Maya: James, I would’ve never thought I would say this, but...I QUIT. IN YOUR FACE BITCH.
James: Don’t be ridiculous, Maya. You need this job.
Maya: No, like I actually quit this time. I know I’m hilarious, but I’m not joking right now.
James: You’re actually lucky if I don’t fire you now
Maya: I don’t care...Because I quit!
Maya: Oh and by the way, I put rotten milk in your coffee once.
Maya: Just because you’re an asshole
Maya: Which I can say now
Maya: Because I quit
Maya: God, that felt good.

Maya’s POV
I was just sitting on the couch, watching TV when my life changed... Okay that sounds really dramatic, but it kinda felt like that okay? Finally something amazing happened after all of the shitty things I had been through in the past few weeks.
I swiped through the movies and shows on netflix without actually looking at the shows that came by. What did it say about me that I had already seen most of them? Am I really that much of a lazy fuck? Okay, yes I was. I was the kind of person to always tell myself that I was going to get shit done, but when it came to it, I kept postponing it. And let me tell you, Netflix is a very effective way of postponing important shit.
I had just decided that I wanted to rewatch New Girl for the fifth time, when I saw the screen of my phone light up. I never turned on the sound on my phone because the constant noises annoyed me. Sometimes it rang like every second, so I really didn’t understand how people had their sound turned on the whole time. They must’ve been either really patient, which I am not, or have absolutely no friends or social life for that matter.
I put the remote down and took up my phone. I raised an eyebrow when I saw that it wasn’t any of my contacts I had put in my phone. I looked over the number, but I didn’t recognize it either.I picked up the phone and held it to my ear. “Hello, this is Maya.” I said a little unsure. I couldn’t really think of someone who wasn’t in my phone that would call me. For as much as I can remember I didn’t give my number to any random people either. The last time I went out was the that time with Mike and I was too busy doing other things to be giving my number to people that time. My stomach turned around a little when thinking about that night. I really needed to stop thinking about it, it didn’t make me feel well.
“Hello Maya, this is Elise.” a friendly, female voice said from the other side of the line. I didn’t immediately know who she was, but her name and voice sounded familiar. “Do you remember me? You’ve spilled coffee on me and then saved my date.” she said and then everything fell into place.
It was the woman I had met at work a few weeks ago. I had spilled coffee on her and then risked my job to get her some clothes from the dressing room so her date wouldn’t be ruined. “Oh yeah, of course! How are you? How did the date go?” I asked her, actually curious. What if they would get married and I would be the reason why they were together? How awesome would that be?
She giggled. “Yeah it went well. We had a lot of fun. But at the second date we decided that we should only be friends.” she said. “There was no real spark you know.”
“Oh…” I said. I didn’t want to sound disappointed, but I’m sure I did anyway. Oh well, at least Vic and Naira ended up together because of me. I think I should take a little credit for that. “Well, too bad. It would’ve made one hell of a story if you guys did end up together.” I said grinning and I heard her laugh on the other side of the line.
“Yeah, I would’ve almost done it just because of the story and all the effort I had to go through to get him to date me. But hey, too bad things don’t work like that.” she said and then her tone changed a little. “But do you remember that I promised you that I would make things up to you? Because you had to risk your job and such? Well, I found a way to do that!”
I suddenly remembered that she had insisted to make things even between us. Which I didn’t really understand and declined politely, but she was sure she wanted to do something for me. “Oh, you really don’t have to do anything. It was really no big deal.” I said. I was honestly a little uncomfortable with people trying to help me in anyway. Even though I was unbelievably bad at it, I always wanted to do things myself. I hated the thought of people going through trouble to help me.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you won’t think about it that way anymore when you hear what I have to say.” she said and I heard that she was trying hard not to sound too enthusiastic. “I may have got a job for you! You’re a psychologist, aren’t you? The school counselor at the school I work at, moved to another state recently, so we’re still looking for one. Would you be interested?”
