Preparing for the fall

Josh is pacing outside of the building, thinking, when Farkle and Maya arrive. His thoughts are not good ones. For a split second, he almost didn't answer Maya's call. Lately, he has been fighting his growing feelings for her and he was afraid to give in to temptation. Suddenly, it dawned on him that Maya had never called him before, so he answered quickly, heart in his throat fearing that something was wrong.

"Josh? I didn't think you would be here yet." Maya is shocked to see him already.

"I ran and then took a cab. I know something must be wrong for you to have called me. Where is Riley? Is she OK? Tell me what is going on…. now. I need to know." Josh's voice is shaking, the look in is his eyes is a cross between wild and terrified.

"Josh, as far as we know Riley is inside sleeping but there is something very wrong going on." Farkle says as he hands his IPhone to Josh. "Promise us that you are going to stay calm, so that we can discuss this rationally and determine our course of action."

"Yeah,yeah. Give me the damn phone. I'm not making any promises until I know how this involves Riley." Josh starts scrolling through the Twitter feed. His eyes get really large, his hands clench into white knuckled fists. "Where is he?" he asks quietly, a little too quietly for anyone's comfort. His insides are shaking. How could anyone do this to his niece? How can someone who professed to love her treat her like this? If he didn't want to be in a relationship with her anymore, why didn't he just break-up with her and spare her the public humiliation?

"We don't know. He's not answering his phone. I'll be honest, until this, I thought he was my best friend. Now? I would rather fail a class then have to sit in the same room with him." This statement coming from Farkle is a testament to his anger. Everyone knows how important his grades are to him but this shows how important Riley is to him as well.

The trio is quiet for a moment, each one taking a deep breath and trying to calm themselves down. They know that if they don't handle this correctly, it could be bad for all of them.

"Here's what we are going to do. I am going to grab her phone, laptop and everything else. Josh, you handle talking to her parents. I will talk to her myself, Farkle will stand guard at the Bay Window to make sure we are not interrupted" Maya looks at each of them to make sure they know what the plan is. Hurt and anger are at war in her eyes. You can visually see her trying to reign her emotions in, knowing that she was going to have to break Riley's heart. She knows that she is not prepared to do this, to ruin the image Riley has of him, but not telling her is not an option. Lucas' cowardly actions forced their hands in this. The only concern they have now, is making sure that Riley is OK. Nothing and no one else matters.

Cory and Topanga are sitting on the couch watching the 11pm news. They are both startled when there is a knock on the door. Looking at each other quizzically, they both get up and head for the door.

"Who is it?" Cory calls out.

"It's Josh" the minute he recognizes the voice, his heart falls to his feet and he throws the door open. Why would his brother be knocking on his door, this late? Something must be wrong... very wrong.

"Josh!" Cory pulls Josh through the door and into his arms. "What's wrong? Are you OK? Is it mom? Dad? Tell me whatever it is, I can handle it." Saying it was one thing, meaning it is something else entirely.

"Cory calm down. Mom and Dad are fine. We are all fine." Cory looks up and sees Maya and Farkle standing there, concern evident on their faces.

"What's going on? Why are the 3 of you here?" Topanga asks frantically. She knows Riley is in her room sleeping, she is at a complete loss as to why they are standing in front of her.

"Sis, we are here because Riley is going to need all of us." Josh answers quietly

"What? Why? What are you talking about?" Cory and Topanga are now both frantic.

"Let's sit down and I will tell you what's going on. Maya, Farkle, take care of things." Maya and Farkle head towards Riley's room.

"I am going to show you guys some stuff that is being blasted all over social media. It has to do with Riley."

"Riley?" Cory asked completely puzzled.

"I promise once you see what I'm talking about, you will understand what's going on."

Josh hands Farkle's IPhone to Cory. It only takes seconds for him to reach his breaking point. He calmly hands the phone to Topanga, takes a deep breath and coldly asks "Where is he?"

Josh has never seen this side of his brother and thankfully, he is not going to be the one on the receiving end of his anger. "We don't know. He hasn't answered any calls or texts from Maya and Farkle."

"Maya is grabbing Riley's laptop and phone so Riley can't see anything. Farkle is standing guard at the window. We hope Lucas isn't stupid enough to show his face around here after this but we can't be certain. Maya wants to be the one to tell her about the tweets and pictures." Josh looks at Topanga as she has finished reading the messages. Her heard her gasp and as he watched, he saw her steel her backbone and compose herself, in this moment, she truly is an Amazon Woman.

"I will kill him myself." Topanga growls. Her heart hurts, she thought for sure Lucas loved her daughter. He was there that very afternoon, taking care of his princess. How did he manage to fool all of them?

Farkle walks quietly into Riley's room, locks the bay window, closes the drapes and sits. He looks over at Riley's bed, she is under a pile of blankets, only the very top of her head is visible. He watches as Maya picks up all of Riley's electronics and heads out the door. He can't believe the situation they are in. How do you prepare yourself? How do you look into the eyes of your "sister" and tell her something that you know, without a doubt, is going to hurt her? At that moment, Farkle wished his biceps were bigger than his brains. He would love nothing more than to beat the living daylights out of Lucas. To hurt him as much as he has hurt them. He can't wrap his head around what Lucas has done. How evil must you be to hurt someone like Riley? The worse part for him is that Lucas did it so publicly and that is the cruelest part of the whole thing. Maya walks back into the room and sits next to Farkle.

"I gave everything to Josh to give to her mom." She whispers.

"Did Josh say how they took the news?"

"He said they are angry, hurt and stunned. They never could have imagined Lucas doing this to anyone, let alone doing it to Riley"

"Maya?"

"Yeah?"

"Riley is going to be OK right?"

"I hope so Farkle. But no matter what, she has us. We will help her through it. Are you OK Farkle? He's your best friend"

"You mean was…he was my best friend. I can't be friends with someone like that. He sure had us all fooled didn't he?"

Sitting in that bay window, in the dark of night, both of them realize that this will be the toughest thing they have ever dealt with, it made the "triangle" back in middle school look like a playground fight. Both are scared but resolute. They will do whatever they need to, to make sure Riley is OK. Both know that this is going to hurt Riley, but they never thought it would lead to her personal destruction.

Somewhere, in a bedroom across town, Lucas climbs into bed, thinking of Riley, hoping that she is starting to feel better. As soon as she is up to it, he wants to take her ice skating. She is getting better at it but is still a little clumsy on skates. He doesn't mind, it gives him plenty of opportunities to hold her hand or to hold her in his arms. As Lucas gently nods off to sleep he has a smile on his face and his Riley on his mind. He is blissfully unaware that they are out there, destroying his whole world. His name, his reputation and worst of all, his Riley.

Missy and Charlie are laughing themselves silly as they post their final tweet of the night.

MissyBradford I love you with all my heart. We will be together soon. #youaremyqueen #princessesareforlittleboys #imallman

CowboyLuke I can't wait until we are together all the time I love you #saveahorserideacowboy

"Done and done. By this time tomorrow Charlie, Riley will be yours for the taking. I will be with Lucas, as I should have been all along." Missy hands the phone to Charlie. "Make sure you throw this out on your way home. We wouldn't want it to fall into the wrong hands now, would we?" Charlie pockets the phone and starts the walk home. He stops a few blocks from Missy's, takes out the memory card, puts it in his pocket and throws the phone away. He has a brief moment of sanity and wonders if hurting Riley was really the only way to go. The thought leaves as quickly as it came. Riley should have been his after the Semi-Formal but she always went towards that damn cowboy. He finishes his walk home, formulating his plan to make Riley his.