Poison

Chapter 10

"Come on," she insists as if we're dogs. I get up and slowly join her, creating a partial triangle. We wait patiently for the last piece - Asa.

"I'm not getting off the couch," Asa declares and Maya glares at him. They stare at each other for a minute and Maya shifts threateningly as if preparing to drag him down to the ground. He exhales loudly and throws his head back in defeat. Slowly, he lowers himself to the ground and stretches his long legs out. One almost knocks into me but he redirects it so that it's a few inches away from my knee. I wait for us to engage in conversation but Asa's eyes slowly drift to the muted television. Maya snatches the remote from his hand and turns it off. "I was watching that."

"No distractions! Undivided attention is always given at sleepovers," she informs him as she waves a scolding finger.

"You've got to be kidding me..." he hisses as he tilts his head up to the ceiling. I watch the way his adam's apple shifts when he swallows.

"So..." Maya trails in an attempt to gain his attention back.

"So what?" he retorts as he pulls his knees up and places his arms on them. The look on his face tells me he's bored and yet again, he appears like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"So are there any special ladies in your life?" she prompts with a suggestive wink.

I listen curiously, glancing between the two of them. Asa narrows his eyes in surprise. "You seriously meant it when you said we'd be talking about girls?" he asks dubiously.

"Yeah, that's what girls do at sleepovers," Maya explains as if it's obvious. She waves a hand around to press him for an answer.

"You know the answer to that," Asa retorts with a roll of his eyes.

"Ivy doesn't," Maya responds as she points to me, successfully putting me on the spot. "No secrets at sleepovers."

"Seriously, Maya?" he groans in annoyance while giving her a long blink.

"No secrets," Maya reiterates like a manager who can't help but enforce the rules.

"If there was a special girl, do you think I'd be sitting here with you two on a Friday night?" he retorts with a dismissive wave of his hand. This suffices for Maya because she turns her gaze on me with the same demanding look in her brown eyes.

"What about you, Ivy? Any special guys?" she inquires with a mischievous grin.

"No," I answer with a slow shake of my head. I decide not to give her any issues in answering.

"Learn from her, Asa. Simple response and no attitude or insults," Maya guides him as she places a hand on my calf. "Now, I know you're all wondering what's going on in my love life, so I'll spill the beans. You can both live vicariously through me seeing as both your dating lives are insufficient. So I'm talking to this one girl named Emma but my coworker Rebecca might be flirting with me so maybe I'll pursue her. But there's also a girl named Desirae..." she lists as she tilts her head in deep thought.

"I think it'd be easier for you to tell us who you aren't sleeping with," Asa mutters and I can't help but gasp. I look between the two of them in surprise but Maya looks unphased.

"No judgment at sleepovers, Asa!" she reminds him as she reaches one of her short legs out to kick at him. He swiftly dodges it and represses the urge to smile.

"For something that's supposed to be fun, there sure are a lot of rules," he acknowledges as he taps lightly at the floor.

"Next topic!" Maya insists and I watch her wrack her brain for something to talk about. "Do you guys have any ideas?"

"How'd you two become friends?" I inquire and Asa doesn't even bother to hide his annoyance. Should I not have asked?

"Can I tell the story?" she pleads as she practically shakes in excitement. He stares at her with a straight face before sighing. "I'm going to tell the story."

"Whatever," he concludes as he tunes out of the conversation.

"We met in high school," Maya starts and I'm already surprised. I wasn't aware that they went that far back. "He was madly in love with me." My eyes widen substantially as I look between the two of them and Asa's head snaps up.

"Except I wasn't," he corrects while rolling his eyes.

"Okay, so he wasn't in love with me," Maya dismisses with a short wave. "But anyway, it was 11th grade health class. We were learning about s*x-." Asa decides to cut in.

"Okay, I'm not going to let you fill her mind with lies," Asa announces as he prepares to take over. "I'll tell the story."

"Take it away, Asa," she encourages with a wide grin. I can tell this was a part of her plan to get him involved in the conversation.

"We met in high school. I was friends with her brother-," he starts but I stop him by turning to Maya.

"You have a brother?" I question even though the answer is quite clear. Asa cuts in before she can reply.

