Loss And Gains

by tiramisuspice

She was hurt. Not just because he chose Maya. Not just because Maya took him. But because everyone around her seemed to be moving on. And she was getting left behind.

This has been a long time coming. Sorry it took so long!

The premise of this is the same as Gains and Loss. What if GMW were actually some super angst-y over the top purposely exaggerated high school romantic teen drama show instead? How much worse could the Rucaya triangle romance actually have been? How much worse could the relationships have deteriorated? How bad could it have gotten? What if the worst aspects of this triangle, the most twisted aspects of the characters' issues with each other were the focus? What if they all made mistakes that would affect their relationships severely? What would happen then?

Only this time from Riley's POV with a slightly different approach to reflect that. I wanted to write the other perspective of the events so you could see how different the girls perceived and experienced the things in this AU (because there are very deliberate differences). This one is significantly longer because it's more introspective than Maya's was (HOLY SHIT. I think this is the longest thing I've ever written!). Riley's POV has holes that can only be filled through Maya's POV. And Maya's POV has holes that can only be filled through Riley's POV. You need both sides to understand the full story, so here you go ;3 Side B of the tape.

Rated T for Tortured Heart

Enjoy, loves!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination… (and of course these banana nut muffins I made :3)

---

Some people grew up listening to fairy tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

Riley grew up listening to the fairy tale of Cory and Topanga.

Growing up as the daughter of Cory and Topanga opened Riley's eyes to the concept of a fairy tale love. She'd craved one since she was young. Absolutely desired one with her entire being. Her search for her heroic, Prince Charming first love was at the forefront of her mind, the desire only growing stronger and more intense as each year went by in her life that she learned more about the beauty of love. Those desires for a prince to come in and swoop her off her feet and give her the happily ever after she so desperately wanted were only exacerbated by her obsession with princess movies and her longing to be one.

As a sophomore in high school, her princess fantasies were more like faded dreams now, but there were times when she'd fall into old habits, daydreaming about herself with her future prince.

So when Riley rounded the corner into her Algebra class that fateful day mid second semester and saw Lucas Friar speaking with Mr. Connolly beside the teacher's desk with a pink transfer slip in all his tall, green eyed, tanned, hunky, handsome Prince Charming like glory, she was mesmerized. Transfixed. Lost in his warm smile.

Sure, maybe she wasn't the only one who was freaking out over the attractive new boy and his delicious arms, but she couldn't help but feel like this was a sign that maybe he was her prince charming. After all, he'd suddenly shown up on a particular day she had been daydreaming in an earlier class.

Her ogling was interrupted abruptly when she ran into a desk she hadn't noticed and spilled her books all over the desk and on the floor.

"Miss Matthews. Is there a problem?" Mr. Connolly asked.

"N-no sir."

Her eyes met Lucas' briefly, and she shew she was blushing to her roots. It was just her luck to embarrass herself in front of this super attractive guy.

He helped her pick up her books and gave them back to her with a kind smile. Their fingers brushed together as she took them and she hoped desperately he couldn't see how starry eyed she was over him.

But she knew without a doubt that Lucas would become someone special to her.

~.~.~

By lunchtime, everyone knew about the unbelievably cute, handsome new guy.

"He's in Maya's and my history class," Zay said, poking at the odd green concoction on his plate that was supposed to be mac and cheese. "Lucas Friar. He told me he's also from Austin today. We have a couple mutual friends back home. He seemed like a pretty cool guy from when we spoke. I like 'im."

"He's definitely a hunk. But he's not my type of hunk." Smackle said, leaning over and giving Farkle an eskimo kiss.

Farkle wrapped an arm around Smackle's shoulders, giving her a soft, sweet kiss, and Zay made a gag motion with his finger. Riley wasn't paying much attention to the conversation though, her eyes glued to where Lucas was sitting on the other side of the lunch room. Even the way he held his fork was attractive. She sighed wistfully, knowing there was a goofy smile on her face.

"Y'all two really need to tone it down with all the PDA," Zay said. "I know you're finally together, but do you have to do that where we eat our food?"

"Lucas is so attractive…" Riley murmured absentmindedly, her hands on her heart. "He's so hot and sweet and friendly, and he looks like the fairy tale prince of my dreams."

"We get it already, Riley," Billy muttered with a roll of his eyes. "We know how amazing you think the new guy is and how chiseled his jaw line is and how intense his eyes are. Can we please talk about something else?"

Riley just sighed again, her heart racing in her chest when Lucas laughed at something someone said. His smile was perfect, one of those charming ones that could melt hearts and make even the crankiest of grannies fall in love.

"You've been awfully quiet all lunch, Maya," Zay said, nudging Maya. "Got anything to add?"

"What's there to add?" Maya drawled in disgust, sketching in her notepad. "He's just a Huckleberry jock prince type. Sure, he's got looks, but he's not my type either. Too pretty boy. Probably a Momma's boy too. Wake me up when he's got some substance to him."

The conversation moved on to Darby and Yogi finally dating but Riley tuned it out, her eyes only on Lucas. She kept imagining some meet cute scenario where he would look up and his eyes would meet hers across the lunch room and time would stand still and then he would smile and then she would smile and in that perfect moment, they'd both know that they were destined to be together. Or one day, she would be sitting at lunch by herself for whatever reason and he'd walk up to her and ask her if the seat next to her was taken and she would smile sweetly and tell him no and he would sit down next to her and they'd smile at each other some more, lost in each other's gazes as they fell helplessly in love.

He was the prince to her princess. She was sure of it.

Lucas was stuck on her mind with no hope to leave. Maya thought he had no substance, but Riley knew he was perfect in every way.

~.~.~

Riley hadn't managed to figure out where and what classes Lucas had that day, and though she wasn't proud of it, she found herself sneaking around a bit and following him whenever she saw him in the hallway.

But she was much too scared to talk to him, even though he was also in her literature and chemistry classes.

So she just observed him from afar, compiling in her mind little daydreams and scenarios of what she would say to him when they first spoke for real. He would be lost and wouldn't be able to find a class and he would smile in that devastatingly charming way and ask her if she could help him. And then Riley would happily help him and walk him to class and he'd hold her books and they'd have some kind of intellectual conversation about how he was a hero who was going to save the world and then their hands would accidentally touch and he would take hers in his and they would smile at each other and—

Riley squeaked in surprise, quickly hiding her face in her locker when Lucas walked by, his schedule in hand and a confused look on his face.

"Riley, what the heck are you doing?" she hiss whispered to herself.

This was the universe's way of telling her 'Hi Riley. Go take your shot! It's your moment to have that meet cute you've been dreaming about.' And she was missing a prime opportunity.

She swallowed her nerves and popped her head out of her locker, preparing herself to ask Lucas if he needed help finding a class. But he was already rounding the corner of the hallway by the time she'd mustered up the confidence to say 'hi' and start their conversation.

Riley sighed dejectedly, willing herself to try again next time.

Lucas was her perfect prince. The guy she was destined to fall in love with. She just knew it. She could see it when she looked at him.

Now all she needed was to gather the courage to talk to him.

~.~.~

By the end of Lucas' first week, everyone was fighting to recruit her Prince Charming into their friend group.

But Billy managed to succeed in snagging him up for their friend group when Lucas did incredible in baseball during gym, and Billy decided Lucas was a perfect fit for their group. And thus, Lucas was inducted as the newest member of the funtastic, extraordinary, and wonderful group that Riley liked to call friends.

(Although she was terrified of talking to him and avoided him because she became a blushing, stuttering mess when he was nearby).

After that, the hype died down about him to general interest as the week went by, but it never did for Riley.

For Riley, it was only the beginning.

She just never realized that first loves came with first heartbreaks.

And she had no idea just how bad hers would be.

~.~.~

Riley had a huge, huge crush on Lucas.

She knew she did. Pretty much the whole school probably did by that point.

She was a little possessive of him too if she was perfectly honest. But she couldn't help it. She liked him so much. His princely charm, his kindness, the warmth in his eyes. She suspected if she didn't try to talk to him and move in fast, she would never get him to notice her.

Especially since Missy Bradford was trying to sink her talons into him already.

And to Riley's disappointment, he was flirting back, though she hoped it was just because Lucas didn't know what Missy was really like, and he was blinded by her long, shiny brown hair, perfectly primped outfits, and dazzling smiles. She was confidence personified, a smooth talker, and oozed grace, everything Riley was not.

But Riley didn't know how to catch Lucas' attention when she could barely talk to him. Thankfully, she'd managed to get Maya to be her wingwoman and get her an in, but now came the big problem.

Riley still couldn't talk to him.

For three days, Maya had gotten Lucas to come to the library with them to work on a project, and for three days, Riley still couldn't manage to utter a word to him, hiding out behind library shelves and behind books so he couldn't see her face.

Until he cornered her, and she didn't have enough time to find a new hiding place.

"Maya told me you help out here often, Riley," Lucas said. "Do you know where the reference section is?"

"Reverence?" Riley giggled nervously, looking everywhere but directly at his face. "Well we don't carry religious doctrines here since this is a government owned building—secularism and all that—but there's a bookstore nearby here, I think? They might have what you're looking for."

He rose a brow, looking amused. "Reference. Not reverence."

Riley gasped. "Oh, they're over there near the globe!"

"Thanks."

Lucas walked away, and she slowly released the breath she'd been holding, trying to calm down the giddiness that was bubbling up in her chest from having had her first conversation with him that was longer than just a 'hey' and a goofy 'hi'. Riley walked quickly over to Maya, who was over by the erotic literature perusing the contents of a novel with a scantily clad man on the cover.

"Maya, you can't be looking at this stuff. You're only sixteen. You have to be eighteen."

"Who cares?" Maya shrugged, flipping boredly through the pages. "Shouldn't you be over flirting with Bucky McBoingBoing? I can't keep using the library as an excuse to get him near you, you know? That project is due in a couple days."

"I don't know what to say, Maya! I can barely talk when he's nearby, and we can't have a conversation. I don't even know how to flirt. Can you teach me how to flirt?"

"Who our age knows how to flirt right?" Maya sighed, setting the trashy romance novel back on the shelf. "Well, think about how you normally make friends with people. When Zay transferred here in junior high, what did you do?"

"I asked him to tell me something interesting about him."

"Then ask Ranger Rick that same question."

"Maya, that's the problem. I can barely talk to him about anything without stumbling over my words."

"Then let's fix that."

Maya grabbed her hand, hauling her over to where Lucas was sitting at a table glancing at an encyclopedia and writing down notes in his notepad every few seconds. When Riley realized what was happening, she resisted, trying to back away, but Maya had a death grip on her wrist and wouldn't slow down her pace.

"Hey Huckleberry."

Lucas looked up. "Yeah?"

"Riley here is working on an extracurricular social studies project that involves people's most cherished memories in their past, and she wanted to ask you since you're fresh from the cornfields and cow pastures of good ole Texas country."

"Okay. Sure." Lucas smiled.

Riley felt her face flush when their gazes met, but when she turned to Maya for help, Maya was gone.

"Right…" She chuckled quietly, sitting in the seat across from him. "So… Texas, huh? Do you have a cherished memory?"

"Well, I guess it would have to be the time I helped birth a baby horse."

"You helped birth a baby horse?" Riley asked, her brows rising in surprise, her heart skipping a beat in her chest.

That was really unexpected. She'd already suspected he was a good guy, but an animal lover too? What a dreamboat.

"Yeah. The miracle of life." He chuckled fondly at the memory. Riley rested her chin on her palm, listening attentively to his story. "I don't think I'll ever forget that summer day. The sun setting in the horizon. The smell of fresh cut grass. It was hot, but not the stifling kind of hot where you can't really breath. We had a couple horses out back. And my grandfather let me help get that colt out. He owns a ranch, and I spent a lot of time with him there. It's hard work taking care of all the animals and fixing pens and stuff, but definitely worth it."

Riley was sure she was swooning. He was sweet, charming, kindhearted, an animal lover, and sensitive. What else could she ever want in a guy? She didn't think he could get any more perfect than he already was.

"Do you miss being on the ranch? What do you miss most?"

"Yeah, I miss it. But I'm going back this summer," Lucas responded. "The thing I miss most, I guess, are the pets I had."

"I had a hamster once." Riley piped up.

He rose a brow. "I had twenty-four horses."

She stared at him. "Okay… You win."

Lucas chuckled and Riley giggled, feeling her stomach flutter with wild butterflies. Man, his smile was cute. But she was glad at least she was able to have a conversation with him.

"Do you miss Texas a lot? I mean, compared to New York."

"Honestly, New York is kind of a weird place. There was a rat that looked like a pony in the subway. I don't think I'll ever get that sight out of my head." He shrugged. "I'm not really a city kind of guy. But I've met some pretty nice people here so it's not that bad so far."

"Am I… am I one of those nice people?" Riley asked, somewhat playfully and then she grimaced right after the words left her lips.

She sounded ridiculous. Why couldn't she come up with some witty thing to say off the top of her head like Maya? He probably thought she was a dummy.

"You're probably the nicest person I've met here," Lucas said with a soft smile. "Maya told me about how much you also give back to communities. The care you have for people is really admirable."

Riley's heart hammered in her chest, and she smiled bashfully, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear and giggling nervously. Her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest. She could feel her face heating up and hoped he couldn't see how hard she was blushing in the dim lighting of the corner they were in.

"Oh… th-thank you."

Maya approached their table after that, a bored look on her face.

"Do you have your research done, Shortstack?" Lucas asked. "The project is due soon."

"Nah, I'm waiting it out to the last day as usual." She stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I'm going home. My work here is done."

"Wait, you're leaving me, Peaches?!"

"Yeah, sorry, Pumpkin. You don't need me." Maya put her headphones in her ears as she walked off. "You two kids have fun."

Riley took a deep breath, terrified that she would mess this up. She'd managed to have a conversation this long with Lucas, but only because Maya had initiated the topic. What was she supposed to do now?

"Do you have enough information for your social experiment?" Lucas asked.

"What social experiment?"

"The one you were asking me these questions for…?" Lucas said slowly, giving her a weird look.

"Oh! Right!" Riley slapped her forehead, trying to hide her momentary slip up. "Yes! I have all the information I need."

"Good. In that case, do you think you could help me find some books on European history? This project is due in two days, and I seriously need to do some intense research."

"That's a little broad. Your project is on seventeenth century monarchs like Maya and Zay, right?" Riley stood up. "I know some good books you can use to find information. Follow me."

"Okay."

Thanks to Maya's constant help, Riley slowly got more opportunities to talk to Lucas. She got along with him well. They were really alike in their general thought processes and mindsets, and she could guarantee they would agree on most things. It was nice to talk to someone who understood where she was coming from. She tended to disagree a lot with Maya, even more so now than when they were younger.

Riley believed they were perfect for each other. And she had a feeling he thought so too.

Slowly, they became closer friends, and he opened up to her more, telling her about his life in Texas. About his community service excursions and initiatives to raise money for pet orphanages and all of his training to prepare for becoming a veterinarian in the future. In turn, she would rant to him about her love of the Knicks. He was such a great person, and Riley knew she would never find anyone else so inherently good.

Riley didn't understand why Maya seemed to hate Lucas so much for being such a good guy, though. She made fun of him at every turn of the second and kept saying he was such a goofy cowboy Momma's boy and how much she couldn't stand his Mr. Perfect image. But at least Maya still tolerated him enough to help give Riley more chances to talk to him to get to know him, and the more time Riley spent with Lucas, the more confident she grew.

~.~.~

Riley liked to think that asking Lucas to the Sadie Hawkins dance at the end of sophomore year was the turning point of their relationship.

She'd been absolutely elated when he'd said yes.

For some reason, he'd dressed like a cowboy to the dance and brought Maya a red rose, but Riley didn't think much of it since the two seemed to have started this annoy each other at all costs game. He alternated between dancing with Riley and pranking people with Maya all night, and walked Riley home at the end, even though her annoying father drove about five meters behind them the whole time, blaring his horn anytime Riley's hand drifted too close to Lucas'.

He gave her a hug before he left for home, and Riley was enamoured by the end of the night.

They didn't talk much throughout the summer, but when they returned for junior year, things changed. She and Lucas had almost all the same classes and they basically spent all their time together. They became much closer, Lucas coming over to her place constantly to work on assignments and before she knew it, everyone at school was counting down the days they would become an official couple and placing bets on them. She liked that people started calling them husband and wife too, mostly because it took Lucas off the market since everyone assumed she and Lucas were already in an unofficial relationship.

(Take that Missy!)

Sometimes though, it felt like Lucas was hesitating or pulling away, like if Riley tried to slowly inch her hand into his. Or when she would sit closer to him, almost leaning into him. And there were times when he would get this odd, irritated look on his face when Uncle Josh was hanging out with Maya while Riley and Lucas were trying to finish up their homework. On those days, Lucas didn't really pay attention to Riley at all, but she figured it was because his concentration was being broken, and he was annoyed at how loud the other two were laughing.

But watching Maya befriend Josh made Riley realize she had to step her game up if she really wanted to secure Lucas as her boyfriend once and for all.

Flirting came easy to Maya. She was always flirting with Josh. Always flirting with other guys at school, tossing her hair and swinging her hip, and being playful with just the right amount of sass. She had that skill on lock, but Riley wasn't one for that kind of flirting. It just never worked.

(Trust her. She'd tried one time, tripped over her feet, and nearly landed in a garbage bin).

But she refused to give up and made it as obvious as she could that she liked him without verbally telling him, of course.

And she felt her efforts definitely paid off because Lucas asked her out to a movie on the last day of junior year. It had taken the entire school year, but she'd succeeded. They'd had a good time, shared a popcorn and some chocolate, and he'd even bought her a smoothie and a bag of Gummi bears. But that was the extent of what she wanted to call a date. He'd made no efforts to hold her hand or wrap his arm around her shoulders by the end of the night, and Riley was left wondering if they had actually even been on a date in the first place.

"How'd you like the movie?" Lucas asked as they strolled along the sidewalk near her apartment complex.

Riley grimaced. "It was funny on some parts, but it made me pretty uncomfortable. I'm not really into crude humour movies."

"Sorry, Maya recommended it. I guess I wasn't thinking. You like romances, right?"

"Yeah."

They came to a stop in front of her complex and Riley let out a long sigh as she turned to face him. Despite how well the evening should have gone, it felt empty. Like there was something missing in it. And quite frankly, Riley was tired of all this dancing around and will-we, won't-we stuff. She wanted to be with Lucas, and it'd been a year. It was about time she took matters into her own hands since he clearly wasn't going to take the leap.

"I guess this is where we part ways."

"Lucas?" She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. "Why did you ask me out?"

He looked a little surprised by her question, his brows a bit high on his forehead.

"I guess I just wanted to hang out with you alone."

Riley's brows furrowed, unsatisfied by his response. She'd been hoping for something more concrete. Or at least something to indicate that he had feelings for her too. He was sending her mixed signals, but she wanted real proof now of his reciprocated feelings.

"If that's the case, then we might as well have just hung out at my place to watch a movie. I mean, I thought you asked me out… because you wanted to go on a real date with me."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I did. Or do."

It was a start. But Riley wasn't going to keep playing this tug of war thing. She was going to go for it. She was going to channel every ounce of Maya's courage that she had inside her and charge head first and gung ho. If this crashed and burned, she wanted to regret having told him how she felt. She didn't want the summer to start regretting that she'd kept her mouth shut.

