In a lot of television shows, sometimes you never really notice the background characters. Because they're just there…in the background. That is where they serve their purpose. A lot of the time, Farkle Minkus felt like he was just a background character to Riley Matthew's life.
He knew that he wasn't, but sometimes it just really felt like it. Like he was just an observer, and never observed. Invisible. He even had once told Riley that sometimes you want to feel that way. But then again, the only person who had ever truly made him feel like he was being seen was Riley. No matter how much he would try to hide sometimes, she found him, saw him, knew him. They had this understanding of each other, of the way they both worked. He had loved her since the first grade, his sunshine.
He and Riley had dealt with a lot of the same problems growing up. They both had their quirks, and not everyone loved that about them. They were both bullied. They both tried to be other people in order to be perceived as better. They had the same insecurities. And yes, they were different, but they were so alike. And Farkle loved science. And science dictates that like forces repel. That was something he had told Smackle, and he was certain it must be true, or else he and Riley would've been a really good pair. Sometimes he thought that maybe in an alternate universe, Donnie Barnes and Morotia M. Black could've been happy together. But this was their universe, and Farkle Minkus only stared at the back of Riley Matthew's head, in the background. (And don't get him wrong, the back of Riley's head was very nice. She had great hair, it always looked nice. But he was mainly in love with her smile.)
Farkle couldn't exactly remember when his head went from Riley and Maya to just Riley. There didn't seem to be a set point in his memory where the tide turned. But one day, he just realized that there wasn't really any more Maya. And he still loved Maya… He just had finally sorted out in his head what love actually meant. With Maya, it was infatuation. He liked the way she was different from him. He liked that she was darker than most people, liked that she was spontaneous and exciting. But finally, he came to realize that he only liked the idea of Maya. He liked the spontaneity, but truthfully, he was no good for Maya, and she was no good for him. But Riley? God, she lit up his world. Without Riley, he'd just be the weird genius who nobody would want to be friends with. Riley was the person who always made him feel like it was okay to be the person he was. She accepted him wholeheartedly. And in turn, he loved her. Wholeheartedly.
But Riley only had eyes for Lucas, and Farkle understood why. Lucas was perfect. Even with all of his flaws like his anger problems, Lucas was still perfect. And Farkle could admit that Lucas Friar was a handsome guy. He felt like he paled in comparison to anything Lucas could ever do. In the end though, Farkle decided that it didn't matter, because he just wanted Riley to be happy. He would give anything for his sunshine to keep shining, and if that meant seeing her be happy with another guy, then he would accept that. He would just watch their love grow from the background. They were a fairytale, a prince and a princess. And Farkle? He felt like he was probably more like a knight…or the villain. Either way, he would never win the girl. That was just the way it worked.
Slowly, Farkle grew into a different version of himself. He didn't wear turtlenecks so much anymore. He didn't shout so much when class didn't go the way it technically was supposed to (y'know, like…actually having a lesson…that wasn't about somebody's daughter's life…). His head became a much calmer place to be. He found himself not worrying so much anymore about the way things should work. Farkle Minkus was now a chilled out version of himself. And suddenly, Riley Matthews found herself being pulled in by his gravity.
Riley Matthews was a worry wart. In the worst way possible. She would worry about her friends, her grades, her family, what she should wear, what people thought of her, how she should act, etc. The list went on and on and on. And slowly, she found herself turning to Farkle Minkus to help her with her problems. Because Riley and Farkle? They just seemed to get each other. But in a lot of ways, Riley felt like she was just always in the background of his life, cheering him on from the side lines.
He was so smart. Impossibly smart. Farkle seemed to know how everything in the world worked, and Riley loved that about him. If anything ever needed an answer, he was there to supply it, sometimes even when the question wasn't asked. He helped her to accept being the person that she was, because he so fearlessly loved the person that he was. She would never understand how he was so easily able to do that. He was so at ease with who he was, and who he wanted to be, and what he wanted to do…almost like he always knew that it would work out. He exuded confidence, and Riley wished that just by being around him, she might be able to pick up some of that, too.
And sure, she still had a bit of a crush on Lucas, but that felt like just that, a crush. But Farkle? She could love Farkle. He was everything that she ever wished to be. Yet, it always seemed like he liked Maya more than he liked her. He and Maya had these little moments that Riley couldn't help but question. She knew the way that Maya felt about Farkle, but she always found herself so uncertain of how Farkle felt for either of them. She couldn't blame him if he loved Maya more than her, because Maya was the absolute best person Riley knew. She was so beautiful and so talented and so caring. Who couldn't love a girl like Maya? Riley always found herself thinking that there was no way she could compete with her. But that was okay, she just wanted both of them to be happy. They both deserved all the love and happiness in the world. And if they found it together, then she would happily cheer it on from the side line, no matter how much it would hurt to be in the background of a love that beautiful. Because heck, those two could rule a world together… She couldn't compare to that.
They both had unintentionally settled for a love in the background. Settled for a smile at the back of someone's head. Settled for a hug in a janitor's closet. Settled for the small acts of love that didn't pull in an audience like a main act love story. And in a lot of television shows, sometimes you don't really notice the things happening in the background, because you just become so focused on what is front and center. But that's only sometimes, and even in the background, this love shined through, in even the smallest of things.