"Girl Meets Ski Lodge- Part two"

TJ couldn't believe that Coral was there at the Ski Lodge. He hadn't seen her since middle school and thought she still lived in Canada. TJ spent most of the night talking to Coral, just catching up on what had been going on in their lives. He found out she and her family came to the ski lodge at least once a year and that they still do live in Canada.

They went their separate ways to their rooms before the morning, but it was around 2 in the morning. TJ loved being able to hang out with Coral again. It felt like nothing changed. In the morning, TJ and his friends find out that Riley stayed up all night, talking to this boy who works at the ski lodge. Riley tried leaving before her friends found out, but it was too late as she turned around and saw Maya, Lucas, and TJ standing on the steps.

"You're wearing the same clothes." Maya noticed, looking at Riley.

Lucas points at the boy beside Riley. "Who's that?"

Maya glances at TJ, who stands beside her. "While we're wearing new clothes. You see that?"

"Mmm." TJ hums in response, nodding his head. "Interesting."

Lucas continues pointing at the unfamiliar boy. "Who's that?"

"She looks sleepy to me." Maya said, looking back at Riley.

"Yeah, that one there, who is that?" Lucas questioned again, wanting someone to answer his question.

Riley looks at her parents with panic clearly written on her face. "Ma-dad?"

Cory shrugs. "You got caught, kid."

Topanga nods. "You know what helps though?"

"Nothing." Cory replied.

Topanga struggled to come up with something to say but then nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah."

TJ watched with raised eyebrows as they quickly left. He looks back at his friends while Maya walks down the steps to where Riley and the boy stood.

"Okay, this is ridiculous. Are you really going to make me explain?" Riley asked her friends.

TJ crosses his arms, tilting his head as he looks at her and then at Maya and Lucas. "Are you gonna make me explain who I talked with last night?"

Maya narrows her eyes at him, looking like she thought until she finally points at him with a small smile on her face. "Possibly."

TJ chuckles and shakes his head at her. "Okay, then Lucas, what do you think?"

"Yes." Lucas replied to Riley's question, moving down the steps to stand beside Maya. TJ still stood on the steps, but now on the first one, and he leaned on the railing.

Maya nods and looks at Riley, deciding to agree. "Yes."

"Okay, then fine." Riley dramatically said. She lifts her right foot that had her brace on. "I have this boot on. I am hobbled. As a person who is hobbled, all I can do is talk. I can't run. I can't hike. And you know what? This boot is fantastic."

Riley walks over to Maya and hugs her. "What do you want to do today, Maya?"

Lucas shakes his head. "It's not about today, it's about last night."

Riley gets off of Maya, outstretching her arms as she talks. "All we did was talk."

Lucas looks at her with an expression TJ couldn't exactly describe. "Okay." Lucas nodded and then started to walk off.

"Lucas," Riley turns to him with confusion. "I'm not allowed to talk?"

Lucas stops and turns around to face her, looking at her with a smile. "Sure you can. You can talk to whoever you want to, Riley."

Riley turns to Maya with concern. "Maya..."

Maya shakes her head, sending her a reassuring smile. "I'll take care of it. It'll be fine."

"Hey, TJ."

TJ looks at the top of the stairs, standing up and smiles a bit when he sees Coral. "Hey."

Coral smiles back at him as she walks over to him. "I was wondering if you wanted to go get some hot coca."

"Yeah, sure." TJ nods. He dramatically gestured out in front of him, letting her get off the steps first. "Lead the way."

Coral chuckles. "Why, thank you."

****

"So, what's the deal?" Coral asked him after she took a sip of her hot cocoa. She and TJ now sat outside on the porch swing, looking out at the beautiful mountain view.

TJ raises his eyebrows, and after he takes a sip of his hot cocoa, he looks at Coral with confusion. "What?"

Coral laughs a bit. "What's the deal with you and those girls you hang out with?"

"Oh." TJ chuckles, shaking his head as he brings his gaze over to the mountain view. "We're just friends."

Coral sighs dramatically and takes another sip of her hot drink. "You're a terrible liar, TJ."

"I'm serious!" TJ defended himself while looking back at her.

"It's obvious you have feelings for that blonde girl." Coral told him.

TJ's eyes grew wide, and looks at her with panic. "Is it really that obvious?"