"Lucas, I know we're friends, and I don't want to mess that up, but this year, we've been getting closer and I feel like we haven't been just friends for a while. I've been meaning to tell you for a while now." She met his gaze seriously. "I like you, Lucas. A lot. And I wanted you to know that before we went our separate ways for summer vacation."

He smiled. "I like you too, Riley."

She didn't think her heart could beat any faster in her chest. And if it did, she would probably keel over and die. Before she could overthink it, she rose to her tiptoes, took his face in her hands and kissed him.

And the best part was when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.

And fireworks exploded around her.

~.~.~

They spent the entire summer chatting and calling each other and though it sucked that he was gone in Austin all summer and Riley was in New York, she knew that it was a test for their long distance relationship come college when he would be away for semesters at a time. But once they got married, it wouldn't matter because they'd be together without any obstacles. And then they would have three cute children and live in a large, beautiful, gray stone castle of a house with a large porch and a swing in the front attached to the oak tree and a beautiful rose garden in the back with their pet unicorn—

"Riley, you still there?"

"Yeah!" She snapped out of her thoughts. She loved that Lucas' accent seemed to have gotten stronger now that he was back in Texas. She could kind of understand why Maya called him a cowboy. Riley could envision him as one with the country accent. "Just daydreaming. What are you up to now?"

"Just chilling on Pappy Joe's back porch watching the stars. I can never get enough of this sight."

"I wish I could see the stars… There's too much light pollution here."

"Well maybe you can," Lucas said. "How would you like to come to Texas one day?"

Riley's breath caught. Had he just invited her to come visit his cherished childhood memory and meet his family? She could just imagine what that would be like. Him introducing her to his family members as his girlfriend (even though they weren't official, official, yet), taking her to all his secret spots, cuddling by a campfire.

Maybe even deepening their relationship on a more emotional and physical level under the stars, though the thought made her blush.

"I would love to!" she exclaimed, wincing when she realized just how loudly she had responded when her words echoed around her bedroom. She cleared her throat. "You've told me so much about it, I feel like I already know the city really well."

"Then let's plan a trip here one day. We can get all our friends to come too, and I can show you guys the best parts of Austin. There are some pretty amazing sites here. You'd love it."

"That sounds great," Riley said, trying to sound nonchalant and not squee, giddy and feeling like she wanted to yay the crap out of a yay at the moment. "I'll keep a reminder then."

Lucas yawned.

"Are you tired?"

"Yeah, it's been a long day."

"I thought all you did was help a friend build a chicken coop in another part of the city?"

"From scratch," he replied. "It's harder than it looks. But we managed to get it done in only one evening so the chickens could have the comfort of their homes again."

"You're so perfect and sweet." Riley gushed, almost rambling. "Maya is always saying you're goofy and a dork and annoying, but I honestly don't understand why she thinks so when you're one of the best people I know."

"…She thinks I'm annoying?"

"Oh gosh! I don't think she means it in a bad way! You know how Maya is. She's always teasing people and making fun of them. She only says she can't stand you because that's what she does to have the upperhand in her weird teasing game. You know her deal."

"Wow… she said she can't stand me, huh?" he said pensively.

"Wait, that came out wrong! Maya definitely considers you a friend though. She just has a hard time showing it, is all. If you ask her, she'll say no, but she definitely does think of you as a close friend." Riley hastened to explain. "She has a hard time opening up to people because of her trust issues, but she cares about you!"

"Right…Well she sure has an odd way of showing it. At least only to me anyway," he muttered. "You know, I'm pretty beat. Think I'm going to head to bed now."

Riley pouted, disappointed that he was fatigued. She'd been hoping they could talk a little longer.

"Call me later this week?"

"Of course. 'Night Riley."

"Goodnight Lucas."

She hung up and flopped back onto her bed, grinning from ear to ear, her hands resting on her chest where her heart was trying to break out of her ribcage. She had a feeling she knew what the intense longing for Lucas in her heart was, and it excited her so much.

Her family and friends teased her about her relationship with Lucas, saying that she was being ridiculous about him, but she didn't care. She was sure she was falling in love. And Lucas was a dream come true. Everything was perfect. She was living out her fairy tale just as she'd wanted.

Riley was sure that she and Lucas were going to last forever.

~.~.~

When Lucas returned at the start of senior year, Riley half expected things to remain the same with their unofficial thing. But he surprised her by asking her to be his girlfriend in the middle of the hallway during their first day of school after some friends had been pestering him about when he was finally going to make it official.

And that was that.

They were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. Holding hands everywhere. Going out on dinner dates. Riley being his personal cheerleader at all his football games. Watching movies at her place. Making out on the couch behind her father's back and then pretending they hadn't been when he would wildly run out into the living room.

But it wasn't the beautiful fairy tale romance Riley had been hoping it would be.

As the week continued, they progressively stopped talking. They didn't really have anything to say, awkwardly sitting around and giving each other tight smiles that could nearly pass as grimaces. Conversation attempts always ended quickly or lasted all of a few sentences. There was only so much she could say about the Knicks, and Lucas found it amusing, but he didn't particularly contribute, so she felt she was carrying the conversation most of the time. And half the time, they didn't really have anything new to bring to the conversation or the conversation would dwindle after they agreed on something one or the other of them had had an issue with.

She hoped they hadn't run out of conversation topics. Riley thought maybe it was just a phase. That they were both just uncomfortable because it was their first real relationship ever. Well, she assumed it was probably Lucas' first too since he'd never brought up any exes or old relationships before.

But the phase never stopped.

It grew worse to the point where it felt like Lucas was starting to avoid her. It sucked that they only had one class together in their final year, but outside of that, she honestly felt like Lucas was trying to put space between them. Other times, he seemed bored and there were occasions when he seemed a little frustrated or worried about something but when she asked, he would give her a fake smile and tell her not to worry about it. And it didn't help that they'd had one of their worst dates ever over the weekend.

Riley had invited him up to her room after he'd taken her out to the first week of senior year party at one of the football player's places. Maybe it had been a half thought out plan, but she'd watched Maya leave with someone halfway through the night, and it had sparked an idea in her head. Riley had been kind of desperate, wanting their relationship to get back to the way it was after that week of awkwardness, and she thought maybe having that special bond and emotional and physical connection from sex would help them regain the strength in their relationship.

They couldn't even get past second base.

She tried to convince herself that she had been uncomfortable, believing that the more she said it, the more it would be true—even wrote it at length in her diary. But though she hated to admit it out loud, she knew deep down that it had been Lucas who'd stopped anything from happening. She'd been throwing hints at Lucas that she was ready, even tried to get him to initiate by moving his hand where she wanted it. She had wanted them to take the next step of their relationship because she felt a deep love for him and he felt a deep love for her and it had made sense in her mind, but he'd pulled away, asking her if she wanted to watch a movie because he just wanted to chill. Clearly, they hadn't been on the same page.

And since that time, she'd always been the one initiating the kisses or making out. He was always the one backing out or ending dates and leaving. She hated it, and she couldn't figure out how they used to be so strong only to be so unrecognizable now. There was this disconnect. Riley didn't understand how things could be such a 180 from the them of the summer to them of now. She figured he must have had to have his reasons for being so reserved, but she wouldn't press.

If he wanted to tell her, or when he was ready to tell her, she would be there to listen.

But it got to the point where they were worse than when Riley only had the extreme crush. At least back then, they'd been able to talk without her wanting to grind her nails down a chalkboard. Just getting their conversations to run longer than two minutes now was like pulling teeth, and Riley didn't know what to do. Her dream relationship was crumbling in her hands and no matter how much she tried desperately to hold on to the pieces, it was a lost cause.

So in the end, they called it quits after only a week and a half, deciding the pressure to date and label themselves was probably ruining their relationship. But it left them in a limbo, unsure of where or how to progress after their disastrous venture into being an actual real couple. Ending things had left her unsure of what they were. Nothing was defined.

Were they unofficial now? A thing? Were they on an extended break? Was he still her something like a boyfriend?

Maya told her to wait it out and give it some time, but it was all very stressful and upsetting to Riley, who couldn't seem to figure out why things had gone on such a fast downward spiral when they were perfectly fine over the summer. Why weren't they able to talk? And why wasn't Lucas trying to fight to pick up the pieces of their relationship? He was the one who had pushed for them to end it, and while Riley was trying to be respectful of his wishes, she wished he could give her a better explanation than just "things are a little weird and maybe we just need some time not as a couple."

She'd read a quote in a book once: If you love someone set them free. If they come back, they're yours; if they don't, they never were.

She considered it a rough patch, hoping if she gave him a bit of space to sort out his thoughts and figure himself out, they'd jump right back into it and continue her slightly less than perfect, but perfect nonetheless fairy tale love story.

~.~.~

And then Lucas got in a fight with someone.

She hadn't known what the situation was or what had happened, but all of a sudden, Maya texted her that Lucas was in the nurse's office. Riley thought he'd been badly injured playing baseball—fractured ankle, broken collar bone, concussion—and she'd run there as fast as she could to make sure he was okay.

It turned out that he'd beaten someone up who had insulted Maya.

It was shocking to Riley. Docile Lucas. The Lucas with the soft smiles and the sweet, gentle nature had gotten into a physical altercation? It didn't make any sense and Riley couldn't comprehend or reconcile what Maya had told her and what Riley knew about Lucas. There was no way he could have gotten into a fight. Not her Lucas. Not the sweet and sappy Lucas who donated more than half of his paychecks every month to an animal shelter for stray pets. She just couldn't see it or believe it. But there he was being fixed up by Maya with a busted lip and bruised knuckles and swollen, puffy eye.

The truth came out.

Lucas moved to New York for a fresh start after getting expelled from his last high school. He'd told Riley he moved because his parents separated, and he was living with his mom. But she could clearly see now that there was more to his relocation than met the eye.

Who was this Lucas? She couldn't recognize him at all. Since senior year started, he'd just been so different. Someone she didn't know. He had changed. What the heck was going on with him? And why was she starting to feel like the Lucas she knew now was not the same Lucas she fell in love with?

And worse than that, finding out that he'd kept this pretty big secret from her—his own girlfriend—about the fact that he'd left Austin for a fresh start after making a mess of his reputation in his old high school hurt. Had he not thought he could tell her this secret? If he couldn't tell her this basic thing about him, something small and simple, what else could he possibly have been hiding? The more he explained, the more Riley felt he was hiding something else pretty substantial from her. If he so called got expelled from a school in Austin, why would he have needed to move to another city? Couldn't he have just gone to a new school?

She didn't want it to, but the perfect image of her Prince Charming developed a crack in it. Suddenly, Lucas Friar was tainted. And Riley could not lie; the thought that he was different terrified her. But what scared her the most was knowing that the Lucas that she had grown to love, the Lucas that she fell in love with and envisioned her future with? He wasn't the same. He was changing for the worse, and it scared her.

She wanted answers. And she wanted them now. Maybe if he told her the full truth, she could understand better what was going on with him. She could fix her hero. Her Prince Charming.

"You've been hiding this dirty secret for three years!" Riley said, her hands on her hips as Maya cleaned a bruise on his knuckles. "Has our entire relationship all been a lie?"

"We're in a nurse's office, Riley. Quiet down a bit," Maya muttered.

Riley ignored her. "Tell me what you did to get kicked out of school."

Lucas remained silent, a frown on his face as he stared out the window as Maya cleaned up one of his other cuts.

"Oh so you can't even tell me that either." Riley shook her head disdainfully. "Do I even know you anymore?"

"Riley, would you calm down?" Lucas growled, giving her a look out of the corner of his eye. "I'm still the same me."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Are you, though? Are you really? If you lied about this, what else did you lie about? Your name? Is your name even really Lucas?"

"Riley, just chill out." Maya scoffed, rolling her eyes. Riley frowned, giving Maya an annoyed look. "Look, someone's maybe shady past doesn't define who they are in the present, okay? Look at me. You remember how I used to be? Rebellious, always in trouble, terrible grades, never trying, never attempting to make something of myself. I was on a fast track to becoming a delinquent or a deadbeat. Am I the same person I was in our youth? No. You shouldn't fault him for wanting to hide his past. And even with it, it doesn't change who he has become now because it doesn't matter."

Riley didn't respond, her eyes still narrowed in irritation. What was Maya's deal? Riley thought she'd back her up on this one. Wasn't Maya the one who was so obsessed with making fun of Lucas' past and his roots? She would have thought Maya would be the first to want to know some dirt on him to use as a tool in her teasing. But instead, she was trying to leave it up in the air, as if finding out this huge new development about one of their friends didn't matter, when it absolutely did.

Lucas sighed in exasperation. "Why the hell are you so mad about my past?"

Was he serious? Did he honestly think after all the time they spent together, after all they'd talked about, after all they'd shared, after everything they'd been through in their relationship that she cared about his past? She cared about the fact that he'd lied to her. She cared about the fact that he'd hidden these things about himself from her. She cared that their relationship had fallen apart because they couldn't find things to talk about when all this time, he could have told her about this.

She cared that he'd willingly kept a secret from her when she'd trusted him with everything about herself.

It was clear now that they hadn't been on the same page at all when they were together.

And it hurt that he hadn't trusted her.

"If you think that's what I'm mad about, Lucas," Riley said quietly, her eyes downcast, "then you obviously don't know me. And I don't know you."

Riley spun on her heels, storming out of the nurse's office and trying not to think about how badly it had hurt to find out that her boyfriend honestly hadn't trusted her with this huge secret about his life. He'd told her everything else about his life in Austin? Why hadn't he mentioned this? And why after all this time did he still not understand her or trust her for that matter?

She let out a long sigh and slowed down her pace, wondering if Lucas was going to come after her and explain, but when she glanced behind her, there was no one following her. Lips slightly pursed, she backtracked to the nurse's office, intending to get her answers, but when she looked in the window, she stopped before she opened the door.

To her confusion, Lucas and Maya were still there, not saying anything and just staring at each other. Neither were speaking outwardly, but there was a look in their eyes, like they were having a mutual conversation and understanding. Did they even realize how close they were to each other? They looked like… a couple.

Her brows furrowed, feeling uneasy. She didn't like the look he was giving Maya. She'd seen it before. Back when they were juniors. Lucas used to look at Maya that way when she was drawing, lost in her own thoughts and not paying attention to anything. Or sometimes she had seen it when Maya was hanging out with Josh, this pining almost wistful look on Lucas' face.

Then Maya said something and Lucas stood up to leave, and Riley ran away from the door, scurrying down the hallway.

She pushed away the strange sight she had seen hoping it was just a fluke, that it was just a onetime, random ordeal, but Riley hadn't known that the events that afternoon had set into motion what would be the demise of her relationship with Lucas. That the events in that room were only the beginning of an end. That her actions had subconsciously opened Lucas' eyes to something. That the reveal of his past had been an unintentional, unprecedented test of trust.

And that she'd failed.

And Maya hadn't.

~.~.~

There was a shift in Riley's relationship with Lucas' after that.

A sort of distance that Riley could feel Lucas was subconsciously placing between them.

She hadn't noticed it at first because she believed and saw in her eyes that they were perfectly fine and on the way to fixing the small troubles they'd had. She'd always thought their fairy tale would be concrete and last forever and that no matter what issues they had, they were going to make it past the obstacles. Because she was Princess Riley and he was Prince Lucas and they were destined to be the next Corpanga.

They had to be.

She wanted to believe that now that they'd gotten the secrets out of the way, they could try again with being a couple who were totally and completely open and honest with one another.

And even though the gap in their relationship had grown, she still didn't really pay attention to it. She originally didn't see that when Lucas would talk to her, he would get this daze in his eyes. But not a daze as in a good daze of someone who was madly in love, but a daze as in a far off look, as if his mind was on anything other than their conversation. She'd give him sweet smiles and kiss his cheek and try to remind him subtly that she still wanted to be with him, and he would respond with these little charming smiles that for some reason looked wrong on his face and would never seem to reach his eyes.

What made her truly start noticing the distance was when Lucas and Maya suddenly became much closer friends.

It was strange. One day, Maya was talking about how irritating Lucas was with his smart aleck responses, and then the next, he was tossing her on his shoulder to mess with her about her height and giving her these genuine grins Riley had never seen before on his face. It came out of nowhere, especially since Maya never seemed to enjoy Lucas' company before and usually was muttering about how dorky he was. Riley just found it particularly odd that all of a sudden, they had become best friends. She wondered if it was because they had a couple classes together, but Maya had almost all the same classes as Zay and though they were close as well, she didn't behave the same with him as she did with Lucas.

Riley's eyes would drift to them almost involuntarily, her brows furrowing or eyes narrowing suspiciously from the sudden innate camaraderie she was picking up between them, especially when Lucas would play with Maya's hair. And Riley knew for a fact that Maya hated when people touched her hair. What made Lucas so different?

Sometimes, Riley wouldn't lie: she didn't understand Lucas. She had always thought he would behave in one way given a certain situation, but then she'd be surprised when he would react in a completely other way. Riley and Lucas still talked, still conversed about things, but there was something off. It bothered her quite a bit. Riley and Lucas had been the ones constantly talking and spending time together their junior year because they'd had most of the same classes and it had made sense, but now that had become her two friends. The only difference was that Lucas was actively seeking Maya out all the time whereas Riley had been the one who had to seek Lucas out.

Riley suspected they were particularly close and shared things with each other. And though she couldn't speculate what they shared, Riley knew that Maya knew something secret about him, something that had made her decide to stop referring to him as Lucas the Momma's boy goofy cowboy and Mr. Perfect. But when Riley tried to bring up why the sudden change and get some information, Maya deftly avoided the topic. It wasn't until Maya's father came back once again, wanting to wedge himself into her life though she wasn't ready to accept him, that Riley realized just how close the two truly were.

"Maya, I heard from your mom that your dad has been trying to get into contact with you," Riley said in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Riley," Maya said breezily, tossing her jacket into her locker.

"Do you want to stay at my place while you wait for him to give up and leave New York? We could have a mini sleepover for a while."

"Nah, it's okay. Lil has a guest bedroom; I've been staying there."

Riley frowned in confusion. "Who's Lil?"

"Lucas' mom," Maya responded, as if the answer was so obvious.

It wasn't to Riley. She'd never met Lucas' mom, and she'd thought her name was Delaney. But that wasn't the thing that gave her pause. It was the connection she'd just come to make in her head.

"Wait…You're staying with Lucas?" Riley asked quietly, a sense of dread she couldn't recognize creeping into her mind. "Alone? In his apartment? How long have you been staying there?"

Maya shut her locker, hitching her bag up on her shoulder.

"Well, it's only temporary. I've been there for about a week now. But his mom is usually always home. I swear she makes the best damn Texas chili I've ever had. She says she wrestled a bear for her great grandmother Bessie's prized recipe. What a nut." Maya snorted, shaking her head in amusement. "I've gotta go, Riley. Physics. My teacher's a bitch about tardiness, and Lucas can't cover for me anymore. See you later."

She ran off and Riley stood there, a frown etched on her face long after Maya had disappeared around the corner. Did Maya not realize the gravity of what she had said? All the implications in those words?

If Lucas let Maya stay with him, that meant she had told him about her history with her dad, which she rarely told anyone. And if Lucas offered his place and Maya was on a nickname basis with his mom and sharing stories, that meant she had to be close with his mom. Maya even knew about an extended family member. He'd never mentioned anything like that to Riley before. She'd never even visited his home before.

Why hadn't Maya told her that she was staying with Lucas?

~.~.~

And Maya and Lucas continued to grow closer, sharing inside jokes and having movie nights. Apparently Lucas would spend afternoons at Maya's to keep her company when her mom worked late.

