come here, it's like he completely changed. Like you are still his whole world."
The air was still, except for the small drafts here and there. Leaves falling gently upon the grass. Caroline looked down at them, looked at the ones that had already changed color. "Every time I see pictures of you and him, it's like you could feel the emotion that you two felt." She cooed, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear.
"Thank you." A voice cooed from behind her.
Caroline practically jumped out of her skin. She looked behind herself and saw a blonde, wearing a white silky dress and a small smile on her face. Her curls were loose down her back, and her hands were entwined together. "Thank you for coming here, and bringing the others." Her blue eyes filled with tears as one rolled down her cheek. "It really means a lot."
"Oh god, I'm going simply insane." Her eyes widened as she looked at her and the gravestone. How on earth could be possibly explain this?
"No you're not." She replied. "I'm not really here. But I just couldn't not talk to you." Maya examined the sky, parting her lips "I don't think I should be here, but you know how I feel about rules." A corner of her lips raised as her gaze returned to Caroline's.
"What happened to you?" She asked. Maya looked down at the ground, and remaining silent. Caroline caught the look, and mentally urged and pressed for her to continue.
"I came here to talk to you about Lucas."
"Is he alright?" Caroline replied nervously, clasping her hands together.
"Yes, he's fine. Huckleberry is still a huckleberry." She slightly chuckled. "I heard you two got engaged."
Caroline smiled while her face lit up in happiness. "Yeah, we did."
"You must really love him." Maya blushed, tilting her head to the side. "But anyway, the point is," she walked up to Caroline. "Lucas is a really good guy. So you need to love him, and keep him. Love him the way I did, and keep the story going." Caroline glanced at her with nervousness.
Caroline sniffled and wiped a falling tear. "How,-what does love feel like, Maya?"
Maya bit her lip and her eyes traveled to her stone. "I loved that picture." She touched the stone gently. "Happy. I was happy." She cracked an attempted smile, but it soon broke when she swallowed uncomfortably. "Don't hurt him. He's a keeper. I always knew that."
"Maya, what happened to you?" Caroline pondered again, saying the words out loud as she stayed standing. Maya looked at her gloomily, and began to back away until she turned and began walking away, fading in the fog that the cemetery was filled with. Goosebumps shook her skin and the air began to feel uneasy.
"Goodbye, Maya." She whispered, picking up her bag before walking out of the cemetery, closing the gates.
Maya began to walk back as she watched Caroline walk away with a nervous expression, and looked at the long scar on her leg, which was covered by her long dress. She took out a picture of Riley, Lucas, Farkle, Zay and her from her dress pocket, and tears filled her eyes.
"Goodbye New York." She eventually said, walking out of the cemetery moments later when making a turn down the city street to catch a cab the next.