I Write Sins Not Tragedies
A Girl Meets World Fan Fiction
Chapter 1: Catching Up Is Hard To Do

A/N: So, about a year or so ago I started a GMW fan fiction called Sugar We're Going Down Swinging but it ended up going nowhere because I didn't have a real plot line planned out when I started. It did, however, get a lot of praise. So, I decided to rewrite the story with a more planned out plot and with a few changes to the original. I hope you guys all like this as much, if not more, than the first one. I just started the original and then got so many ideas that wouldn't fit in with what I started with. So, here's to second chances.

If there was one thing that everybody at Abigail Adams High School could agree on, it was that Maya Hart was a good friend. She would do anything to keep Riley Matthews happy. Maya knew that her childhood had been full of darkness that had the ability to turn her into a bitter and resentful young woman. She was fully aware of the fact that Riley's friendship with her had kept her from turning into that hateful type of person. So, she did everything that she could to repay Riley for her kindness by ensuring that Riley permanently remained happy, living her life in an ignorant state of bliss. That was why Maya did everything that she could to keep Rileytown fully functioning. As long as Riley was shielded from the dangers of the outside world, the light that shone through Maya's darkness would prevail, and Maya would be able to stay the person that she was. The person that she wanted to be.

And everybody at Abigail Adams High School knew those simple facts. That was why, back in the ninth grade, nobody had thought it was strange when Riley had walked into school on the first day of freshman year with Lucas Friar's hand firmly held in her own. Nobody asked any questions, because they had all assumed that "Rucas" they had dubbed their least favorite couple, would get together sooner or later.

The shocking part hadn't been that Riley and Lucas got together. The shocking part had been that Maya had even bothered to fight back, even for a little while, because even she had known that in the end she was going to give in and allow Riley to have her way. Riley always got her way. That was another thing that everybody at Abigail Adams High School knew to be true.

After all, everybody had known about the love triangle that had developed over their middle school years. They all knew about what had happened in Texas and in the following weeks. There wasn't much that the students at John Quincy Adams Middle School didn't know.

Maya had been distressed about Lucas's desire to prove his worth and ride Tombstone the Bull while visiting Texas during the eighth grade. Her passion caused Riley to think about the interactions between her best friend and her crush over the past year. It was then that Riley realized that Maya had a crush on Lucas. She also realized that Maya had been putting aside her own feelings-repressing them, so that Riley could have the guy and be happy. For the first time ever, something was threatening to come between the two best friends in the world.

Her response had been to step aside herself, allowing Maya to have her chance with Lucas. It had started off as a sincere gesture. Riley had had a year to try and test the waters with Lucas. Now it was Maya's turn to see how things went with Lucas. It started off with Lucas getting to have a say in what was going to happen in terms of his own love life. But, things had quickly begun to spiral out of control. Riley's constant pressure for "Lucaya", as the students had dubbed their favorite couple, caused an extreme awkwardness on Maya and Lucas. An awkwardness that was similar to the awkwardness "Rucas" had always had together.

Farkle, seemingly sitting on the sidelines through the whole situation, noticed that Riley wasn't as happy as she claimed to be about "Lucaya". His response was to reveal Riley's hidden feelings on New Year's Eve, forcing the trio to try and figure out what their next step was. After that, Lucas had been placed in the middle and everybody seemed to forget that he had a choice in the matter at all. It became which of the girls was going to decide to step down and which of the girls was going to step up. But, the truth was, everybody knew that Maya was going to step down and allow Riley to step forward eventually. They just hadn't thought it would take the rest of the school year and most of the summer for the girls to make a decision.

Nobody had thought that Lucas and Riley would stay together for longer than a month or two, either. Yet, sophomore year was starting and the couple was still going strong.