Riley tried not to be paranoid or suspicious by nature, but she was pretty insecure. She carried herself with slight obliviousness—to focus on the good, but not the bad—but that didn't mean she was. Especially regarding Maya. And though Riley felt like she and Lucas were slowly gaining back their resemblance of the sweet relationship they'd had before their fiasco dating each other, she was beginning to think that there was something in the way blocking them from reconciling completely:

Maya.

It was Thursday night, the day before the Homecoming game. For the seniors, that meant showing up to school that night as was tradition and spending the entire evening decorating the school for the school spirit festivities. It was a great bonding experience for the senior class.

Riley had been late to the Homecoming senior festivities because he'd had to go to Auggie's school play with her family, but as soon as it was over, she'd rushed over to school to join her friends in the celebration.

She'd found them all on the field, everyone holding their breath as they watched Farkle catch a football in the endzone. The crowd erupted into wild cheers. Riley didn't get the context of the excitement, but she understood from the way Maya hopped up and down and then gave Billy a rather obscene gesture and from Darby tossing Yogi up in the air and Smackle giving Farkle a big ole kiss that Maya's team had won. Riley grinned, ready to start cheering with the others to congratulate Maya for her victory.

Until Maya ran to Lucas and hugged him and he picked her up and spun her around as they laughed, enjoying their victory.

And as she watched Lucas twirl Maya around in that way guys did with their girlfriends, Riley couldn't help but feel a bit irritated. Annoyed with the way they gazed at each other, the whole world nonexistent to the little world they'd put themselves in. Why were they always playing around with each other? Why was Lucas always touching Maya for no reason at all?

"Aren't they so cute?" Yindra said to Sarah and Jade nearby. "They totally make a hot couple."

Without even saying the names, Riley knew exactly who they was referring to. Her stomach dropped to her feet, something tight and sharp in her chest swelling.

"…But what about me and Lucas? We're like summer rain."

"Yeah, but Lucas and Maya are like fire." Sarah giggled.

And Riley's lips pursed. Why were her classmates seeing Maya with Lucas as if they were a couple? It wasn't right. Riley and Lucas had something going on; they were the ones who'd had the relationship and were unofficially together, yet her classmates thought he and Maya were like a couple. And though she hated to admit it, the way the two of them were with each other, she could kind of see why her classmates would assume so.

She felt a twinge in her chest, something like fear mingled with irritation as she watched Maya smile up at Lucas, a slight flush to her face as he held her by her waist. She got that they were best friends and all, but they were too close. It seemed like just a couple months ago that Riley had been the one in adorable embraces with Lucas.

And one errant thought briefly flittered across her mind:

Maya was in the way.

But she quickly waved it off, telling herself that this was normal for Lucas and Maya. They just had one of those super physical, deep friendships. But Riley was the one Lucas had feelings for.

"That's my best friend everyone!" Riley shouted, cheering along with the others. "Maya Hart led that team to victory!"

Maya and Lucas seemed to break out of whatever trance they were in at that, stepping away from each other quickly and looking uncomfortable. And to Riley's pleasure, Lucas left Maya and jogged over to her.

"I thought you were supposed to be my personal cheerleader," he joked when he came to a stop in front of her.

"Now Lucas. Maya's my best friend. But you did well. So you get a reward too."

And maybe it was a little bit petty, but just to remind her classmates that Lucas was her unofficial boyfriend, she wiped off his eye black and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He smiled in response, and before, Riley might have eaten it up like chocolate, because usually it was charming and sweet the way he always smiled at her. But now that she stared at him, it looked a little too friendly and closed off. It wasn't the way he had looked at Maya not ten seconds before.

She hated it.

She could see something different in the smile she'd always fawned over. Something kind of guarded. Something a little tight that had been slowly building up since they'd almost had that mini fall out. She felt like she was being held at arm's length. She didn't know if she was imagining it, but for a moment—just for a moment—she thought, 'that's not Lucas'.

But Riley refused to get worried. She pushed away the concerns from her mind. Her fairy tale would continue and would come true. She was still the princess to Lucas' prince. This was only a minor setback in the continuation of her fantastic romance with Lucas. She and Maya were still a okay and she in fact, did not find her a nuisance or in the way.

Nothing was wrong.

Nothing was changing.

And when Maya ran to Farkle and glomped him, and Lucas started staring at her blonde best friend, this strange expression in his eyes, Riley pretended like she hadn't seen it.

She pushed it to the back of her mind and forced a smile on her face, joining in the chant to cheer Farkle's name.

~.~.~

Sometime, a little after Lucas turned eighteen, his Pappy Joe came to New York and surprised him with a gift of signing him up in an adult division bullriding competition to ride Tombstone the bull. He'd apparently wanted to ride Tombstone once but he never got the chance to try because he'd had to move to New York with his parents' separation.

But now was his chance to be a hero and succeed on Tombstone.

Lucas had been ecstatic and he'd invited all of their friends to stay in Texas with him for the weekend. Zay was already familiar with Austin and so he and Lucas had had a great time going back to their Texan roots and amping up the exaggerated Texan stereotypes.

It was yet another thing that Riley came to learn about Lucas that didn't match up with his docile nature. She was glad for him though. These weren't exactly the circumstances that she'd hoped for when she visited Texas with Lucas and she'd been hoping that when she went, it would be just the two of them like Lucas had mentioned, but this was close enough. She figured if she played the part of the dutiful girlfriend, maybe he'd notice and acknowledge the fact that she would always support him.

She also wanted to try to mend the tear in their relationship that she felt maybe had arisen from him misunderstanding her reaction to his past. She cared about him and supported him, even if she hadn't shown it at that moment. And she wanted him to know that he could trust her.

It had been fun all afternoon, checking out sights and having the chance to visit famous places. Riley found a few of the things in Austin weird and some of the more zealous country folk were a bit comical to her, but she definitely loved the country outfits she could wear. Lucas had complimented her and Maya on their outfits, told them they both looked good, and she was glad that he still found her cute. If he found her attractive, she could work with that.

It truly had been fun.

Until Maya freaked the heck out when it came time for Lucas to ride Tombstone.

Maya was going on and on about how dangerous it was and how he couldn't go through with it. Riley didn't see the problem with it though. Maybe part of her wanted to see Lucas succeed because she desperately needed to see that the guy she loved—her Prince, a hero who could birth baby horses—was still in there somewhere since the beginning of their semester had been wrought with tension and revelations that had torn his image apart. But she wanted Lucas to do his best on the bull and succeed. And she would support him no matter what decision he made.

If he wanted to ride the bull, who was Maya to try to stop his attempts and desires? He'd made a choice for himself and as his friend, he needed the encouragement that he could succeed. Riley believed in him. And she wanted him to believe in himself too, but that wouldn't happen if Maya was trying to dissuade him from reaching his highest potential.

"You can't ride that bull!" Maya repeated for the umpteenth time, gesturing to the screen and ignoring everyone's stares on her. "So please just take off that stupid outfit so we can leave here!"

Maya's eyes were a bit glassy, her expression pained and fear in the depths of her gaze. But Lucas didn't respond, his brows furrowed as he stared at Maya.

"Lucas. Look at me," she said, her voice wavering a bit. "If you ride that bull… I'm never speaking to you again."

They all stared at Maya in stunned silence at the ultimatum she'd given him.

Riley honestly didn't think it was fair for Maya to request he drop his ambition for her own selfish reason. And threatening him on top of that with basically the end of their friendship when she knew how important this was to Lucas was a terrible thing to do. Riley got that Maya was scared, but giving Lucas an ultimatum was definitely not the way to go. What did she think he was going to do? Give up all of his dreams just because she wasn't going to talk to him anymore? Quite frankly, it was pretty immature.

"Maya, don't be silly," Riley spoke up, coming to Lucas' defense since no one else seemed to want to. "Lucas has to ride that bull. He needs to complete that goal he never got a chance to do."

But Maya didn't respond, only holding Lucas' gaze and waiting for his response. Riley didn't know what words were being exchanged between them or what they were conveying to each other, but what she did know was that she felt uncomfortable. Strange. Like she was intruding on a private moment between them. There were tons of people around them, but Maya and Lucas might as well have been in their own world.

"Maya…"

It was all he said, yet somehow, Maya seemed to understand exactly what he meant because her lips turned down in a frown, a cold and resolute indifference filling her gaze.

"I'm never speaking to you again."

Maya left. And Lucas didn't budge, staring at his helmet with a slight frown on his face.

Riley let out a sigh of relief.

She'd been a little worried. A little scared that he really wouldn't ride the bull because of what Maya had said. Riley refused to think of the implication of what it would have meant if he'd given up on riding the bull just because Maya had wanted him to, but a little part of her, the part that had slowly been getting harder and harder to keep tied down was happy that in a way, Lucas had chosen her side over Maya's.

"I can't believe she actually left." Zay snorted, shaking his head. "Damn."

"What's up with Maya?" Farkle asked in confusion.

"Why would she do this…" Lucas muttered, sounding a bit irritated.

"I don't know," Riley said, spinning on her heel. "But I'm about to find out."

She began to take off after her, knowing she had to bring Maya back, but she was stopped when Lucas reached out and took hold of her wrist. She turned around in surprise, staring up at Lucas, goosebumps rising on her arm.

"Riley… I'd kind of like you to watch," he said, the look in his eyes a little hard to decipher.

It was strange. Riley should have been happy that he'd personally requested she stay, but she didn't know what to make of his expression.

"Then I will," she finally responded.

Their group left to head over to where the exhibition would be held. As she walked with Lucas, he briefly glanced over his shoulder in the direction Maya had walked away. And Riley wondered what was going through his mind.

It made her uneasy.

~.~.~

Riley had never doubted that Lucas would succeed for a second, but he'd gone above and beyond that and obliterated the record. She'd been worried when he'd gotten tossed off of Tombstone like a ragdoll and landed on his back and momentarily went still, but he'd been okay when she ran to check on him. And he'd been absolutely amazing.

She was so proud of him. And so happy for him. He was a hero, no doubt about it. And her heart raced as she watched him, triumphant and standing tall and proud after his victory.

"Lucas, you kicked ass man!" Billy shouted, clapping him on the back.

"Thanks."

And Riley immediately knew something was off.

She stared at him more closely. He was distracted as he took his trophy. He was smiling, grinning from ear to ear, but his eyes were looking past the crowds of people, subtly searching for something. And Riley just knew:

He was looking for Maya.

She didn't have to ask him. She didn't have to think about it too deeply. She just knew.

And even though she tried to tell herself it didn't hurt and maybe she was wrong and that Maya was his friend too and that it was unbecoming to be jealous when they were just really close friends, it still hurt. Like no matter what she did or how much she supported him or how much she loved him, he was always looking at her best friend. Always thinking about her.

And it came back full force. Strong and uncontrollable and Riley tried to force the lid down, but Pandora's Box had been opened.

That profound irritation and vexation Riley had been pushing away since before Homecoming came back with a vengeance she couldn't even contain if she tried as she stared at Lucas.

Why was he still seeking Maya out? She'd left. She'd deserted him, yet his mind was always on her. Always. He was always looking at her and talking to her and touching her and playing with her and spending time with her as if he liked her or something.

Did Lucas like Maya?

She didn't want to believe that, but the way he was acting…

"Riley? You good?" Zay asked, waggling his eyebrows. "You've been staring at Lucas for a while there…"

"I'm just really proud of him," Riley said with a sweet smile, hoping the current turmoil running through her mind wouldn't show up on her face. "Congratulations, Lucas. You were incredible out there."

"Thanks." He met her gaze and smiled too.

It was genuine. But it also wasn't.

Lucas stared at her intensely for a moment, looking like he was going to say something else, like he was searching for a moment, searching for something he was supposed to say or do, but he remained silent. Riley looked in his eyes for that dazed, faraway look he always got around her. That look that she couldn't help but begin associating with his mind being on Maya.

And it was there.

Plain as day as if he was looking at Riley, but wasn't really looking at her. Not the way he looked at Maya, anyway.

And it bothered her.

The odd little spell broken, Lucas rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle and walked past Riley to his Pappy Joe when he walked over.

"I'm going to go find Maya," Riley said, heading away from the pack. "See you guys later."

She didn't really know why she was trying to find Maya. By all means, she was the last person Riley wanted to see at the moment, especially with some fairly dark thoughts running rampant in her mind. She didn't want to accidentally say something to hurt her very best friend, but for some reason, her feet took off back in the direction of the ranch to look for Maya.

Riley knew finding her was a terrible idea, but she wanted to know if there was a chance Maya liked Lucas.

If Riley's safety net and passive relationship with Lucas was no longer safe.

~.~.~

Maya was sitting on the swing attached to Pappy Joe's large oak tree at the front of his house when Riley walked up the driveway. As Riley watched her kicking dirt up, she paused for a moment, her irritation dissipating as she watched her best friend. Maya looked really upset. Lucas riding the bull must have really terrified her.

"Have you been sitting here the whole time, Maya?" Riley asked in concern, walking over to her. "Did you really not watch Lucas on Tombstone?"

Maya nodded, her gaze on two bees wrestling near honeysuckle.

"He did amazing, you know? Broke a record. Won a trophy," Riley said, trying to console Maya. She had to still be wondering how Lucas was. "And he's fine, if not a little sore from landing on his back."

Maya didn't say anything, scuffing the toe of her cowboy boots on the patch of land and watching brown dust fly up. Riley's brows furrowed. So clearly, learning that Lucas was okay hadn't done anything. If Maya wasn't upset about Lucas possibly getting hurt, then what was she upset about? Riley was trying to help her feel better, but Maya was closing herself off to even Riley, and she never had before. What was her deal? This was so uncharacteristic of Maya.

Riley sighed in exasperation. "Maya, why did you get so freaked out about Lucas riding the bull? It's not like you to get so worked up about things. And especially not over Lucas. I mean the way you were acting was like a scared girlfriend. It's almost as if…"

A scared girlfriend.

Just like the woman they'd seen screaming on the screen when her boyfriend had gotten trampled on by Tombstone right before Maya started to freak out.

Riley's eyes widened slowly in shock as her words tapered off. She had been hoping it wouldn't be true, but looking at Maya when she lifted her head, Riley could clearly see that her suspicions had been correct.

Maya liked Lucas.

"You have feelings for Lucas…" Riley said slowly.

"Riley…" Maya's face twisted in guilt, and she averted her gaze, staring at the ground. "Don't."

"You couldn't watch him on the bull because you have feelings for him," Riley reiterated, more confident with each piece she uncovered of the puzzle that she was right. Suddenly all the teasing and the name calling and acting as if she couldn't stand Lucas made sense. "You've had feelings for Lucas for years, haven't you? But you stepped back…"

Maya's silence was evidence enough.

A frightful thought passed through Riley's mind. If Maya liked Lucas too, then Riley was no longer secure in her relationship with Lucas. Riley had always assumed she and Lucas were close enough and solid enough in their relationship that nothing could possibly be an obstacle to their love. Missy had been one challenge when they were younger, but Maya was a whole other story.

Knowing Maya liked him changed things immensely. Because that meant Riley would have to compete with her best friend. It meant that Riley had a time limit to get Lucas back. And she had to squash the competition fast.

She took Maya's chin, lifting it up gently so she could confirm with her own two eyes that Maya did have feelings for him.

"Tell me the truth, Maya. Sisters tell each other the truth, don't they? Do you have feelings for Lucas?"

"…I didn't want anyone to find out. Especially not you."

Since when had Maya kept secrets from her? When had that changed? And for that matter, why was everyone keeping secrets from Riley? Did they not trust her or something?

Riley let go of her face, her irritation returning as she stared down at Maya. It was a strange feeling. Not quite controlled and the thoughts running through her mind were less than stellar. If Maya liked Lucas and Riley liked Lucas, then that meant Maya was her rival.

Riley wondered when Maya started to truly care for Lucas so much. She'd never seen it before. Up to that point, Maya seemed close to Lucas as a friend, but Riley hadn't seen anything at all that made it seem like Maya had feelings for Lucas. Riley didn't know if Maya was actually planning to go after Lucas or not, but she would rather not wait to find out.

Their conversation was interrupted when the whole group came around the bend and up the driveway, coming back to Pappy Joe's ranch and laughing loudly, cheering on Lucas and clapping him on the back. As their gazes landed on the two girls, they quieted, staring at them though Riley's eyes stayed on Maya to see how she would react to seeing Lucas.

"Maya, you missed it," Billy said, trying to lighten the heavy air. "Lucas kicked ass on that bull."

Both of them ignored the comment, but Riley saw Maya's eyes soften briefly, a look of relief passing through her features when Lucas came to a stop nearby them. Lucas' eyes strayed over to Maya, looking like he wanted to say something to her, and Riley felt that same chill of fear and apprehension run down her back.

And that was that.

She whirled around and walked up to Lucas. "Lucas, can I talk to you?"

He turned his attention to Riley. "Yeah?"

She swallowed thickly, taking a deep breath and preparing herself for the storm. "You know you're important to me, right?"

"Yeah. You're important to me too," Lucas said with a warm smile. "And thanks for supporting me and being there for me this whole time. It's nice to know you believe in me."

He'd said it to Riley, but she couldn't help but feel like it was a jab aimed at Maya for ditching him instead of being the supportive friend. Riley smiled back, her heart racing in her chest. His words had to mean something. He cared about Riley. He still had feelings for her.

"I'll always believe in you. And I will always be here."

"I know. Thank you."

"But Lucas. We've been stuck in this weird limbo thing between friends and being a couple for two years. And when we tried dating, it just didn't work," Riley said, glancing briefly at Maya. She looked a little distraught, and try as she might to push away the feeling, Riley felt some satisfaction at the look on her face. "We could barely talk, and we couldn't connect. And… I don't like that."

Lucas frowned in confusion. "What are you saying?"

"I feel like this unofficial thing we have isn't going anywhere because we just don't see each other as romantic partners. So let's just end this thing for real. I only see you as a friend. And you only see me as a friend. That's what we are. We're just friends."

There was silence among their friends as they looked between the two of them with wide eyes and slackened jaws. She wasn't really sure exactly where she was going with this, but Riley kept her gaze on Lucas, growing more convinced with each passing second that Lucas' confusion remained that it was a good sign. That it was a sign that he wasn't ready to give up their relationship and that he still wanted to be with her.

"Oh that is fucking awk-waaard…" Zay muttered.

"I'm confused. What brought this on?" Lucas asked, his brows furrowed in bewilderment. "Did I do something to make you want to end our relationship?"

"Lucas. We didn't have a relationship. Not a real one," Riley said softly. "There were so many things in the way of a real one. Peer pressure, labels, communication issues, insecurities… people around us…"

Like Maya.

Riley turned on her heel, staring at Maya on the swing who was looking pretty shocked by what had happened. Riley wasn't sure if she was imagining it or not, but she could have sworn she saw an inkling of hope in Maya's eyes.

Riley knew it wasn't okay to try to end Maya's thing with Lucas, but she didn't want to lose him. She could handle not being with Lucas at the moment and taking time to mend their relationship before they tried again, but she wouldn't be able to handle losing Lucas to Maya.

(If you love someone set them free. If they come back, they're yours; if they don't, they never were.)

She knew it was wrong, but she hoped that Lucas would tell Maya he had no feelings for her. After all, he was Riley's unofficial boyfriend. If he knew Maya liked him, it wouldn't mean anything to him, right? It was a gamble, but she needed to see what he would do. Maya would be angry with her for it, but it had to be done.

"Lucas, Maya likes you."

There. She said it. Here came the storm.

