I am being completely open and honest when I say I believe they are friends.
Is Maya a good friend? I don't know. She might be the kind of person that after a while really starts to get on your nerves and you decide you want to keep your distance.
But maybe what you're looking for is what has Maya done to earn the mc's friendship? She's done fuck all, I acknowledge that. She begrudgingly let him stay initially, and then didn't kick him out when he hadn't resolved things, but it was Derek that brokered the arrangement, not Maya, I get that.
But that was ages ago. They are definitely friends now, even if Maya hasn't saved him from a burning house, or tutored his children, or cut his hair for free, or comforted him during a scary movie...
But just because a friend hasn't done something significant for you, it doesn't mean you aren't friends.
Sage, Bella and Derek treat the mc as a friend in need when he comes calling looking for somewhere to stay, and in Derek's case it's at the cost of his own comfort (having to share a bed), whereas Maya just let him use a bed that she was lucky enough to have spare but wasn't even hers to be allocating in the first place, so once again, I don't think letting him stay was a huge test of friendship.
But you don't need to put someone to the test to choose to be their friend.
Maya trusted the mc with very personal information that she hadn't shared with almost anyone else. She trusted him as a friend.
Maya's two major crimes were grinding him awake during her pledge test (look at the shit the mc got up to during pledge week), and not telling him upfront that she was in a relationship.
So she fucked up, that doesn't mean she can never be his friend.
They got past that shit ages ago.
Now they hang out and do shit friends do, 'cause that's what they are, friends.
Some people may decide, after she went on about him being 100% honest with her and then she wasn't honest about being in a relationship, means she's a shit person. Some people may accept her apology when she acknowledges she did exactly that. Some people may have wanted to write her off right then and there.
The mc in this story forgave her. He understood the gravity of her situation and accepted she messed up because it was complicated.
I think, and I listed, heaps of indications that there is a friendship there. Every time Maya messes up, that doesn't prove there isn't a friendship.
I think what this is all about is if this was you, you wouldn't want her friendship and you'd have less to do with her. You're not alone, plenty of people have stated they'd like to avoid various characters in this game.
But the story doesn't go down that path. This story goes down the path where Maya is friends with the mc because that's what they chose to be.
There's no spin in any of that, I'm pretty sure most people playing this game agree the mc is friends with the following people:
- Derek,
- Josy,
- Maya,
- Jill; and
- Bella.
And he could even be in a deeper relationship with any of the girls.
Maybe you didn't like what Maya did, and it seems you haven't gotten over it, but that's you. The mc got over it ages ago, and it's obvious you just can't accept it.