Chapter 2 – Solace from Family and Friends
After her Grandmother called her parents Josh took Riley out for a walk so that they could talk without anyone listening. Riley didn't want anyone to know the extent of what was happening in her life. She didn't want to burden anyone. Josh was the only person she knew would be able to give her some perspective on what to do because he knew her friends. They walked down to the nearby park, the same one her parents constantly told her stories about where they grew up, where they fell from the monkey bars, where they declared their love for one another after a rift that would have kept them apart. She wondered if they would give her strength to step away from what was making her hurt.
"Riley, can I ask you something?" Josh turned to her once they reached the park.
"Sure."
"Why did you lie to everyone?"
"About Lucas as a brother?"
"Yeah, I need to know what you were thinking because I've seen the way you look at Lucas and I know you like him as more than a friend. So why?"
"Because Maya stepped back when she saw that I liked him, I thought I should do the same for her… even if it caused me pain."
"Something else happened, something you're not telling me."
"Um, well… Just before we went down to Texas the whole class voted me most likely to smile myself to death, and Lucas and Maya we voted best couple… even though…"
"Even though everyone knew that you liked him, anything else happened?"
"Yeah, around the same time I started getting text messages from someone because they didn't like my happy go lucky personality. I didn't tell my friends that the messages also said that I didn't belong with Lucas because if belonged with someone like Maya. She called me useless and said that I should just go away. Although I did confront her…" Riley began to cry again because she was being reminded of a moment when she felt like the world was against her.
"The words stayed with you," he said and Riley nodded. "Then you went to Texas and what happened pretty much confirmed what was already being said."
"Yeah… Josh what should I do, you're the only one who knows my friends, but you also know how to tell what made a person tick."
"Yeah but Riley I can't tell you what to do. I can only help you figure out who you want to be and even then I can't do much except be there."
"I understand… can you at least distract me so that I don't hurt as much as I have."
"I can do better, we can talk and you can relax for a couple of days. We'll hang out. I'm be the neutral party in this situation so that you can find a happy middle and go back to being the niece I know and love."
"That sounds good."
"Hey what are Uncles for?"
Riley laughed and wiped away the last of her tears. She didn't want to cry while she was here, she just wanted to talk with Josh and not think for a few days. Maybe it would help her realize what she was missing from this whole fiasco.
"Okay, why don't we go back to the house and have some breakfast. I'm pretty sure my mom made us something to eat."
"I hope it was pancakes, I love grandma's strawberry pancakes."
"Okay," he smiled at her. The two of them walked back towards the house talking about what they could do while she was there. I was the first time that Riley felt like she was truly smiling and not faking a smile for her friends' sake.
Abigail Adams High School⭐
Lucas sat in Mr. Matthew's history class by himself, everyone had left for the day but he had felt as though something was missing… More like someone was missing. It felt weird not seeing Riley smiling at him from the front of the class. He missed her brown eyes looking back at him. He sometimes saw the heavens when she looked at him and smiled a smile so wide her eyes lit up. She was the center of his universe but she stepped back and he knew that Maya was the reason why. The pain was still the same every time he thought about it, even though he had shared a moment with Maya by the campfire he didn't feel the same way he did when he talked to Riley. The butterflies weren't there.
"Mr. Friar you should head home," Mr. Matthews said to him.
"I will Sir, I was just gathering my thoughts."
"Lucas I know that something happened when you were all in Texas, I don't want to know what it was but I'm pretty sure that you have to figure out where you want to be in all of this when it's over."
"I know but I don't want to hurt anyone…" he sighed knowing that someone would get hurt regardless of what he thought.
"I know I've been there but in the end you have to think about your feelings, as long as you tell everyone the truth you will find out that maybe something that happened shouldn't have happened."
"Okay," Lucas said as he stood up. "Can I go with you and your family when you go pick up Riley?"
"If it helps resolve this whole thing than yes you may. I may not like the fact that my little girl is growing up but I do know that she needs her friends now more than ever."