Well, that was something I didn’t expect. It kind of sounded too good to be true. A job in which I could help kids and actually do something with my life. This opportunity was just thrown at me like it was nothing. I always thought that if I just kept working hard to find a new job, I would eventually find one. But I never actually did it, I just kept being stuck in a cycle and I never stopped working at the awful place I work now. It sounded ridiculous that this happened through pure luck.
“Uhm, I don’t know what to say.” I said after a short silence. “Are you sure you want me? I haven’t got any work experience, I barely graduated and not to mention the way I look…”
My heart was telling me to just say yes, but my mind kept telling me that I had to at least try to make her see how awful of a choice I was.
She immediately interrupted me before I could sum up more things. “Yes, you have a very good chance. We still need to have an interview, but I already talked it through with the principal. We’re kind of in desperate need of a counselor right now and you have a degree in psychology from a very good university. We do have to ask you to cover up some of your tattoos when you’re working of course. We don’t mind them, but we need the children to take your seriously and sadly there are still a lot of prejudices against people with tattoos…”
She kept on talking, but I don’t really hear what she was saying anymore. Reality actually set in with me. I had a job...I finally had a job! If everything would go right, I could leave my job and actually do something I love! I couldn’t really think of a reason to deserve this luck.
“So, are you in?” I eventually heard her say after the rest of her story. I was awaken out of my thoughts. I resat on the couch and grabbed my phone a little tighter since it almost glided out of my hands without me noticing.
“Damn right I am!...I mean...Yes, I would love that. Thank you for this opportunity!” I said, trying to sound as professional as I could. I didn’t want her backing out now.
“Is monday morning 10 o’clock alright for you?”
“Yeah, it’s more than alright.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then!”
Before she could hang up, I stopped her by saying her name. “I just wanted to say thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me.” I said. I had always found it hard to express my feelings to others, but I had the feeling like I had to with her. I needed her to know that it did mean a lot to me.
She giggled. “It’s really no biggie. To be honest, you’re helping us out with this too. Besides, I’m vice-principal, so it really wasn’t hard to do this.” she said. Wow, vice-principal, I knew she worked at a school, but I didn’t know she was actually vice-principal. “I see you then, Maya.”
And then she hung up. I lowered my phone and stared at it disbelief for a few seconds. Then I woke up and the excitement hit me. I let out a high pitched screech and jumped up from the couch to dance around the room. It was like I had energy for days. Finally something went right! No way I was going to fuck this up! At this moment I felt like this was the little push in the back to set my life straight.
I unlocked my phone and searched for the conversation in my WhatsApp list that I hate talking in the most. Good, he was online. This was going to be the definite step, I couldn’t go back now. I messaged James that I was quitting and he immediately responded back. He didn’t believe me. He didn’t think I could do this. He underestimated me, just like everyone else, including myself. But I knew that I could do this now. I’m a strong independent woman! God, I felt like dancing to Beyoncé right now!
Instead I raced upstairs to my bedroom and threw some random clothes in my backpack. I needed to share this with someone. There was only one person I needed to spend this moment with and I cursed her for not moving a few weeks later so I wouldn’t have to drive to her in my excitement.

