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Maya Meets Lucas Unwrapped

1 Week Ago: Christmas Break

1 Hour After the Italian Restaurant

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Dear Diary,

Lucas and I just broke up? I mean, I shouldn't say that as a question because it is incredibly clear that we broke up. I'm devastated, obviously, but I think that this was clearly going to happen eventually. Maybe it's because I'm still angry, but here's basically what's happened.

First, when we got there Lucas two boxes laid out in front of him on the empty table. One was a promise ring and the other was a plane ticket to Austin, Texas in addition to his own. He told her that his dad encouraged him to bring her out for the holidays so that he could meet her. The other was a promise ring that his mother had worn when she was in high school and was married to her dad. I pointed out that it clearly didn't matter because his parents were now divorced. Lucas did not take to it well even though they'd discussed it many times.

Second, he told me I had to pick one and earn the other. When I told him I wouldn't choose because I didn't understand what he was trying to get out of me, he then said that he saw my acceptance letter to UCLA when he got into my bag the other day to get an extra pencil during class. My jaw had dropped but in an effort to diffuse my not telling him about it, I explained that that was now the least of my worries.

Third, he thought I was talking about the situation at that time in the restaurant. He whined and groaned about how I wasn't even taking him into consideration. Lucas reminded me that he literally got off the phone with his dad and then called me when he decided he would go back to Texas. I argued that his decision to go back to his father was very different form deciding to go to college. Immediately I knew I'd said something stupid because I basically said that going to do a job you didn't need an education for wasn't as life changing as going to college. There was a long silence because we had to order and refills came. Once the entrée was served I realized I had to rat myself out and tell him the gravity of my acceptance to UCLA.

And then the fourth messy thing happened. He slammed his fist on the table and refused to look at me. He asked how we were supposed to make a long distance relationship work if she didn't trust him to know this information right away? Lucas is not an angry person, he never has been, but I clearly had brought out a frustration in him that I didn't even know existed. When I reached across to grab his hand he didn't recoil or deny the comfort. Instead he just too my hand and squeezed.

That's when he said that maybe we needed to call the relationship itself quits and focus on being friends while they both prepared to move away in the coming months. I had agreed that maybe that was for the best because then all the complications of romance and attachment could be wiped away. I can't believe I agreed to it. When Lucas dropped me back off he assured me that his feelings for me hadn't changed, just that they couldn't be a couple under the circumstances we found ourselves in.

I am ready to scream. Maya isn't responding to my texts or calls, but I expected as much. She locked the window before she closed it and that's always her way of saying that I need to work through something on my own. Even though I am angry about it I understand that she's trying to prepare me for a time when she can't just crawl through my window and hug me until I feel better. Maya is amazing. I need to focus on that because I know that no matter what happens I'll always have Maya.

It's time to call it a night.

Riley

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I had just set my table for my incredibly late dinner. Tonight I was having a grilled pork chip and some steamed broccoli with cheese. I remember a time when I didn't know how to cook and when I didn't like vegetables. But, to be fair, I was basically a brand new person. High School changes people and all I can say is that I'm glad it changed me for the better. Elsewise I wouldn't have this delicious food in front of me, and decent place to live with a decent job; I smiled knowing that it wasn't much but it was still success for me.

My phone began buzzing and it was obviously Riley calling back for the twentieth time. I knew that the evening was probably going to go bad so I had made sure that she knew I wasn't going to show up this time to pick up the pieces. I warned her that I wasn't turning my back on her but preparing her for work through her own problems without me. We loved each other enough to know I wasn't being mean, I was just being a 'tough love' kind of friend. She would be fine. I knew she would.

When I glanced at my phone, though, a different name was flashing across the screen. I swiped it up immediately and scrunched my brows together.

"I swear, Ranger, I've done nothing wrong this evening. Whatever the neighbors are complaining about, I swear to you that it wasn't me. Not this time, anyway." Lucas would only call if there were an emergency. I wondered if I was doing the wrong thing by not answering Riley's calls but when there was a knock on the door I dropped my shoulders. It couldn't be that big of an emergency if Sundance danced his way to my front door.

