Disclaimer: I do not own Girl Meets World, nor the characters and I do not make money from it.
Maya Hart sat on the bench, scrolling through her Instagram page while she waited for a certain brunette to meet her before class. Her Instagram was a private page dedicated to her artwork. She wasn't interested in having other people look at her work and commenting. She loved doing art but it was just something she did herself. There was something about her work that felt too personal like a diary and then there the fact that some of the images didn't come across on paper the way they did in her mind. She sighed as she placed one leg over the other, covering one of the holes in her jeans with the other leg. She knew Riley was going to come waltzing up to her, grab her phone and tell her how amazing her work was. All Maya was doing was waiting to hear a certain "Yay" until it was time to make her descent into Mr. Matthew's classroom.
Unfortunately, there was no "yay" in earshot. It was ten minutes before class started and there was no sign of Little Pangers. Maya was surprised that she didn't receive a text from her but decided not to worry about it since she would see her in class. Riley had told her last night to take the subway without her since she had a doctor's appointment that morning. Maya said she would have waited for her but Riley insisted that Maya should go to school without her. This was the first time in a while that Maya was at school without her partner in crime - well - more like partner that kept her out of crime. It was odd having no one to talk to so she kept her attention on her phone.
She felt weight press against the other side of the bench. She peered out the corner of her eye and noticed that is was Ranger Rick. She rolled her eyes, half-annoyed at him for sitting next to her and half-excited that he sat next to her. It was hard having a crush on him when her best friend was so vocal about her feelings for him. She loved Riley too much to ever take Lucas away from her. That was one of the reasons why she had to tease him to avoid making her crush on him anymore obvious than it was.
"So Maya," he began.
She could tell that he had turned his body closer to hers. Without looking at him, she could visualize that beaming smile of his. The smile that made her sick. The teeth that haunted her dreams. Every ounce of his grin was enough to chew her into pieces. She was too smart to know that if she looked at his face, the smile alone could affect her in a not-so-negative way.
"What?" she asked as she kept her eyes glued to her screen. She tried to feign annoyance as much as possible.
"So I was thinking -"
She started interrupting him by snoring and every time he tried talking, she made a loud noise. He finally got the hint and stopped talking for a second. She felt him slide down the bench. The only thing the blonde could think was "Thank God." The last thing she needed was to have to tell him to leave her alone. Fortunately, he was smart enough to do so without her having to verbally say it.
He gets me. The thought flashed through her mind and she shook it away. He was Riley's. Riley was his. Why couldn't her brain understand that?
She turned her attention back to her phone and checked her text messages. Riley didn't text her and she still hadn't shown yet. That was weird.
"Maya, Ril ..." Lucas started talking again.
Then, he did something she didn't expect.
"Hands off Huckleberry!" she yelled.
"Sorry, I was just trying to get your attention."
He touched her. How dare he! She looked down at the contrast of her dark blue jeans against the pale skin that showed through the pant's holes. Her knee was completely exposed in her ripped jeans. That did not give anyone an invitation to her knee. The fact that someone like Lucas would touch her knee, even if it was a light touch, still felt wrong to her.
"Well gee cowboy, getting a little handsy. I thought you would have learned to keep your hands to yourself on the farm."
Perhaps she was blowing this thing a little out of proportion. Then again, their whole relationship was about teasing him over the simplest things. Like the time he called her a small stack of pancakes. A week after that incident, she did feel a little guilty about the way she handled that. She still felt two hundred percent right about being upset that Riley agreed with his comment. That was no longer important. The point was that Maya was going to make Lucas touching her a mountain out of a molehill.
"Maya," he began.
He lowered his voice and turned his body towards her. She finally looked at him and noticed how serious he was staring at her. Staring at her with the eyes that she sometimes pictured when she woke up or when she went to bed. The green eyes that she often sketched when she was bored in class. She never purposely drew his eyes but her pencil was in control of her hand. Every time she looked down at her piece, she realized it was him. That was why she had to keep her artwork in a private Instagram. No one could realize the extent of her crush on him. That no one included her. She had to tell herself no all the time, She told herself that Lucas was a goody-two-shoes. He was too boring for her since he always did the right thing. He didn't have a wild or passionate side. He was too laid back for her. He was a snooze fest. He was the perfect guy for Riley and the brunette would always be the girl for him.
"You know I didn't mean anything by it," he continued.
And she knew he meant it. Yet, she could not let him get away with something like that. What if Riley saw him touch her? She still had yet to text her and Maya knew that she would be coming over to them any second now. What would she have thought to see her best friend cozying it up with her man? That would break her. Or what if he did it again? This was something she had to nip in the butt now.
"Oh really?" she countered. "Did you like what you felt or something?"
She leaned back, giving him direct eye contact while crossing her arms. There was no way he was going to get off easy for this. However, the truth was that the simple touch on his hand against her knee made her heart jump. She couldn't explain why it had affected her so much. It was a tiny touch of less than a millisecond. The feeling of him against hers was too much for her to handle.
"Are you serious right now?" he questioned. He shook his head in disbelief. "I just touched your knee! That was it. I just wanted to tell you that Ril -"
"I bet Bucky McBoingBoing is tingling all over after coping a feel," she interrupted.
Lucas jumped up and started running his hands through his hair. His face was turning red and he didn't appear as cool and collected as usual. He seemed vulnerable and unsure of himself. This was the first time Maya had ever really seen him like this. It was like she was the only one that was ever able to destroy his calm and tough facade. The corners of her mouth rose as she realized that she broke him. That realization led to a question. If she could do this to him, then what could he do to her? That was a scary thought and nothing anyone could ever say could make her feel so ... vulnerable.