Coral chuckles, finding it amusing how he didn't even deny his feelings for the girl. "I mean, I've only seen you guys for not even a day, but I've been watching you guys....Not in a weird way, I'm just observant. But I saw how much the blonde-haired girl cares about you and it was quite obvious you felt the same about her."

TJ sighs, knowing that he couldn't keep his feelings hidden from her. "Okay, yeah, you're right."

Coral grins. "I knew it. So, tell me about this lucky girl."

"Her name's Maya." TJ tells her and then starts to ramble. The more he talked about Maya, the more he smiled. "She's a talented artist, and she can also sing and play guitar. She's passionate, caring, funny, rebellious, beautiful-"

"Okay, okay," Coral laughs. "I get it, you're in love with her. Does she know that?"

TJ shakes his head. "Nope. And besides, she's in this stupid love triangle with Lucas and Riley that has been going on for a few years, I guess."

Coral's eyes widen at hearing that. "Wow. Well, maybe if you told Maya your feelings about her, then maybe that will break the love triangle."

"How can am I supposed to tell her though?" TJ sighs. "You know I'm bad at this kind of stuff."

"Very bad." Coral nods and chuckles. "I remember the time you had a crush on the popular girl back in middle school and tried asking her out, but you made up some awful lame excuse and ran down the hallway."

TJ's face flushed with embarrassment, and he groaned as he covered his face with one hand. "Yeah, I tried to wipe that memory out of my mind. Thanks for bringing it back." He sarcastically said and she smiled, looking at him with amusement. "You're welcome."

They both look back out at the mountain view, and after a moment of comfortable silence, TJ admits, "I did write a song that sums up my feelings for her."

Coral looks over at him with a smile. "Great! Then just sing that to her, and then boom, she's in love with you."

"It's not that easy." TJ shook his head.

"You can get anyone to fall in love with you when you sing, TJ." Coral told him. "I blame your stupid perfect singing voice."

TJ chuckles a bit, turning to look at her with raised eyebrows. "Uh, thank you?" TJ said, but it sounded like a question.

"Trust me, TJ, I have a feeling things will work out for you and Maya." Coral smiled. She points at him. "But if she ever hurts you, call me, and I'll be in New York in a heartbeat ready to beat her up."

"Thank you, Coral." TJ laughed. "But I don't think I'll need you to beat anyone up. Especially Maya."

Coral pouts and stares at her hot coca while she grumbles, "Fine."

****

TJ left Coral after they hung outside for a few more minutes. He saw that his friends, plus Josh and the boy he found out, is named Evan, sitting in the living room area playing some game. TJ went up the stairs and to the room he shared with Lucas. He goes over to his guitar case that's leaned up against the wall and gets his acoustic guitar out.

He then walks out onto the loft that overlooks the lobby and the living room area of the ski lodge. He noticed that his friends, Evan, and Josh were still in the living room area, so he walked down a few steps, pointing at Maya.

"I need to talk to you."

Each of them looks at him with confusion. Maya points at herself, slowly standing up. "Me?"

"Yes, you." TJ nods, walking down the rest of the steps, and goes over to her. "I need to talk to you privately."

He grabs her hand and pulls her outside, surprising the others.

"Uh, what's up with the guitar, Canada?" Maya asked him with a nervous chuckle.

TJ lets go of her hand once they were outside and had her sit down on the porch swing he and Coral sat on earlier.

He stands a few inches away from her and faces her with a nervous smile. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now, and I have trouble saying it, so I'm gonna sing it."

Maya grins. "I get to hear you sing? Yay."

TJ chuckles a bit, his smile widening. His heartbeat increased as he placed his hands in the right place on his acoustic guitar. He takes a deep breath before he looks back at her with a shy smile, feeling his face grow hot when she encouragingly smiles at him.

As he talks, he starts strumming the chords to the intro of the song. "This song is called 'Bright', and I, um, wrote it about you...well, I mean, us."

https://youtu.be/7am7CqLPn7Q

He takes a deep breath and then sings the first verse. As he sings, he looks back at his guitar to make sure he's playing the right chords. "Sometimes I think I'm falling down. I wanna cry, I'm calling out. For one more try to feel alive. And when I feel lost and alone I know that I can make it home. Fight through the dark and find the spark."

