Maze: "I just want to know how she is. How's she doing? Is she doing okay? How tall is she now? What perfume does she wear? Is she dating anyone?"
Bryan: "That's pretty bi of you to be asking."

__________

Maze staggered out of the car laughing and swinging her duffle over her backpack over her shoulder. She knew she shouldn't get her hopes up, but she couldn't hide her smile as she waved to Bryan's middle finger through the windshield before Bryan left the lot.

Maze stepped up onto the curb circling the diner's outdoor seating. She passed the front stretch of windows on her way to the door where she cupped her hands around her eyes and peered in. Her ma was behind the bar tapping her finger on the countertop between her and one of the waitresses.

She had feared that coming back home would mean noticing all of the ways her mom had deteriorated since she last left. That wasn't the case, though. She looked no different from January, sweet smile and all. Her hair was a curly black dome over her eyes and it matched every bit of the retro diner she owned.

When she looked up from the counter and caught sight of Maze standing there, Maze waved. She heard her ma's thrilled yelp through the window and laughed.

Her ma scurried around the bar in an instant and ran across the floor, yelling, "Oh! There she is! My baby girl!"

She unlocked the front door in the same second she flipped the "Closed" sign to "Open". The instant the door opened, she tackled Maze with a tight hug.

Maze dropped her duffle on the ground in preparation for it. She squeezed her back, her cheek pressed to her mother's hair.

"Hey Ma," she said, voice hoarse at the back of her throat.

"Hey welcome back, sweetie. How're ya feelin'? Did you and Shouto get something to eat? I'll make you breakfast," she said and all but pulled Maze over the threshold. Maze ducked down to grab her bag on the way.

"Ah, no, haven't eaten yet," she confessed, and that was rectified immediately.

She was still polishing off a plate of french toast when the first regulars of the morning trickled in. She sat through every reintroduction her mother presented to her—Willa's dad, who stopped on his way to work in Chicago; Maze's old pediatrician at the clinic down the road; and even Mr. Norman, who Maze spent all four of her high school years avoiding lest she wind up in detention. It was difficult sneaking into school late when Mr. Norman's always fetched his morning coffee from her ma's diner and knew for a fact that Maze slept in late because of it.

Maze grimaced at the memory of it. Word spread fast in this small town when her mother had no filter.

The waitress that morning glided up on her skates, spinning, and slid backwards into the slot between stools where Maze was seated at the end of the counter. She hooked her elbows back on the retro arm cushion that lined the bar top.

"Long time no see," Brielle said.

"You working the summer here or something?" Maze asked, because last she heard, Brielle Chandler was attending Northwestern. This would have been her last semester in undergrad.

"Something like that," she said. She crossed her ankles, sliding forward and back idly on her roller-skates. She tipped her head curiously to the side and said, "What about you? I didn't even know until your mom mentioned it, like, a week ago."

"Yeah, it was kinda last minute," she confessed. She folded her arms against the cushion in such a way that prevented Brielle from looking too closely at her hands. "I figured she could use some help. And I just wanted to... visit."

Brielle studied her, her sharp eyes lingering on every time Maze's eyes drifted elsewhere. She bit her lip and looked down.

"Are you visiting your dad today?" Brielle asked.

"I don't—I don't know," she confessed, shaking her head.

Brielle took the stool beside her, hooking her wheels on the metal stool rung. "You know, I visit him once a month," she said. "So if you want an unbiased opinion, it's not so bad."

"Thanks, I guess," she said, sighing. "It's nice that you visit."

"I mean, of course I do. He taught me how to skate backwards," she said, and Maze couldn't help but laugh. What an oddly endearing thing to be remembered by. Brielle rolled her eyes off to the side and added, "Albeit, after I ate shit about two dozen times."

