Rucas Week: Day one (canon verse)
This takes place after Girl Meets Rileytown.
Summary: Riley had just confronted her bully, but that doesn't mean the words the bully told her magically disappear. However, maybe with a little help from Lucas they can.
Word Count: 2,534
Riley had just gotten home from Topanga's, and she can feel the stickiness in her hair from the ice cream. She and her friends had gone to her mother's bakery after school, after she had confronted her bully, to have celebratory ice cream. But, Riley should have known that it was also going to be Maya getting even with the frozen dessert, and that is what Maya did.
Riley had used the fact that she was sticky as an excuse to come home; she really just wanted to be alone. Even though she had confronted her bully, and she felt good for that moment, the words of her bully still hid in the dark corners of her brain—and they were slowly starting to come out into the light.
An hour goes by, and Riley is sitting in her bed in clean clothes with her clean hair. But, her mind is still very tainted. To make matters worse, Riley scrolls through the messages in her phone rereading them. She doesn't know why she hadn't deleted them because she knows she should, but something inside of her won't let her. She thinks maybe everything her bully told her was true.
Tear slide down Riley's cheek, and no matter how quickly she wipes them away new tears are racing down.
A soft knock at Riley's window startles her, and she quickly tucks her phone under her leg. She knows whoever is out there can't see her phone, but she had been hiding her phone for weeks that it became instinctual. She tries her best to discreetly wipe her tears. She lets out a long sigh before turning her attention to her window, and there standing there is no other than Lucas.
His eyes drop when he sees her tears glossed over. Riley smiles weakly at him, and he does his best to return it. However, his main concern right now is why is Riley crying. He thought everything was going to be okay with her after today, but seeing her now he knows that isn't the case.
Riley slowly unfolds her legs and pushes herself off the bed, and she tentatively walks to the window and opens it for Lucas. Riley steps aside making room for him to step inside and takes a seat on the bay window.
"Hi." Riley looks down at her interlocked fingers in her lap, and Lucas can hear the crack in her voice.
Lucas is a little hesitant to take a seat next to Riley. Not because he doesn't want to, but because he didn't want to startle her. He slowly lowers himself next to Riley with his eyes glued on her trying to figure out what is going on in that mind of hers.
"Riley," he starts his voice soft, "what's wrong?" She doesn't say anything; she only shakes her head. He wants to push for answers, but he knows that will be no good. Riley will talk when she wants to talk, but no matter what she says Lucas has to remind himself not to become Texas Lucas.
He had made an appearance this week, and Lucas can still see the way Farkle looked at him when he broke the towel racks he was tied to. But more importantly, he can still see the Riley looked at him as if she didn't recognize him at all—and he never wanted her to look at him like that again.
The both sit there silently. Riley wanted to be alone, but she knows Lucas isn't going to go anywhere. Riley knows she wouldn't if she had just witnessed one of her best friends crying. She would sit with them until they were ready to speak.
Minutes tick by, and no words are spoken, but neither one is bothered by it. Riley stares at her name twiddling her thumbs, and Lucas has no looked away from her. Riley knows eventually she is going to have to speak up.
"Why are you here?" Riley finally manages to ask Lucas.
She looks up from her hands, and her eyes find his. "I was worried." He clears his throat. "We were at Topanga's talking and laughing. I thought we were having a great time. But, then Maya had gotten you back with the ice cream and it changed. When you went to go to the bathroom to clean the ice cream off, you came back and you were quiet. Then, you used the excuse that you needed to wash the ice cream out of your hair. I believed it at first, but when Maya offered to go with you, you told her no…You never tell Maya not to go somewhere with you. You two are attached at the hip. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what."
Lucas searches her eyes not really sure what to look for. He had missed all the signs of her getting bullied, and he'll admit he was bothered that Farkle was able to figure out what was going on with Riley before he could. He should have been able to tell something was wrong with Riley when her smile slowly started to dwindle. He should have known, but he didn't.
However, this time the second he saw her walk back from the bathroom with her eyes on the floor carefully watch each step, he knew something was wrong, and he wasn't going to wait.
"Maya was going to come and check on you, but Katy needed her home. Farkle was going to come, but…" Lucas rubs the back of his neck, "I asked him not, so I can come. I just needed to make sure you were okay."
Riley slowly releases a shaky breath and looks away from Lucas. She looks straight ahead at her phone laying on her bed, and the words her bully sent her play in her head. Lucas follows her line of sight, and he wonders why she would be staring at her phone. Then, it hits him.
"Riley," his greens eyes lock back on Riley, but she refuses to look away from her bed, "are…are you still getting text messages?" He is praying and hoping she'll say no. He doesn't know what would happen if she said yes. He isn't sure if he would be able to stop Texas Lucas from making an appearance.
Riley shakes her head, and Lucas lets out a sigh of relief. "But, that doesn't mean I forgot the words," Riley mumbles.
"What?" Lucas asks not catching what she said.
"Nothing." She is quick to say and stands up. A piece of Riley wants Lucas to drop it, but an even bigger piece is hoping he'll pry.
She takes a few steps towards her bed, and she waits for him to say something, anything really. But, as seconds pass, and his voice is yet to fill her room the hope quickly dissolves. Maybe her bully is right. She sits on the foot of her bed making sure Lucas can't see her—and the tears that are starting to surface in her eyes.
Lucas hears Riley sniffle, and he can feel his heart drop to the pit of his stomach. He doesn't think he has ever seen Riley so broken. Sure, he has seen her upset, but not to the point where she is crying. He warily walks towards her. Riley is distraught, and the last thing Lucas wanted to do was scared her because his presence isn't wanted.
