by Fiona Price
That day, she became a "real" New Yorker. She cried on the subway and didn't care who saw her or what they thought. She played it tough in front of Peter, but she was completely ruined inside. To know that you're not the one your significant other really wants to be in a relationship with hurts more than the breakup itself.
Peter never called her. She asked him not to. But sometimes he regrets not calling her because then they both would get closure, but the more he thought about it he figured that there wasn't anything left to say, and "closure" was just something Peter needed to feel better. But with each passing day, he just felt worse. The gravity of his actions was constantly becoming heavier and weighing on him harder and harder each day. He knew he was wrong, but he knew that the further they were away from each other, there was even less of a chance that redemption was going to happen.
But it never worked out because all MJ wanted was to be the one Peter wanted and for him to be happy when he was around her instead of wishing he was with Maize, but Peter couldn't go for it with Maize because he constantly felt remorse about MJ, and he didn't want to go home to Maize because she was the only one Peter loved that he hadn't found a way to screw up yet.
He loved Liz.
He loved MJ.
He knew in his heart that was never a lie.
But he loves Maize.
And the tense of the word "love" that Peter felt made the difference.
Peter was sitting on the edge of his bed, his hands folded motionless in his lap as he looked at the rain outside of his window. He was miserable, and that was immediately obvious to William when he came around knocking.
"Peter, can I come in?" William asked from the hall. Peter couldn't seem to find the energy to answer him, especially because he didn't know how to answer. It was a simple yes or no question that Peter couldn't respond to. William opened the door just enough to look in and see a downtrodden Peter.
"Alright, kid, what the hell happened?" William asked, straightforward but softly as he sat at the foot of the bed next to Peter.
"What happened? Oh, well, I always seem to get the same things wrong but I don't want to risk a friendship just so I can be happy, is what happened, William."
"Okay, that was big. You've got a lot on your mind."
"I wanted to kiss Maize, William." He responded, having to start there in order to explain his previous statement.
"Alright, then why didn't you kiss her, may I ask?"
"I... I just couldn't, Mr. Townsend. And it's not for the lack of feelings- God I wished I either kissed her or didn't have so many fucking feelings about it!"
"But why couldn't you? You have all the feelings and I'd be willing to bet a lot on the fact that she's got all the right feelings too."
"But it's not about feelings. Wait- no, it's not about having the romantic or the "right" feelings, it's about having all the wrong ones. You know?"
"No. Absolutely not. You lost me, kid."
"William, putting this simply, I am perpetually, chronically bad at love. Instead of remembering all the things that can go right, all I can ever think about are how things can go wrong because I am bad at loving someone else. I can't even love myself enough sometimes."
"Kid, love isn't always something you can judge your ability on with a scale of "good" and "bad". It takes practice and determination sometimes, but if this means anything, I don't think you're "bad" at love. But this seems to be a problem you think about a lot."
"Of course, it is, how can it not, especially when I always ruin everything and everybody I try to keep. How can you say that I'm not physically bad at this?! Look at my history, Mr. Townsend. Seriously. See this from my eyes: Liz is over 3,000 miles away because of me. I fucked it all up with MJ because I didn't want to make the same mistakes I did with Liz, but that just devastated her and pushed her so far away from me that Maize and Meaghan are all that I have left. They're my only friends and I'm having a hard-enough time keeping that stable that I can't bear to risk bringing Maize into a relationship with me. I don't want her to leave, too."
"Have you ever considered the fact that, well, she's not going to leave?! Maize needs you, kid. When you two are apart, you two begin to go a little crazy, you get a little bit on the fray. Even when things were bad, like when you two had the argument about the flash drive, you still needed each other. Even in the bad times you can't be separated. I don't think it's possible for her to be driven away, she's too damn stubborn and you will do anything in your power to keep her in your life. Those other girls? You and Liz were doomed from the start. Her dad is your arch enemy, for god's sake! And MJ? She saw that your heart was somewhere else. I don't think it's fair for you to not give you and Maize a real fighting chance just because things were different with other girls. She's not them, she's Maize. So, you can say you're bad at love until you're purple, but I don't believe it, and I don't think Maize believes it either."
"She doesn't know that this was all because of her, William. MJ broke up with me because I was more invested in Maize than I was with her. Maize doesn't know that, William."
"You know, I can believe that. I don't care if you told her a lie or not as to why MJ broke up with you, she's too damn stubborn to believe anybody, even you, could love her." William shrugged, giving Peter a reassuring pat on his shoulder before walking out and shutting the door behind him.