Maze laughed again, this time with more relief. Brielle was a longtime hire of her ma's. In fact, Maze remembered when she and Brielle were fourteen and on opposite sides of the social spectrum at school—Brielle was always studious, respectable, and Maze was... not that. Brielle came in asking for a job and started in the back flipping burgers until she was fifteen and trying to earn enough to supplement everything going towards college.

In other words, they spent a lot of time together at the diner.

"Hey," Maze said, clearing her throat. The question was stuck there, though, but Brielle waited patiently for the rest of it to escape. "Have you... heard anything from..."

"Kassandra?" she said.

Maze nodded. God, just asking gave her a headache.

Brielle shook her head and said, "No, I haven't. I only just got back two weeks ago. I'm not even sure if she's still around Indiana anymore."

"Oh," she said, her disappointment thinly veiled.

"Yeah, but it sounds like Bryan's gonna be around all break, so that's something," she said, and Maze spared her a brief smile.

The front door chimed, prompting Brielle to hop to her feet and glide away to greet them.

There were a thousand and one things Maze royally failed at, and one of them happened the summer before freshmen year of college. She had seen Kass a grand total of two times since then, and that was all thanks to one (or perhaps five) too many celebratory shots.

It was the same night the novelty of her crush on Declan shattered and she couldn't fathom why. But she knew it had to do with her childhood best friend. And not a day went by when Maze wished Kass hadn't said a damn thing about it. Coming home to Indiana would be so much easier if she hadn't done that. 

Kass attended a community college nearby but in the same breath, she moved out of her parents' place and lived God knows where. As far as Maze knew, Kass was still friends with Willa and their mutual friend Grace—someone from Kass' college— but Willa made no point to bring up Kass in conversation in much the same way everyone avoided chat about racing that morning at the beach. Maze was surrounded by eggshells, and as her life deteriorated, more gathered. She wondered just how long it would take before her hometown friends stopped bothering to talk to her at all.

As far as she knew, only Bryan and Willa were aware of what happened the night Kass kissed her. They knew exactly what Maze's reaction had been, and they knew exactly how little Kass wanted to see her now.

It wasn't that Maze...

Well.

Maze wasn't really sure which direction she swung. On the one hand, she liked men. She'd go so far as to say she loved them—how couldn't she? They had abs! And perhaps it was a classic case of compulsory heterosexuality that prevented her from even considering anything else until her childhood best friend stuck her tongue in her mouth and—

Maze slapped her hands over her face. Nope, not thinking about that, she thought, but every time that night flitted through her mind, she couldn't get rid of it. From the kiss, to the screaming match, to the punch her heart sustained from watching Kass walk out of her life.

"You know what?" Maze said later that day on the stoop of Bryan's mom's place. They were shucking corn cobs for dinner. "I bet she doesn't even think about me anymore. So why keep avoiding me?" Bryan yanked the tassels off the top of the corn cob and gingerly picked the remaining hairs away. "I've said it once and I'll say it again: You're pretty obsessed about what happened for a straight girl."

"I'm not obsessed. I'm just wondering, 'Oh, where, oh, where did my best friend go,'" Maze chimed in a dull sing-song voice. She glared at Bryan for even suggesting that, and Bryan shrugged.

"I'm just saying that people come and go and there's no point clinging to people who don't want to come—Wait, no let me rephrase that—Who would rather go—"

Maze was already beside herself laughing. Bryan slapped her forehead with a handful of corn leaves before tossing them in the disposable bag. "But don't you think it's weird? If she's over it by now, why would she be comfortable throwing away, like, seventeen years of friendship?"

Bryan sighed and didn't answer because he had said it a dozen times before, and maybe acknowledging that would confirm Maze's obsession. Had she really been hanging onto this for four entire years?

Yes. Yes she had.

"Well, anyway, Brielle says she hasn't heard from Kass. She thinks she might be out of state now," Maze said, sighing. "Which makes sense since she did one of those two-year programs so she's probably already working by now and—"

"Your point, Mrs. Self-Proclaimed Straight Woman."

