AN: This is just a short chapter to set up the final chapter, but it is the first time I used Zay and Farkle quite a bit, and I have to say I am pleased with the results. Hopefully, you will be, too!
I probably won't be able to update again until the weekend. I work nights and my shifts are 12 hours long, so expect updates and new stories and good stuff to come out on Sundays or Mondays. Maybe Saturday evenings. I own nothing and no one.
Lucas, Maya, and Farkle made their way up the fire escape in silence. Maya had blatantly refused to talk from the minute they left the cafe, periodically shooting Lucas death glares.
Lucas, for the most part, attempted to ignore her looks, keeping his face both impassive and determined all at once. He knew getting Maya to explain what was going on was impossible at this point, she hadn't even wanted him to come to the window. He did everything he could to not react to her, hoping he would get the answers he so desperately wanted as soon as he saw his girl.
Farkle kept glancing between the two, still completely in the dark about what was going on. He was a smart kid, a genius really, so usually when his friends had problems he could put the pieces together and figure out what was going on. Usually. This time he felt like he was missing all the information. He wasn't used to feeling so helpless. It was frustrating. When they got to Riley's window, he found it was locked for the first time since he had met the brunette.
Farkle threw his arms up in the air, staring up at the sky. "Can someone please tell me what is going on? Everything was fine until Yogi had some weird conversation with Lucas. Then, you two pull Darby into the bathroom, and now no one is talking to anyone! And the bay window is LOCKED! LOCKED, MAYA!"
Maya's eyes darted to the window, stomping over to where Lucas was standing. "This is all your fault, Lucas Friar!"
"I didn't do anything!" he shouted, holding his arms up in a gesture of defeat.
"Exactly!"
"It's locked, Lucas!" Farkle shouted at him. He tried the window one more time. Then tried the next one for good measure. Neither would budge. "As long as I have known Riley, she has never locked these windows! Not even when she went on vacation in Philly because she wanted Maya and I to have a safe place to go!"
Watching his friend's futile attempts at opening the windows, Lucas sighed and sat down on the fire escape in defeat. Farkle slid down next to him. Maya stared at the two boys for a minute before rolling her eyes and coming to sit against the railing.
"What do we do now? She's never shut me out like this before." Maya looked over to Farkle, eyes glistening with tears.
Rolling his eyes, Farkle placed a comforting hand on Maya's shoulder. "I'm sure it's not about you, Maya, but maybe you guys could explain to me what's going on so I can help."
"I don't know what's going on either," Lucas said despondently.
He looked like such a lost puppy, Maya almost took pity on him. Almost.
"Well, let's start with what Yogi wanted. Then Maya can tell us what happened in the bathroom. Maybe if we all put together everything we know, we can figure this out and help our friend."
"Speaking of our friend," Maya said looking around. "Where did Zay go? Wasn't he following us?"
Lucas looked down to the sidewalk. When he didn't see any sign of his old friend, he shrugged and began his story.
Meanwhile, Zay, being Zay, went to the door to be buzzed in. In the short time that he had known the girls, he realized that the bay window was sacred. He didn't feel close enough to them just yet to waltz in Riley's room uninvited. It didn't seem polite. Especially when he had no clue what was even going on.
"It's Zay!"
Auggie skipped over to the door and immediately let him in. Without a word, Zay came in, opened the fridge, and grabbed a snack. Then, he headed into Riley's room. He was surprised to find it empty. The curtains to the bay window were closed, and the room was dark. Zay awkwardly swallowed the rest of his snack, walked out of the room, glanced around the hallway, and walked right back.
"Uh...Hellooo?"
"Drat! Did you actually use the door, ya animal?"
Zay followed the sound to Riley's walk in closet, finding her sitting with her back against the far wall, legs curled in front of her, tears rolling down her eyes.
"Oh, Sugar..." Seeing his new friend so distraught, he forgot all about the others, crawled into the closet next to her, and wrapped his arms around the shaking girl, who had become so important to him in such a short time. He cared about her, and not just because she was special to Lucas. She was one of those people who made the world brighter just by being in it, and he really felt blessed that she welcomed him into her life so easily.
