"Farkle, I'm done. There is nothing I can do. Just let it go"
"Maya, you can't keep pretending that everything is fine. If you have feelings for her, then you have to tell her."
Maya stared hard on the floor of Topanga's coffee shop. Farkle was supposed to be helping her study after hours for the upcoming finals. Whoever said that senior year of high school was a breeze clearly did not have Mr Matthews as one of their teachers. You would think that after five years of having Riley's father as a teacher, they would learn.
Everything was going smoothly until Farkle had to open his big mouth and nag at her again for the same stupid thing.
The Riley thing.
Maya sighed for what felt like the fifth time that day. Ever since she told Farkle the night that her mom and Shawn got married and she was a little tipsy on the wine her cousins gave her, she found herself getting pushed by him all the time to make a move and come clean.
It wasn't easy to confess something that big to someone who was so important to her life. Riley was also the backbone of everything she did, and for her to just come out and express her feelings would be like exploding a bomb in her face.
In this case, the bomb was that Maya was unconditionally in love with her best friend.
Her best friend of pretty much her entire life. The one person that she would drop everything for just to be there at her side. The one person that had saved Maya from going into a bad direction.
Riley gave Maya a purpose.
They always had each other's backs, and would help each other through their problems no matter how difficult or humiliating they were.
Somehow that wasn't enough for Maya.
It was that one night.
That night during the end of sophomore year when Maya had stayed over at Riley's house because Josh was there and she thought that it could be her chance to try and end the "long game". The romantic plan ended up being a disaster with Maya crying into Riley's lap and her best friend stroked her hair in support.
It was the moment when Maya lifted her tear-stained face and looked into her best friend's warm brown eyes that she felt it. She felt the comfortable churning in her stomach that was leaving her both nervous and excited at the same time. When she looked into Riley's eyes, she did not want to hug her.
She wanted to kiss her.
This freaked her out.
Even though her feelings were terrifying her, she came to understand that these were underlying emotions were something that she always had. They were there since the first moment she poked her head through Riley's bedroom window. That was the first time that she realized that what she felt for her best friend were more than just platonic feelings, but a strange desire to be _.
Ever since then, Maya has been screwed.
Maya ran a hand through her blonde hair and gave one of her can-we-please-drop-it looks to Farkle in order to get him to shut up.
Both of them had aged over the past few years and had gone through different events together. Farkle and Smackle broke up in the middle of junior year because Smackle had skipped a few grades and started college early. Riley and Lucas broke up three months ago over the fact that they thought it was best to "see other people".
Since then, Farkle has done everything in his power to make sure that Maya takes advantage of the chance she now has to declare her love. He is acting like that would be so easy for her. Don't get her wrong, Maya absolutely loved Farkle, but there were moments that even his genius brain was wrong.
If Maya was to come clean to her best friend, then everything would get ruined. Their relationship would forever be altered and all the comfort that they had towards each other over the years would be shattered. This was something that Maya was not willing to risk. She was okay with just being there for Riley and helping her through any problems she had with Lucas; even if it did tear Maya to pieces.
Love hurts, Maya has learned this plenty of times in her life.
Farkle gave her one more serious look before clearing his throat and asking, "What did you get for number six?"
"President Nixon. What do we know about him?"
The class stared dumbly back at their history teacher as he wrote the name on the chalkboard.
Maya rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the classroom. What did she do to deserve enduring another lesson? It was almost graduation and they were still getting lessons.
Mr Matthews paced around in class until Farkle spoke up.
"Nixon was the 37th man to serve as president of the United States."
"Correct. What else do we got?"
"He messed up," Riley said to her father.
Maya rose an eyebrow in interest and looked closely at her best friend. Long gone was in the insecure and nervous pre-teen that had first come to high school.
Riley had changed to become more confident and strong in her decisions with life. High school has pushed her to do activities outside of her comfort zone, such as becoming the captain of the cheerleading squad and leader of the debate team.
She grew taller (as if she wasn't tall enough) and fitted well into her body. Despite these changes, she was still the same Riles that she grew up with her whole life.
She was still the same girl that Maya fell in love with.
"How did he mess up?" Mr Matthews inquired.
"He did something he wasn't supposed to and lied about it." Lucas spoke up from the desk behind Maya.
Even though Riley and Lucas broke up, he was still heavily involved in their friend circle. Him being the captain of the baseball team, Both him and Riley decided that it was best to stay close friends rather than strangers. Sure Lucas is just a friend, but Maya can't help but feel jealous everyone once in awhile for what he had with Riley. The relationship that he had with her.