In Meaghan's room, it was just about time for her dressing to be changed and Dike had promised to help her with it. He knocked gently on the slightly ajar door with his knuckles and Meaghan turned around to see his face through the crack in the door as he stood in the hallway. They were good friends at that point, but he was still so shy around her. Meaghan sometimes wished that he was a little more relaxed with her, it wasn't like she would bite him if he didn't want her to. She had the same character attributes as he did, they were practically the same person, it's not like she was some alien from outer space that he couldn't understand or wasn't comfortable around. He was just hesitating at the fact that they were so similar, and he was coming to terms with just how much he really liked her. He didn't want to get too close out of fear of losing it.
"Dike! Come on in. Quit being so timid, you can walk into my room if the door is open. That's an invitation for everyone to, I don't know, come in and talk to me? I'm not Medusa. It's not like I'm going to turn you into stone with one glance." She giggled, only a tinge of snark in her voice. He stepped inside her room.
Meaghan was wearing her most comfortable sweatpants, a zip-up hoodie that was halfway up and a gray bralette underneath, the band just barely covering her white bandage that wrapped around her ribcage.
"I've got the 4x4s, the roll gauze and the tape. Let's get down to business," Dike said, holding up the hand that held all the necessary medical supplies. "You're probably almost healed by now, but until then, I am going to heed the doctor's orders with you."
"By all means, go ahead. This thing is itchy anyway, I'll be glad to get this off for a second so I can scratch this one spot that's been bugging me for what feels like an eternity. It's underneath where the tape is so I couldn't get to it without ruining the wrap, and then I'd have to pick at it all and then we'd have to start all over, which we have to do anyway, but still." She explained, unzipping her hoodie the rest of the way and tossing it over the back of her desk chair. She started picking at the tape to begin unraveling it around her torso, to which Dike came in handy. He held the end while Meaghan spun around and backed up, unrolling herself from the white bandages. Dike laughed, Meaghan’s bouncy curls danced around her neck and her back as she moved.
When she had finished, she threw away the old gauze and cautiously peeled off the gauze pad that was covering her wound that looked better than it was before but wasn't quite healed over yet. Meaghan finally was able to scratch the area that had been bothering her, to her satisfaction. Dike wanted to make sure of that before he re-covered it, but that she was more nervous for. Meaghan flipped up the band of her bralette so it wouldn't g
et in the way, and she held her arms out to the side so she could wrap the roll of gauze around her body. She was playing with a strand of her loose ponytail that was draped over her shoulder as she looked down at Dike's handiwork.
Dike tore open the paper packet of bandages with his canine tooth, an act that wasn't meant to be sensual and was a habit of his, but that didn't make it any less attractive to Meaghan. He knew it too, and that made him even more nervous since in order to bandage her properly, he had to put his hands on her sides to guide the roll and press against her back for a little bit of counter support and as he pressed around the adhesive edges of the gauze pad that was covering her wound. He taped the end of the gauze to her skin before he started rolling, passing the gauze from hand to hand as she rolled around her back and around her front. Meaghan couldn't help but giggle to break the tension she knew existed because she was only the slightest bit ticklish around her stomach.
"You okay?" Dike asked with a smile as he finished wrapping her up and securing it with a piece of medical tape.
"Yeah, actually, I'm doing pretty great." She answered, meeting his eyes. The fine hairs on her skin and up her spine were raised from the feeling of Dike’s hands along her skin, and she was subtly craving those hands back on her waist again. She and Dike both felt breathless in the same moment and Dike's heart fluttered just enough to let Meaghan know of his crush, for lack of a better word. He caught a glimpse of Meaghan’s eyes as the sun hit them, and he was completely hooked.
Dike was in love... and so was Meaghan.
Dike and Meaghan stood six inches away from each other, silent and motionless for the longest moment of their entire lives. Dike decided to do what neither Peter or Maize could, and that was to just make the move, and kiss the girl. He didn't care about what would happen, but he had to know what it would be like if he had kissed her and the only way to find out was to do it. Meaghan was standing there, just waiting to be kissed, and when she saw Dike lean towards her, she fell right into him and kissed him like she always wanted to. And it felt just like she imagined it would.
At least one pair of Gods was kissed like they should have been that day. Both Peter and Maize and Dike and Meaghan knew that if you only have one shot, you better take it in that moment before it disappears. Peter and Maize both hoped that they would have another moment and they wouldn't just wave at it as it passed like they had done that day. Meaghan and Dike were both wondering what was next for them, but only time would be able to tell that for all four Gods. They just hoped time would be good to them.
Bowties and Bad Decisions
♦️
The Gods woke up to a surprise: a formal invitation from William to one of his infamous parties in Gods Tower in the middle of Manhattan. He stressed the strict formal dress code and offered little to no explanation about why this party was happening. When they asked him, he said "my friends want to meet you, the kids that saved New York City. Why else?" as if it was completely obvious.
But they all faced a problem: none of them had anything to wear.
Upset, Talia was tossing all the clothes that were absolutely unsuitable out into the hallway, including a pair of black red-bottom Louboutin heels that caught Maize's eye. Meaghan saw this.