"Riley!" Maya yelled indignantly.

She mentally apologized to Maya as she stared at her, but somewhere deep down in her apology was something dark that made Riley briefly question if she was actually sorry about revealing Maya's feelings.

"It's why she couldn't watch you on Tombstone," Riley continued anyway, her gaze still trained on Maya. "She's liked you for years. But she stepped back."

Jaws dropped even more at the revelation, surprise on everyone's faces as they stared at the three. Lucas turned slowly to Maya, his gaze undecipherable as he stared at her.

"Maya…?"

Before he could respond, Maya shot up from the swing and stormed off back towards the house, her fists clenched and cheeks on fire.

"Damn Lucas. First Maya ditches you at the pen." Zay laughed. "And now Riley dumps you? This is not your lucky day."

Lucas didn't respond, an annoyed scowl on his face as he stared after Maya.

It was the second time Maya stormed off away from Lucas, and Riley could see that he was starting to lose his patience with Maya. Riley kind of felt like crap for her manipulations, but she hoped—desperately hoped—that their weird romantic tensions and couple-like behaviour would end after this and things would get back to normal.

~.~.~

The gang had gone to a saloon styled nightclub called Wild Horse that night to party and have some irresponsible teen fun. Riley didn't condone her friends getting liquor and using fakes, but she supposed since they were celebrating Lucas' success, it wasn't as big a deal, though she refused to participate. She was a little surprised that Lucas had a fake ID and had had a couple shots since she'd been under the impression that he was totally law abiding, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. It was probably a onetime thing since he deserved it for his hard work.

Honestly, it should have been a lot of fun at the club, but Riley wasn't having much fun. Everyone else was having a great time—Farkle especially on that mechanical bull—but Lucas seemed to be in a bad mood, irritated from his several failed attempts to get Maya to talk to him all afternoon. But Maya was completely unrelenting in her avoidance. She ignored Lucas like a pro, making good on her decision to never speak to him again.

Riley felt bad about this whole mess. After things from the afternoon had cooled down, she'd started to really regret her decision. Outing Maya had been a petty thing to do to her best friend, especially over some stupid jealous insecurities. Maya hadn't even said she was trying to date or go after Lucas. As far as Riley was concerned, she'd acted rashly on a speculation that hadn't even been confirmed. And now her friends were struggling because of her. Riley hadn't meant to throw a grenade in friendships and spark up a hurricane, but now she could truly see that her careless decisions had really made things worse. And she had to do damage control. She had to help it all go back to normal.

"Hey, are you and Maya going to be okay?" Riley asked tentatively, leaning closer so Lucas could hear her better over the loud music.

"Never mind that…" he grumbled, clearly avoiding that particular point of conversation. "Riley, why'd you decide to end things? You never told me your reason."

"Yes I did." Riley stared at the table, her pulse racing. Was he about to ask her to try their relationship again? He wouldn't be asking otherwise, right? "When we were friends before we dated, we were able to talk more normally and now we're an absolute mess because of our relationship. We're stuck in a limbo. I want us to go back to being friends who can talk. Because I miss talking to you, Lucas. So now we're just friends."

Hopefully that wouldn't last long though.

Lucas didn't respond at first, staring at her contemplatively, his gaze serious, but not revealing any of his thoughts. After a few moments of silence between them, he sighed, leaning against the high table they were standing near.

"No. I get it. It makes sense."

"Wait. You do?" Riley asked, a little disappointed that he was giving up that easily.

She thought he'd at least put up a bigger fight.

"Yeah…"

He looked really bothered, and Riley sighed, resting her hand on his shoulder. Was the breakup really bugging him that much? Maybe she wouldn't have to wait that long for him to return to her.

"Lucas, what's wrong? We're here celebrating your victory. You should be enjoying yourself."

He gave her a look. "Would you be enjoying yourself if one of your best friends decided not to talk to you anymore? Why is she so fucking stubborn?"

Riley's brows furrowed, surprised that he had still been thinking about Maya ditching him. Plus she was a little taken aback by Lucas cursing. He'd never cursed before.

"She's not stubborn. Maya just doesn't like the people she cares about getting hurt. And since she likes you—"

"Riley, I know what you said this afternoon, but you're wrong. She doesn't care about me or like me. Otherwise she wouldn't keep walking away." Lucas rolled his eyes. "I'm just sick of her always running away from talking about how she…"

"…how she what?" Riley frowned.

But Lucas didn't answer. He was staring off into the distance past Riley. Riley turned her head to see what he was looking at and saw Maya being chatted up by some guy by the bar counter a little ways away. Maya was very clearly flirting back, her playful smirk on her face.

"Who the hell is that…" Lucas muttered lowly, more to himself than to Riley.

Riley's gaze went back to Lucas from his tone and she grew shocked by the dangerous expression in his eyes. She'd never ever seen that kind of anger in Lucas' eyes before, and it terrified her. The lighting made his eyes look like they were on fire. It suddenly reminded her of the fight Lucas had gotten into on Maya's behalf. She didn't like it one bit.

"Lucas. She's just talking to someone." It wasn't uncommon for Maya to get hit on by random guys, so why was Lucas acting so surprised? She got that he was being protective of his friend, but his reaction was kind of extreme. "There's no reason to get angry."

"She's not just talking to him. Do you not see how close he's leaning into her? This guy is bad news. And she's been drinking."

"She can take care of herself," Riley said in annoyance, growing frustrated by the fact that Maya always seemed to be the only thing on his mind no matter what. "Let her handle it. Besides, if she really didn't want the attention, she would have done something about the guy by now. She's leaning too."

He ignored her comment, eyes narrowing when Maya ran a hand through her hair slowly, a rather racy look on her face.

And then the guy smirked, a smarmy little thing, and slid his hand on Maya's thigh under her skirt. In a split second, Lucas was walking over there—stalking really—fists clenched and the muscles of his shoulders and back entirely stiff.

Riley couldn't hear what was being said over the music because she was too far away, but the guy pulled away from Maya fast, his hands raised in apology before he scurried away shortly after. Maya shot off her stool and jabbed Lucas in the chest, clearly yelling at him before she shoved past him and stomped away. And Lucas stood in place, his brows raised in surprise, clearly dumbfounded by whatever Maya had said to him before she took off towards the front.

In her mind, Riley was really hoping that Lucas would leave Maya be, that he would decide enough was enough. Because that was Maya's strike three. It was the third time Maya had stormed away from him and from Riley's viewpoint, that meant Maya wasn't interested at all in talking to Lucas.

And it seemed he did decide enough was enough.

Riley watched Lucas' expression turn almost dark and dangerous. He looked furious. And then he turned around and followed after Maya.

Her stomach sank to the ground, eyes widening in surprise. Why did Lucas decide to go after her now of all times when he'd just let her storm off all the other times? And this was in the wake of finding out Maya had feelings for him too. This couldn't mean anything, right? He was just concerned.

Riley returned to their booth in a daze where Zay and Vanessa, his old flame, were sharing fries and laughing about old things from the past. She mainly kept to herself, waiting impatiently and counting down the time it took for Lucas and Maya to return. She checked Zay's watch several times until approximately eight minutes later, they came back.

Riley froze as she stared at them.

Maya's flustered cheeks. Her fidgeting with her clothes and bellybutton ring. Her avoiding everyone's direct gaze. The eerie sense of satisfaction that Lucas seemed to exude, so opposite his prior fury before he'd chased after Maya. Not to mention his shirt was a bit disheveled. There was no tension between them, as if anything that was problematic had diffused entirely, disappeared, only some sort of contentment between them left. Like a balloon had been popped and the pressure relieved.

"Where did you guys go?" Riley asked suspiciously.

"We were just outside talking." Maya didn't look at her when she answered.

"I didn't realize that people got so flustered and red faced when they… talked," Zay said playfully.

Maya flicked Zay on the forehead and threatened real bodily harm, but Riley tuned it out, her sudden irritation growing stronger. Who did Maya think she was fooling? Outside? Talking? It was pretty clear what she and Lucas had probably done. At the least, they had kissed. Riley was sure of it. And she refused to think that anything more could have transpired between them but something definitely had happened.

And it angered her.

Not just because Lucas had still gone after Maya. Still pursued her despite how many times she'd deserted him at this point. But especially because who did Maya think she was?

Riley had thought Maya wasn't interested even though she liked Lucas, but she'd moved in on him the minute Riley had let him go. That wasn't okay. Under any circumstances. There was no way Riley would ever accept what Maya did and if she thought that Riley was going to be okay with her indiscretion, she had another think coming.

Riley refused to speak with Maya the rest of the night.

~.~.~

Of course, Maya picked up on Riley's silent treatment pretty quickly by the time they'd returned to Pappy Joe's.

She was waiting for Riley when she returned to the guest bedroom from brushing her teeth, but Riley turned her head away, fully intending not to speak with her for a while. If Maya thought she was the only one who could refuse to speak to someone who pissed her off, she had another think coming. But Maya had other plans.

"Riley… Why are you ignoring me?"

"I'm not ignoring you…" Riley said, keeping her expression carefully blank.

"Yes you are… You didn't say a word to me the whole way back. You haven't spoken to me since we were at Wild Horse."

"It's not like you needed me to talk to you." Riley shrugged. "You seemed to have had a great conversation with Lucas outside."

Maya's eyes narrowed. "So this is about Lucas then?"

Riley shrugged again, peeling back the covers of her bed and sitting on the edge of it. She just wanted to go to sleep. She was exhausted and that day had been frustrating and annoying and crazy and she was hoping maybe when she woke up, all of the crazy would disappear and things would return to normal.

"What's your deal?" Maya growled in annoyance.

Did she honestly not know?

"Nothing… I just find it interesting how you decided you weren't going to speak to Lucas again and then all of a sudden you guys are best friends again after disappearing for like five minutes."

"What? I can't be friends with Lucas?" Maya scoffed incredulously. "Riley, can you seriously stop with the cryptic bullshit and just tell me straight up why you're mad at me?"

"Fine," Riley said through grit teeth as she glared at Maya. No way would Maya get to play the victim card or something. She had wronged Riley. Not the other way around. And she needed to own up to her inappropriate behaviour. "I ended my unofficial thing with Lucas for good this afternoon, Maya."

"I know. I was there when it happened."

"Yes, but I did it so that you wouldn't have to be upset seeing me in a relationship with him since you like him too. But just because I told him we were friends does not mean I don't still have feelings for him." Riley frowned, speaking slowly. "So just like you seeing him with me would hurt you, me seeing him with you would hurt me. I just officially broke up with him. I think it goes without saying that I would expect you to at least keep some distance to respect that."

Maya averted her gaze to her lap, guilt briefly flickering over her face before it disappeared. But that brief guilt had been all that Riley needed to see to know her answer. Maya had clearly broken girl code in some way. And Riley grew angry.

"Did something happen between you and Lucas? When you both disappeared?" she demanded.

Maya lifted her head and met Riley's gaze, the expression in her eyes nervous, almost a little frightened.

"No, Riley. Nothing happened," Maya said sincerely. "I promise we just talked. We cleared the air over the bull thing."

Riley blinked, staring at her for a moment, taken aback by how earnest she looked. If nothing had happened, then why was she looking so scared? But Riley trusted Maya, and Maya wouldn't lie to her about something like this. If she said nothing happened, then Riley would believe that nothing happened. Which meant that Lucas and Maya hadn't done anything. Things were still okay for Riley.

"Nothing happened at all?" she asked, smiling in relief. "You guys did look a little flustered."

"Seriously, nothing happened. Zay was just being a little shit as usual." Maya's brows furrowed. "But you know what? Why would you tell Lucas that I liked him if you didn't want anything to happen, Riley? And I'm not okay with that. It wasn't your secret to tell, nor should you have mentioned it at all since I decided to keep it in the first place."

"Sorry. I was just trying to help him understand why you couldn't watch him ride the bull so that you guys wouldn't have a messed up friendship from the fact that you left." Riley stared at the cuckoo clock on the wall. It hadn't been a total lie. She technically had been concerned with the state of their friendship… whether or not they were on the way to having a romance. "Did Lucas bring it up when you talked? Did he respond to the confession?"

"No," Maya said, picking at her fingernails. "I don't think he believed you that I liked him anyway."

Riley did feel a little bad since Maya looked kind of unhappy about it, but she wouldn't lie. She felt a bit triumphant. Lucas hadn't responded to Maya's confession. He didn't believe Maya liked him, and Riley had gotten confirmation of that from Lucas' very own mouth earlier that evening. If Maya was saying the same thing, that meant it was true. Which meant Maya and Lucas' odd romantic tensions had definitely been short lived. Which meant that it was only a matter of time until he would probably come back to Riley and the fairy tale could continue.

But she had to play it safe. She knew Lucas was going to come back to her eventually, but she had to make sure in the meantime, there were no more obstacles until that time came.

"Okay. Look Maya. I don't want to get into a fight with you over Lucas. I don't want us to fight over him at all. So let's make a pact. A pact that neither of us will go after Lucas or try to be in a relationship with him or do anything with him because it will hurt us both in our friendship since we both like him. It's the only way to make it fair."

At least, until Lucas decided he wanted to be with Riley again. Then she would ask Maya if she could leave the pact. And that way, she wouldn't have broken the pact, yet Lucas would come back to her of his own volition. But she'd cross that bridge when they got there.

"Alright," Maya said, an indecipherable expression on her face.

"So no relationships with Lucas?" Riley held out her pinky.

"No relationships with Lucas." Maya nodded, hooking her pinky to Riley's.

They shook on it before returning to their respective beds to sleep. Tomorrow would be their last day in Austin, and they all intended to visit as much of the city as they could so they needed their rest.

Riley settled under her covers, feeling satisfied as she drifted off to sleep.

She would be getting her happily ever after with Lucas after all.

~.~.~

The last day and night of the trip had been incredible. They went to so many events around the city and when night had fallen, had gotten some homemade ice cream from a creamery before sitting in a field and watching the stars. Vanessa told Zay about a real hoedown at a farm a little north of the city, so they'd gone to that as well.

It had been outrageously fun.

And Riley and Maya had been closer than ever, dancing together pretty much the whole time and enjoying themselves. Riley picked the line dancing and square dancing up pretty easily and doing the moves with the entire crowd of people had made her feel like she was in some movie like Footloose. It had honestly been the perfect end to a perfect mini vacation, despite the rocky start. And Lucas line dancing next to her and complimenting her ease at doing the moves had adrenaline pumping hard in her body the whole night.

When their group had gotten back to Pappy Joe's, they'd cut the lights off in his large sitting room in the back, lit up the fireplace, and made S'mores while just talking about life and what they expected for the rest of senior year in general. Everyone kept lamenting their incoming changing futures, but Riley diverted the conversation. She really didn't want to think about things like growing up and moving on. She liked the way things were, and she wasn't ready for them to change yet. Changing meant letting go of her simple happy days, and Riley didn't want that anytime soon.

They'd been talking all night, but in the end, everyone else had gone to bed, exhausted from the events of the day and wanting sleep. Riley wanted to stay up and hang out with Maya and Lucas so that the fun night could never end, but she knew she had run out of steam for that day, her head tipping forward from her fatigue every few seconds. After the tenth time it happened, she yawned, rising to her feet and deciding to call it a night.

"I'm going to bed, Peaches."

"Okay," Maya smiled up at her. "Goodnight, Honey."

"Are you coming?"

Maya stretched out her legs, cocking her head towards Lucas beside her. "Nah, think I'll stay up. Huckleberry here thinks he knows alcohol. Someone's gotta knock him down a peg."

"I basically grew up drinking alcohol. Our rite of passage on Pappy Joe's ranch is trying his moonshine." Lucas snorted, giving her a look. "What do you think we do on quiet nights by the lake? Sit around and talk?"

"Yeah, but your opinion became invalid the minute you said orange juice, tequila, and Moscato."

"It tastes good," he said indignantly.

"I guess you must like having your head stuck in a toilet bowl," Maya drawled.

"Alright…" Riley said uneasily, uncomfortable with their discussion of alcohol. Lucas knew a lot more than she had expected. "Well, goodnight then."

She glanced back and looked at them as she left the sitting room. They were relaxing in front of the fire, still animatedly debating which mixed drinks were the best. Lucas laughed at something Maya said, and Riley's brows furrowed. They looked comfortable in front of the glow of the fire. Happy.

Like a couple.

The thought drifted in her head again as she made her way back to the bedroom. She tried to shuck it from her mind as she hopped into bed, but it wouldn't leave.

Riley felt restless.

She'd been hoping that Maya would come to bed soon, but she still hadn't come ten minutes later. How long was she planning to talk with Lucas anyway? What were they even talking about that was so interesting?

And how come Lucas could converse so easily with Maya when Riley had had so much trouble trying to get him to talk to her?

Disconcerted, Riley climbed out of bed and headed back to the sitting room to spy on them. She wasn't going to watch them for too long. She just wanted to try to understand how they conversed. Maybe if she picked up a few hints or tips from Maya, she could try to use them when she talked to Lucas.

She peeked into the sitting room curiously. Maya was still there, sitting in front of the fire with her knees tucked up to her chest, but she was alone. Lucas had probably gone to bed. Riley slinked back off to bed feeling a little silly for having been suspicious. Lucas and Maya were just friends. And Maya wasn't going to break the pact; she'd promised and Riley had to trust her.

So Riley went to sleep relieved and unconcerned. She thought she'd heard laughter from downstairs at some point, but she figured it was her mind tripping from being in the dreamscape.

She hadn't been awake when Maya apparently came to bed, but the next morning, she wondered why Maya looked exhausted, bags under her eyes and why she was a little too jumpy. She was walking a little funny too.

"How much longer did you stay up after Lucas went to sleep, Maya?"

"Uh… Not too long." Maya muttered, though she didn't look at Riley when she answered, and there was some kind of stiff set to her shoulders that Riley found strange. "I'm gonna go pack up the rest of my stuff."

Stranger still was when Lucas came downstairs and nearly ran into Maya, and they both froze as they stared at each other.

"Hi," he said, fidgeting with the strap of his duffel bag.

She gave him a tight smile. "Hey."

Maya averted her gaze and walked briskly past him, and Lucas stood there, running his hand through his hair in exasperation. Riley pretended like she'd been cutting up fruit the whole time and not eavesdropping on their conversation, but she was confused by their sudden odd tensions when last night they had been joking around as usual.

"Good morning, Lucas." Riley said cheerfully, pushing a plate over to Zay when he ambled into the kitchen looking absolutely hungover and groaned.

"Hey. Did you sleep well?" Lucas asked, a genuine smile on his face as he sat on the stool across from her.

Riley felt herself light up, her stomach flipping on its axis.

No doubt her fairy tale had recommenced.

~.~.~

After returning to NYC, Riley had hoped things would be normal, but Lucas was acting weird. He and Maya were awkward with each other. But not an uncomfortable awkward like Riley had been with Lucas. Something strange and tension filled, as if there was some unfinished business between them that needed to be addressed. Something oddly charged. She could tell in the little things, like the way Maya would stare at Lucas with her lower lip in between her teeth. And Lucas couldn't take his eyes off of Maya for even a few seconds.

And not only that, Lucas was taking Riley's friendzoning seriously for some reason. Riley had been hoping he would restart their relationship and ask to give things another try, but he wasn't making any attempts to progress things past friendship. They hung out a lot more and were able to talk more about small things, but it was slow and felt like they had weights attached to their ankles.