"—Is that I won't even see her this summer, so it's whatever. It's fine. I'm cool what that." She tossed a cob of corn onto the stack. She hesitated, looked to Bryan for confirmation, and said, "Right?"

"Sure."

"You're no help with this."

"I'm not exactly adept at giving relationship advice," Bryan said, and Maze couldn't deny that.

The last time Bryan dated anyone was by accident because a friend of Maze's from NYC had offered to show Bryan around while Maze was in class when their spring breaks didn't quite line up. Bryan had wound up on a grand total of seven dates under the flirty rouse of, "I'll pay for this one, and you can pay for the next," and so the cycle continued until they held hands at the movies and Bryan grew suspicious.

They wound up FaceTiming and playing COD together for a while until Maze caught on after a chat with her friend in which Bryan was dubbed the "boyfriend".

"Did you know you're dating my friend?" Maze had said, to which Bryan had said, "Ha, funny, I— Wait—Are you serious?"

Maze cleared her throat and said, "So when are we infiltrating your dad's place?"

"I asked Declan when we're heading out next," Bryan said. "He said we could meet up a couple miles out from his parents' place—"

"By the bluff?" Maze recalled that being a popular gathering point where they'd listen to police scanners and hang out.

"Sort of," he said, and followed up by explaining that Declan's grandparents owned a plot of land with a gravel tractor trail just before the bluff.

It was an old, decommissioned driveway sheltered by trees. The hiding spot was hidden so far in the trees that the headlights of the joining cars looked like nothing more than fireflies from the road. But, before Maze and Bryan ever showed up, they had a heist to embark on.

That night after having dinner with her ma, Bryan, and Aunt Rae—Bryan's mother—the two of them insisted that they were meeting up with some friends from high school for a bonfire. It had been so long since Maze last saw them, they said, it'd be perfectly innocent, they said.

"Well, okay—text me when you're on your way back," Aunt Rae said, and Bryan insisted that he would.

Maze smiled at her as she wandered after Bryan to the front door. The two of them left, but just a second before the door could shut behind them, Maze's ma pushed out.

She jogged down the stoop after them, and it wasn't until Maze turned to step into the passenger's seat that she realized her ma was behind them. She glanced at Bryan from over the roof of the car. Bryan shrugged and ducked down, out of view into the driver's seat.

Maze shut her door and went to meet her ma by the steps.

"You sure it's just a bonfire?" she asked, her brow knitted with concern. Even two steps up she wasn't quite eye-level with Maze.

She tucked her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie. "Yeah, just a bonfire."

Her mother frowned.

Maze sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ma, you really think I'd race again?"

"Frankly, I don't know if I'd put it past you," she said, and when she met her eyes, Maze held them as firmly as she could. Her ma's gaze faltered until she looked down at her feet. "Which friends are you meeting with tonight?"

"Ma..." she groaned.

"Just for emergencies, in case something happens," she said.

She couldn't deny her ma that security and knew it was selfish of her to keep pushing it. "Fine. We're hanging out with Brielle, Felix, and Shelby," she said. Shelby was in the same friend group as Brielle back in high school, and Felix was the resident golden boy centrist who parents considered a "good influence." And all three of them would be present tonight.

"Okay," her ma said with a firm nod. She gave Maze a quick kiss on the forehead, ruffling her hair as she stepped back up the stoop. "Don't stay out too late."

She escaped the scene in the passenger's seat of Bryan's car, breathing out a sigh of relief the moment she watched her ma disappear back into Aunt Rae's house through the side mirror. She collapsed back in the seat, head back, eyes closed. Her heart had raced through that entire conversation —it was a miracle she could still lie like that.

Before long, they were on the south side of town out in the countryside where the majesty of Bryan's father's land was. Beyond the house, the pond, and amidst the forest laid the Vincent's garage atop the hill. It connected to the driveway from a separate paved path, which Bryan took with his headlights turned off.