"That's what I said, right?" he bites sassily. I blink in slight surprise at his attitude before he continues. "Anyway, like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted. I was friends with Aidan and we were hanging out in his room. It was my first time there so I wasn't sure which room was which. I ended up walking into her room instead of the bathroom and caught her making out with her 'best friend,' Sadie. She demanded that I not tell anyone, not even Aidan, and made it clear that she, Sadie, and I were the only ones who knew. From then on, she would threaten to kill me whenever she saw me to ensure that her secret was safe."

"Okay, it was accurate up until that last part. He'd actually see me around at school and ask how my secret relationship was going," she clarifies with a small smile.

"Do your parents know now?" I wonder aloud and she thoughtlessly scoffs at such a concept.

"No..." she says with a very long head shake. "They would literally disown me."

"Really?" I mumble with a small frown.

"Yes," she assures me with slightly wide eyes. "They're very traditional."

"Does your brother know?" I question, hoping that she at least has someone in her family that accepts her.

"I think he has an idea. We were close growing up so I'm sure he noticed," she replies with a vague shrug. "He's never asked about it though so I never say anything."

"At one point, she was having secret relations with her best friend in her room after school. Now look at her..." Asa mumbles, surprisingly lightening the mood. "A monster."

"Shut up," she replies with a laugh as she slaps his chest.

"Are you still friends with her brother?" I ask Asa with a head tilt.

"Yeah," Asa says with a little nod.

I stare at Maya for a second and she grins widely at me as if encouraging me to ask any questions I may have. "When did you know?" I question as I sit on my hands.

"I always knew," she attempts to explain, "but I didn't know for sure until I sat down and admitted it to myself. All my friends liked boys. They all had boyfriends. I never liked a boy so I didn't get what all the hype was about. Then I realized, 'Maya, you i***t, that's because you like girls.'"

"How'd you get into a relationship with Sadie?" I ask and Asa laughs loudly.

"Tell this story. I want to hear it again," he insists with a wide grin and Maya purses her lips.

"This is embarrassing so you'll have to tell me an embarrassing story, too. So...I liked Sadie for a year before we became friends. I always saw her at school. She was a grade above me and was captain of the debate team and was a star soccer player. She was also a waitress at a local diner where I forced my friends to eat at least once a week. Not to mention, she was absolutely gorgeous. She had strawberry blonde hair and freckles and she was the perfect height and-," she continues to ramble so Asa cuts in.

"Okay, we get it, she was pretty and you stalked her," he summarizes quickly.

Maya narrows her eyes at him before huffing. "Anyway, we had a class together and we were partners for a project. With my wit and charm, I managed to reel her in. Of course I didn't tell her I liked her; that would've made things weird. As a young gay girl in a non-gay world, I knew better than to pursue her. I was completely satisfied with just being friends. We're going to fast forward a bit. Now, at this point in the story, we were friends for about a month or so. We skipped school one day and went to her house to hang out because what else do 16 year old girls do? We go up to her room and she changes out of her clothes. I look at her but only for a second! And it wasn't in a creepy way or anything!" Maya says defensively.

"Pervert," Asa coughs as he rests his arms on the couch behind him. I bite back my laughter as I continue to listen.

"I look for a split second and she asks me, out of nowhere, if I was gay. Of course I said no! That was not a safe situation to say yes in!" Maya explains as she waves her hands around in disbelief. "She just said okay and finished changing. She asks if I wanted to drink and I said sure because I figured it'd be fun to do bad things with the girl I liked. Sue me."

"Creep," Asa whispers and Maya tries to hit him with a pillow but he dodges it. I repress my laughter at his commentary.

"She comes back with some of her parents alcohol and we drink it. Mind you, it's ten in the morning. We clearly did not have our priorities in check. But she asks me again if I'm gay. I didn't have nearly enough alcohol in my system to reveal that dark truth about myself. I said no and she said that I was lying!" Maya exclaims, which gets a look of surprise from me.

"Oh man," I say as I lean forward a little, anticipating the rest of the story

"So I tell her that I'm not, as I should. And she tells me to kiss her to prove that I'm not. I know- what the hell kind of logic is that? That's exactly what I said, too. So I agreed, you know, to prove myself. I pecked her on the lips because I had some restraint. It was awkward; my face was red and looking back, I laugh because it was so obvious that I liked this girl. She kissed me again and things kind of just escalated from there," Maya replies as she stares reminiscently at the carpet.

"You slept with her?" I ask Maya with wide eyes.

"I liked her for a year! Give me a break!" Maya responds and I immediately fall into fits of laughter. I glance at Asa to see his reaction and he's smirking at Maya in a state of merriment.