Yes, Riley was extremely happy that their friendship had been recovered, but she wasn't pleased with their trajectory. Not when she knew that Lucas had deeper conversations with Maya. Things that were a bit dark in his life that Lucas seemed to avoid when he talked to her. She'd found out when he'd accidentally let it slip that his mother got a restraining order on his father a month ago. She tried to coax more of the story out of him, get him to open up about that, but he'd changed the subject. And when she'd sought out more information by asking Maya, it only took looking in her eyes for Riley to understand that this was something Maya had already long known.

So she tried Maya's tactics so she could get Lucas to open up to her. She poked his side when she saw him and fake punched him and called him Huckleberry once or twice to see how he would react, but he only responded with weird looks, clearly not finding it amusing most of the time. She didn't get why he would act so weird about her doing the same things Maya did, so she dropped the act. And no progress happened between them.

But Lucas and Maya kept getting closer after they'd gotten past their little awkward spell. Riley grew suspicious again, a little jaded that the amount of time they'd started spending together far exceeded the amount of time Riley spent with Lucas. She just knew. Especially when Lucas kept blowing her off in favour of hanging out with Maya.

Maya's encouraging words that nothing was happening between her and Lucas didn't help. Whenever Riley would ask them if she could join one of their study sessions, they'd make excuses for why it wouldn't work out because they studied at night long after she'd gone to bed. But Zay kept giving them smirks and amused looks whenever Lucas mentioned that he and Maya were going to study after school and Riley wondered if there was some kind of inside joke or hidden meaning to the words that she'd missed. A tiny part of her wondered if maybe "studying" was a euphemism for sex, but she expunged those thoughts from her mind. There was absolutely no way Lucas and Maya were sleeping together. It was simply inconceivable.

Riley continued to grow more suspicious, though she told herself over and over that she did not believe Maya would break the pact and do anything with Lucas.

~.~.~

By Farkle's huge Secret Santa Party, Riley was restless. Her calculations had predicted that she and Lucas would have finally reconciled their romance by then and they would spend the whole break cuddling by some fireplace and New Year's together celebrating the rebirth of their relationship and then Valentine's day would be their first serious date and then prom… well, Riley had something special in mind for that night. She'd been planning it since the school year started.

But they hadn't rekindled anything. Lucas was too lax about their romance, not trying to make any efforts to get back together. It was like he had forgotten they were ever in a relationship in the first place.

So Riley decided to speed up her plans a bit. Maybe giving him a push in the right direction would help.

She grabbed unhung mistletoe she'd seen lying around, walking briskly over to Lucas once she was sure Maya wasn't looking. Riley was semi-breaking the pact, and she knew it was wrong to do so, but it wasn't that big a deal. It was just a little bitty break from the pact, and Riley wasn't trying to do anything wrong really. She would just put the mistletoe up in a friendly way and whatever happened, happened. If Lucas just so happened to decide that he was willing to kiss her because he was still interested in her, then who would she be to hurt his feelings by rejecting him?

"Mistletoe~" Riley held it between her and Lucas with a grin, wiggling it playfully.

He laughed. "Alright. Sure, Riley."

Lucas leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, right at the corner of her mouth, before leaving to go chat with some other friends. Riley was a bit disappointed by how tame the kiss had been, but it was a start, and Lucas had never really been one for PDA when they were dating. He'd always been more of a private kisser.

But after her initial elation, Riley suddenly felt horrified and guilty, knowing there was no excuse to her breaking the pact. How could she do that to Maya? Lucas was going to come back to Riley; the least she could do was not hurt Maya prior to that since she still had a crush on Lucas. Riley walked aimlessly around the party, wondering where Maya had disappeared off to. She wanted to apologize and tell her that she'd broken the pact a little bit. But last she'd seen her, Maya had been staring in disgust as Katy flirted with Uncle Shawn and gave him suggestive looks.

(It kind of grossed Riley out too).

As she walked around, she overheard Zay animatedly talking to Smackle. She looked skeptical and Riley slowed down, curious as to what they were talking about that had him so excited.

"What?" Smackle said. "I don't believe you, Isaiah."

"It's the truth, Izzy. They were under the mistletoe. You should have seen them. They were really going at it. Hands under clothes and everything."

Riley turned away slightly in disgust at the notion that there were people who were actually doing that kind of thing in public at a party.

"I don't believe you, Isaiah," Smackle repeated. "If there's no evidence, then there is no logical proof except for your word. And we all know what you're like when you're inebriated."

Riley started to walk off, intending to continue her search when Zay spoke again.

"It's true! I was going to get some evidence, but if Maya found out I took a video of her making out with Lucas, she'd have my head on a stick."

Riley stiffened, bristling, her world freezing for a moment as the noise of the party around her became one big blur.

Lucas and Maya made out under mistletoe?

And she got angry, her guilt for breaking the pact dissipating almost immediately. Yes, she had tried to mistletoe Lucas herself, but at least she hadn't full blown made out with him with her hands under his clothes. Had Maya also put mistletoe over them? Was she trying to get with Lucas? Riley was furious. Here she was feeling guilty about what minimal damage she'd done to the pact and Maya had absolutely no qualms blowing it up with a grenade.

What kind of friend was she?

Riley stalked around, asking for them, but no one knew where they had gone. And Riley realized they'd been gone for a pretty substantial amount of time. And when Maya tended to disappear from parties for a long time, it usually meant one thing that Riley refused to believe was true.

She'd just decided to go look for them in other locations when Lucas came back, clothes suspiciously rumpled and a scowl on his face. And then Maya walked in about a minute later, dragging her feet and looking displeased. They both looked pretty annoyed as Riley watched the two of them. What if they'd been making out and Lucas or Maya had ended it because they knew it was wrong?

Riley would give Maya the benefit of the doubt. Maybe if she asked her, Maya would tell her what had happened and apologize for kissing Lucas. And then Riley could tell her what she had tried to do and they would make up and reaffirm the pact and things would be normal once again.

As Maya grabbed a cup to get some eggnog, Riley approached her.

"You were gone for a while. So was Lucas," she said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Where'd you guys disappear off to for so long?"

She stared Maya down, wondering if she would take the cue and tell Riley that she'd broken the pact by making out with Lucas.

"Nowhere really. We went to explore some of the rooms of the house."

So Maya was planning to keep this secret from her now, clearly not intending to mention it at all, if ever. Riley's fists clenched. Once upon a time, Riley would never have suspected or accused Maya of breaking her trust, but things had been different lately, and with this revelation that Maya was planning to hide the fact that she'd kissed Lucas, Riley didn't really know what to think. There was a chance Zay had been wrong, but as Riley stared at Maya, she believed it.

"Oh. It's just that Lucas kind of seems mad at you."

"I made a joke about him that he didn't like," Maya said dismissively.

Riley frowned. "You shouldn't make fun of him so much, Maya."

"Yeah…" Maya said boredly, her gaze drifting over to Lucas across the room.

He was looking at Maya too and then they both turn away from each other when their gazes briefly met. Riley's eyes narrowed, her guilt completely gone.

So that was that, huh?

Maya's honesty as Riley's best friend clearly didn't matter to her anymore. The hiding secrets thing wasn't even new. She'd hidden that she was staying with Lucas when her father came back. She'd hidden things she knew about Lucas' life. Plus, Maya had hidden the fact that she liked Lucas too for years. And Riley had a feeling that Maya was hiding more still.

Fine. If Maya didn't feel any shame in breaking the pact, then neither would Riley.

~.~.~

Riley was starting to feel like New Year's Eve was her last chance to get Lucas back otherwise their relationship would be lost for good. It annoyed her to bits and pieces that it'd been almost a month since they'd ended their relationship, yet Lucas still hadn't come back to her.

And Riley knew why. It was because of all this drama with Maya. Maya really was the obstacle in the way. Ever since Riley had been dating Lucas, Maya had been in between them. She hated to think of Maya in such a disgusting way, but it was true. Riley felt that Maya was a distraction preventing Lucas from resuming their relationship. Maybe he was intrigued with her because he'd been with Riley most of high school and wanted to test the waters with someone different. But she didn't doubt that once he'd had his fill of Maya, he'd lose interest.

It was a notion that Riley had been playing with on and off in her head for about a week because Maya honestly was hard to handle. Riley loved her best friend, but she was a character, to put it simply. One could not easily contain her and one rarely got the jump on Maya Hart. It was one of the things Riley had to admit she truly admired about Maya—her ability to keep her emotions expertly concealed and her indifference towards romance and the guys who tried to get with her—but it was also the reason why Riley knew Maya didn't really have relationships: no one wanted to take a chance on her and her volatile mannerisms.

Riley figured Lucas wanted the challenge, after all, he had ridden Tombstone the bull, one of the biggest challenges ever, so maybe he was just the kind of guy who wanted a bit of a thrill. Though she wouldn't lie, she never would have expected Lucas to be that kind of guy who liked taking risks like Maya. He just didn't seem like that kind of person to her. He'd always seemed like the kind who would prefer reading books by a warm fire or relaxing in his home with his wife and three kids in their gray stone castle home. She wondered if he'd changed. She supposed that might have played another reason why he currently seemed kind of interested in Maya—a chance to take a couple risks—but Riley was very confident that he would lose interest in Maya's reckless lifestyle and come back to the right side of the tracks.

And her patience paid off.

After Christmas, Lucas and Maya started fighting more, were at each other's throats, and clearly not happy with each other. They didn't speak much and when they did, their conversations were generally clipped with insults flying within a few seconds. Riley didn't know what had happened, but she knew what this was. This was the universe telling her it was her time to get back Lucas now. She had to. This would be her last chance. She had to lock in her relationship with Lucas. And if that meant breaking the pact, then so be it.

But she didn't have to break the pact herself.

Lucas came to her.

He was practically glued to her side the entire night of her annual New Year's Eve party like a dutiful boyfriend, chatting with her. Laughing with her. Refilling her drink. Getting her refreshments. Complimenting her dress and her hair.

Riley was elated.

And maybe it was wrong to feel triumphant over Maya, but knowing that Lucas had chosen Riley was really exciting. It meant their relationship was back on the way to happening and that the struggle Riley had gone through to exact her plan had worked. Lucas and Maya had finally, finally burned out.

"Take that, Maya." Riley muttered to herself.

And then she immediately felt bad, appalled with herself for even thinking that in the first place. Especially since Maya had spent the beginning of the party alone, standing mostly by herself and not really conversing with that many people. Her best friend was upset. And Maya had to be hurt by Lucas' decision since she liked him.

But when Riley checked up on Maya, she realized she wasn't at all hurt. She was hanging out with Uncle Josh by the wall, who'd made a surprise appearance at the rooftop party. She looked happy and cheerful, and was actively flirting with him. Clearly, she wasn't bothered by what was going on so Riley turned her attention back to Lucas.

"Well… it's almost midnight."

"Yeah," he answered distractedly, his enthusiasm gone for some reason.

Lucas wasn't even looking at her. And Riley wondered what had made his attitude change in the span of a handful of seconds. If he was trying to restart their relationship, he needed to make more of an effort, something he seemed to have trouble with even when they were actually together. He needed to take it more seriously. It was actually starting to bug Riley how she always seemed to have to start things, how she always had to push him to try. She wanted to think maybe Lucas was just shy, but there was a sheer difference with how he behaved with her versus how he behaved with Maya, and Riley was starting to wonder who exactly he was putting on airs with. And the answer was starting to look bleak.

Was it because Riley was a little quiet in their relationship too? She could get loud and rowdy and like Maya too. If he was hesitant because he thought she wouldn't like assertiveness, she could definitely make him realize the opposite. She could be the girl who kissed guys and flirted aggressively and teased them. She could shed her good girl side and be a little sultry. No problem at all.

She would show him that Riley Matthews was not some scared, demure girl. She was a go getter, and if she had to get her guy by being a little more aggressive, then by golly she would.

As soon as the clock struck midnight and those fireworks started, Riley grabbed Lucas' collar and kissed him, trying to show him that she was ready for them to resume their relationship. It was magical, butterflies dancing in her stomach as the fireworks exploded around them. She felt like it was the perfect restart to their fairy tale, oddly reminiscent of their first kiss years ago. And people on the roof were even whooping and hollering and making gross comments about pregnancy—which was totally embarrassing because it wasn't a totally vulgar kiss, but also kind of flattering.

She broke away from him, giggling as she grinned up at Lucas. She knew she had a goofy smile on her face, but she couldn't care less when her fairy tale romance was back on track.

"Riley…" Lucas said quietly as he stared down at her.

"Yes?"

She blinked up at him, smiling happily and waiting for Lucas' confession that he still wanted to be with her and that breaking up was the dumbest thing they'd ever done and that they should resume their relationship. That he was just as in love with her as she was in love with him and that he wanted to be together forever and have their three kids and live in a beautiful gray stone castle of a house with that swing on the oak tree and the unicorn and the rose garden in the back.

But as she took in his expression, her smile slowly dropped from her face, replaced by a frown of confusion. Lucas' mouth was set in a grim line, and he looked apologetic, something like hurt or dejection in his eyes, and Riley didn't understand where it had come from. She'd kissed Lucas, but for some reason, he was acting all distraught.

What had she done wrong?

She glanced around the roof, trying to understand if she'd missed something but she couldn't think of anything that could possibly have been a factor. Darby was snuggling with Yogi on one side. She could see Jade and Yindra holding hands and watching the fireworks by the ledge. Josh was whispering in Maya's ear over by the wall, his arms wrapped around her waist. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Yet Lucas looked displeased.

Riley was unbelievably confused and very disappointed. Especially when Maya decided to leave the party before the fireworks had even ended and Lucas decided to walk her home. They'd left the party together for no reason. And they hadn't been friendly to each other all night.

What happened?

"You okay, Riley?" Topanga asked, watching her in concern as Riley removed her makeup later that evening. "You've been in some kind of mood since Maya left. Was she supposed to sleep over tonight?"

"It's about Lucas, Mom. I don't get it." Riley sighed, wiping her right eyelid. "I did everything right. We did everything right. We talked all night. He complimented me. We had fun. And then we kissed at midnight and it was amazing. So what went wrong?"

Topanga squeezed her shoulder gently. "I don't know, sweetheart. But when I'm working a case and I hit a dead end, sometimes it's good to go back to the very beginning and just read through everything again to try to find something you might have missed."

"Alright."

"Goodnight, Riley."

"Night, Mom."

Riley tied her hair in a ponytail and crawled into bed, exhausted. As her mother advised, she ran through the events in her head since the party started and came to realize something she'd missed when she'd been hopped up on the adrenaline from the midnight kiss. Something essential that she should have picked up on immediately:

Lucas hadn't kissed her back.

He'd let her kiss him, sure, but he'd been standing stiffly and didn't reciprocate the kiss. Not to mention his complete lack of reaction or enthusiasm after she'd pulled away. The whole time. All night. He'd been holding her at arm's length.

Riley felt a sharp pain in her chest, something gripping that made her throat tighten dangerously and the back of her eyes prick with frustrated tears.

Had he felt nothing from her when she kissed him? Even after all this time, after all her efforts to mend their friendship, was he really still that distant?

Riley desperately didn't want to believe that was true. But he'd done nothing when she kissed him, and he'd jumped on the chance to walk Maya home the first opportunity he'd gotten and then he'd never returned to the party. Yet another instance where he and Maya had disappeared for way too long with no explanation. And really that wasn't even the beginning of it. There was Lucas and Maya's kiss at Farkle's Secret Santa party and their subsequent disappearance and reappearance looking substantially less put together. And that didn't even count all the time they hung out alone at each other's places.

And at the root of it all, the odd thing at Wild Horse where they'd come back looking like—

Riley forced her wayward thoughts from her mind, shaking her head rapidly and refusing to believe it meant anything.

It didn't.

Maya and Lucas were just friends. They had to be. Lucas was Riley's prince. He was her fairy tale ending.

But the nagging thoughts wouldn't leave her mind, and Riley was not happy about it.

~.~.~

Senior prom was really important to Riley. Not just because it was her last one, but also because she was planning to make the night special. Maya thought prom and other semi formals were all overrated, but then again, Riley would probably have a similar mindset too if she'd never gotten asked either. Riley thought it was unfortunate that Maya had never gotten asked to any big dances or events, because even if Maya was a little scary sometimes, she was fun and beautiful and cool.

But everyone knew prom was the magical night to lose virginities to someone they cared for deeply. Hotel rooms, champagne, strawberries and whipped cream. It was Riley's dream fantasy for her to have a special night with Lucas on prom. She was ready to lose her virginity to him at prom. She'd been ready since the start of senior year. Now all she needed was him to ask her.

She'd gone with him junior year and while it'd been fun, they hadn't started their relationship at that point and were still skirting around each other romantically. But they were on the way to mending their romantic relationship now, and prom would be the perfect way to tie up the box with a nice ribbon. Senior year was starting to approach its end, and Riley knew she didn't have altogether that much time left to ensure her relationship with Lucas before college started. This really was her last real chance, especially since she would be travelling to Italy with her family over the summer. If she could solidify things now, she'd be set for life. He was her first love, after all. They were destined to be together.

Riley rummaged through the chunk of prom invitations she'd gotten in her locker with a sigh. Not one of them was from Lucas. It looked like she would have to wait a little bit longer, though she was kind of getting nervous since prom was that weekend and Lucas still hadn't asked her. But at least Lucas hadn't asked anyone else yet, so Riley held hope that maybe it meant her invite would be coming soon. She felt bad for rejecting so many guys, but if she didn't leave the invite open for Lucas, he would think she didn't want him and she absolutely wanted him.

"Do you know if Lucas has asked anyone yet?" Riley asked Maya when she showed up beside her during locker break. She'd been trying to find out every day that week, because she figured Maya would know. "Like, have you heard any news from anyone about whether he's going to ask anyone? I asked him if he was planning on asking someone, and he said he was working on it."

"I don't know, Riley," Maya said as she dug around in her locker, sounding a little exasperated. "Billy said something about the entire baseball team being involved though."

Riley was gearing up to ask Maya more questions to unlock the mystery until she glanced down the hallway and saw the entire baseball team, varsity and JV, led by Lucas walking towards her. They were all singing some country song, dancing a line dance down the hallway as they approached. And they were dressed in full cowboy getup, from the gallon hats and plaid shirts to the jeans and cowboy boots.

And Riley gasped as Maya pulled her head out of her locker curiously from the noise they were making in the hallway.

"This here song and dance goes to a very special lady." Billy sang in an exaggerated country accent as the group filed into a small semi-circle formation around the two of them.

"A very special lady indeed." Brent added.

"And who's that special lady?" Alex continued.

It was her promposal!

Riley was a little annoyed that it had taken Lucas so many months to finally ask her—now she had to get a dress to try to coordinate their outfits, but there wouldn't be much time. Although, she did find it strange. She was more of a flowers and balloons and chocolate kind of girl. But it didn't matter. Being asked to prom was what was important, no matter what strange way he chose.

"Maya Hart."

Except that Lucas was asking Maya.

The second she heard Maya's name uttered from his lips, the second he put the extra cowboy hat on Maya's head, the second he dragged her into the circle the guys had formed, Riley's heart stopped, squeezing so tightly in her chest for a moment that she felt like she was going to keel over in pain. The sounds around her blurred into one as Lucas do si do'ed around Maya, grinning from ear to ear. She stared at them, wide eyed, motionless, her mind still not up to speed with what she was seeing. Part of her wanted to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming, but she knew it was all too real. The nightmare was real.

Why did Lucas ask Maya?

Riley should have been the one getting the outlandish promposal. She was the one who should have been going to prom with Lucas. She was the one who had been with him for so many years. Where was his attention to Maya suddenly coming from? Riley hated being left out of the loop, but she just felt like she'd missed something.

