"What do you mean you deleted the call?"

"I mean I deleted the missed call from Maya's phone," Riley answered shakily.

"What? Why?"

"It was the day after Josh had left and Maya was so happy, I thought it was Noah, I didn't know what had happened so I figured why ruin her happiness. I thought I was helping her" Riley cried "and now she's going to make a huge mistake and it's all my fault"

"You have to tell her Riles"

"I can't she's going to hate me"

"We can't let her go through with this without knowing the whole story"

"She's going to be so mad"

"Maya can't stay mad at you, you know that"

"Josh really wants to be with her?" she asked.

"Seemed pretty sincere to me"

"Honestly, I didn't know, I would never do anything to hurt them, you know that right?"

"Of course I do, and so does she"

"I really messed up"

"It's not too late; we need to stop this now come on"

"So you want to go out for dinner tomorrow?" Maya asked down the phone.

"And then after dinner?" her boyfriend replied.

"Maybe we can come back to mine for a while"

"YES!"

"Please don't act like that, it makes me feel gross"

"Come on babe, I'm just excited"

"So dinner?"

"How about we go straight to dessert?"

"I'd like to go out first if that's all right"

"Yeah, ok… I'll pick you up tomorrow"

She was really going to do this, deep breath Maya. She could totally do this, it was no big deal and if it meant so much to Noah didn't he deserve it after eight months? She could do this for him and then maybe she could finally get over Josh. She knew that rationally Noah was the right choice; he was her boyfriend for crying out loud! But in spite of that she couldn't shake the nerves, nerves she had never felt with Josh. She sat on her bed trying to calm herself down but was quickly pulled out of her inner monologue by the unmistakable noise of someone coming through her window.

"Why didn't you tell me about Josh when it happened?"

"Riles, I didn't want you to freak out over nothing"

"First of all, your first time isn't nothing Maya, nor is any other time for that matter" she sat next to her friend as Farkle made his way through the widow "and we both know that isn't the reason"

"I don't know Riley, I didn't really think about it"

"Try again and how about this time you tell me the truth"

"What was I supposed to say Riles, I slept with your uncle and he never called? Was I supposed to tell you that one of your biggest role models just hit it and quit it? That I got left again? That I'm just like my mother? Josh is your family; I didn't want to come between that"

"You're my family too Maya and who cares? I will always love and respect you!" she yelled "Don't you know that by now?"

"I'm sorry, I was embarrassed"

"You never have to be embarrassed around me"

"I love you Riles"

"Ok then please bare that in mind when I tell you what I did"

"What…"

"Josh did call you Maya, but I deleted the call before you could see it"

"WHAT? WHY? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK RILEY?

"Language Maya!"

"You had no right! Where do you get off doing that? Just because you started dating the love of your life when we were fourteen doesn't mean you get to control the rest of us!"

"I did it for you! I didn't want you to get hurt, you seemed really happy with Noah"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Really?" she rolled her eyes "you're going to play the honesty card, this wholes mess could have been avoided if you had just told me about what happened"

"I've been yelling at him all week, I've been miserable all year…"

"You're mad"

"Yeah"

"But you'll forgive me"

"Yeah"

"So what are you going to do?" Farkle finally spoke.

"Nothing, I'm with Noah now"

"Josh loves you"

"Noah doesn't deserve this"

"Bullshit Maya"

"Language Riley!" the blonde chuckled.

"Stop using excuses to run away from something good, are you really that afraid of happiness"

"I'm happy with Noah"

"You just said you've been miserable all year"

"Noah changed that"

"Is that why I can see sketches hiding under your pillow when I haven't so much as seen you pick up a pencil in all the time you've been with him?"

"This is going to happen, Noah is coming over tomorrow and this is going to happen"

"Maya if you want to run away from Josh go for it" Farkle interrupted "but don't give yourself to some jerk that is pressuring you into it"

"I'm not a virgin ok? It's not a big deal"

"So what? Neither am I, neither is Riley that doesn't mean you lose your worth as a person Maya, you're not olive oil! It is a big deal"

"Maya if you go through with this you'll regret it forever"

"Why are you all suddenly against Noah?"

"Because I thought he was making you happy not Josh and if it's Josh who makes you happy then he's who you should be with"

"You don't love him Maya"

"Yes I do"

"Then say it! Say I love Noah"

"You know what?" she got up "I'm not playing this ridiculous game you know how to get back out" she slammed the door behind her.

"So do you have time for your favourite niece, some beer and a please forgive me pizza?" Riley asked as Josh opened his front door.

"First, how does a seventeen year old get beer? And second what is it I have to forgive you for?"

"The benefits of having a boyfriend that looks twenty five" she walked through and sat on the couch.