*

It was actually really easy to break into Naira’s house. Yes, I did try the bell first, but there was no answer. And I knew she was home, it was eleven pm already, so it would be a little late to be at school right now. Besides, I spotted Vic’s car in the parking lot, so I could sort of imagine what the reason was why she didn’t hear the bell. But I really didn’t feel any shame, so I just marched into her apartment, still shaking a bit from excitement.
As I had already predicted, I saw Vic and Naira heavily making out on the couch as soon as I entered the living room. Vic was hovering over Naira and had one of his hands in Naira’s hand, who was lying on the couch with only a bra on, her hands already traveling to his belt.
Most people would probably be either grossed out or embarrassed, but I wasn’t like most people. The only thought going through my mind right now was: Really? The couch? I mean, couldn’t they wait until they had moved to the bed? What are they? Bunnies?
I rolled my eyes and walked into the room. “Get off your girl, Vic. She’s mine tonight. We’re having a sleepover.” I said matter-of-factly and fell down on the nearest chair.
The couple broke off their kiss as soon as they heard me. Naira turned a bright shade of red, but Vic just looked annoyed. Which was kind of amusing to me. He groaned and got off Naira. “Really?! Really Maya?! Can you and Mike just leave us the fuck alone when we’re about to have sex?! Do you have like cameras hidden in here, just so you know when to cockblock me?!” he shouted at me. But I honestly couldn’t take him seriously with his bed hair and the obvious bulge in his skinny jeans.
I laughed in his face and leaned forward a bit. “Yes, we exist to annoy you, Vic. We have nothing important to do with our lives so we just have secret meetings in which we discuss how to cockblock you.” I said sarcastically and I tapped him on his nose with my finger. He hit it away with a very funny grumpy-face, but ended up hitting in the air.
I heard Naira sigh and she sat up straight too. “Maya, what he is trying to say is: Why are you here? You didn’t even message me before you came...How did you even get in?” she said and her eyes went wide, realizing that I had just broke into her house.
I grinned again. “You leave a key under the doormat, just like I always do. Glad to see you took over that little habit.” I said as she was still staring at me with wide eyes, not realizing or caring that she was not wearing a shirt. “But that doesn’t matter!” I said when I realized she wasn’t going to react to this. “We’re going to have a fucking sleepover now! Because it’s a special occasion! A once in a lifetime experience! Maya Milton actually has her life together right now!”
Vic groaned again, his face still as annoyed as earlier when he said: “Please enlighten us, Maya. You’re here now anyway, so you better have a fucking good reason.”
I waved my hands around in excitement as I thought about what I was going to tell them. I still couldn’t believe it was real. “I’ve got a job! Like a real one!” I said.
That hit the both of them. Even Vic’s face turned from annoyed to surprised. I guess no one saw that coming. Naira’s reaction was better, though. She let out the same high-pitched screech as I had done half an hour earlier, jump scaring Vic. She got up from the couch, took my hands and dragged me up and jumped up and down. “That’s unbelievable! Holy shit! What? How? Where? When?” she said. I loved how she was just as enthusiastic about all of this as me.
“It’s a job as a counselor at a high school, so I will be actually practising psychology! Not just on you!” I said and Naira started jumping up and down again.
I giggled and stopped her by putting my hands on both or shoulders. “You should probably stop doing that. With your clumsiness, you’d probably fall over that table.” I said, beaming my head towards the salon table behind her.
She stopped, but didn’t respond. “You’re right. This deserves a sleepover.” she said and she turned to Vic. “You need to go.”
Vic’s face now turned from surprised to indignant. “Really?” he just said.
Naira nodded and took his hands to drag him up. “Yes, really. We’ll finish this tomorrow, okay?” she said dragging him to the door and kissing him quickly before letting him out. To my surprise he didn’t resist any more after that. I think he realized too that things like this didn’t happen to me this often and that this was kind of a big deal to me.
As the door closed behind Vic, Naira turned to me and squealed once again and this time I squealed with her. We did a little jumping up and down dance before we fell down on the couch and I told her everything that had happened. And she listened like I was telling her fairy tale.