Because she really hadn't seen that coming. There hadn't been anything different between Lucas and Maya aside from their friendship mending again after New Year's. Yes, they joked around and flirted. Yes, Lucas and Maya hung out and studied together a lot, but Lucas also hung out with Riley. He and Riley still talked. They still watched games together. He was still sweet to Riley. He treated Riley the exact same way he had treated her when they were dating and unofficial. She and Lucas had a thing, didn't they?

Was he trying to be nice because Maya hadn't gotten asked to any of the school dances through high school? But why choose prom of all days?

"So darlin', will you do me the honour of being my date to prom?" Lucas asked Maya in an exaggerated accent, stopping in front of her and taking off his cowboy hat and holding it to his chest when the boys finished the last note. "Please? I told pretty much every guy you were off limits, so if you say no, I might just cry."

Riley's gaze drifted to Maya, watching her bite her lower lip as she stared up at Lucas, a small, bashful smile fighting its way onto her lips and her cheeks flushed. Riley's eyes narrowed.

Maya was definitely happy about this. Maya was pleased that she'd gotten Lucas to ask her to prom. That she'd won over Riley. Riley could just see the smug satisfaction dripping all over Maya's face when she said yes. The arrogance and glee when Lucas scooped her up in a tight hug, spinning her around happily. The pompous look on her face when people in the hallway cheered, clapping for the couple that shouldn't even have been a couple in the first place.

One thought crossed Riley's mind in that moment where her envy took over her entire body. One awful thought that she'd been hoping would never surface after she'd been fighting it for months. But she let the thought come, because she couldn't care less anymore.

Maya stole Riley's fairy tale dream.

~.~.~

Prom should have been fun. It would have been fun if Riley was with Lucas and Maya was with some other date. Riley had ended up going with some guy named Charlie who'd at least given her roses when he asked, but she didn't really want to go with him. She just hadn't had the courage to go alone. All of her friends were having a good time with good dates. Zay with his latest girlfriend, Billy and a friend from another school, Farkle and Smackle.

But the only one that annoyed her was Maya with Lucas. Taking prom pictures with him. Sitting next to each other in the limo. Goofing off and sharing dinner. Being what seemed to Riley, the perfect couple. And it was annoying. Everyone kept making these comments that they looked good together and fit well. That should have been Riley standing next to Lucas in all the pictures getting fawned over by everyone.

But prom hadn't been altogether too bad. Her bad mood had cleared a bit when Maya pulled her to the dance floor from the mock bar so they could spend as much time together as possible for their last prom. It did make Riley happy that things felt like the way they'd always been. Maya and Riley sticking together, having fun together like the best friends they were. She was going to miss this time with Maya. It was a little bittersweet to know that after this they'd be going their separate ways to different colleges so she'd made the best of the night, throwing aside her annoyances so this night with Maya could be memorable.

The prom after party at Missy's dad's hotel's penthouse suite was a different story.

Riley had been hoping she could spend more time with Maya, or all of their friends, but to her dismay, she quickly realized that above all, the prom after party was really an excuse for people to get wasted and couple up and hook up, all things that made Riley utterly uncomfortable and very unhappy. She'd been hoping her friends wouldn't fall to those tacky traditions, but unfortunately, Farkle and Smackle were cuddling happily on the balcony, Billy was heavily making out with Missy on a loveseat near Riley, and Zay and his date were grinding on the dance floor. And as Lucas walked over, an uncharacteristic smirk on his face, Riley grew apprehensive, knowing what was about to happen.

Riley panicked, trying to get Maya to keep her company, but Lucas pulled Maya away from her, muttering something about taking his date back before he tugged her to the dance floor.

It was unbelievably hard to watch. But Riley couldn't look away no matter how hard she tried. She knew she was torturing herself by watching them, but her eyes were glued to them. The way Lucas dragged his hands on Maya's waist and hips and backside in a way he'd never really touched Riley before. The way he kept his mouth on Maya's skin, muttering in her ear and making her laugh or kissing her neck. She watched Lucas guide Maya to the wall and press her against it. She watched him kiss Maya. Watched Maya reciprocate. Watched as they got lost in each other, Maya's hands threading into his hair, oblivious to the world around them.

The pain was insurmountable. Seeing her best friend and the love of her life with each other, kissing and touching each other, was a sucker punch to the gut and a fear that Riley had hoped would never come true. Riley couldn't breathe, the back of her eyes burning with tears as she watched her prom dreams crumble. As the cracks of her fairy tale increased.

"Hey Riley?" Charlie said a bit nervously, suddenly appearing in Riley's direct line of sight and blocking her view of Lucas and Maya. "I was wondering if you wanted to dance or something."

"Not really," she said quickly, trying to look past him.

"It's just… you've been sitting here the whole time just staring at the dance floor, so I thought maybe you, I don't know, wanted to dance? Or we can just talk if you're bored. I'm fine with either. I'm your date and all. It'd be great if we could spend time together."

"Charlie, that's sweet of you to offer," Riley tried to muster up some sort of smile even though she knew it wasn't reaching her eyes, "but I'm just a little tired. I'd rather just sit here. In silence."

"Right…" He sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I'm gonna get something to drink then. They've got a popcorn machine. Do you want any?"

"No," she said, a little impatient.

When she brought her eyes back to the dance floor and tried to seek out Lucas and Maya, they were gone. She looked around the dance floor, but she couldn't find the sight of Maya's sparkling red dress anywhere. Riley fought the urge to panic. It was no big deal. They could have gone to the balcony or somewhere to talk or maybe they were getting a drink. Maybe Maya went to the bathroom. Or maybe Lucas had to take a phone call.

Riley gave it five uneasy minutes before she shot up from her seat and hurried to check the balcony. Farkle and Smackle were still sharing sweet little kisses there, but there was no Lucas or Maya. She asked them if they had seen them, but they hadn't. Riley tried to distract herself with conversation with a drunk Darby, but an hour passed and still no Lucas or Maya. Billy and Missy disappeared. Still no Lucas or Maya. Zay started a shots game by the kitchen turned bar area. Still no Lucas or Maya.

She tried to be patient, but she was barely hanging in there and her deepest fears were increasing with each minute that her friends remained MIA. It was only when Farkle and Zay came back and decided it was time to go to grab food before they came back to chill that Riley finally contacted Maya. She answered fairly quickly, telling Riley that she felt sick to her stomach from dinner so Lucas took her home to keep her company.

Riley stared at the text, her eyes narrowed in disbelief. There was absolutely something fishy about that. Why hadn't they told anyone where they were then? Why hadn't Maya told Riley specifically or at least said goodbye for that evening? And if Maya was so called sick, why did she make out with Lucas?

Most of Riley desperately wanted to believe that there was no way Lucas and Maya had left and were rendezvousing in some room together, but she was starting to doubt Maya's sincerity. Riley was a little naïve in some ways, she would agree, but she was not stupid. She knew what these parties entailed. She knew what couples disappearing from these parties meant.

She wanted to give Maya the benefit of the doubt because Maya used to never lie to her. But Maya had lied to her before about Lucas more than once. And who was to say she didn't do it again? Riley wanted to believe her, but she just didn't feel as strong in her connection with Maya anymore. She didn't feel like Maya was being honest. And sometimes she felt as if Maya was pulling away from her too, purposely leaving Riley out of the loop and not sticking by her the way a best friend should.

No.

Riley trusted Maya.

Maya would never do something like that though.

Maya would never hurt her by sleeping with Lucas.

Maya wouldn't.

But Riley's mind kept replaying the image of Lucas pressing Maya against the wall, lips locked, hands grasping each other, growing lost in each other.

~.~.~

If Riley really thought about the last time she and Maya were actual friends, she would say prom, but realistically, their friendship started to crumble after the night at Wild Horse. But even before that, Riley could trace the first time she had become seriously annoyed with Maya after Lucas got into a fight. Coincidentally, that had also been the first time she'd noticed how much like a couple Lucas and Maya acted.

Riley had been going back to the beginning of senior year quite a bit in her mind, revisiting the odd things she remembered shoving out of her head. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she'd missed some things that should have clued her off to something possibly untoward that was occurring. Things that were difficult to notice, but she could easily see now that her suspicions were at the front of her mind. All the sly looks Zay kept giving them, the way Lucas was always touching Maya in some way, his annoying daze face every time he looked at her, Maya consistently playing around—no, flirting—with Lucas.

But back then to this point, the cracks in their friendship hadn't shown since both girls had treaded on thin ice carefully, avoiding specific things that could open up the vulnerability in their friendship.

After prom, Riley's resentment and mistrust became harder to hide, especially because of the fact that she saw Maya every day.

Looking at Maya annoyed Riley. Every time she saw her, she just felt irritation. It was like the way she felt whenever she saw Lucas talking to Maya. But this was different. Because even when Lucas wasn't around, Riley's annoyances with Maya remained. She would see Maya run her hand through her hair, near some guys and they would stare at her and Riley would get irritated. Maya and Darby talking about some crazy exclusive college party they'd gotten invited to made Riley feel like she was bragging. Maya teasing Lucas, leaning close to him, their faces so close they were almost kissing, and Riley would feel frustrated with Maya.

But the worst was when yearbooks came out the week after prom and to Riley's absolute horror, Lucas and Maya won Hottest Couple for senior superlatives. Maya thought it was funny, teasing Lucas over it. But to Riley, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of her body when she saw the picture, a candid one someone had taken of Lucas and Maya embracing during the senior festivities of Homecoming several months ago. They weren't even a couple!

Riley was the one who had been with him the longest. She was the one who had devoted time to an actual relationship for years. She was the one who he had been "dating" up until they went to Texas. But now all of a sudden it was Lucas and Maya all the time from every single person, and Riley was fed up. She didn't understand why even though she'd been with Lucas for so long, he was so drawn to Maya. Why he and Maya seemed to have always been in a relationship even though she called Lucas her unofficial boyfriend. Why Lucas and Maya still had something going on even after all this time. She thought Lucas didn't like Maya like that. He'd certainly implied it. So what if he had kissed Maya at prom? They'd both been drinking, so that had been the alcohol talking. And it frustrated her to no end because if she had known this would have been the outcome of telling Lucas how Maya felt back in Texas, she would never have said anything to him at all.

Riley had been stewing over it all evening, trying to sort out all her thoughts so that she could go to bed with a clear mind and would be able to sleep, but Maya showed up before Riley was ready to see her. Maya thought the hottest couple thing was a hilarious joke and had the nerve to show Topanga and laugh about it. After that, Riley snubbed her, hoping Maya would take a hint and get lost. Because Riley really didn't want to see or talk to her.

"So what exactly is the matter with you?" Maya asked, glaring at Riley. "Is this still about the stupid yearbook thing? I told you, it doesn't mean anything."

"But doesn't it though?" Riley's eyes narrowed. Was Maya really that dense? They'd won hottest couple and weren't a couple. Of course it meant something. "Just what is your relationship with Lucas anyway, Maya?"

"Why are you acting like this?" Maya said through clenched teeth. "If you won the couple's superlative with Lucas, I wouldn't be accosting you like this."

And once again, Maya was avoiding answering the question. Keeping secrets. Lying to Riley like the dishonest, bad friend she was. Couldn't she see that her behaviour was unacceptable?

"Of course you wouldn't be confronting me," Riley snapped back, "because I wouldn't have broken the pact. I know you made out with Lucas at the prom after party. I saw you two."

Maya was momentarily stunned speechless, staring at Riley incredulously.

"Okay. Fine. I made out with him at the after party." Maya crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Do you seriously think you haven't done wrong, though? You broke the pact when you kissed him at the New Year's Eve party."

Riley shot up from her seat on the bay window. "You broke it first when you kissed him during Christmas! Zay saw you two, and I overheard him talking about it!"

"You put mistletoe between you guys at Christmas on purpose. You were obviously trying to get back together with him."

"At least I actually had a relationship with Lucas. Even if I broke the pact, it wouldn't have mattered because Lucas and I had a thing. I have a better chance of ending up with him than you."

"Oh yeah?" Maya snorted. "If you so called had a thing with Lucas, then why isn't he trying to get back with you?"

Riley's irritation grew, furious with Maya for daring to bring that up when she knew damn well the reason why Riley had been having trouble getting back Lucas.

"Because you're in the way! Why can't you just butt out so Lucas and I can have our relationship?"

Maya stared at her in shocked silence for a few seconds before her eyes narrowed in realization. She shot to her feet, hands on her hips as she glowered at Riley.

"Is that why you told him I liked him when we went to Texas?" Maya yelled. "You were trying to get me out of the way!"

"So what if I was? You were always in the way even during our unofficial thing!" Riley shouted back. "Always hugging him and touching him and playing around with him! It bothered me!"

Her mother barged into the room before Maya could respond, standing between them like some sort of impenetrable referee.

"Girls! Girls! Stop with this arguing! What is going on in here?"

"Why don't you ask, Riley?" Maya spat. "She's the one who ousted my feelings in hopes that it would end anything between me and Lucas."

"Why don't you ask, Maya?" Riley snapped, fighting the urge to grab Maya and shake her until she recognized that she was wrong. "She's the one who's been sabotaging me and Lucas since senior year started."

"Seriously? If anyone's been in the way and sabotaging, it's you."

"Okay, stop! Look, I don't know who started this or how this started, but you're both wrong, okay?!" Topanga barked before another round of arguing could begin. "If this interest you both have in Lucas is causing a rift in your friendship, then you should honestly just stop trying to sabotage whatever this pact is that you made and stop the pact overall. Lucas is not some tug of war rope that you can pull to either side. He is a real human being with his own feelings. Think about that, girls. Now I want the fighting to stop, okay?"

Her mother left the room, and Riley and Maya glowered at each other, arms crossed in front of their chests.

"My mom is right. We should just end all pretenses with our old pact," Riley said sharply, feeling nothing but distaste towards Maya. "Why not just let Lucas choose? He picks whatever girl he wants and the other girl—you—should bow out with no hard feelings."

"You know what?" Maya scoffed, a smug look on her face. "Fine. Let's let Lucas choose."

Maya stormed out of Riley's room with a roll of her eyes, leaving Riley standing in the middle of her bedroom with angry shaking fists. Did Maya honestly think Lucas was going to choose her?

Riley was the one who'd listened to all his stories about Texas. Riley was the one who paid attention to him, stuck by his side no matter what, and supported him. Riley was his first girlfriend. The one who'd introduced him the most to New York City life. She was the one who knew about all his ambitions and goals and his desire to do good in the world. She was the one who he'd spent so many long conversations with bonding over their mutual desires.

Why was Maya trying to reap what Riley had sown? Why wasn't she backing off?

It wasn't fair.

Why couldn't Maya see that she was wrong? That it wasn't right for her to behave the way she was, hanging all over Lucas, kissing him when she knew Riley and Lucas were still working out the kinks in their relationship. And for her to come in while they were still shaky and trying to sort out their relationship and then pull Lucas away from Riley was quite frankly one of the most horrible things any best friend could ever do.

And the worst part was that Maya was acting like it was no big deal. That Riley should get over it and move on. And Riley didn't want to. She wasn't ready to. Why did Maya always have to try to win? Was it some twisted need for her to feel on top since her life wasn't all that great?

Either way, Riley had had enough.

This pact was over and Riley decided to get Lucas back.

But that was not the way it played out.

~.~.~

For some reason, Lucas and Maya still seemed to have something going on.

Every time Riley walked to her locker, Lucas and Maya were flirting with each other or touching each other or grinning at each other or speaking particularly close, inches from kissing. Riley had always thought Lucas was against PDA, but he was being overly relationship-y with Maya, in an almost inappropriate way especially considering they were in school. What was wrong with him? The Lucas she knew would never have behaved in that way. He was being a jerk.

And Riley stormed to class, refusing to believe that what she'd seen was his final decision. Maya had gotten to him first, but that didn't mean she was with Lucas.

She and Maya were assigned as partners again for an in class history research project and for the first time ever since they declared themselves best friends on the kindergarten playground years ago, they rejected the pairing, asking for different partners.

Maya ended up paired with Lucas while Riley was assigned Farkle's.

Lucas and Maya's laughter the whole class grated her nerves to no end and she nearly snapped her pencil in two until they'd gotten kicked out of class for making too much noise. For having told her that he tried to focus in school because he wanted to succeed as a vet, Riley found Lucas' behaviour reprehensible and very unlike him. Maya was a bad influence. Why was he playing along with her game?

"So…What's going on with you and Maya?" Farkle asked quietly, looking concerned. "You guys have been off for a while and now you guys are really fighting."

"I'm not currently interested in talking to Maya, since clearly she has no desire to think about how messed up it is to move in on a best friend's ex-boyfriend when said best friend is still in love with said ex-boyfriend," Riley responded crossly.

It wasn't even the fact that Lucas and Maya had some thing—however strange and out of nowhere it was—with each other. It was the fact that Maya didn't care about Riley enough to consider that her breaking girl code had broken Riley's heart. Knowing that her best friend wasn't interested in considering how she felt about her pursuing her ex was the worst part of this. Maya and Lucas both had moved on from Riley's old relationship like it had meant nothing. And it tore her apart.

Farkle frowned, looking appalled. "Wow. That's a terrible thing for her to do. Riley, if you're hurt by Maya, then talk to her. She'll listen."

"I tried. When I did, she didn't want to listen. She's being vindictive. And now she's really trying to take Lucas from me just to spite me."

"Maybe try a different approach? If you tell her you still love him, she'll back off." Farkle patted her hand consolingly. "It's okay Riley. Things will get better. I'm sure Lucas understands that you guys have a relationship. He cares about Maya. But he likes you. He's not going to do anything with Maya when he's with you."

But that wasn't quite right. Because if she thought about it, Lucas had been the one to go after or stay with Maya a handful of times. At Wild Horse. New Year's Eve. Prom.

And worse still, like giving Maya a hickey which Smackle pointed out at lunch. Riley didn't even bother staying for lunch, hurt by the idea that Lucas and Maya were doing things like that. So now they were kissing each other and giving each other hickeys at school? No doubt Maya was doing it to spite her.

And things with her and Maya slowly deteriorated even more as time went on.

Maya was petty, snide with her responses, mocking Riley with her derogatory looks. It got old very fast. And soon, Riley was snappier with her too, ignoring her for extended periods of time and being just as petty. She started to get short with her too and their usual exchanges were generally punctuated by an underlying resentment and irritation and malice that never used to exist between the two of them before.

It wasn't just shocking to Riley that this was what their relationship had been reduced to. The school body was also fairly shocked that Rilaya, the best and example friendship in the entire school, was no longer on good terms.

And Riley wondered when they had drifted so far apart. When they started to see each other as enemies in each other's world. When they lost sight of what made them best friends in the first place. When things changed. When her view of Maya warped into a negative one.

Riley wondered when she started to really resent Maya.

It was kind of a strange, lonely feeling and when she asked her mom, Topanga told her it wasn't because of the Lucas issue.

It was that they'd both grown up. That things had changed because they both had developed their own beliefs and desires that no longer meshed or lined up as well as they used to. That it was a natural part of senior year and growth and that after spending so many years together as extremely close best friends, that it wasn't something to worry about because it was a natural drift. That they would find their way to each other again in time. That she just had to be patient.

"Maybe you should take this time to reflect on your own life and maybe step back from the romantic drama. Try to mend your friendship with Maya away from Lucas. Have slumber parties. Hang out like you used to. Do you really want to lose a strong friendship that you've had for so many years? Think about it, sweetheart."