The relationship that she could never have with her.
"The Watergate Scandal of the 70's." Matthews declared to the class. "This was one of the biggest wrongdoings of any president during office that not only tainted Nixon's image, but also the image of the president. The Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office was broken into by people on Nixon's administration. They stole top-secret files and also bugged some of the offices in the building for foul play."
"Was he able to do that?" Maya challenged, "I mean he was the president after all."
"That's where the controversy comes in." Mr Matthews said stopping his pacing in the front of his class.
The almost-adult kids looked back at him with a mixture of confusion and interest.
Maya frowned to herself.
Riley's father gestured his hands and asked, "If the country is meant to be a place of equality that is grounded by its laws, shouldn't the president also be one who must obey these laws?"
"But maybe he was just doing what he thought what was right for the nation." Lucas piped up.
Matthews smirked and replied, "If breaking into an office an official office is considered necessary for a country's best, wouldn't that throw off more alarm bells?"
There was silence from the class.
"After Nixon was found out to have some potential involvement in the scandal, he was forced to give up recording tapes that he had between him and his staff in the White House. These pretty much proved that he was in on the whole thing. After that, Nixon resigned from his position."
Maya jeered, "So what? The guy resigned and left the office. Isn't that what the people wanted? End of story."
"But that isn't the main point. The president was always seen by the people of someone with ethics and morals. The president was an example that the people were supposed to live by. After this whole controversy came out, people were beginning to have suspicions about the government and lose faith in the system."
Riley said, "So what you are saying is that Nixon ruined the title of the president."
"Exactly. It was because of one person, people started to think that the American government was not at all secure and fair as they thought it was. It was the action and discovery of one person's true feelings and motives that made everything different. The relationship between the people and the president was forever altered during that moment in United States history."
Maya felt very uncomfortable.
Was she Nixon?
Maya was scared of coming clean to her best friend because she didn't want to mess up what they already have. She doesn't want Riley to look at her any differently than she does now. What if Riley becomes disgusted at her like how Nixon was?
Maya put her head down on her desk for the rest of that lesson.
That was enough history for her in one day.
"Do you think that things are going to change after graduation?" asked Riley as she leaned back against her window cushions.
Both her and Maya were currently at her house on their sacred Bay Window. This was the one thing that remained constant in all of their years of friendship.
Riley took hold of her best friend's hand and slowly started to draw invisible circles within her palms. This was pretty normal behavior for both of the girls since they trusted and cared for each other so much. Despite this, Maya could still feel butterflies flutter in her stomach as Riley absent-mindedly touched her.
"What brought this up?" Maya replied gently as she looked at her friend's averted gaze.
"I was just thinking that finals are next week and the week after that we are already in caps and gowns. It just seems like it is all moving too fast for me to comprehend."
"Weren't you the one who said that change was good?" Maya teased as she gently shoved her friend's shoulder.
Riley looked up at her with a small sad smile, "I just don't want to lose you. I know that college applications don't come out until tomorrow, but I just want you to know that no matter where we go, you will always be my number one."
"I'll never forget it." Maya replied with serious confidence. "You are the one that I will always be there for no matter what."
Riley sighed and leaned her head against Maya's shoulder, "I just don't want anything to taint our relationship."
Maya closed her eyes and leaned her head back, "Same for me, Peaches."
There was a comfortable silence between them for a few minutes before Riley asked, "Are you going to Zay's party tomorrow night?"
"Why are you going?"
Riley gave a hum and replied, "I was thinking about it. His parents are out of town, though, and we both know Zay."
Maya rolled her eyes and smirked in agreement. Zaye bloomed to become a real big social butterfly in school who was known for throwing these legendary parties at his house. Riley's parents had let both Maya and Riley go to them since they were older, but constantly reminded them to make the right choices. Everyone went to these parties, so it was hard to tell who was in the right crowd. Nevertheless, Zaye was still an excellent host who prevented any harm from happening to any of his friends.
Maya herself always made sure that Riley never went to these parties alone because she wanted to make sure that she got home alright. Cory and Topanga could have killed her if anything had happened to her daughter. That and she would never be able to forgive herself if anything happened.
"Hm." Maya contemplated, "I think I'll go. All this final studying has been stressing me out and I could use a break from it all."
Riley got up from her position and grinned her goofy smile before proclaiming, "I'll come too then! I hope that his puppies will be there so I can pet them and love them and-"
Maya grinned back at her friend.
Some things never change.
