#werewolf!maya

“Too desperate. Riles, I get that it’s hard to come across fellow vampires in this world, but you're going to scare off the first one you meet if you say that. Not that it matters -- you’ve got the only two people you need already anyway. I just got used to Ghost Boy, what do you have to go and make a new friend for anyways?”

[text]: Riles... I love you, but you know that we could easily take down murderers if we really wanted to, don’t you?[text]: Or at least send them running in the other direction at the sight of your fangs or my fur.[text]: Or maybe (and I’m saying maybe, I might have temporarily lost my mind and will regret saying this) we could try to find a way to bring ghost boy and use him as our murderer-deterrer.

Maya tried to force a smile at the comment, but her heart had sunk to her stomach, and she hoped Riley didn’t notice. She was practically floating from happiness at spending the night around traveling vampires that she’d bumped into in town -- what was so exciting about stupid vampires, anyway? -- but hearing that it was the best night, not just a great one but one that was supposedly better than all the rest, had Maya’s insides twisted with jealousy.

Why was she so afraid of losing them? Why did she care so much? First she’d been afraid that Farkle would leave, and now she was afraid that Riley didn’t even need her anymore. Maya didn’t know what was going on in her head, when it wasn’t even close to the full moon, but she didn’t like it, not one bit. She needed to get out of the apartment, get some air, maybe find some friends that she could have fun with without needing them so much... But all she could do was sit silently, listening to Riley gush, adding a half-hearted ‘That’s great, Riles,’ at all the right moments, and try not to let her heart break into a million tiny pieces.

“Oh, spare me, Ghost Boy. I promised Riles I’d try and act human, and what’s more human than throwing a raging house party and getting busted by the cops? It’s not like they can throw you in jail with me, on account of the whole ‘not solid’ thing, so I’m not sure why you’re complaining so much, I’m the one behind bars. Now would you hurry up and use that genius brain of yours to like steal us bail money or clear our records in the computer so they think we’re free to go?”

Maya looked around the room, and she had to admit, it was hard to find any section of it that wasn’t covered in paint splatters. She didn’t know how she’d gotten to the point where she’d lost her composure like that -- she tried so hard to conceal her feelings, to act like she didn’t care about anything. But it had all been building up: Riley getting along with their neighbors so much better than she did, her friendliness letting her blend in with the humans with minimal effort. That stupid ghost floating into their apartment all the time, and the fact that Riley seemed so fond of him... and that Maya was starting to like him, too. The fact that the full moon was coming and she didn’t want to leave their new, stupid home to deal with her transformation...

“Yeah, we sure did, Riles,” Maya told her, forcing a smile. She didn’t know how Riley could just smile at her like that, when Maya had ended up throwing paint on her and starting this whole color was in the first place. But that was how Riley was -- kind, forgiving, understanding. She knew that Maya hadn’t meant it; that she just needed to get her frustrations out, even if it wasn’t fair to take them out on her. The way Riley was smiling, though, it seemed like she’d almost had fun throwing paint on each other and screaming so loudly that the neighbors had had to ask if everything was all right in there. Farkle had even floated in to watch the grand finale, when Riley had missed Maya entirely and covered the wall in paint. Maya crossed over to hug Riley with one arm, rubbing more paint in her hair as she did and nodding towards the wall. “Well, I did say I hated the grey color -- guess now we’ve really got an excuse to redecorate.”