Maya needed this, after everything that had happened with Justin and Katelyn, and her transferring divisions — she needed to be with someone who appreciated her, and cared about her, and maybe even loved her. She had Weston, she knew that, but he didn’t know everything. Not yet, anyway. Maya just wanted to sort through her own thoughts before she unloaded them all onto her boyfriend, she didn’t know if that was how relationships worked at all, but it was the only rational thing she could think of doing. “This is a no judgement zone,” she informed her friend, holding up her hands to showcase her sincerity, dark hues following the plate of muffins until they were placed before her. She was craving them; craving chocolate in all its forms, pretty much and she was grateful that her best friend was an excellent baker, and chef. Maya reached for a muffin almost instantly, attention focused on the sweet treat as she brought it to her lips, taking a rather large bite.
The younger woman watched as her friend began typing into the laptop, watching her movements as she continued to eat the muffin, hardly caring for the crumbs that fell to the couch. Weston would no doubt moan at her for making such a mess, but he’d get over it. His house tended to look like a tornado had hit it every time Maya was over. “Oh, oh!” Maya mumbled, chocolate filling falling from her mouth as her hand shot up to shove it all back in. “She’s okay, I mean—, she doesn’t compare to you. Hot as hell beauty queen over here,” she elbowed Aubrey playfully in the side before finishing off the muffin and wiping her hands on her shirt. Classy, Maya. “You really shouldn’t be torturing yourself like this, Aubs. I know it’s tempting, but I don’t want this to upset you.” Maya waved at the laptop screen, and at the current picture of Aubrey’s ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. It wasn’t healthy, and she could almost feel the other’s heart breaking. “You’re not pathetic, okay? I still consider my ex’s older sister to be one of my closest friends, so you really don’t need to be feeling pathetic. Least of all with me.”
Aubrey couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her chest when she saw Maya practically devouring the muffins. There was a certain pleasure in it; the whole thing about pleasing people. It was no secret that Aubrey was a people pleaser, perhaps not as obvious to most but once you got to know her, it wasn’t a difficult thing to deduce. And there was a warmth that spread through her chest as she saw her best friend enjoying those muffins. Sometimes, the simplest of things were able to make her happy and her father always told her that humility is important, and to enjoy the simple things in life. ‘’Easy there, Muffin Monster,’’ Aubrey laughed, but didn’t mind one bit. ‘’Muffin coma is a real thing, trust me. There was this one time that I was only learning to bake things, so naturally, Weston and Amy were my testing subjects,’’ That thought alone provoked another hearty chuckle out of her. ‘’I was maybe 7 or 8, and I stuffed them with so many versions of chocolate and strawberry muffins that they felt sick. No one was really happy about that.’’
She felt endlessly grateful for Maya’s words, especially the regular confidence boosts she provided, but looking at the picture, she couldn’t help but doubt herself. A gorgeous body, smile as bright as the sun itself, seemingly soft and luscious hair... what was there not to like? And judging by the pictures, they had a lot of friends, too, probably mutual ones, so she must’ve had fantastic, colorful personality as well. ‘’Yeah, thanks, but I’m not sure, it’s more likely the other way around. I’ve tried rationalizing it, you know, like why am I doing this, but every single time I come up empty. I’m doing this because I still have feelings for him, as simple as that.’’ She shrugged. ‘’And what’s even worse, like--- He’s suddenly back in town again and I know I’ll be seeing him around. And then I go back to dissecting that god damn break up...’’ She trailed off, getting lost in her thoughts for a moment. ‘’It didn’t make any sense. We were happy. You can’t fake happy. Not for as long as our relationship lasted. And suddenly he comes to me with this confession how he wants to get back together with his ex? Like, what? How? He hasn’t mentioned her one time.’’ The frustration was obvious in her voice. Looking sideways at Maya, she let out a deep sigh. ‘’So you go around, snatching people’s sisters, I see how it is. I thought I was special.’’ At least something had her laughing again.