Riley hoped desperately that their friendship would mend. She hoped they could be the friends they once were. She didn't like who Maya had become ever since the year started, but they could fix this. She could fix this.

But she had no idea what was going to happen with their friendship.

Or when the drift back to each other her mother had mentioned would happen.

~.~.~

But it got worse.

Near the end of their last semester, Billy unexpectedly started dating Missy. She became an unofficial member of their friend group, and unfortunately, Maya started hanging out with her a lot.

Riley tried to do things with Maya, but it seemed whenever she wanted to try to hang out, she was always with Missy. She felt betrayed. It was like Maya had ditched her, deciding she'd rather hang out with one of the meanest girls in school over the friend she'd had for so many years. Riley just didn't understand why Maya liked to hang out with Missy so much. She wasn't altogether that nice, snubbing certain people and being openly rude to others.

Riley felt like her life was spiralling out of control. She didn't know where she stood with Lucas and what was going on with them anymore and felt like he'd dropped her from his life. Her best friend had gotten someone new to hang out with and even defended her when Riley would say one thing about Missy being kind of rude. And her other friends were so absorbed in their own lives that it seemed no one even cared that Riley had no idea when everyone had suddenly moved on. She felt lost. Everything was changing. And not for the better.

Then Maya got invited to Missy's upcoming exclusive, invite only, last day of school senior bash and told Riley she was going. When Riley asked her who else had been invited since she hadn't been, she hadn't minded too much as Maya mentioned Zay and Darby and Wyatt and a couple others. Until she'd said Lucas' name too. And Riley decided enough was enough. It was one thing for Maya to decide to get a new best friend, but this was one of Missy's parties. And everyone knew Missy's parties were notorious for raunchy make out games and other alcohol related shenanigans that usually ended up with some couples hooking up. And she didn't want Maya going to that party if no one could chaperone her to keep her claws off of Lucas.

Riley didn't think Maya should go to the party if she hadn't been invited too.

But Maya disagreed.

And they got into another fight that ended up as a yelling match.

"What kind of friend are you? You have absolutely no loyalty to me whatsoever!"

"It's just a fucking party! What is wrong with you?!" Maya shouted in exasperation. "If I go, it doesn't make a damn difference! This has nothing to do with loyalties! I've been to other parties without you before and you didn't care!"

"Oh yeah, I bet loyalty doesn't make a damn difference to you!" Riley screamed. "That's probably the exact same thing you were thinking when you stole Lucas from me!"

Silence fell for a few seconds as Maya's eyes narrowed slowly. Riley hadn't meant to let that slip out, but now that it had, she didn't care. Farkle was right. Maya needed to know what she'd done was wrong.

"So that's what this fight is really about. This isn't about me wanting to go to Missy's party. This is about your incessant inability to fucking realize that you and Lucas have been over since senior year started!"

"We have not been over! We could have continued our relationship if you hadn't sunken your claws into him at Christmas the minute he was available!"

"Get over it!"

"No! He was my boyfriend for two years, Maya! I was in love with him, and you didn't have the decency to at least wait a longer period of time after we broke up for me to get over him before you tried to get with him!" Riley shouted.

"If you still had such strong feelings for him, you shouldn't have lied to him and told him you were over him then! And you shouldn't have tried to break my relationship with Lucas by outing my feelings for him!" Maya yelled back. "The only reason you're really mad at me is because you're upset that your meddling had the opposite effect of what you wanted. You know that if you had kept your mouth shut then none of this would be happening right now. You brought this on yourself by sticking your nose in something that had nothing to do with you!"

Even if Maya was right that Riley was frustrated her plans had backfired, why was she fighting Riley on this? Maya was wrong for kissing Riley's ex! Didn't she care at all that she was hurting Riley?

"You broke girl code, Maya!" Riley said emphatically. "That's not okay! You should have asked me first if it was okay for you to have a relationship with Lucas!"

"Oh grow up and stop being such a damn baby." Maya scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Have you ever even wondered why Lucas isn't interested in you anymore or why Missy didn't bother inviting you? You're such a goody two shoes little miss perfect and control freak. You annoy everyone with your self-righteous rhetoric!"

Riley's breath hitched in her chest, her vision blurring as her eyes welled with tears from Maya's cruel words.

How could she say that?

"Get out!" Riley screamed. "Get the hell out of my room!"

"Gladly."

Maya slammed Riley's door on her way out, and Riley stood there, angrily wiping at her tears, her uneven sniffles reverberating around the walls of her room.

Was that how Maya had seen her all this time? Had she ever really considered her a friend or was she always just a goody two shoes control freak to Maya who she only barely tolerated?

Riley was angry.

Was it a problem that she wanted things to stay the way they were? Was it a problem that she held on to the glory days of her youth, happy about her old life and the way it had played out? Was it so wrong that she wanted to remember the way things had been for a little while longer? Nobody seemed to get that. And it hurt so bad to know that even her best friend, the one who she thought understood her more than anything didn't get her anymore. What had happened to the two of them? Once upon a time, Maya could read her mind. Now they couldn't even be in the same room anymore without snapping at each other. It hurt. Seeing Maya with Lucas hurt too, but not as much as knowing that she and Maya had lost their innate understanding of each other.

But Riley was fed up with being treated as if her ideals and morality were a detriment and a bore. So what if she was afraid of change? So what if she liked the way she lived her life and didn't want to compromise the integrity of her growth and childhood? People grew at different rates. She was who she was and if she wanted to hold onto her fairy tales a little longer, there was nothing wrong with that.

Maya had no right to say any of that to her. And if that was the way Maya thought of Riley, then good riddance to the end of their so called friendship. She didn't need someone so horrible in her life. Enough with the benefit of the doubt. She'd given Maya several chances to be a good person, and Maya blew them all.

Maya was a terrible person.

~.~.~

Maya refused to acknowledge her for the rest of the week. And Riley ignored Maya too.

And it seriously drove a wedge and a split in their friend group.

All of a sudden, half of them were hanging out with Riley and the other half with Maya, everyone completely unsure of who they were supposed to hang out with because they didn't even know the root of the fight. In the end, it went to who they were closer friends to in general.

But neither girl made any attempts to mend their friendship or try to hang out together anymore.

Riley knew Maya was trying to be apathetic by isolating herself as if she was some loner, but she didn't care. She wanted nothing to do with her. Riley wanted to be optimistic about life and happy, but Maya's horrible behaviour was putting a real damper on her spirits. She'd had enough of being Maya's goofy, goody two shoes sidekick while Maya continued to steal the spotlight and everybody's hearts with her oh so charming talents and cool personality. Riley knew who her real friends were, and Maya was not one of them.

She was cleaning out her locker when Farkle came up to her, looking a bit remorseful.

"Riley…" he said without prelude, "You and Maya need to talk again. I spoke to her earlier today during lunch, and I think she's really sincere about her feelings for Lucas. She told me that they have a thing now, that their relationship is growing, and that he likes her too."

"Why are you on her side now?!" Riley snapped, slamming her locker shut in irritation. "I thought you understood what she did to me! What she's been doing to me ever since Christmas even. You're supposed to be my friend. A little support would be nice, you know?"

"Riley, I'm always going to be on your side. You know that because I love you." He shrugged sheepishly. "But I also love Maya. She's hurt that you can't be happy for her when she's always been happy for you no matter what. And I didn't realize that maybe I've been looking at this from one side only which isn't fair to her. I want you both to be happy, but it seems to me that it won't work that way if one of you is the only one who gets what they want."

Riley let out a long shuddering breath, her eyes narrowing furiously, throat tightening dangerously. So once again, Maya had managed to turn someone against Riley as she always did. First Lucas, then half of their friend group, now Farkle. Everyone always took her side. Maya always won. Riley's fists clenched.

"You know what's not fair?" Riley said, her voice wavering. "I'm not trying to be conceited, but I should have the better life. Yet Maya has everything! And she still wants to be better than me! She still wants to beat me at everything! I'm trying to understand her. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but everything she's doing is making me think that all this time, I've been nothing to her. She doesn't care that she's hurting me at all! I thought she was a good person."

"Riley, you and Maya both have some stuff you need to work out, but you're still best friends. If you just talk about your issues, don't you think it would fix a lot of the things between you two?"

"Well what the heck do I say then?" Riley wiped away the tears that pooled on her lower eyelashes.

"Why don't you both step away from Lucas?" Farkle suggested. "I see no other way this can work. I'm sure if you asked Maya, she would consider it."

Riley frowned, her irritation sparking back up. "Why do I have to be the one to ask her to do so? If she was really my best friend, she would do it without a second thought! She should know that she should step back or wait since he's my ex of not even a year yet but she doesn't care about loyalty at all!"

"I get that it's annoying, but sometimes you have to be the better man if you want relationships to mend. Maya can be pretty stubborn. I doubt she's going to go up to you and start this conversation. So it's up to you."

"Yeah, she really is stubborn," Riley muttered crossly under her breath.

Once upon a time she defended people calling Maya stubborn, but not anymore.

"You two really need to clear the air because this goes deeper than just Lucas. And you need to hear from each other what you're going through right now. If you know what the other is dealing with, you'll definitely understand each other better."

"Fine. I'll go talk to her." Riley rolled her eyes.

"Good." Farkle smiled. "Because the world isn't right when you and Maya aren't friends."

As Farkle left, Riley chewed on her thumbnail, furious that once again, she was the one who had to take steps to mend their relationship or fix something when Maya was the wrongdoer and when Maya was completely unapologetic. The same went with Lucas. She couldn't remember the last time he'd done anything of his own accord to fix their romance. It was always Riley who had to try to get things back to normal. She was the only one who ever cared about the way things seemed to change. She was the only one who ever cared about working things out.

Why did everyone always move on so quickly the minute something became different?

~.~.~

And so Riley sucked up her pride and went to Maya's apartment the weekend after her talk with Farkle. She didn't like that she had to be the one to reach out, but she knew nothing would ever get fixed otherwise, so she'd knocked on the doorframe and prepared to end this mess once and for all.

"Look Maya. I thought about what we fought about and what you said to Farkle, and I decided to be the bigger man and apologize," Riley said. Maya's face twisted a bit in irritation. "I shouldn't have been so controlling. And maybe I can loosen up a little bit, but it's just part of my personality and I shouldn't be faulted for being the way that I am. It hurts me that you would use my traits against me like that."

Maya ran her hand through her hair with a sigh. "Fine. I'm sorry about that. That was wrong of me."

At least she'd had the decency to apologize for that. But Riley didn't sense any sincerity in it whatsoever. It figured. Maya really wasn't a nice person. She was just as bad as Missy.

"Thank you for the apology. I appreciate it," Riley said, eyeing her with disdain. "And I decided I should be more honest and maybe should step out of my comfort zone a little bit more."

"…Is there a point to this, or…?" Maya said slowly.

Riley was trying to set things straight, but Maya was just not being open to conversation at all. It was always like this. Riley wanted to make amends and Maya did everything in her power to ignore it.

"Maya. I think that instead of fighting over Lucas, we should both just give him up for now, and that's the only way things can go back to the way they were otherwise we'll keep fighting."

Maya rose a brow, giving Riley an incredulous look as if she was ridiculous for even suggesting it.

"No." She scoffed. "That's a terrible idea, and I don't want to."

Riley bristled, taking a deep breath before letting it out through her nose slowly, her teeth clenched. She had no patience for her anymore. She was trying to fix things between them, but Maya was being the stubborn person she always was once again.

"Why not? Clearly if things keep going the way they have, we'll keep having these issues. So we should just stop with all the Lucas fighting, period. And the only way to do that is to go back to the way things were."

"You just want to go back to the 'way things were' because back then, you had an unofficial thing with Lucas and I didn't and you want to continue that. I don't think so. Stop trying to bullshit me. I can read your intentions like a book."

"I'm trying to fix things between us and compromise, but you're being so stubborn!" Riley shouted, tired of her petulance.

"Maybe I don't want to compromise. Look, maybe you feel like we should both give up because things between you and Lucas are over," Maya said boredly. Riley felt her eye twitch in irritation. "But I kind of have something with him now. And why should I give up just because your relationship with him is over?"

"A couple of kisses and hickeys don't count as something Maya. You can easily stop it." Riley retorted sharply. "Are you seriously trying to continue something with Lucas even though you know it's hurting me?"

Maya sighed under her breath, rolling her eyes to the sky and looking like she wanted to punch a hole in the wall.

"I'm not trying to be a terrible friend, but if you liked someone that I also liked and you were with him, I would let you enjoy the relationship. I wouldn't keep you from having it." Maya's eyes narrowed. "Oh wait. I did do that. For three years. Can't you be happy for me?"

"Why don't you get that it's hard to be happy for you because I'm still in love with Lucas?! He wasn't just some random crush, you know? I thought he was going to be my one and only." Riley fought the tears pricking the back of her eyes. "I was going to give him my virginity. That's how deep my feelings for him were. And you know I would never give up my virginity to anyone unless I truly loved them."

"You guys barely dated for the two years you were together. And when you did, it was awkward and uncomfortable. And he never made any efforts in your relationship when you had that unofficial thing," Maya said dryly. "How can you even say you're in love with him when you don't even know him?"

She knew Lucas didn't make efforts, she knew that he hadn't really opened up to her, but hearing it from Maya's mouth, seeing Maya sneering at her like she found her a sad, delusional little girl infuriated Riley like nothing else. She didn't want to hear that coming from the mouth of a terrible person who had been the reason why her relationship with Lucas never even had the chance to recover.

"It was a feeling I got, okay? I just knew it when I was with him. You wouldn't understand." Riley snapped. "Look. The very least you could do is at least just put whatever thing you might have on halt with Lucas. Please? Can you at least wait until I'm no longer around and don't have to see it?"

So what if it was a last ditch effort to stop whatever the heck was going on with Maya and Lucas? So what if she was hoping that maybe if they put some distance between them for a while, then maybe Lucas really would realize he didn't really want to be with Maya? So what if she was hoping the space would make things go back to the way they were before this whole mess? Even if she didn't want Maya with Lucas in a relationship, her idea still made sense. Why would either girl be with him if the other would get hurt?

"Fine." Maya finally grumbled.

As Riley left, she hoped that Maya could be sincere for once in her miserable life and actually consider Riley's request.

Even though nothing had really been solved, Riley had honestly thought that conversation was what her mother had meant by the drift back to each other. The beginning of the mending of their friendship after the small row they'd had that split their group of friends.

But she'd been sorely mistaken.

~.~.~

As the daughter of Topanga Lawrence-Matthews, one of the most brilliant minds of her day and age, Riley had acquired her work ethic and intelligence. But there were a lot of other intellectuals in their grade. So when Riley found out she was salutatorian to Farkle and Smackle's co-valedictorianship and that she should prepare a speech, she'd been so excited. She'd left immediately to tell the good news to Maya so she could help her think of some interesting speech topics. She wanted her best friend to be the first to know, even if they were still kind of weird. Maybe working on the speech together would help them bond.

Maya's apartment was unlocked, so Riley hurried her way in, so deadset on her plans that she didn't pay attention as she approached Maya's room. She didn't hear the moaning and the heavy breathing on the other side of the door.

She opened it…

And saw the guy she was still in love with, the guy who she still saw as her one and only, the guy she'd put time in a relationship with for so many years, the guy who she'd always believed would eventually come back to her after things with Maya dwindled down, the guy who she'd been planning to give her virginity to, her Prince Charming, her fairy tale happy ending. She saw that guy and her best friend tangled up on the floor, their bodies so plastered together it was hard to tell where she ended and he began.

They both froze and looked up at Riley in shock.

Her fairy tale shattered into a million pieces. Everything. Her three cute kids. The gray castle. The porch. The swing. The rose garden. The unicorn.

She turned around without a word and fled.

"Riley! Riley, wait!" Maya shouted.

Riley stopped in the middle of the living room, closing her eyes and waiting. She stopped because she hoped maybe Maya would tell her it was a fluke. That Maya would tell her anything, anything at all that would negate what Riley just saw. Lucas' pants halfway down his thighs. Maya's skirt hiked up on her waist. Her legs spread and hooked around Lucas. Maya's flustered face, eyes closed in bliss as her nails dug into Lucas' back. Lucas' face kissing Maya's neck as he thrusted in her.

With each cycling image, hot rage bubbled up within Riley.

Maya did this.

Maya stole her fairy tale. Maya destroyed her hopes and dreams and ruined any chance of Riley having her happy ending.

"How long?" Riley asked, her lower lip trembling.

"What?" Maya asked from behind her, her voice small, quiet, scared.

"How long have you really been with Lucas?" Riley repeated. "This weekend? Was it since Christmas? I want to know the truth."

"Riley—"

"Tell me the truth! The whole truth!" Riley shouted, spinning around and fixing Maya with a sharp glare so full of disgust and loathing, the only things she could feel when she looked at Maya now. "You owe me at least that much for lying to my face! How long have you been sleeping with Lucas?! When did you guys really start being together?"

"It was…" Maya cleared her throat, meeting her gaze steadily. "It was the day you ended things officially with Lucas… At Wild Horse. We kissed Riley. And on the last day of the Texas trip, we slept together. And we've been sleeping with each other ever since."

It was the truth.

Despite how many times Maya had lied to Riley, Riley knew it was the truth. And it was painful. Riley's eyes welled with tears as she shook her head slowly in disbelief, her heart torn apart as she realized all the things that she'd suspected, all the things that she'd been worried about were true.

"The… the whole time. All these months…" Riley's lower lip trembled. "You betrayed me, Maya! You both did! You've been lying to my face every. Single. Day."

Lucas walked out of the hallway, standing behind Maya almost protectively.

"And you." She glared at Lucas. "I bet you were cheating on me the entire time we dated!"

"…Physically? No." Lucas answered, looking apologetic. "Emotionally? Yes. I'm sorry, Riley."

She closed her eyes briefly, taking in a shuddering breath as a soft sob left her lips. Everything in their relationship had been a lie. She'd fallen in love with a lie. And that lie had stabbed her in the heart without mercy.

"Riley, you can't fault Maya for this," Lucas continued. "I'm the one who decided that I wanted to be in a relationship with Maya. And I'm the one who was with you even though I had feelings for Maya. The truth is, I settled for you. And I used you on New Year's. Both times I led you on. And for that I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that at all."

"Apology not accepted." Riley snapped. She didn't want to hear this crap. She hated him. She hated him so much for breaking her heart. He was a terrible person, and he'd tricked her into thinking he was worth it as a first love. "You're horrible. How could you do that to me? I wasted years on you! I thought we were in love! You are not the person I thought you were."

"Riley," Lucas said through grit teeth in annoyance, "I never was the person you thought I was. And that's why I could never be one hundred percent in our relationship. You never saw me as anything other than a Mr. Perfect."

"Lucas, stop. Stay out of this," Maya interrupted. "This is between me and Riley."

He glanced down at her in concern. "Maya…"

"Please?" she pleaded. "Just go back to my room."

He sighed, but patted her shoulder gently, walking back down the hallway. After a while, Maya met her gaze anxiously, looking frightened and a little lost. If Maya thought Riley was going to be forgiving after all of this, she had another think coming. Maya would pay for this.

Looking at Maya's face, Riley wanted nothing more than for her to feel the same pain she was feeling. She wanted her to be crippled by a broken heart. A terrible person like her deserved pain.

"Riley…"

"I hate you, Maya." Riley spat. "I really, really hate you right now."

Maya's eyes widened in shock and she swallowed tightly, a pained look crossing through her features.