Maya, meanwhile, was in a relationship of her own. A relationship with somebody that nobody had ever expected her to be in a relationship with. Maya, as she had always sworn she would, was dating Joshua Matthews, the uncle of Riley Matthews. The origin of their relationship was not common knowledge to the rest of the school's population, but everybody knew that he was three years her senior. Three years, which had seemed like a huge deal when Joshua was in high school and Maya was still in middle school. It still seemed like a drastic difference to some people-in particular, Lucas and Shawn Hunter, Maya's step-father-but really, Maya was soon to be sixteen years old and Joshua was almost nineteen. And as Maya loved to remind everybody: it was only illegal if they were having sex-which they were not.

But, the most important thing here was that everybody knew one thing about Maya Hart, and that one thing was that she was the most loyal friend there was.

That was why Farkle was so confused by the sight that he saw occurring in front of him, in the library, which had always been his sanctuary.

It was, after all, incredibly strange to find Maya Hart sitting in the library, no matter what her surroundings were. While the girl was a straight A student, due to constant pressure from her step-father, she was rarely seen in the library studying. She usually tried to hide the effort that she put into her grades, and most of the time it really was effortless for her to excel in her classes.

Even stranger was the fact Maya was sitting in the library with a jumbo sized bag of Swedish Fish on her lap and a chemistry textbook propped on the table, the edge of the book resting on her lap, a notebook with her swirly handwriting spread out on the table in front of her. Her buttery blonde, soft curls tumbled down her back as she tossed her head back, laughing at something that the boy across from her was saying. And the strangest part of it all was what boy was sitting across from her.

Positioned across from Maya, mouth wide open with a scattered pile of bright red gummy candies surrounding his schoolbooks, was Lucas Friar, the reason for her fit of hysterical laughter.

There was nothing all that horrible about the scene. They weren't doing anything wrong, exactly. But, Farkle had asked Maya what she was doing after school and she'd muttered off some excuse about having to have dinner with Shawn and her mother, before Shawn left for the rest of the week for a business trip. When Riley had asked Lucas if they had any plans for the evening, he had given the same type of excuse that Maya had given.

Of course, Maya's was believable because their gang all knew that Shawn was going to be heading Upstate to take photos for an article he had to write for The New York Times, where he had been hired as a photographer and journalist, giving him a more stable income and job. Lucas's excuse was just as believable because every Wednesday night, Lucas's mother insisted that the two of them have a dinner together without any of his friends coming along.

Apparently his mother had allowed him to skip out on their tradition this week, however, and Shawn had bent his rule about Maya always spending the night hanging out with him before he left for long work trips.

What Farkle couldn't understand was why?

If they had wanted to sneak around behind Riley and Josh's backs, they would be somewhere far more entertaining than the library. And if there was something romantic going on between the two of them, the table wouldn't look as though they had been studying for a while before Farkle had stumbled upon the scene.

Besides, everybody knew that Maya was a great friend. She was loyal. There was no way that she was cheating on her boyfriend and there was no way that she was seeing her best friend's boyfriend behind her back.

Lucas Friar wasn't a bad guy. He didn't lie, he didn't disobey the rules, he didn't pressure girls into doing things they weren't comfortable with, he didn't get into random fights with guys who made him angry, he didn't steal, he didn't skip school, and he didn't cheat, whether it was in terms of a relationship or in terms of his school work. He was, as Maya loved to tease him about, a "Mama's Boy". And despite all of Maya's teasing on the subject, he wasn't ashamed of the fact.

He loved his Southern roots and he had always remained true to the values he had learned back in Texas, despite having been in New York for almost four years. He was a country boy and that was all that there was to it. Even with all of Maya's nicknames that were still going strong, even years after Lucas's arrival in New York, he never tried to hide the fact that he was a Texan at heart.

He loved New York, he really did. He loved the friends he had made there and he loved the person he had become-"Lucas the Good", as Maya had dubbed him. But, sometimes he missed all of the wide open spaces out in Texas. He missed how much slower paced everything was than the fast-paced world that was New York City. He missed jumping on his horse to ride after a long day. Yet, he wouldn't give up his home in New York for the world.