"Riles seriously, what did you do?"

"Maya told me everything"

"Umm" he scratched the back of his neck "I umm…"

"I don't care" she deadpanned "and I most certainly do not want to hear about it but I have to tell you something"

"Ok so what do you need to tell me?"

"Promise you won't be mad, promise you won't hate me forever"

"In what world could I hate you forever" Josh chuckled.

"Seriously Josh"

"What did you do Riley?"

"I kind of… I um… I deleted the your call from her phone"

"WHAT!" he got up "Why? What were you thinking? Why would you do that?"

"I didn't know what had happened I thought I was protecting her! I'm so sorry Josh, I messed everything up"

"Yeah you did! Do you know how hard this has been for me? For Maya? Maya, did you tell-"

"Yeah I did" her face fell "it didn't change anything"

"Riley" he dragged his finger through his hair "you know her better than anyone, what should I do? I'm out of ideas"

"Josh, Maya's going to do something stupid, I tried to stop her but she won't listen"

"Is she ok? Is she in trouble?"

"She's going to spend the night with Noah"

"Riles much as I hate it, they're dating and it's not my place to judge what she does with her boyfriend"

"You don't get it, they've never…"

"Not in eight months?" he perked up

"Guess she must have been hung up on someone else, crazy huh?"

"And what do you want me to do? She's made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to be with me"

"Give it one more shot Josh, she's going to regret it if she goes through with it"

"Riles, I really do love her"

"I know, so before you go over and try to win her over why don't we eat this pizza and you can tell me why you thought it would be a good idea to sleep with my best friend and then not tell me about it"

Dinner with Noah had been a no go. Apparently, he wasn't in the mood to go out so Maya had decided that instead she would cook something and they could stay in for a romantic night in. but even after they had scratched the going out idea, Noah seemed too eager to move on quickly.

"Noah come on" she pulled away "I spent hours making that lasagne, it's going to get cold. Calm down we have all night"

"Eight months is a long time to wait" he chuckled.

"Come on seriously" she dragged him to the table "What fresh hell is this" Maya groaned when she heard the door knock.

"Relax babe, it's probably just a delivery guy. I'll get it" he walked towards the door "What are you doing here?"

"I wasn't expecting you too be here" Josh waltzed right past the other young man, eyes focused like a laser on Maya. "Don't do this"

"Josh-"

"Maya please don't do this. I'm in love with you, I'm so incredibly in love with you I don't even know what to do with myself. I think about you all the time, I want to be with you. I love you, and I think you love me too so please don't do this"

"What the hell man?"

"I'm sure you're a nice guy but this is Maya's choice so Maya I'm going tell you one more time, I love you. Even if you go through with this I'll still love you tomorrow and the next day and the next day after that because I've loved you for so long I don't think I would know how to stop and I never want to"

"Josh-"

"Maya please just think about it, think about what you really want"

"I'm with Noah now"

"Maya-"

"No! You had your chance, you had your chance and you blew it. Noah loves me and for once in my life I'm happy why can't you accept that?"

"Because you're not happy and you know it, what happened to your dinner plans? Riley said you were going out. Since when does Maya Hart bow down to anybody?"

"Josh-"

"I've said my peace; just know that I'll still be waiting for you tomorrow or whenever you decide you're ready" so he kissed her on the cheek and left knowing that she was about to make a mistake she would regret for the rest of her life.

What else could he do? Sometimes you just had to let people learn from their mistakes, and it's not like his feelings for Maya would ever change. They were meant to be, he had all the faith in the world that was true, he just had to wait for her to see that again, she had waited years for him to do the same, he owed it to them both.

He couldn't go home, everything there reminded him of their night together so he rode the subway in circles, trying to think of anything other than what was likely happening at that moment. Eventually he had to give in to his stomach, he went to his brother's in hope of a hot meal and some support, but for the first time in his life, he found that no one answered the door. He resigned to walking home and spending the night alone with a meat lover's pizza but was shocked to find someone waiting for him.

"You're here?" he whispered as he made his way over to her "you're really here" he cupped her face.

"You never asked for you key back" she smiled.

"I don't want it back"

"you were right I'm afraid"

"You don't have to be, not with me"

"So we're going to do this?" her voice caught in her throat.

"Me and you, this is it"

"No more messing around"

"Never. I love you Maya"

"I love you too Josh"

Last chapter, hope you enjoyed this story and even if you didn't thank you for giving it a shot. I'm thinking about writing more one shots possibly an epilogue for my other Joshaya multi chap so if you want to read anything in particular please send me prompts! Thanks for all the reviews guys this is crazy! As always please leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading my story.