A/N: Here is a piece I enjoy calling "Rilaya word-vomit". I apparently have a thing for the core-four members dying in one-shots. If you haven't read them yet, I highly recommend you read the rest of the stories from this "series", if you can call them that. Waiting For a Friend (Maya), stains on your cheeks and holes in your hearts (Farkle), BLUE (Lucas). This one is much shorter, because like I've mentioned on Tumblr, I've been struggling with my writing a lot. So here's a little something something to get back into it.
For those of you reading Til Lease Do Us Part, there will be an update in the following two weeks. I'm not sure when, but I'm hoping it'll be up before the end of March (so hopefully, you'll only have a week to wait). I already have a good chunk of the chapter written, so it shouldn't take too long!
Enjoy!
WARNING: Character death, angst.
They say that the first thing you forget about someone is their voice. But of course, Maya knew that it was just a bunch of bullshit. What kind of bad friend forgets their best friend's voice?
Yet, there she was, sitting in front of Riley Matthews' grave, tracing the engraved letters on the tombstone, trying to remember how beautiful and how light her friend's words were carried. She can watch as many videos as she wants, she can listen to as many voice-notes or listen to as many messages Riley had left on her cellphone - it just wasn't the same as hearing her voice.
She used to hear it so clearly. When she was around, her head was filled with Riley's voice, helping her avoid the bad things and helping her remember that she was an us, not a them.
For a while, she still heard it. Her voice was still there: in her dreams, in her heart, in her mind. It was always there. The brunette's voice consoled her and got her through the whole grieving process. It took months, almost a year, for Maya to start painting again, for her to get back on her feet. That year was one of the worst of her life, but Riley's voice was always there to chase away the bad thoughts.
It just happened like that, one day. Farkle mentions how Riley would have liked a joke that Zay had made, and it dawned on her. Maya didn't remember her friend's laugh. She left lunch early that day, racking her brain, trying to remember Riley's laugh.
That night, she sat up in her room and waited. She waited for Riley's voice to come back to her, waited for good words to come to her mind. But there was nothing but darkness.
For a few days, Maya stayed up. She refused to go sleep. She wanted to remember, she needed to remember. Yet, there was nothing but quiet.
Maya bit her bottom lip and stared at the piece of stone that represented all that was left of her best friend. She's sitting crossed-legged on the cold ground, but she can barely feel it. Her mind is far away, drawing a picture of Riley Matthews' face. It hurts. It hurts because she's gone, it hurts because she can't remember her voice, it hurts because she can't remember the shade of brown of her eyes, it hurts because she's gone and never coming back.
It hurts.
The blonde quickly wipes away at the tears streaming down her face. She can't help it anymore. For so long, she had been convinced that she would never, ever forget the sound of her friend's voice. She thought it would always be there.
But it wasn't. Not anymore.
In the morning, Cory and Topanga find her curled up against their daughter's tombstone. They bring her back to the apartment and let her sleep on the couch, letting her get the sleep she really needed.
She had waited all night long to hear Riley's voice.
There had been nothing but quiet.