"Open up." I hung the phone up and opened the door. He stood with his jacket off and his belt out of his slacks. He looked like a tired businessman, which made me all the more empathetic towards his situation. He smacked my cheek lightly and helped himself into my apartment. I sighed and shut the door, locking it habitually.

"How bad was the break up, then?" I didn't bother with the formalities that Riley and Lucas often used when talking to each other. I still had awful manners, especially with Lucas, so none of that stuff was necessary.

"She just agreed to it. I mean, I suggested the break up, but she just said that it was probably the best decision to make. How is that even possible?" Lucas complained as he helped himself to the dinner I laid out for myself. I sat next to him at the larger-than-I-actually-needed-table. With both hands on the table I just shrugged.

"If I answer honestly it will just spoil your mood." I revealed.

"Maya, if I thought you were going to make it worse I wouldn't have come here." Lucas also revealed information of his own. I looked up and met his gaze. I guess I had never known until that moment how much he trusted me and saw me as a close friend. As much as he had turned to Farkle with his personal business, which Farkle always in turn shared with me when he came over for Movie Night Tuesdays, somehow Lucas thought that this crisis was best matched for me. I was somewhat flattered, although significantly more anxious than anything.

"Riley's parents told her not to worry about breaking up already. She knew last week when she was leaving and the only reason she even planned to tell you is because her parents and I have been telling her that it's going to work itself out. I mean, it will so there's no point in me telling you different. If you and Riley are supposed to be together then it'll happen. I'm not all knowing so I can't say how or when, but I suppose that's how it all works." Lucas began rubbing his face after I told him. I couldn't really tell if it was because he was concerned about what I said or if he had seen it coming and was so angry that he could do nothing else. I guessed that I would have been pretty ticked off if I were him, though. One thing that Lucas never did was keep secrets from Riley. He told everything to her immediately, especially if it were going to affect their plans or their relationship.

I remembered how distraught Riley had been about him moving to Texas. He knew before she got accepted to UCLA. They'd been avoiding the topic for months. I warned Riley that they'd probably break up if they couldn't decide whether or not they wanted to have a long distance relationship immediately. I wondered if this had crossed Lucas' mind, so I figured I might as well redo the conversation with him.

"You know, I think both of you expected this to happen when you said you were going back to Texas." I implored him to consider.

Lucas nodded his head, then shook his head, then nodded it briefly again. He took another bite of my broccoli and smiled. He must have liked it, although I couldn't imagine how. I'd never seen him eat broccoli once.

"I suppose that's true. Why do you think so, though?" Lucas just carried on eating my dinner. Since I hadn't gotten around to pouring a glass of milk I decided to get up and diffuse the tension. I ended up pouring two and heating up a microwavable dinner. It was an Asian medley of some sort that would be just as satisfying as the pork and broccoli. While I was prepping stuff in the kitchenette, I replied to Lucas.

"Because if you love someone and you know you want to be with them you don't have to think about a long distance relationship. You just go right into and figure it out as you go. It's not as hard as adults make it out to be. Do you want to try to be with that person or not? You and Riley had to have had pieced that together the last couple of months. I think you guys were more worried about picking the best time to call it quits than you were about anything else." My opinions were hardly ever humble so it was not a shock to Lucas to hear what I'd said. In fact, he joined me in the kitchenette with his plate and ate with me at the counter. His elbows rest against the counter while I rinsed my hands off.

Lucas didn't say much right away but after about ten minutes he nudged me with his shoulder. I laughed a little bit because I knew he'd sort of agreed with what I'd been saying. It was our unspoken way of ending a conversation about something nobody wanted to talk about. It's sometimes how we changed the subject when Riley was talking too much about something neither of us cared about, like nail polish or celebrity news.

