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She couldn’t stop staring at her.
Okay, that sounded way creepier than it was meant to.
But really, she couldn’t. Her, with her long, straight dark brown hair with strands that shone gold in the right light. Her, with her dark green-hazel eyes, tan skin, slender frame, and tall stature (at least, she was way taller than Maya was). When she smiled her whole face lit up, and when she laughed her whole body shook with emotion. She was so full of life, so full of love, so full of joy and positivity, and every time Maya looked at her she was awestruck by her radiance. The energy the girl emitted was just…light and stars and overwhelming in the most beautiful ways.
Maya was in love with her, to say the least. She had been for several years, ever since they met their sophomore year of high school; Maya had been the new girl, shy, quiet, a little skittish. And the other girl had just come up to her on her first day, sat down beside her at lunch, introduced herself, just started talking to her and cracking jokes like they had been friends ever since they were in diapers. Their relationship soared after that, in the most wonderful way. Maya never expected to grow as close to her—or the girl’s other friends—as she had. But she was thankful for it.
“Hey,” Maya jumped, nearly spilling her drink as Raven came up and bumped her hip against the other girls. Raven kept her gaze straight ahead, looking towards the same woman Maya was admiring from afar.
Maya looked up at Raven wearily, knowing that the slightly older girl was scheming something by the devious look on her face. “Yeah?”
Raven shifted her gaze to Maya, smirked. “So, tonight,” She started, waited for Maya to catch on.
“Is Christmas.” Maya said slowly, sipping her alcoholic beverage. She didn’t know what was in it, only that it was very strong and extremely sweet. She’d only had one, was milking her second one, and was already starting to feel a slight buzz.
The taller woman scowled, puckered her lips. “Yes, and it’s also the night that you’re going to make a move.” She hissed lowly.
Maya’s eyes grew wide, she nearly choked on her drink, shook her head furiously. “No, no, no, no, that is not going to happen. That cannot happen.”
Raven stepped in front of her, put her hands on her hips, glowered down at the short black haired girl. “It’s been years, Maya. You can’t just not tell her.”
“I can.” She argued sternly.
“You really wanna go the rest of your life not knowing if she likes you back?”
She adverted her eyes from the dark skinned girl, looked over to where Octavia was standing on the other side of the room. She was deep in conversation with Monty and his boyfriend, Miller, talking with her hands, making wide gestures. Maya asked herself that same question daily for years. Was she okay with watching Octavia date other people? Well, yeah, as long as they made her happy. Mostly all of them did not. Was she okay with her feelings going un-vocalized? Well, not really. But she knew Octavia didn’t feel the same way about her, she just knew. And she didn’t want to fuck up what they had for some stupid unrequited feelings. Feelings that would one day go away.
She hoped.
Maya turned away, looked back to an expecting Raven. She sighed deeply, downed the rest of her drink. “Yes. As long as she’s in my life I don’t care.”
Lie.
That was a lie. But she figured if she told it several times that it would become the truth.
Raven shook her head, gave the other girl a pitying look, patted her on the shoulder. “Oh yeah, t’s gonna happen tonight.” Then she sauntered away, leaving Maya to watch her in silence, her mouth slightly ajar, her heart racing a little with worry and paranoia for what Raven had planned.
Goddamn meddling friend. Maya thought with disdain.
Twenty minutes later, two more drinks down, and Maya had loosened up slightly. She could hold her own with alcohol that was for sure, because the mix had already put Lincoln and Bellamy, easily the two biggest men in the room, on their asses. Maya stood in a circle with Octavia, Clarke, Lexa, and Jasper. Clarke and Lexa were talking about some miracle surgery they had performed a few days before, while Jasper chatted with Octavia about some new invention he and Monty had in development. Maya stayed silent, listening, stealing quick glances at Octavia every now and again, gave input when the conversation called for it.
Her attention got pulled from the conversation when she saw Murphy and Raven whispering closely to each other on the other side of the room. Her paranoia went into overdrive; those two rarely ever talked to each other—they usually just fought, or bickered as they called it (for a couple of five years, they were very odd)—and when they did, that close, in whispers, it meant that they were scheming. What, Maya didn’t know, and that only made her even more nervous.
She shifted her eyes back to the conversation, but kept a close lookout for the couple as the night ticked on. Nothing happened for thirty minutes, she noted, and that’s when she started to relax a little. Until she saw a pole slide its way over her head with something dangling from the end of it. She looked up, saw that it was mistletoe, then looked forward and realized that it was right between her and Octavia, whose face was slightly pink, eyes wide and staring at her.