So, Lucas Friar was a good guy. Such a good guy that he had allowed two thirteen year old girls to make a very important decision for him. He allowed two of his best friends to choose who his first girlfriend should be. And what he had worked to hide for the year that he had been fulfilling their wish to him, was that he would have picked the girl that stepped aside.

Maya Hart was, without a doubt, Lucas's first love. He had definitely had feelings for Riley. He liked her enough, and maybe, after a year of dating her, he had started to even love her a little bit. But it was nothing like what he felt for Maya. Nothing would ever be like what he felt for Maya.

Nothing else in the world made him feel as proud as he felt whenever she burst out laughing at something that he said. The smile that he got whenever she looked at him was undeniable and impossible to hide. On the rare occasions when he was able to make her blush, he could feel his own cheeks tinting pink. Whenever she touched him, he could feel the sparks flying and all he could imagine were the fireworks that would explode if he ever got to touch her in a more intimate way.

Lucas loved the way that her blonde tumbled down her back, stopping at her hips in a tangle of soft, buttery blonde curls that reminded him of the hot, Texas sun while he worked on his Pappy Joe's ranch. He loved the way that her navy blue eyes sparkled whenever she talked about something that she was passionate about. He loved the two, perfectly carved dimples that settled into her cheeks when she allowed herself to smile-a real smile, that showed she was truly happy. The half little dimples that appeared every time she was slightly amused by a situation or intrigued as to what was to come were a different thing altogether but he loved them all the same.

As the years had progressed, Lucas's feelings had turned lustful towards the tiny blonde as well. While the blonde beauty had barely grown since the seventh grade, standing at five foot two (it was really only five foot one and a half, but Maya always insisted on rounding up), the rest of her had developed enough to earn Maya the title of being one of the most sought after girls in the grade. While she was beautiful, she was sexy as well, with her legs making up the majority of what little height that she had. She had a perfect hour glass figure and a full chest. She was every guy's dream girl and Lucas hated the way that other guys looked at her. He hated the fact that he sometimes caught himself staring at her in similar ways even more.

But it was all wrong, regardless of the fact that he shouldn't be looking at her in such a way and imagining all of the things he would do to her if he could get her alone. There was a more important reason for why he shouldn't be doing that, besides the fact that it was completely immoral and wrong. There were two reasons it mattered so much, to be exact. Riley and Joshua Matthews.

Sweet, innocent and naive Riley who was perfectly content with believing that Lucas had "chosen" her on her his own, rather than the girls having told him that Maya was stepping aside and Riley was going to be dating him. Riley, who was beautiful in her own right and earned her own stares from male students who wanted to do inappropriate things with her. She just wasn't Maya, and that meant that Lucas just couldn't imagine a life with her.

Still, Lucas has agreed to the decision the girls had made and he had been sticking to the decision for over a year at this point. He was just as much to blame as the girls were this point and that meant he was going to have to continue to keep his feelings for Maya a secret. Just like he had from his arrival in New York, up until their trip to Texas during the eighth grade.

"Knock it off, Huckleberry," Maya giggled.

She knew that she should be stern with him. After all, she was trying to tutor him so that he could bring up his chemistry grade, because, thanks to a certain eighth grade science teacher who had taught them the importance of girls remaining interested in STEM subjects, Maya had pushed herself to show everybody that she was not some dumb blonde, especially after her mother had married Shawn Hunter.

Shawn, despite his own past in school, had pushed Maya to make sure she had near perfect grades. He would have been happy with her passing all of her classes with at least a B, but when she had seen the shock in her teachers's faces when she started to get decent grades, she had pushed herself harder and become a straight A student. She was close to being at the top of her class and she couldn't be any prouder of herself.

Lucas, always getting excellent grades, struggled with chemistry, however. In order to be eligible for a football scholarship at the schools he was hoping to get into, he needed to maintain at least a B average and that meant he needed to bring up his chemistry grade. As a result, he had come to Maya and begged for her to tutor him.