Maya rolled her eyes at Lucas as the students behind her whispered on their way to class. She had officially made a scene and there were audience members causally passing through the hallway. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this charade going but she liked that she had officially made Lucas angry and upset. It was like she had the power to control him. Wait, was this the way her feelings for him were manifesting? Her words alone had driven her crush on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This wasn't the way people treated the ones they cared about. The denial of her feelings had created something so violent and ugly that it could potentially destroy her friendship with Lucas. This wasn't what she wanted to happen but it felt as if it had to happen. As the bell rang, she realized that since she could never love him, the closest thing she could do to expressing passion was creating an argument.
"I'm sorry," he said and she raised her eyebrows. "I shouldn't have touched you. What else did you want me to say?"
This was the part when fourteen-year-old Maya Hart realized that it was time to make the adult decision of ending this conversation. The right thing to do would be to accept his apology and just wait until Riley came. She would have encouraged Maya to drop the conversation. In fact, she would have resolved the issue and the group would have been talking about something else. The brunette wasn't here. That meant that Maya did not have to do the right thing if her good side had yet to arrive. Riley would be at school at any moment and if the conversation got out of hand, she would fix it. That very moment, the usually rebellious teen decided to do what she did best - which was avoiding the right decision. She knew what exactly to say to make Ranger Rick lose his mind.
"I bet you liked it too," she added, just knowing that this was going to make things very interesting.
"Jesus Christ!" he shouted as his chest was visibility pumping faster. His eyes were wide and usually smile had disappeared minutes ago."Maya! It's your knee. Just your knee. It's just bone!"
"Hey, I don't know what you're into!"
That wasn't entirely wrong. She didn't know what he was into. Last week he liked optimistic good girls and the week before that it seemed like he was more drawn into pessimistic bad girls. One minute he was into brunettes, the next minute's blondes. He was all over the place. How would Maya know what he was into?
"Why are you doing this?" he yelled. "You know that this isn't even a big deal."
"Sorry I made you upset," she mockingly said while she hoped that Riley would come soon enough to save her from herself. "Does Mary Little Lamb need a tissue?"
Before Lucas could get another word out, Cory Matthews had walked by them in the hall and began gesturing for the two to come. That's when Maya looked around and noticed that they were the only ones in the hall. Everyone else was in class and Riley had yet to show up. The blonde felt guilty because she was so preoccupied with arguing with Lucas that she didn't even care enough to see where her best friend was. What was even the whole part of the argument? It no longer made any sense to Maya. All she knew is that she failed Riley in a sense. If anything had happened to her, she would regret this moment for the rest of her life. Now the blonde feared that Mr. Matthews had some horrible news about Riley. She immediately walked over to her History teacher with the Texan trailing close behind.
"Where's Riley? Maya asked.
"Home," he said then added. "Sick. Very sick. It's gross with all the snot and coughing. Yuck."
He shook in disgust as Maya sighed in relief.
"Why didn't she tell me?" she asked.
"Because -" Mr. Matthews started.
"She tried to call you but your phone was out of service," Lucas said.
"She said Lucas would tell you but I just wanted to make sure that you can behave in class without my daughter's presence," Mr. Matthews said as he walked into his classroom. "Come on. Class is starting."
Everything made so much sense. Riley didn't text her because Maya's cell phone bill was probably unpaid. Lucas came to her to tell her that Riley was sick. Then, Ranger Rick tried to get her attention because it was really important to Riley that Maya would be okay at school without her. Maya assumed that her mom was late on paying the bills again and didn't tell Maya that she couldn't afford to pay her cell phone bill this month. This also means that Lucas was doing Maya a favor and Maya completely made a mess out of everything. He shouldn't have touched her but she probably should not have taken it that far. She immediately turned to Lucas, feeling a little ashamed of the argument she started.
"That's what you wanted to tell me?" she asked. She could feel her face turning red.
Lucas stared at her for a second before clapping his hands together and saying,"YES! That was it."
He shook his head and walked into the classroom, leaving Maya in the hallway all alone. She had made a huge mistake before class even started. This was what happened when Riley wasn't here. The two needed each other just to function. Now how was she supposed to go a whole day without her? Maya sighed as she finally walked into the classroom, pretending that nothing ever happened. She took her seat, questioning if she should attempt to apologize or make a remark that was similar to saying sorry. The idea of saying anything to Lucas about the incident just seemed stupid. He was a big boy and he knew very well that Maya was just teasing him. As she took her notebook out (which she used a doodle pad), she wondered what it would have been like for him to touch her on purpose. To want to get near her for a different reason. She took out her trusty pen, letting herself scribble shapes on the page as she entertained the idea of him liking her back.
Yeah right, she thought. Like that would ever happen.
She sighed as soon as Mr. Matthews started talking. She stared at the empty seat across from her, wishing that her best friend was well enough to leave home and come to school right now. Then, she looked down at her notebook and realized that her hand was drawing. She gasped to herself when she noticed that she was working on a familiar outline. It was eyes. Not just any eyes. His eyes. That was all she ever drew since she and Lucas were voted best couple in the yearbook. He was the reason that she kept her Instagram private because no one could know that when Riley wasn't there, all Maya thought about Lucas.
A/N: Thank you for reading my story. This story was inspired by my best friend's snap chat story.
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