"You ruin everything." Riley yelled. "You always have to be the most beautiful, the cool one, the most talented one, the deep one, the interesting one. You always have to be better than me! You always have to turn everyone on your side! But that wasn't enough. You just had to take Lucas too! You don't care about loyalty to your best friend, despite the fact that I stood by you all these years, fighting for you to get past the obstacles in your life because I have always believed in you. I supported you and defended you when my parents thought you were a bad influence. I fought for you when people dismissed you, tried to pin you with labels like you were some kind of street trash. I have always believed you were good. That you could break through the difficulties you'd been given in life. But you proved me wrong. You are trash! And you're the worst!"

"I'm the worst?" Maya suddenly snapped, her eyes red rimmed. "I've had it with you! You always have to be right. You can't stand it when something doesn't go your way, the way you deem to be right. It's always your way or the highway. You can't stand it when the attention isn't on you! You can't stand it when I'm happy for once. You can't stand it when I'm not the miserable, jaded, unhappy, unsuccessful, and broken little girl I used to be and you want me to be that. Because it makes you seem better by comparison."

Riley's eyes narrowed angrily.

"Well guess what, Riley? I hate you too. I can't stand your little miss perfect act and your stupid fake clumsiness so you can seem cute and your perfect fucking family that you always complain about when you don't even realize how lucky you are to have them! You have a great life but instead of focusing on everything that you do have and being happy with it, you're only pleased if I'm not as happy as you are! You can only be happy if I'm miserable because then you can show off all of your good fortune and rub it in my fucking face. But I'm done. This friendship is officially over."

It stung more than Riley wanted to admit to hear Maya say she hated her too. To see Maya's eyes full of so much contempt.

"You know what? I agree." Riley yanked off her friendship ring, glaring at Maya as she walked straight to the garbage can. "I don't want to be best friends with a selfish person who has no regards for anyone but herself. In fact, I don't want to be friends with you at all. I hope you're happy."

She opened the garbage can and dropped the ring in. It hit the bottom with a resounding plunk that rang in her ears. Maya's eyes blurred with tears as she stomped to the trash can, yanked hers off and dropped it in too. Riley inhaled sharply, her eyes watering as her lip quivered violently.

"I am happy." Maya sniffled shakily. "And I'm glad this toxic friendship is over. No more having to deal with your poison."

Riley stared at her for a moment, fighting to keep her tears at bay as her breathing harshened and grew shallow.

So that was that. They weren't friends anymore.

And Riley raced out of the apartment, not looking back once. She ran down the sidewalks, just running and running and running through her blurred tears. She kept right on running until she burst into her own apartment. She collapsed on her mom on the couch, sobbing wretchedly, her tears cascading from her eyes.

"Mom!"

"Riley, what's wrong?!" Topanga said in alarm.

Riley only clutched her tighter, her body shaking hard from her bitter weeping and harsh sobs. She tried to tell herself that their friendship had long been on the way to ruin anyway, that this was inevitable—a long time thing that had been building for years—but she only cried much harder.

It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

~.~.~

The weeks leading up to graduation were hard.

News of Rilaya's fallout had spread like wildfire amongst their peers.

It was hard to believe.

The first few days, Riley would wake up and start to write Maya a good morning text, but when the whole breakup came rushing back, she would toss her phone and spend her mornings sobbing in bed until her mother came in to console her.

She didn't know if Maya was faring any better, but Riley knew she herself was an absolute wreck. So much so that her mother allowed her to skip taking any AP exams since she couldn't find it in her to study or even focus on anything remotely academic after that terrible end to a relationship that had defined her entire life for as long as she could remember.

It was destroying her.

When she got past the initial heartbreak, she became stuck in a limbo, part of her in denial, the other part of her irritated and angry. And after that spell, she stopped caring about anything. If she didn't feel anything, then it wouldn't hurt.

But no longer being friends with Maya was easier said than done.

And it was brutal to live out.

Every time she saw something scenic that she knew Maya would have loved to have as a muse, she had to physically stop herself from taking a picture and sending it to her.

Everything felt off balance.

Everything reminded her of Maya.

But there was absolutely no contact between them. No words exchanged. No information passed between them.

And as graduation approached, Riley began to resign herself to and accept the fact that their friendship really was over.

That Rilaya had died.

Thirteen years of a strong friendship.

Over.

It sent Riley into another wretched bout of tears, curling into herself as her shoulders shook with her heavy sobs.

~.~.~

Riley supposed she felt so scorned because the whole thing made her feel so stupid.

The truth about Maya and Lucas had been right under her nose the entire time, but she hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. She'd thought pretending it didn't exist would make it true. She'd been in denial, thinking that maybe if she tried hard enough to ignore what was obvious, live life as she always had, things would go back to the way they had been.

But it had always been too late to go back to the past. And she was the one to blame. She'd set into motion the change, and everyone acted accordingly, adapted, and moved on with their lives, but she hadn't wanted to. It wasn't her fault though. She hadn't wanted to let go of her first love just yet. She didn't want her best friend to leave her behind. Because relinquishing all those things meant that Riley was being forced to grow up. And she wanted to hold on to her precious childhood dreams a little longer. Everyone in the world seemed so jaded and upset, and Riley wanted to hold on to the happiness of her youth for just a little longer.

That had been part of the reason why seeing Maya and Lucas had hurt so bad.

Yes, she still loved Lucas so that aspect had definitely stung, but the main reason was because seeing Maya with him in such a compromising position made Riley realize that she'd been the only one still stuck in her fairy tale world and romance. Lucas had already moved on. Maya had already grown up and was never going to come back. She never wanted to stay in the past. Never wanted to return to Riley the way they had been. Never even entertained the thought.

Had she ever really known Maya at all? Had Maya known her?

There was a knock on her door and when she sat up in bed, Lucas was standing there with a sheepish smile. Riley sniffled and looked out her window. She didn't want to see anyone at the moment.

"Can we talk, Riley?" he asked.

She didn't respond which he must have taken as an affirmative because he walked into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. Just a month ago, she'd wanted him to be in her bed so badly, she'd wanted to wake up tucked into his arms, and now she wanted nothing to do with him at all. It was funny how things changed.

Riley glared at him. "What do you want?"

"To apologize." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I know I hurt you. And I'm not asking you to forgive me, but I'm sorry for everything, Riley. I really am. You didn't deserve to get hurt like that. And I'm sorry you found out about me and Maya by walking—"

"Lucas." She cut him off, uninterested in hearing the reminder of the scarring image she could never purge from her mind. "Did you ever actually like being in a relationship with me? Were you just using me the entire time?"

"I liked Maya since sophomore year, but I did have real feelings for you, Riley," he said honestly, "Towards the end of junior year, I really did. I was starting to get over Maya. I liked you…"

Riley fisted her covers in her hands. "But your feelings for Maya were stronger."

He nodded. "When we tried dating senior year, when I kissed you, whenever we fooled around, I just wasn't in it. It didn't feel right for some reason. And I felt guilty knowing I wasn't being sincere, so I tried to put space between us. And then you ended things and I found out Maya liked me back and I had this opportunity, and I didn't want to lose it. I didn't want to lose a chance with Maya again."

"Were you… were you ever planning on getting back together with me?"

"No. When I got in a fight and you guys learned about my past, I realized that I'd been clinging to Mr. Perfect for so long that I was scared to let people see the real me. I used to hate the real me and I tried to hide behind this image of being such a fake, perfect guy. But Maya accepted everything about me. After that, it was a no brainer figuring out who I wanted to be with."

It was a shock to hear him say that, and Riley couldn't lie that hearing him confirm that he'd chosen Maya long ago only further amplified her pain and the insecurity she was feeling towards Maya. But she was glad for his honesty. Because she needed it to move on.

"So why did you let our unofficial thing continue even though you knew you wanted Maya?"

"I don't know. Maybe I felt obligated to stay with you because I didn't want to hurt you. You were my first girlfriend at this school, and you're still my friend. The last thing I wanted to do was make you feel like shit because you're a good person who deserves good things and deserves to be happy." Lucas glanced out her window. "But I think I stayed with you as a safety net because Maya kept pushing me away. No matter what would happen, she would always close herself off to me or say something about you and shut me out. So I figured I had no chance with her. And I settled. It was a dick move, Riley. And I'm sorry. You really are important to me, you know? But as a friend. And we were never going to last."

Riley sniffled, her throat tightening.

"I couldn't stay away from Maya. I was confused and a little terrified by how quickly my feelings for her grew after that first night we spent together. I told myself that it was because of the emotional repercussions of sleeping with a friend, but I knew that wasn't the case. I was falling in love, Riley. So fast and so abruptly that it scared me."

Riley couldn't help the small smile on her face. Even though she was upset, she did still love love stories. Maya had always believed no one could ever love her, but she'd found that person in Lucas.

"It was more intense than anything I've ever felt before. I had a girlfriend back in Texas before I came here. I fell really hard for her, but things ended badly and I got hurt. I didn't want to get hurt by Maya because I knew she could be the one to really break me if I put myself out there and let myself fall in love with her. I wanted to stay safe, but I couldn't stay away. Because she just gets me."

"Are you going to tell her?" Riley asked quietly. "That you love her?"

"Maybe not until I can confirm she loves me too. I don't want her to run from me or something. But I am going to ask her to be my girlfriend tomorrow." Lucas smiled fondly. "But let's not talk about this right now. I know it's probably the last thing you want to discuss. Riley, the other reason I came here is because Maya has been a mess without you. She needs you and your friendship. And from what I'm seeing, you need her too."

Riley sniffled again, her brows furrowing. "We kept secrets from each other, lied to each other, said disgusting things to each other. We don't even know each other anymore."

"Maybe that's because you guys were too close."

She shot him a dirty look. "We're Rilaya. We can never be too close. How dare you say that?"

"Hear me out," Lucas said quickly, raising his hands up placatingly. "All I'm saying is that you guys were so close you couldn't recognize or appreciate the differences you both have from each other. Maybe if you took some time to get to know each other as you are and not as you see each other through your own eyes, you'll fix your relationship. You just need to remember that you are not the same people and that you have different beliefs that neither of you should trample over. You're miserable without each other. Maybe it's time for you to reconcile."

"It's not that simple. How do we even start the conversation?"

"I don't know. But graduation is in two days and you both are running out of time. Can you guys at least try to talk to each other? I don't want to be known as the straw that broke the Rilaya camel's back."

Riley chuckled softly, despite trying not to.

Lucas grinned, patting her leg. "There's that beautiful smile."

"Thank you, Lucas."

"You'll talk to Maya?"

It had always been Rilaya. Closer than life itself. Maya was her partner in crime. They were the protagonists in their dual world together.

Riley nodded, and Lucas stood up, giving her a warm smile.

"Good. I'll see you at graduation."

He left her room, and Riley blew her nose in a napkin on her nightstand, laying back down on her bed. He was right. She had to talk to Maya before it was too late to fix things.

~.~.~

Graduation day was a bustling day of wild festivities.

Her family all came to congratulate her and celebrate her great successes in high school. It was funny for Riley to see Katy so hyper about Maya being the first Hart to finally get her diploma and graduate from high school. Riley was proud of her even if they weren't exactly friends at the moment. Maya had never liked school, but she still managed to graduate with high honours. It was well deserved laud.

Riley had been nervous during her entire salutatorian address and most of the ceremony, though. Her gaze had kept drifting back to the Maya. Because as the ceremony began to conclude, she knew she would have to go to Maya eventually to talk and she didn't know how to start or what to say.

As Smackle made her part of the class address, Riley found herself at rapt attention. Her words truly resonated with Riley.

The speech was about how they'd all grown through their time in school. How despite the mistakes they'd made, despite all the difficulties they'd faced, they all made it to the end. They were all moving on to bigger and better things.

That it was time to let go of the past, to look back on it with fond memories and store them in their hearts, but to move on in order to open brand new chapters in their lives.

It was time for their rebirth into the world.

No longer as the people they used to be.

But the people they had become through their growth in their experiences.

Riley didn't know what had compelled her to scan the rows in front of her for Maya, but she did. She sought out and found Maya, turned around in her seat and also looking at her.

Their eyes met.

They stared at each other as Smackle concluded her speech.

And then Riley's lips curved up into a small smile.

And so did Maya's.

And suddenly, Riley wasn't afraid anymore.

~.~.~

Riley knew with all of the pictures to be had and the amount of bustling people in the area, shouting, laughing, and crying, it wouldn't be easy to get Maya alone to talk in privacy, but thankfully, she'd found a secluded area near a large oak tree. Riley took the time while she waited for Maya to figure out what she would say to Maya. Writing her salutatorian speech had been easier than this. Why was it so hard to reconcile with an old friend?

"Riley." Maya's voice suddenly came from behind her.

Riley turned around apprehensively, though when she saw the same look in Maya's eyes, she felt herself relax a bit.

"Congratulations Maya," Riley said. "I know your mom must be really proud of you."

"Yeah. Almost too proud. She won't shut up about it." Maya smiled slightly. "And thanks. You too. Congrats on salutatorian and all. You deserve it."

"Thank you."

They fell a little silent, and Riley scuffed her shoe in the dirt a bit, chewing on her lower lip. She felt awkward.

"It's only been three weeks." Maya finally broke the silence. "But it feels like it's been years since we last talked."

Riley giggled a bit. "That's because we were basically joined at the hip. And then we weren't."

They lapsed into silence once again, and Riley wondered if Maya was also replaying the terrible fallout in her head.

"…What happened to us…" Maya muttered, her expression serious and gaze somber.

Riley sighed, knowing someone had to start this. No point in beating around the bush or they'd be there all day.

"Our friendship got ruined because we stopped communicating. Because we started lying to each other. Not because we let Lucas get between us," Riley said with a frown. "Maya. If you had just told me from the start that you liked him back in sophomore year, maybe we wouldn't have had this issue in the first place."

"…Are you trying to… blame me for this?" Maya asked slowly, her brows furrowed.

"Yes and no. I'm just saying that was the start of both our lies. Way back in sophomore year. If I had known, I know I wouldn't have pushed you to make him interested in me. And you wouldn't have hidden your feelings for three years. And that wouldn't have led me to enforce that stupid pact we made in Texas after I found out how you really felt." Riley continued. "And honestly, I shouldn't have broken things off with Lucas if I really didn't want to. By setting that pact, I forced us both to try to conceal our desires. To try to find secret ways to pull Lucas to us without regard for the other of us. We didn't let a boy get between us. We let our lies and other issues get between us and Lucas just happened to be one of the lies."

Riley quieted, hoping she'd said what she needed to say well enough. The ball was in Maya's court now.

"Riley, I still need you in my life," Maya said. "It's not the same without you."

"And I need you too. Always."

"Yeah. But we need some space from each other. We need to live as our own selves. I need to be me. Maya. And you need to be you. Riley." Maya smiled, her eyes glassy. "We'll always be best friends. But we need to be Riley and Maya first and foremost and Rilaya second. We need to stop sacrificing everything we want for the other because that's what breeds resentment. I will always do my best to make sure you are happy no matter what, but only within reasonable bounds. Only if it's okay with me too. There's no point in sacrificing everything we want if it makes us miserable."

"I understand." Riley sniffled, feeling her eyes start to sting in the back with her impending tears. "So can we try to start over? As Riley and Maya? The very best friends there ever were?"

"Of course."

Riley sheepishly opened her arms and to her absolute joy, Maya stepped right into them, wrapping her arms around Riley and squeezing her tightly. Riley embraced her, giving every ounce of love she could give to the girl who defined parts of Riley without a doubt. The girl who would always hold the most important place in Riley's heart. Her favourite person in the whole wide world.

"Will we ever be okay?" Riley asked, her face buried in Maya's hair as she shook with silent sobs.

"It might take a while, but we'll get there…" Maya said, her voice wavering, "We'll fix it slowly, Riley. Piece by piece, right?"

"Yeah, we will."

And they both chuckled happily, clutching each other tighter as they reaffirmed their importance to one another.

It was the rebirth of their friendship.

And it was strange, but Riley believed they had needed to have the fallout so they could better understand each other and the place they had in each other's lives. They needed that fallout so they could realize that they were trying to live their lives as one entity which bred serious issues when their differences came into play instead of seeing themselves as two very different people with very different outlooks on life and ways of living.

But it was okay.

Because they'd learned from their mistakes.

And now they could move on to the next stage of their friendship. A better stage.

She wasn't quite sure if she had her best friend back yet. They still had a lot to discuss and apologize for, and Riley had a feeling that more tears would be shed in the future, but they were getting there.

They were slowly drifting back together.

~.~.~

Riley watched Lucas and Maya kiss on the balcony of the Minkus mansion, a slight twinge in her heart as she watched them, secluded from the merrymaking in the ballroom. Around her, music from the graduation party blared from speakers, several people chatting and celebrating the end of their high school era, but she sat at the table by herself, wondering if she was torturing herself by watching the two.

She'd been tainted by her jealousy from thinking the guy she had been in love with just did something with her best friend right after she broke up with him. From hearing about them kissing under the mistletoe. From thinking her relationship was back after he flirted with her all night and he let her kiss him, but then left with her best friend. From seeing the guy she had been in love with ask her best friend to prom when she thought it had been for her. From seeing them all over each other on the dance floor. And then from seeing them actually hooking up.

Riley took a sip of her flute of juice, sitting back in her chair with a soft sigh. She was still a little bitter, but at least she'd made some sort of peace with the fact that Lucas had moved on. Any lingering pain at this point she knew was because of her residual feelings for Lucas, but she was over him. Or at least she was getting there, slowly but surely.

She stared at Maya and Lucas as they gazed at each other in a close embrace, Maya's cheeks a little flushed and Lucas giving her that look like she was his entire world. They were good for each other. And Riley supposed that discovery was what mattered most to them, even if in the process, they'd left Riley in the dust.

But her time would come.

She wasn't ready yet to move on, but she wasn't going to stay behind either. She would just catch up later. But for now, Riley would just be patient and take her time.

It was funny.

Riley thought her life would be perfect graduating from high school, but everything was oddly askew. She'd lost her first love and boyfriend, her best friend, her fairy tale dreams, and maybe in a way, her innocence, but she'd gained with her broken heart a new understanding of the world, and she wasn't so afraid of change anymore. She'd had to lose something to gain another and grow, and maybe this trying year had just been the universe's way of telling her it was time to prepare for her change and her growth. After all, the only way to grow was to accept the hardships of life and get stronger from them.

"So you've been sitting here by yourself, and I can't help but feel worried," Farkle said, suddenly plopping in the vacant seat beside her, a pair of goofy spiral glasses on his face. "You okay?"

Riley shrugged, finally taking her eyes off of the happy couple snuggling on the balcony.

"I don't really know," she said. "I think I'm still kind of reeling from everything that happened this year."

"I don't blame you. It was pretty dramatic. But you're going to be okay. I just know it."

She nodded, a genuine smile on her lips. "Thank you, Farkle."

"And I'll always be there for you, okay?"

"I know. I can count on you."

"Great! Now c'mon." Farkle grabbed her hands, standing up and yanking her to her feet. "Stop sulking here by yourself! This is a party. Everyone else is dancing. Even Smackle, and you know how hard it is to get her to stop investigating the communal habits of the average adolescent."

Before Riley could respond, he was already dragging her to the dance floor where Zay had started up a conga line. Riley laughed merrily, joining the line behind Yogi and screaming out the lyrics of the party song with the others.

Change wasn't necessarily bad.

And when she was finally ready to move on, she would accept and embrace it with open arms.