Maya smiles while he sings, looking at him with awe. She didn't expect for him to sing and play the guitar so good. TJ looks back at her with a small smile, getting more confident playing in front of her as he sings the pre-chorus. "Life is a risk, but I will take it. Close my eyes and jump. Together I think that we can make it. Come on, let's run."

"And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever. And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever."

He walks over to her where he sat on the porch, singing the second verse. "In times that I, doubted myself. I felt like I needed some help. Stuck in my head with nothing left. I feel something around me now. So unclear, lifting me out. I found the ground, I'm marching on."

The smile never left Maya's face while TJ continues to sing. "Life is a risk, but I will take it. Close my eyes and jump. Together I think that we can make it. Come on, let's run." She couldn't believe she was actually getting serenaded by him and part of her didn't want it to stop.

"And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever. And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever."

Singing the bridge of the song, TJ gets closer to where she sat on the porch swing. "In times that I, doubted myself. I felt like I needed some help. Stuck in my head with nothing left. And when I feel lost and alone I know that I can make it home. Fight through the dark and find the spark."

TJ now stands in front of Maya, smiling when they lock eyes. "And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever. And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever."

After he sings the last lyric and plays the song's final chord, he looks at Maya with a nervous smile. "So...What do you think?"

He grew more nervous and worried as Maya stayed silent. He was starting to regret he wrote this song in the first place. His eyes grow wide when Maya suddenly stands up and walks to him so she's standing in front of him. He then felt her lips on his, and he froze. He couldn't believe what was happening and when he unfroze from shock and surprise, Maya had stepped back.

She looks at him with a shy smile, and he notices that she's blushing. "I think I love the song and that you're insanely talented."

TJ smiles widely at her, feeling all of his nerves and worries beginning to fade away. "Good. 'Cause I meant every word. And this song doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about you."

"Well...how-how do you feel about me?" Maya stammered, looking at him nervously.

Her eyes widened when he suddenly bent down to her height and kissed her. She was surprised, but she didn't hesitate to kiss him back. The kiss was short and sweet, and they both were blushing and a smiling mess when they pulled away.

"You kissed me." Maya grinned at him.

"Y-yeah, I did." Nodding his head, TJ chuckles nervously. "I'm not that good with words, so I...I kissed you. I did it 'cause I was too in shock when you first kissed me."

"I-I'm a bit confused," Maya admits, remembering that she saw him talking with Coral last night. "I thought you like Coral."

TJ shakes his head. "Not like how I like you. She's like a sister to me. I knew her since we were little kids."

Maya smiles at hearing that, feeling a lot better. "Okay, good."

"I like you, Maya." TJ confesses. "And I'm guessing...Well, hoping you like me too."

"Pff, I totally don't like you." Maya lied, her face gave her lie away since it was tinted pink.

TJ rolls his eyes. "Are you kidding me?" He points at himself. "Look at me in the eyes, and at least tell me we don't ooze chemistry."

Maya points at him. "Okay, first, you should never be allowed to say ooze, and second..." She avoids eye contact while nervously crossing her arms. "We don't ooze chemistry."

TJ looks at her with wide eyes, shaking his head. "You totally just lied."

Maya signs dramatically and looks up at him with a shy smile. "Okay, yes. I do like you. Of course I like you. How could I not like you?"

TJ smiles at her, and she smiles back at him. "So, um, what are we now?" TJ asked her as he moved his guitar around so it was resting on his back.

"Boyfriend and girlfriend." Maya immediately replies, looking at him with a hopeful glint in her eyes. When he looks at her with surprise, she grows nervous. "Only, um...Only if you want to."

"Yes, of course I do." TJ smiles at her, and she smiles back at him. "Wait," He furrows his eyebrows. "What about that stupid love triangle you're in with Lucas and Riley?"

"Who cares about them?" Maya shrugged her shoulders, and he looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"I'm kidding." Maya laughs. "Don't worry, Canada. It's all figured out. I told Lucas I like you, and it works out 'cause he chose Riley."

"Good" TJ's smile widened, taking a step forward, and intertwined his hand with hers. "Is..Is this okay?"

Maya giggles a bit and nods. "Very much okay."

A/N yay maya & tj are finally together! you guys also got to meet coral & know more about hers & tj's relationship! this chapter was very cute to write!