He guided her head to his shoulder, running a soothing hand through her hair. "Tell Zay what happened and we'll figure out a way to make things alright again."
"That's just the problem, Zay." Riley said, pulling away from his touch to meet his eyes. "I don't know if things were ever alright to begin with."
He pulled her back into his embrace. "Well, we'll sort it out. Isn't that what you do-gooder types do?"
Despite the tears, Riley laughed and allowed Zay to pull her up off the floor.
Back outside, Lucas had told Maya and Farkle about his conversation with Yogi, and Maya had just finished explaining what went down in the girls' room.
"So, let me get this straight," Farkle said, sounding very skeptical as he looked back and forth from Maya to Lucas. "When you found out that Charlie was going to ask Riley, you naturally got upset. Instead of asking Riley yourself and ending this whole thing, you made it worse by doing nothing. Riley, being the genuine, caring, empathetic, person that she is, realized something was wrong. She realized it may have to do with Darby and Yogi, so she pulled Darby into some weird ritualistic meeting the girls' restroom."
"Darby made Riley feel awful about her relationship with Lucas because of all the rumors going around school about the two of you. When Riley realized that Lucas knew about Charlie and he did nothing, she assumed Lucas didn't want to ask her to the dance in the first place. That assumption, along with all the ridiculous stuff Darby and Sarah and the rest of the class have been saying about you three, made Riley rush off without talking to any of us about it?"
"That pretty much sums it up," Maya said as both she and Lucas nodded in agreement of Farkle's assessment.
"So why don't you just ask Riley to the dance? You want to take her, don't you?"
Maya nodded again. "Yeah. Why don't you ever do anything, Howdy? How can you just be okay with everything all the time?"
"I'm not okay with this. I just want Riley to make her own decision. If she wants to go with Charlie, she should."
Maya stood up, shouting, "Don't you get it? You aren't giving her another choice! She doesn't know where you stand, and everyone in our class keeps telling her that the two of you couldn't possibly work out! Of course, she'll wind up telling Charlie yes, because you never asked her! If you want to be with her, you should fight for her! And if you don't want to be with her, you should step back and let her be happy with someone else."
Lucas opened his mouth but was interrupted by Zay climbing out the window. Maya gasped in shock at seeing Zay, and Lucas had a hard time hiding the shock on his face. Farkle started to reach for Zay, to ask him what was going on, but Zay brushed past him on a mission, not stopping until he was right in front of Lucas.
"You!" he shouted, pointing his finger at Lucas. "How could you?"
"What did I do that was so wrong?" Lucas asked. "I assumed we were going together! I didn't think I had to ask! What were you doing in Riley's room? What did she say?"
"You never do anything!" Zay screamed, getting up in Lucas' face.
"Why are you so angry about this?"
Zay took a step back, smoothing out Lucas' shirt, and taking a calming breath. "Sorry, I, uh... Auggie let me in, and no one was there. Then Riley..."
Lucas interrupted. "Riley, what?"
"I found her in the closet. She was crying, man."
"She was?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah," Zay ran a hand over the back of his neck. "Darby wasn't exactly nice about this whole Lucas slash Charlie slash Riley slash Maya love square thing you guys have got going on."
Farkle tried to open the window, but it was locked again. He started knocking. "Riley, please let us in. We are your friends. We just want to help!"
Zay turned to Maya. "I did the best I could, Sweetheart. I hugged her and let her cry on my shirt. I listened to her and rubbed her back. We had some ice cream. Mainly because I was hungry, but girls like that when they're sad, right?"
Maya nodded, leading him over to the railing. She gently rubbed his back in soothing circles. "You did good, kid."
"Why did you leave her?" Farkle said, turning away from the window to face Zay. "She's all alone in there now!"
For the first time since coming outside, Zay smiled. "She wanted me to make sure you guys were all okay. She didn't want any of you to worry. She wouldn't let me stay. She thought Lucas would need me more. You guys are really lucky to have someone who cares about you so much."