The only problem was that they had to keep it a secret from their friends. Mostly from Riley, who wouldn't understand why he had chosen to ask Maya for help. There was no way he could ask Riley, because she struggled in science just as much as Maya did. Farkle would have been Riley's first choice for Lucas's tutor, but Farkle got easily frustrated when trying to help others, especially Lucas. Maya, surprisingly enough, was an excellent tutor.

"Knock what off?" Lucas asked innocently, shooting her that sheepish grin that he was so famous for. The one that got him out of trouble with anyone and everyone.

"You know what you need to knock off," Maya rolled her eyes. "You need to stop purposefully missing the candy because we're making a mess and getting distracted and-"

"Maya," Lucas cut her off, shooting her a knowing look. "We've been studying for over an hour at this point. My mother pushed back our Wednesday night dinner so that we could study. I have to be home in half an hour. I think we can take five minutes to joke around and call it quits," He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright," Maya said, shooting her hands up in defense. "We're done here. Enjoy fail," She said, sticking her tongue out at Lucas.

"Really?" Lucas rolled his eyes. "And here I was, about to invite you over for a Friar family dinner," He sighed, shaking his head sadly.

"Is it barbecue night?" Maya asked, immediately raising her head away from her bag to focus her attention on Lucas.

"Would I invite you over on any other night?" Lucas asked her pointedly.

"True," Maya giggled, stuffing her books back into her bag and the bag of candy. "Well, what are we waiting for? It's time for some of Mama Friar's special barbecue chicken!" She cheered, jumping to her feet and swinging her backpack over her shoulders.

Maya was a favorite of Mrs. Friar. Lucas's mother, Rose. Ever since Maya had gone over to make muffins with Lucas for their business project back in the seventh grade, Rose had encouraged Lucas to bring Maya over whenever he pleased. Maya was the first one to have gone over to Lucas's house and she was the first one invited to stay for dinner. When Maya's mother and Shawn had gone on their honeymoon, Rose had even told Katy that Maya was more than welcome to go and stay with Lucas and her while her parents were out of town.

Maya received incredible Christmas presents and birthday presents from Rose Friar, all being deliciously healthy homemade treats that Maya refused to share with anybody except for Lucas. Maya was invited to every family gathering that Lucas was forced to attend. And Maya was the only friend who was allowed to attend the private Friar-family dinners that Lucas and Rose had every Wednesday night.

On the contrary, Rose hated Riley. She wasn't outright mean to the brunette, because she was dating her son, but there was something about her that she just didn't like. Riley knew that Rose had some sort of resentment towards her, and try as hard as she could, she couldn't make Lucas's mother like her even half as much as she loved Maya. Lucas, of course, was oblivious to the entire thing, firmly believing that Rose liked both girls equally, but that Maya was more accepting of his mother's hospitality.

"I said I was going to invite you," Lucas rolled his eyes, walking along with her.

"You and I both know that Rose would uninvite you if she knew that taunted me with her barbecue," Maya responded easily.

"I'm not helping you into the truck," Lucas retaliated, knowing that it was hopeless to try to fight her on her place at his table that evening. His mother was going to be angry if he didn't show up with the blonde and if she knew that Maya had been taunted with the menu for the evening, Lucas was going to be locked up in the shed. Instead, he was going to have to threaten her with the idea of having to climb up into his Ford F250, slightly lifted pick-up truck all on her own.

"That's not very nice, Ranger Rick," Maya pouted. "How would Mama Friar like it if she knew that her Moral Compass wasn't respecting his lady friends and being an absolute little gentleman? Really, Hop-Along, you should think these things through a little better," She smirked.

"If you were wearing a little more clothing I would follow through on that threat just because you called me three different insulting names in a thirty second span," Lucas dead-panned for her.

"I'm wearing plenty of clothing. What's wrong with my outfit?" Maya wondered, self-consciously crossing her arms over her cropped, plain white, swoop neck tee shirt. She had an unbuttoned, loose fitting, black, white and red plaid flannel shirt over it, rolled up to her elbows (the shirt had been Lucas's and she had stolen it back in middle school).