"Maize, you have to take those. Talia is literally throwing her clothes out, like this shit is in garbage bags, girl. Do you hear her? She's doing a closet cleanse, and she doesn't care about those shoes. They were a gift from an ex, she's never going to wear them again."
"Are you, Dike, suggesting I steal something?"
"Well, you're stealing for a good cause, right? Again, someone at the thrift store is going to buy them for $12 if you don't just take the shoes and run." Meaghan convinced. Maize followed through.
Frantic, Peter was trying to put his best pieces together when William pulled him from the depths of his science pun t-shirts and jeans and took him to his closet. William was insistent that Peter would wear his first adult, well-tailored suit, even though Peter felt like it was too much to accept.
"Do you want to go to this party or not?" William asked.
"Well, yeah." Peter answered. "I'm terrified to meet your friends, but I still want to go."
"So, take the suit. That's the only way you're going to be able to come into the party, Peter."
"But I can't even pronounce the name of the company that makes my tie!"
"It's Dolce and Gabbana, Peter, it's not that hard to remember. If you scuff up my Gucci shoes, you're going to die, but you'll look great!" William mentioned, patting Peter on the back.
Hesitantly, Peter took the suit, feeling like a brand-new man on the inside. Meanwhile, Maize and Meaghan were doing their hair, makeup and nails before getting into their dresses. Maize was wearing the shoes as she was curling her hair, still indecisive.
"They're just a little too big, I don't know if I can wear these. Plus, Talia will know I took her shoes and that will cause more trouble with her that I don't want."
"Those are genuine Louboutin’s, Maize! You're going to make them fit! Remember it's a pointed toe so you're going to have extra room! Make it work!" Meaghan explained.
"Okay, but I have nothing to wear them with. None of my clothes are black tie." Maize said, exasperated as she tossed dresses onto her bed.
"Why don't you wear that red sequined dress you wore for your 18th birthday party?"
"That is way too, how should I put this simply, exposed for this kind of party."
"Do you have any better options?" Meaghan asked.
Maize looked down at her cotton sundresses and bit her lip, realizing that Meaghan was right.
It wasn't long before their look was almost complete, and Maize and Meaghan added their finishing touches to their outfits in the mirror.
"Oh God, what would my mother say if she saw me now?" Maize laughed, looking at herself in the mirror. Her dress for the night's event was a red and black sequined dress with spaghetti straps and an open back, whose hem just brushed the middle of her thigh. Talia's discarded stilettos completed the look, Maize's oxblood fingernail and toenail polish complementing her entire look.
Meaghan wore a royal blue, off-the-shoulder, high-low dress with nude pumps and brilliant diamond accessories.
Meaghan and Maize pulled up to Gods Tower later that night and Maize stepped out of her Maserati like a Rockstar. She had the attitude and the swagger; her shoes led her entire persona. She handed the keys over to the Valet and let her long blonde hair swing behind her as she passed Talia, and boy was Talia pissed. Maize made more of an entrance than Talia did, and she did it in Talia's shoes. It wasn't a good start to the night for Talia.
Maize and Meaghan walked inside the doors that were opened for them and they took the elevator up to the top floor where the party was taking place. Meaghan and Maize were the only two people in the glass elevator, and Maize felt a surge of chest pain. She was still gaining her confidence around Talia, and that was a big move for her.
"You okay, Maize?" Meaghan asked, noticing a change in her friend.
"Yeah, just experiencing some mild cardiac arrest, but that won't stop me from partying." She said just as the elevator doors opened. Maize straightened up instantly and strutted off the elevator, using the room as her catwalk. She passed by Peter in his crisp and well-tailored black and white three-piece suit with a maroon tie that William surely had set him up with. It was probably Dolce & Gabbana, or some shit Peter would never have in his own closet. She held eye contact with him as he quickly darted his eyes up and down her ensemble and a drink tray passed between them. Maize elegantly finessed a glass off of it and raised it to her lips, taking a sip before turning her head away. Meaghan leaned over to Maize and whispered an observation in her ear.
"You and Peter are matching, you two look like you're going to Homecoming together!"
"Shut the hell up, Meaghan! No, we don't!" Maize blushed, knowing Meaghan was right.
"You do! Don't look now, but you do!!" She insisted. "What are you d
rinking, anyway?!"
"I don't know but I don't like it." She muttered. "I think it's rum, but it tastes like paint thinner, I thought it would be a cool move with the drink tray and-" Maize explained, her eye twitching at the effect the alcohol.
"Oh, it was awesome. Did you see the way he was looking at you?"
"He doesn't like me that way, if he did something would have already happened between us. Don’t you think? Come on, Meaghan." She spoke quietly, downing the rest of whatever the hell was in her glass.