Maze turned down the music, which was singing, "Then I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone—going home... Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me..."

They were slow and steady with their ascent to the garage. All they could hear were the tires against the pebbles on the asphalt and the warm, steady hum of the engine until Bryan put the car into park and shut the engine off.

"Okay," Bryan whispered just before pushing open his door. "Follow me—quickly."

The two of them ran for the side of the garage. There were five garage doors and, on the side of the building, a motion-censored light that illuminated the side-door. Maze looked down the hill and through the trees where she could just barely make out the back deck of Vincent's house. The living room lights were on.

Bryan tapped in the security code on the door and, a second later, the door clicked open. Relief swept the monstrous weight off of Maze's shoulders when Bryan pushed the door open into the dark garage—

—until the fluorescent lamp over the workbench fizzled to life.

"Shit," Bryan sighed.

Maze stilled, her back still to the garage siding, out of sight. She half-inched away from the open door, but judging from Bryan's dejected annoyance, she had an idea of who, exactly, caught them.

"I wasn't kidding when I said I was installing cameras at the end of the driveway." Vincent's rough, gritty voice felt more like a fist through Maze's chest. Something hit the workbench table before Vincent's steps scuffed over the concrete, heading towards the door.

"Quick turnaround," Bryan half-laughed, pointedly stepping away from the doorway. If she escaped now, Vincent would see Maze, and it'd all be over. Maze inched a little further away. "When did that happen?"

"Tuesday morning. You wanna tell me what you're doing sneaking down the driveway without your headlights on, or are you gonna leave that up to my imagination?"

"Dad, come on—You always assume I'm—"

"Can you blame me when I get a call from Ryan down at the station saying he could've sworn he saw a '92 NSX clocking—"

"Tell him to get his cataracts checked because it wasn't me. And it's my car anyway—it's none of your business where I take it."

Maze stilled at the sound of footsteps approaching the door. She was barely at the corner of the building when Vincent stepped out of the garage, his back to Maze, and gestured sharply for Bryan to leave. Maze froze like a deer caught in headlights as Bryan stepped past the threshold, all but dwarfed by the size of his father's broad shoulders and dense height.

"'Your car', my insurance, and I'm not paying for you to—"

Maze only caught Bryan's eye for a split second, but it was enough for Vincent to turn around to look.

Vincent halted, jaw dropping at the sight of Maze standing there. Maze's gnarled hands went numb as Vincent's eyes scanned her. He had a look on his face that said it all: instantaneous pity.

"Hi, Mr. Bryan," Maze said, raising a weak hand to wave. "I just... wanted to see Sub Zero."

Vincent stared a moment longer before Bryan added, belatedly, "I was gonna have Maze drive Scorpion so we wouldn't have to park her at your place."

Maze reconsidered what she had told her ma.

Pity might come in handy, she thought, just before seizing the power behind it. "I'll make sure he doesn't go over seventy, sir. I'm not much of a speed demon anymore, you know, after..."

"Right," Vincent cut her off. Maze looked to her feet like a guilty puppy, her doe eyes only glancing up quick enough to see that Vincent was caving. How could he not trust Maze's change of heart, after everything that happened with her father?

Vincent cleared his throat awkwardly. He turned back to glare at Bryan, pointed a finger at him, and said, "Take it slow. And keep an eye on Hiromichi's girl."

"Yes, sir," Bryan said with a mock solute. Vincent didn't stick around, and Maze suspected that it had a little something to do with the fact that he couldn't look at Maze without looking like he was two seconds away from passing out. Maze thanked him as he passed, but Vincent simply waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder on his way down the hill and back in the direction of the house.

Maze looked back at Bryan, who waited until Vincent was out of earshot to say, "You're such a snake. I can't believe you."

"Hey, it worked," Maze said. She swept into the garage with a grin and said, "Let's move." 

_________

a/n: I hope y'all enjoy Bryan McBryan's name as much as I do.