The problem was that she was wearing a dark wash, incredibly short, denim mini skirt that ended just an inch or two below her perky ass. It was tight fitting showing off every curve. Her red and silver, dangling belly button ring was revealed due to the shortness of her shirt and Lucas was sure it was tempting every guy who looked at her. And she was wearing three-inch, black, hidden-wedge Nike sneakers with her outfit.

And then there was her hair.

She was never one to contain her curly mane, and today was no exception. It was loose and wild, carelessly tossed around and falling into her face. It looked sexy as all hell and Lucas wanted nothing more than to push her up against the brick building of the library and make-out with her, running his hands through her locks.

But that was wrong, because he had Riley.

And Maya had Josh.

Which was why he had to fight his urges.

"Nothing…the skirt's just a little short, don't you think?" He shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"You always say that about my skirts, Sundance," Maya laughed, acting oblivious to Lucas's slight tension.

Sometimes Lucas wondered if she knew how he really felt, but chose to ignore it for the same reasons he fought so hard to hide his feelings. It was those moments that filled him with a bittersweet feeling as he thought about what he could have had, if things had been just a little different. When he thought about the possibility of Maya loving him back.

But, she was just as loyal as he was and they were both taken by somebody else. Nobody what they felt, the feelings had to be repressed.

Riley Matthews was perfectly content with her life.

She had the best friend that anybody in the world could ask for. Maya Hart would do anything for her, as long as it kept Riley completely and totally happy.

She had a loving family. Her father thought that she was his perfect little girl and her mother had raised her to be a strong, independent woman who was capable of anything life threw at her. And her little brother idolized her.

She had Farkle, who was the best guy friend that she would ever be able to find. He would do anything to get a smile on her face and he always knew what she was thinking. He would stop at nothing to make her laugh when she was feeling down. And he was the perfect sneak peak into the male mind.

And then there was Lucas, her perfect boyfriend. The boy who treated her like she was an absolute princess. He was loyal, kind, loving and compassionate. He never tried to pressure her, he spoiled her like nobody else ever had before, and he only had eyes for her. Maybe there had been a little issue between herself, Maya and Lucas a few years ago, but all of that was settled now and she had the man of her dreams.

Everything was going perfectly for her and she wouldn't have it any other way. After all, how many others girls could say that their life was exactly as they wanted it to be? That they had everything falling perfectly into place while only being fifteen years old? She knew that she was lucky and she never failed to acknowledge how blessed she was. Still, it didn't mean she couldn't enjoy every second of her happiness.

But, if things were truly going so perfectly for her, why was she sitting alone in her bedroom on a Wednesday night while her phone sat silently on her nightstand, without a single beep to signal a text message, a phone call, a FaceTime call, a Twitter notification, a Snapchat, or an Instagram notification? That didn't happen to happy girls.

She was laying on her stomach, reading Jane Eyre, just for fun, with her knees bent so that her feet dangled in the air. As much as she was enjoying the classic novel, she just wanted her phone to go off to signal that somebody wanted to talk to her.

Still, if the worst thing to happen in her life was to be ignored by her three best friends on a weeknight, she supposed she could take it.

After all, there were far worse things that people had to deal with.

She, on the other hand, had everything going right in her life.

Riley knew that she was attractive. She had perfectly chiseled, just angular enough, features with a perfect ski-slope of a nose and full, pouty red lips.

Her skin was pale and her cheekbones were high and sharp. Her eyes were a deep, dark shade of brown and a perfect almond shape. Her face came to a slight point at her chin and everything was as symmetrical as possible

She was tall, standing at five foot eleven which she thought was the perfect height, since she could still wear a slight heel and allow Lucas to be taller. While sometimes she longed for the curves that Maya had, she was happy with herself.. Her chest was just large enough so that her boobs stuck out farther than her tummy, which was enough for her.

And her hair was her favorite feature. Long, falling to the middle of her back, and thick, she knew she had one of the best heads of hair at Abigail Adams High School. It was a dark, deep shade of black and as sleek and it was shiny. It was feathered perfectly, taking away the wave that she had had when she was younger as the weight of her hair caused it to be perfectly straight. Across her forehead she kept blunt, full bangs just long enough to brush her eyelashes.