"You know it's okay to talk to me," he says a few feet away from her. He watches her wipe the few tears that had fallen before she looks up at him, and his heart breaks, even more, when he sees the sadness that lingers in her eyes. "Riley, please talk me. What's wrong?" he pleas to her.
"How am I supposed to forget everything that was said to me? How do I erase everything from my mind?" A tear falls down Riley's cheek, and she is quick to wipe the away—Lucas wishes it was him who wiped them away. "I reread the messages, and a voice inside of me is telling me everything the bully said is true."
"Of course, it isn't true," Lucas says.
Riley shakes her head, and she lets out a small laugh. "How could you possibly know? You don't know what I was sent." She blinks a few times trying to stop the tears from falling.
"C-can I see the messages?" Lucas asks before he can think, and once he rises what he had just said, his eyes widen. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. That's your privacy, and I have no right."
Riley looks at him, and without saying anything she reaches behind her and grabs her phone. She looks at it for a second before extending her arm out to Lucas, and he stares at it. "It's okay."
Lucas takes it from her hands. He's a little scared of what he's going to see, and if he'll be able to control his anger. His finger hovers over the home button, and he's having second thoughts about whether he should read them or not. But, when he hears the girl, who he deeply admires, sitting in front of him sniffling, those second thoughts vanish. He takes a deep breath before unlocking Riley's phone, and that's when he sees the messages one after another from an unknown number.
You exist and you're weird, and you get in the way of where I'm looking. So stop being weird and stop being happy. No one should be as happy as you. Stop being who you are. Or I'm gonna put my foot in your weird, stupid face.
I don't even know how you have friends. They'll realize they can do better and leave.
And Lucas, don't get me started there. It's never going to happen. He only likes you out of pity. You'll never be good enough for him.
Lucas couldn't read anymore. He can feel his blood boil, and he tries his best to compose himself. He knew she was being bullied, but he never knew what was being said. And now, that he knows, he almost wishes he never read them.
He looks to Riley, and he wants to wrap her in arms, but something is telling him that now isn't the best time. He slowly sits next to her. "Riley, why do you still have these?" He can't fathom why someone would say these things to Riley, and why she would keep them on her phone.
Lucas waits for her to answer the question, but she only shrugs her shoulders "Nothing this person said is true. None of it." Lucas looks away from Riley's phone and to her, and it's almost seeing her broken, seeing her hurt, that gives Lucas courage to be brave because right now Riley needs words to make these awful ones disappear.
"You are not weird. You are this extraordinary person in this ordinary world, and your happiness, your smile, it makes everything in this ordinary world brighter. You should never stop being happy. The day you stop being happy and you stop smiling is a day I do not wish to see. And, you, Riley are beautiful." He smiles at her, and he's trying his best to continue because he needs to know that the rest of the words he read on her phone are only lies. "Our group of friends would be completely lost without. You are the one who brought us all together, and we need you. You're the one who keeps us all together, who keeps us smiling."
He takes a deep breath. "And what they said about me a-and you," Lucas starts nervously, "they couldn't be more wrong. Riley, I really really like you. I like you for you, and all the quirky little things you do. Like twirling when you're happy, your British Riley voice, your ability to care as much as you do about everything no matter how small. And, when we do become a couple, I'll be the lucky one to be with someone as amazing as you."
He stops talking, and Riley stares at him, his words running in her mind counteracting with all the negative words, but one word stood out more than anything, a simple word.
"When?" Riley's voice is low and hoarse, and Lucas nods with a slight grin.
"Yes, when. I, just…I thought that's where we were heading w-with our relationship," Lucas stammers a bit.
"It is." Riley giggles and Lucas sees her tears drying.
"I know these words aren't going to disappear right away, and sometimes they'll creep in, but when they do, remember everything I just said. Because Riley," their eyes lock, "what I'm saying is the truth."
Neither one looks away, neither one speaks, they just stay there locked in each other's gaze. Lucas is the one who looks away first, and Riley watches him look down at her phone. Without saying a word, Lucas selects the thread of messages on Riley's phone, and hits delete and then hands it back.
"You didn't need to keep those messages in your phone," Lucas says. He parts his lips but stops when he feels his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulls it out to see a text message from his mom. "I have to go. I told my mom I'd be back in an hour for dinner."
He stands up and moves towards the window, and Riley is right behind him. He turns on his heels to face her, and he can see something different in her eyes from earlier. He sees a glimmer of light make its way to the surface, and he knows it isn't long before the light shines through.
"Thank you, Lucas, for everything," Riley says as she steps forward wrapping her arms around Lucas, and he wraps his around her. Lucas can feel Riley's heart racing, and Riley can feel his racing as well.
Their hug lingers because neither one wants to unlatch themselves from the other, but their embrace is interrupted by Lucas' phone vibrating again. He pulls it out to see another message from his mom telling him he is late.
Riley watches Lucas maneuver his way through her window, and her heart starts racing when Lucas turns around on last time to smile at her.
It is a minute after Lucas leaves that Riley hears her phone ding with a notification, and her heart drops. Nerves start feeling her stomach about the possibility that it might be a new bully or the same bully. Every time her phone goes off that is her first though. She turns around to stare at her phone, and she cautiously walks back to her bed where her phone lays.
However, when she picks it up the pitter patter in her chest quickens. She looks down to see a new message from Lucas.
I just want to tell you that you, Riley Matthews, are perfect exactly the way you are.
Her eyes scan the screen, and she can feel her heart still racing. "Some messages are worth keeping," she whispers to herself with a smile playing on her lips.