*


After I was done telling her the story, we celebrated the rest of the night with some wine and popcorn. We spend the rest of the night talking about everything and nothing. I realized once again that I had missed her so much. The past few months I had grown so used to her being around all the time, that the house felt empty and quiet without her. I had always realized that she would have to go sometime, but I had hoped for her to stay a little longer. It almost sort of scared me for her to be gone. Because of her I had started eating and caring for myself again, so it made me incredibly scared to have to do all those things by myself again.
“So, why was Mike here?” I casually asked her about an hour after our sleepover had started. I hadn’t payed much attention to it, because I was too busy teasing Vic, but I was realizing now that Vic had said that Mike had been here a while back, also cockblocking him.
I hadn’t seen him in two weeks and it felt kind of weird. I was aware that if I still wanted to act like it wasn’t a big deal, I should meet up with him soon again. But the problem was, I actually did care this time. I didn’t know why I was acting so stupid, but it needed to stop and soon.
A grin grew on Naira’s face, but I ignored it. “He was here because he was bored. So I told him to go talk to you. Then he left.” she said and shrugged.
He never did that though. After a few days of ignoring he actually stopped trying to get in touch with me. Which made me only feel weirder about this. Because I didn’t want him to stop being in my life. Was that stupid and contradictory? Yes it was.
“You didn’t say anything to him, right?” I asked, referring to our conversation in my garden a few weeks ago. I knew she wouldn’t, but I was paranoid as fuck and definitely when it came to this.
Naira sighed and took a hand of popcorn out of the bowl. “No, of course I didn’t. But you really need to talk to him, Maya. This is getting really weird and painful.” she said.
I let out a breath and still avoided looking at her. “I know, I know. I don’t even know why I’m acting like this anyway. I mean, you and me kissed. I didn’t make a big deal out of that either. Because it isn’t.” I said.
“It’s because you have feelings for him.” she said and I almost choked on my whine.
I turned to her and glared at her. “No, I don’t. It was just a stupid kiss.” I said, but even I thought it sounded unconvincingly.
Naira rolled her eyes. “Yes, you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be making such a fuss about it. Look, I know it’s scary. Definitely after everything that happened with Jaime. I mean, I would know. And I know it’s weird because he is your best friend and you guys have seen each other at your worst and weirdest. But you can’t ignore it. Ignoring it won’t solve it.” she said.
“Well, it has always worked for me.” I mumbled, almost too soft for her to hear.
Naira laid down her hand on mine, tried to catch my eyes again, but I avoided her again. “Even if you’re not ready for something like that. You should at least talk to him as friends. You can’t deny that he makes you happy somehow. And I would like to see you happy.” she said. And that touched me somehow. It was really great to know that someone actually cared about my happiness. That was always kind of hard for me to believe.
I grinned and looked at her. “How did you get so wise, girl? Getting songwriting lessons from Vic?” I asked. She rolled her eyes, but grinned back at me.
She held both of her hands up in defense. “I’m just saying, he’s an asshole, but he does a great job getting through you somehow. Better than I do apparently.” she said. She sounded a little tired of me changing the subject over and over again.
I felt kind of bad for her. I never wanted her to get dragged down into my trouble. I was trying so hard to keep her out of it and now she was forced to fight an impossible battle. The one between me and my locked up emotions.
I threw my arms around her in a hug and snuggled my nose into her shoulders. “I’m sorry I got you into this. You do know I appreciate everything you do for me, right? Because I do.” I said. She was a little surprised at my sudden actions, but then hugged me back.
“It’s okay. I don’t think you realized it, but you really needed someone to fight with you.” she said. She knew that I wasn’t just talking about the thing with Mike, but just everything in general.
I felt tears sting in my eyes, but pushed them away. “Can we talk about something else?” I asked with a small voice before they would spill again.
She let go of me and nodded. “Yeah, now I’m thinking of it. I’m meeting Vic’s friends in a few days and I’m freaking out. You need to help me. What kind of people are they? What should I wear? How should I act? I really want to make a good impression.” she said and I saw a little bit of stress coming up. She was actually nervous about this. It was sort of cute.
But I didn’t want her to have an attack, so I made a joke. Most of the time that helped. At least to prevent it. Of course making a joke didn’t really work when she had a full blown attack or about to have one. “Well, you could just come in drunk and trip over a chair. That worked with the friends you already know.” I said grinning and I remembered the flashes of memory I had of the day I picked up Naira from the airport.
She laughed nervously, but the stress didn’t completely leave her eyes. “Look, you’re gonna be fine, Naira. Just be yourself, everyone loves you. Literally everyone. I know no one who doesn’t like you. So you should have nothing to worry about.” I said and added something. “Oh, but please don’t wear a sweater. People might think you’re cheating on Vic with it.”
She started laughing out loud, so I knew that one had worked. “Well, we wouldn’t want that.”

Notes

heyyy everyone!

yaaaayyyyy I updated. Can't wait till you guys get to see all the other things we have planned for you!!...Well mainly the other athor did...Because I'm a lazy fuck and not really a planner...oh god I'm such an asshole.

well thanks for reading everybody!!

xxxxx

Nicky