She was gorgeous. The type of girl who could be a model. She knew that about herself and she didn't find herself to be vain for knowing that. After all, Maya loved to flaunt her appearance, especially when she could use it to her benefit to get free merchandise or into a place she knew she shouldn't have access to. Why was it wrong for Riley to merely acknowledge that she was a pretty girl?

On top of that, she had a killer sense of fashion and incredible grades. She had a family that was securely placed in the middle class and she had no shame about her financial status. She knew that she would be able to have her pick of colleges when the time came to it and she knew that the rest of her future was set as well.

After all, she had Lucas. As long as she was dating Lucas her future was secure. They would get marry, move to a small town just outside of the city so that they could have a house with lots of land, to keep Lucas happy.

She would become a journalist and Lucas would become a veterinarian. They would have two kids-a boy and a girl. Everything would be perfect.

There was nothing for Riley to worry about. Nothing at all.

"Thanks for the ride home, Ranger Rick," Maya smiled as they pulled up in front of her apartment building where she lived.

It was far different from the one she had lived in when she was younger. Shawn had always been smart with money and his new job made it even easier for him financially. They now lived in something that was more like a penthouse than an apartment.

She lived on the top floor and there was only one other apartment on the same floor as her, each one pretty much having its own wing. There was a big, open kitchen that Katy Hart loved, with a cut-out in the wall dividing it from the living room, allowing for a little breakfast bar with four high bar stools lined up under neath for the family to eat breakfast at. Off of the living room were four bedrooms, one for Maya, one for her parents, one for Shawn's office and one that had been converted into a walk in closet for Maya, since it was attached to her bedroom via a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. Maya's parents had their own bathroom, due to their room being the master bedroom and there was one other half bath off of the living room.

Maya's favorite part of her bedroom, however, was her turret. It was covered up in cushions and pillows and Shawn had turned the bottom of it into storage for all of her art supplies. It was her favorite place to draw and the light was perfect. Since the building was a pre-war, very historical building it was full of unique little shapes and angles that Maya loved but the turret was her favorite.

It was the nicest place that Maya had ever lived and yet another reason that she felt as though she would always be indebted to Shawn Hunter.

"I wasn't going to let you walk home alone, Maya," Lucas rolled his eyes.

"And unlock some people, I'm only fifteen going on sixteen, instead of sixteen going on seventeen," Maya stuck her tongue out.

"I try to be a nice guy and you insult me because I was held back?" Lucas laughed, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, hop-along, what else were you expecting?" She giggled, opening up her car door. "Could you give me a ride to school tomorrow, by the way? Shawn's gonna be gone early and he doesn't want me to take the subway alone," She asked as she jumped down from the truck.

"Yeah, of course," Lucas nodded. "I'll be here in the morning, anyways," He reminded her quietly.

Maya's cheeks tinted pink as she scanned the area around her.

"I'll have the window unlocked for you in half an hour. Is that good?" She whispered.

"Of course," Lucas responded.

She grinned as she closed the door behind her and headed back into her apartment.

Despite the fact that Maya was more than happy with her new home, she had never gotten over her fears from her former living space. Ever since Maya's dad had appeared in her life during Cory Matthews's forgiveness assignment, she had been terrified of sleeping alone because she was terrified of being left alone by somebody else that she cared about in her life.

As a result, Lucas had started showing up at night and falling asleep with her. It had started off with him just sitting at the foot of her bed until she fell asleep. Then he would leave. But, she started waking up in the middle of the night and having panic attacks at waking up without Lucas there. So, he had started to camp out on her floor. When they moved into the new apartment he had started to sleep in her turret, which was far more comfortable for him but too far away from her to make her feel comfortable.

So, he ended up sleeping in her bed with her. They never did anything, but having his presence there made Maya feel safe. And as long as Maya felt safe, Lucas would keep doing it.

It was just another one of their dirty little secrets.