The other girl let out a squeak, stepped out of the group and walked with quickness over to the refreshment table, where she poured herself another drink, downed it in one gulp, then poured herself some more. From back in the circle, she could hear the others chuckling. From the right of her she could hear Raven curse to herself in her failed attempt to get the two women together.
Maya knew then that she would have to be on her toes for the rest of the night.
Raven and Murphy kept on with their little game; every time Maya and Octavia were near each other the mistletoe would appear, and Maya would always run away to the other side of the room. It was towards the end of the night that she found herself sitting on Murphy’s couch, exhausted and a little buzzed, annoyed by her two friends and their childish game and embarrassed at herself for not having the ovaries to just fucking kiss the girl she had been pining over for years.
Maya opened her eyes slightly when she noticed that someone had plopped down beside her. Her heart skipped a little when she saw that it was Octavia. She sat up straight, turned towards her, smiled. “Hey,” She greeted easily, kept her composure.
Octavia smiled back, bright teeth a contrast against her perfectly red glossed lips. “Hey,” She held out a plate to her friend, a large piece of red velvet cake heavily iced sitting on top of it.
Maya nodded, took the cake, and they began eating in silence. It was always a comfortable silence between the two of them; no conversation was needed, they could talk without words, which was why Maya felt the most comfortable around her. Caring, passionate, fierce, gorgeous Octavia. Her best friend. Her…well. Just her best friend.
From the corner of her eye Maya could see Octavia stealing quick glances at her. She cocked her head to the side slightly, wondered what was on her mind. She was going to ask, but it was Octavia who spoke first, “Why did you keep running away?” She questioned, referring to earlier when Raven and Murphy kept hanging the mistletoe above their heads.
Maya’s eyes grew wide. She would have dropped her mouth if not for the cake in it. Her palms started to sweat. She put the plate down, swallowed, rubbed her hands on her jeans, didn’t look at the long haired girl. “I, uh,” She didn’t really know what to say. ‘I wanted to kiss you but couldn’t.’ ‘I didn’t know what to do.’ ‘You don’t like me, so I just…’ None of it seemed right.
“Maya,” She looked up at Octavia, who had scooted closer to her on the couch. Their knees were touching now. Maya did her best to look everywhere except in Octavia’s eyes. She failed hopelessly. Octavia kept her eyes on her, waiting for an answer.
The other girl took in a deep, shaky breath, replied, “You’re supposed to kiss the person you like under the mistletoe?” Well that was a stupid thing to say. She would kick herself over it later.
Octavia’s smile widened, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “But don’t you like me?” Her voice was lower now, a little husky, and oh god that made Maya’s pulse race.
She gulped, twisted her fingers in her lap. “I, uh, yes?”
The brunette leaned in closer to the black haired girl, a coy smile on her lips. Maya wondered if this was all the alcohol talking, but then remembered that throughout the whole night Octavia only had one drink, so…
“Then kiss me.” She said simply. Maya could have fainted, she really could have. She was surprised that she didn’t. She felt her face heat up, knew that it was as red as a tomato.
“W-what?” She whispered, in complete disbelief. If her head was foggy from the alcohol earlier, it was completely black now.
Octavia pointed above them, shifted her eyes up. Maya followed her gaze, saw the mistletoe hanging above them again, heard Raven and Murphy muttering to each other a few feet away. Octavia looked back down at Maya, her eyes scanning her lips and then settling on her eyes. “Kiss. Me.” She said softly, leaning in and bumping her nose against Maya’s.
Maya sucked in an unsteady breath, closed her eyes, and leaned in the rest of the way. The kiss was chaste at first, their lips a little awkward together, but then Octavia put her hand on Maya’s face, rubbed little circles on her cheek, and that’s all she needed to open herself up completely. Maya’s hands moved up Octavia’s shoulders, into her hair. Octavia grinned into the kiss, deepened it. Maya giggled, bit her lip a little. Then they pulled away from each other, both red faced and breathing heavily.
“Well,” Maya muttered, her chest heaving.
“Yeah,” Octavia nodded.
“So this means…?” Maya raised her eyebrows, her expression and tone hopeful.
Octavia nodded, a wide and toothy grin on her face. “Duh.” Maya returned the wide grin, went in for another kiss.
“Oh, thank fuck.” Raven and Murphy groaned in unison from behind them. The rest of the people room agreed in unison. Some of them even clapped.
Maya and Octavia were too absorbed into each other to notice or even give a damn.
It’s not like they could disagree, anyway.