"Thank you Sir," he said before walking out the door.
Lucas knew that he should go meet his friends so that they could study like they always did but he didn't feel like sitting there and wonder what Riley was doing in Philly. He just kept walking because he needed to think about everything. Instead of heading home we walked around the block for an hour hoping to find a way to get Riley to see him as the person who loved her but when he started to feel hungry he walked back towards the café and walked inside. Zay, Farkle, Smackle and Maya were all sitting there talking but none of them were doing homework.
"Hey man, where have you been?" his best friend Zay asked as he walked towards their usual seats.
"I just needed to think about somethings," he said and did his best to smile.
"So Ranger Rick, when should we go out again?" Maya said but he knew that she was just doing her best to not think about Riley and why she left in the middle of the night.
"Maya," he started knowing that he should end all of this but he remembered that hurting her would also hurt Riley. "I don't know… why don't you pick a place and time."
Farkle looked over at the two of them with a strange look on his face, Lucas realized that his other best friend knew something that he wasn't telling them.
"Okay, you wanna go to the movies tonight. There's a new horror movie I want to check out and it would be nice to go with someone," Maya said.
"Sure… why not."
"This is so weird," Farkle said under his breath. Lucas knew that he was right because he didn't feel like himself.
"Farkle can I talk to you?" Lucas said as he got up and grabbed his friend's arm pulling him to his feet.
"Sure why not?" Farkle said as Lucas pulled him out the door. "What do you want?"
"You know something; you're not telling me but I know you know something."
"I may know something but it's not my place to tell," Farkle said looking to the ground as he said it.
"Riley doesn't like me as a brother does she?"
"How did you know?" Farkle said automatically.
"You just confirmed it, damn it why is she doing this? Why can't she just be honest about everything? Why did she leave?" Lucas sat down on one of the chairs and placed his head in his hands. He felt like he was losing a part of himself the longer Riley was away.
"Lucas I'm pretty sure she just wants Maya to be happy but I also know that she's sacrificing a lot by doing so. She does that a lot and we all take advantage of her personality but in the end she does it so that we could all have happiness. Listen go to the movies with Maya figure out your feelings and if you realize what your feelings are telling you and which way you should go then you will be able to tell them both how you feel without dragging this out for the rest of our high school years."
"Okay," he said knowing that it wouldn't make a difference since he already knew how he felt but he decided to go ahead with the date as planned because he knew how much Riley was sacrificing for this so he should do the same for her sake.
Lucas sat in the dark AMC theater on 14th street with Maya by his side, they decided on going to this theater because it was near the Strand bookstore. He wanted to buy something for Riley that would make her feel better about the situation and it was the best place to find a book that would give her hope.
"I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for months, but Riley refused to go with me because she hates these kinds of movies," Maya said excitedly to Lucas.
"She hates horror movies, half the time she covers her eyes," he said remembering the last time they watched one of these movies and she spent most of the time hiding her head behind his arm. The memory made him laugh out loud but it also made him miss her more.
"Lucas," Maya said as the movie started.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for coming with me," she said.
"No problem," he said. Lucas knew that Maya felt responsible for Riley leaving but he also knew that they needed to resolve what she was feeling. Even though they were sitting next to each other he couldn't feel anything for Maya beyond friendship, even though she had said his name for the first time in forever it didn't stir anything. "Maya I have a question."
"Shh the movie's starting," Maya said as she watched the movie begin.
It was a bloody movie and not something he normally liked to watch. He tried to pay attention but half way through the movie it had gotten too bloody even for him. For the rest of the movie he stared at the light strips on the floor that illuminated the walkway. They looked like stars. This reminded him that he wanted to watch the stars with Riley one day in a place where there wasn't so much light to block them out. It was something that he had planned to do when they were in Texas but never got the chance. Instead he ended up sharing that moment with Maya instead. He sighed before turning back to the movie and his so called date. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about another girl with he was on a date with another girl but his heart wasn't in it.