It was Maya's turn to bang on the window. "You silly, sweet, amazing, girl! How dare you worry about Cactus Pete and the rest of us! Ring Power! I call Ring Power right now! You hear me? Let me in, Riles!"
The curtains started rustling, and Riley's voice could be heard on the other side. "I veto your ring power with ring power of my own! Go home, everyone! I'm fine."
The four of them stood flabbergasted, staring at one another.
"Can she veto ring power?" Farkle asked. "Is that a thing? Maybe you guys should make up a rule book or something."
Maya shrugged. "There goes my ace in the hole. I got nothing!"
While Farkle and Zay argued loudly about their next move, Lucas gently pushed everyone to the side. The fire escape was awfully crowded with all four of them on it, especially with everyone moving around and banging on the windows.
Lucas had stopped listening to everyone around him. The only person he wanted to talk to was on the other side of the window, he just had to figure out a way to get to her.
Maya had jumped on Zay's back for some reason, giving Lucas enough room to squeeze past them. When he made it to the far window closest to where Riley usually sat, he gently tapped on the pane.
"Riley, I know you're upset with me, but I'm not leaving until we talk about all this."
He waited a moment, then tapped again. "I'd like to talk face to face, but I'll do it through the window if I have to. I'm not giving up, Riles."
His fingers grazed the window as if they could reach out and touch her, and all the background noise faded away. Everyone stopped talking, and Maya quietly slid off Zay's back, all three friends focused on Lucas.
"I'm sorry, Riley."
He paused again, studying the curtains for any sign of movement. A part of him worried that she was no longer in her room.
"I didn't ask you to the dance because I just assumed we were going together. I didn't say anything today because I thought maybe you might want to go with Charlie."
He placed his palm flat against the glass. "Riley, you have every right to be mad at me. I handled this poorly. I should have come to you today when I found out about Charlie. I should have talked to you, but I'm here now, trying to do the right thing. Please, say something. Let me in, baby."
He looked back at his friends. Farkle gestured for him to keep going, Zay held his hands up mouthing 'back off,' and Maya just stared at him as if he was from another planet. When he turned away, Maya mouthed the word 'baby' to Farkle with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. He shrugged.
Zay noticed the interaction, nudging Maya saying softly, "It's good. Girls like pet names, right, Sugar?"
Maya rolled her eyes and slugged him in the arm.
Back at the window, Lucas sighed out in frustration. "Come on, Riley!"
Still getting no answer, he got agitated and began to raise his voice. "Riley, you are being ridiculous! Don't you think you're over reacting! It's just a stupid dance! It doesn't mean anything!"
"Uh oh!" Farkle said.
Zay slammed a hand to his forehead. "Idiot!"
"Just when I think you can't mess things up any worse, you find a way to Huckleberry it all up!"
Distracted by his friends, he didn't notice Riley throw the curtains to the side. He didn't hear the window open. And he definitely didn't see Riley's hand reach out and yank him in with far more force than a girl her size should have.
Before he knew what had happened, he had fallen into the window, tumbling until he was flat on his back on the ground, his legs awkwardly sticking up across the bay window seat. Staring up at a very angry Riley, he tried to catch his breath, to find his equilibrium.
He didn't know if it was the fall or if it was because she looked so gorgeous, her face washed clean of make up and her hair pulled back in a simple, but high, pony tail, but he couldn't get his heart to stop beating erratically.
He laid there, just staring at her as she slammed the bay window closed once more, pushing the lock in place before the others had time to react. Her eyes never left his as she silently fumed, huffing and puffing.
No matter what Riley did, no matter how she felt, she was so passionate and animated about life. It was one of the things he loved most about her. Even as mad as she was, Lucas couldn't help but think how adorable she looked. Her face was red, her eyes slightly puffy, and he swore if it were possible smoke was coming out of her ears, just like in those old cartoons Zay loved so much.
Both still silent, waiting for the other to make a move. Lucas tried to be a gentleman, to let her go first, but she just stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest and began tapping her foot impatiently.
Realizing he was on thin ice, that this might be his only opportunity to talk to her before she kicked him back out, he said the first thing that came to his mind, "Hi."