"You're a great friend, Maya. I'm glad that you and I didn't kill each other throughout the years." Lucas concluded aloud. I smiled at the wall. Things hadn't been easy. I had met Lucas under the strangest of terms. I'd pretended to flirt with him and maintain a fake relationship to help Riley figure out talking to boys that she liked. When Riley made her attraction to Lucas clear, I sort of stopped noticing how cute and funny he was because I knew that I wasn't his type. I mean, to be fair I'd never really fawned over Lucas or felt an overwhelming attraction to him the way that Riley had. But, that's not to say I didn't have the tiniest crush on him after all this time. Because I'd be liar if I tried to say such a thing…

"The pleasure's been all mine, Bucky McBoing Boing." My voice wasn't harsh, like it usually had been when I used one of his cowboy nicknames. And his laugh wasn't full of irritation as it normally would have been. Instead I spoke airily and softly, and he laughed fully and sweetly. When we turned to look at one another there was a hint of – I don't know – something different. For the first time ever I had felt incredibly nervous around Lucas.

He must had noticed it too, because he stuttered when he followed up, "Don't f-flatter yourself, P-project F-fitness." He'd taken up calling me this weeks ago. He found it hilarious that even though exercising is what almost killed me that I'd turn to it and rely on it to make a living. He still urged me to be an artist and do marketing. I never did well in school, though, so I couldn't go to college to get a marketing degree.

"Thanks for eating my dinner. I wasn't hungry anyway." I stuffed my mouth full of microwaves vegetables in soy sauce. Lucas helped himself to my refrigerator and poured himself another glass of milk that I hadn't even noticed he'd consumed.

"Oh, well then I suppose you weren't planning on crashing on the couch either?" I sighed. This wasn't the first time he'd come and crashed at my apartment when he was upset about something. When he'd been having a rough time over the summer applying for colleges. It wasn't that he couldn't get in so much as he wasn't sure he wanted to go. Besides, he couldn't get scholarships in spite of he good grades. He was like the 12th percentile, which put him just outside the crème de la crèmeas he always put it. His parents could afford to put him through college if he didn't work, too, which was really not that difficult. At least I didn't think so because I'd worked through high school and lived on my own. I don't know. I think Lucas just didn't want to go because I was sure he could have gone if he wanted to go that badly.

"Lucas, you know I don't mind the company. Being here alone sucks most of the time, but don't you think that would look kind of bad when Riley comes around in the morning to talk about the whole break up thing?" Even I wasn't so heartless and blunt to ignore something as fundamentally obvious as that was.

Lucas turned around and made a quirky face that he had definitely picked up from Riley. When she was frustrated her nose wrinkles and brows scrunched and her chin tightened. She looks sort of like an angry seal, which was comical on her. It was drop dead hilarious on Lucas, though, and I had just broken into laughter because it was too much.

He joined in and reached around to put his dishes in the sink, running warm water over them courteously. Those were his southern manners showing. It was something that Riley admired about Lucas: he was always a gentleman. Which only added to the shock factor about him asking to stay over when they both knew that eventually Riley would show up.

"I don't want to go home, Maya. You know how my mom gets about these things. She adored Riley and she's going to belittle me for breaking up with her. Please don't make me go home, at least not yet." Lucas pouted, although I can't imagine that it was on purpose. I thought he was honestly bothered about the prospect of his mother getting on his case. I ignored him to finish my own meal. In that time he'd wiped the table and the counter down and gotten the guest pillow and blanket from the coat closet, and finally planted himself in the center of my couch. I pursed my lips and joined him in defeat.

"Fine, Lucas, you win this one. But when Riley comes in the morning and you're still here you'll be the one explaining why you came over to my house. It doesn't look good. It looks the opposite of good – it looks very, very, very bad." I told him, even though I knew that agreeing to let him stay was likely going to make my life difficult. I implicated myself where I ought not be implicated. It would come to regret it, I knew I would.


Another Author Fun Fact :)

I'm a huge Doctor Who Fan (I'm actually trifecta, Superwholockian, if we're pulling out the big guns here). When I wrote the last line that Maya speaks I had the Eleventh Doctor in mind and even as I'm scanning over this again before publishing I only hear his voice. This probably makes me a terrible author..