When the movie ended he was glad, he could only imagine the nightmares he would have just from watching the movie. Maya was smiling at him as the credits rolled up the screen, he knew that she loved the movie because her eyes lit up. He felt guilty for thinking about Riley during the movie.
"I'm going to have nightmares for weeks because of that," he told her.
"Don't be such a wimp Hop-Along, the movie was great."
"Maya why do you like me?" he asked her straight up hoping that this would force her to admit the reason behind her feelings.
"Why are you asking me this?"
"I need to know, it feels like this came out of nowhere, almost like you were following what everyone else was saying about us being a better couple."
"What are you getting at?"
"I just wanted to know, I know you didn't like me like this when we met. The only person I've seen you have any feelings for you is Josh…"
"Oh please that's just a crush, even he thinks it would never happen. As for us I don't know when I started feeling like this, I just know that Riley sees you as a brother and nothing else. I noticed when I acted like her earlier this year."
"Are you sure?"
"Why are you asking so many questions Ranger Rick, can't I have feelings for you?"
"You can but in the end do you understand them yourself."
"What the hell does that mean, of course I understand them."
"Maya look me in the eye and tell me that you weren't mixing up your own feelings with what you thought Riley was feeling. Tell me that you like me so much that you see stars in my eyes, that you feel butterflies in your stomach, that you are the sun and I revolve around you."
"What?" she looked at him confused before looking at the blank screen in front of her.
"Maya?"
"Is that what you feel when you look at Riley?" she said with sadness in her eyes.
"Yes, but that's what I think she feels when she looks at me, almost like we're two stars gravitating towards one another."
"I don't feel like that when I see you," she says to him.
"Is it Josh?"
"Yeah, but he kept rejecting me over and over again because of the age difference. Even though I knew I liked him so much it hurt whenever I saw him with anyone else. So much that I would sneak out just to see him even though it would get me in trouble."
"So why did you start liking me?"
"It probably has something to do with what I thought Riley was feeling for you."
"The brother thing?"
"Yeah, maybe it's me that feels like that. My mother had told me that when you become someone even if your imitating them you have to get into their soul, but in the end I don't think I got into being Riley. There's too much sunshine in there, it could have been that my personality clashed with hers and I realized something about myself."
"That you see me as a brother, it makes sense you pick on me and fight with me the same way that Riley and Auggie sometimes fight."
"Geez I was so happy about this movie and trying not to be sad about how Riley just up and left that I didn't see this talk coming. Why now? Why did you bring this up now?"
"Because when I saw that Riley had left I knew that she was hurting over this, she stepped back even though I know she likes me because she wanted your happiness to come first even if it was the most painful thing in the world. Plus, I talked with Farkle earlier and he said to try and figure out everything, in the end I just wanted to find a middle ground where no one got hurt. But I also knew that I needed to be blunt with you about this so that…."
"So that I would also figure it out on my own," she finished.
"Maybe we can ask the Matthews to drive down tomorrow so that we could all talk this out and Riley could become herself again," he said as he stood up.
"That would be good and maybe I could also corner Josh and talk about our situation too."
Lucas nodded knowing that they had figured out something about one another that they hadn't known about before. Maya didn't like him the way she liked Josh, just like how Lucas knew that he didn't like her the way he liked Riley.
"What now?" she asked him.
"Now I'm going to the Strand to get a book for Riley, one that I saw a few weeks ago that I thought she might like but I didn't have enough money to buy."
"Was this before or after… you know."
"It was during that weird week after the yearbooks came out, I saw it but the book cost $70 so I was saving up so that I could buy it for her but then you guy dragged me to Texas so I had to save up again."
"This is a book, seriously just give her a gift card to Demolition and let her buy something for herself."
"Maya she's going to love it, it's a book on the journey of the Hubble telescope, it has a ton of pictures of the universe and I know she would like to look at the pictures and lose herself in them."
"Bleh, geez this is cheesy."
"Not really, it's just that I know her."
"So do I but you don't see me spending $70 on a book… but I understand so let's go get her that stupid book."
