Someday Soon

The longest hockey game in history was one hundred seventy six and a half minutes, the longest football game was eighty two minutes and forty seconds. The record for baseball was nearly eight and a half hours. The longest tennis match stretched for eleven hours, and one cricket match stretched across nine days. At some point or another Maya had looked up each of these statistics, making mental notes of these record making game lengths. They didn't mean too much to her as she knew that the game she was playing would stretch for far longer than nine days.

There was no set timeline for the so called "long game". Sometimes Maya wish she had a rule book laid out in front of her, explaining the ins and outs of the game she and josh had entered into, a playbook of sorts. Despite Mayas general confusion she somehow got a thrill of the lack of structure between her and josh. She was living her life as instructed, and so was he, but that didn't mean that Maya couldn't poke fun and flirt whenever the opportunity rose, which was quite often.

Although Josh had settled into life at NYU and was no longer having quite the same struggle with his roommate as before, he still stopped by the Matthews apartment regularly to do this laundry and scrounge food off of his older brother. Maya who was a near permanent fixture at the Matthews residence was often present when Josh dropped by. Sly smiles and flirty remarks were often exchanged, which generally made Riley gag, and on more than one occasion Josh had posed the question "long game?" to her, knowing full well what her answer would be, yet she always echoed his words anyway.

As far as the rest of the world knew nothing much had changed relationship wise between Josh and Maya, but those who were observant could see the changes between the two. Maya tried her best not to fawn over Josh so publicly, but she still flirted at every appropriate opportunity, and rather than brush off her advances Josh would often smile and shake his head knowingly at her.

Maya spent a lot of time pondering at what age it was actually 'appropriate' for her and Josh really become something more. After all people always seemed to say that girls matured far faster than boys. Technically it was legal for her to date Josh right at that very second, but she was pretty sure it wasn't fear of the justice system that was keeping them apart. So sixteen and nineteen wasn't perfect but it wasn't cause to call dateline: to catch a predator. Seventeen and twenty was better, but the more she thought about it the more she thought that someone going into their third year of university probably didn't love the sound of dating a high school senior. However, as soon as she became a freshmen in college, in Maya's mind all bets were off. It sounded perfectly reasonable for any college student to date another, so a senior dating a freshmen in university seemed to be no big deal.

As time passed things began to shift once again between Maya and Josh, slowly at least at first. Although Riley and Maya were still as close of friends as ever their was no doubt that Riley was no dividing her time between her best friend and Lucas her boyfriend. This left Maya with far more free time then she was used to. She could hang around her own apartment if she had wanted to, but both her mother and Shawn were so busy with work that the place was often deserted. As independent and free willed as Maya could be, she didn't particularly love being alone at home. It often felt too quiet to her, despite the noise of the street outside. Due to this fact Maya still spent a lot of time at Riley's apartment, even when her best friend wasn't there. Sometimes she just lounged on the couch, hanging out with Auggie or listening to Corry or Topanga bustling around in the kitchen or the home office. On occasion Josh would happen to swing by the apartment when Maya was there without Riley. During those particular moments, Maya would join Josh in the Matthews laundry room. She would sit on top of the washer or dryer, making fun of Josh's inability to separate his darks and lights. Maya would often sit cross legged on top of the machine, folding the warm clothes fresh out of the dryer while Josh readied the next load and complained about his classes or joked about his crazy and obnoxious roommates or the other people who lived on his floor. There was laundry facilities in his dorm but Josh always lugged his dirty clothing dozens of subway stops to his brothers house. Sometimes, when Josh would look at her a certain way after she told a joke or made a comment it made Maya wonder if he was dropping by to do his laundry so often had more to do with just saving a few quarters.

Josh headed back to Philadelphia over the summer to work for his father's store as well as volunteer at a local teen mental health crisis hotline. After doing a general first year at NYU Josh had finally decided to major in Psychology. This came as no surprise to Maya who was keenly aware of Josh's observation skills and ability to read and assess situations. Maya was disappointed that she wouldn't see Josh all summer but was pleased to find out how easily they kept in contact. Rarely a day went by that they didn't exchange a few texts or tag each other in funny photos on their social media. Riley would sometimes catch her best friend smiling down at her phone. Riley would sneak a peek at Maya's phone screen and then roll her eyes when she say the name of the contact she was texting Uncle Boing.

It was late August at almost one am when Josh received his first ever phone call from Maya. He had been asleep in his room when his phone screen lite up and began to vibrate audibly. Josh had rolled over in bed and slide his finger across his phone to answer the call without looking at the name to see who was calling.

" hello?" he muttered, his voice thick with sleep.

"Boing!" a loud excited voice came through his phone. Josh winced at the sound but sat up slightly in bed and rubbed his eyes.

"Maya?" he asked slightly confused, as his stomach did a slight flip of what? Excitement?

"Yep." Maya answered, smacking her lips together.

"Yep yep yep yep yep" she continued her words slurring.

" Have you been drinking?" Josh asked with a mixture of concern and amusement in his voice. Maya let out a light sigh before answering.

"You're bang on boing." Maya answered trying stop herself from letting out a laugh. It was the summer before eleventh grade and Maya, Riley and the rest of their friends were attending their first upperclassman party. While Lucas and the others decided to stick to water, Riley, Maya, and Zay had chosen to partake in a drink or two. Maya was definitely feeling the buzz when she had decided to take out her phone and call Josh.

"Where's Riley?" Josh asked, glancing at the time on his clock across the room. On her end of the phone Maya shrugged, looking around the room at the party.

" Around." She said simply before forging forward into her next thought.

"Listen. Josh. There is a boy here who looks just like you." Maya said her tone incredulous. Back in Philadelphia Josh smirked.

" Just like me eh?" He asked, as he leaned back in his bed. Maya nodded although she knew Josh couldn't see her.

" Mmhmm. Well not just like you, and i know he's not you because he's not on the phone." Maya stated in a tone that insinuated that she was very proud of her logic at that moment.

"Nope definitely not me" Josh said as he rested his head against the pillow, trying to cover up a yawn.

" Too bad." Maya said wistfully. After a moment of content silence Maya asked her lips pressed against the rim of the bottle she was drinking from,

"Long game?" Josh smiled, but before he could answer Maya spoke again.

" Lucas is coming over. He looks mad. Or concerned. Or both." Before Josh could speak again he heard a different voice on the end of the line.

"Hello?" Lucas said into the receiver. Josh shook his head, identified himself and asked what was going on. Lucas explained that Riley had had one drink and was now ready to pass out and by the looks of it Maya was heading in the same direction. He said that they were all heading home and promised to get his niece home in one piece. They hung up the phone and Josh shook his head and turned over in bed, falling asleep with a smile on his face. This girl would drive him mad.