Day Three: Lucas telling Riley the whole story about what got him kicked out of school in Texas.

Notes: This strays a little from the prompt but I think it fits. It takes place directly after Girl Meets Secret of Life. There is discussion of bullying, and non-graphic discussion of suicide, if those are topics that trigger you.

Riley only hesitates for a moment before she knocks on the door of Lucas' bedroom. His mother had let her in, but had informed her that he's been in quite a mood for the past few days so she shouldn't be surprised if he doesn't want to see her.

Riley knows all about the mood. Lucas has been struggling ever since the arrival of his old friend, Zay; he clearly hadn't been ready for everyone to know about his past and it had thrown him off. Riley isn't thrilled to learn that he's been keeping secrets but at the end of the day feels worse that he felt he had to, and even worse that she went on to pressure him to talk and punish him for it. So when, even after things in the group seem to return to the way they were before, Lucas still rushes to leave, she knows that she has to do something to offer her own apology.

She takes half an hour after school to gather a few things and then goes to his place. Where she's now starting to worry a little, because he's not answering to her knock. She raps her knuckles across the surface a second time.
"I'm studying, mom. Can this wait?"

Riley cringes at the tension in Lucas' voice. He sounds so tired. Why had she made this mess all about her when it was so obvious he was hurting too? She does her best to swallow down her guilt. "It's not your mom, Lucas." She calls through the door. "It's me. Riley."

The door swings open a few seconds later. Lucas doesn't smile when he sees her. "What are you doing here, Riley?"

"You've had a rough couple of days." She rocks on her heels to keep herself from leaving. It's fair that he's mad at her; they've been friends for over a year and he practically had to beg for her to put her trust in him. Riley had prioritized her own hurt feelings and fears over their relationship and she knows it will probably take some time for them to get back to where they were, if that's even possible. "I thought you could use a friend."

Lucas sighs, but he does step to the side to let her in. "I don't really feel like talking."

"You don't have to." Riley holds up her tote bag to show him while she walks into the room. "When I was little, whenever I had a really bad day, my dad would take me to the candy store. We'd pick a color, buy every type of candy that comes in that shade, and go home and watch movies while we made ourselves sick on the sugar. I thought we could do that."

A trace of a smile crosses his face. "Really?"

"Yeah." Riley grins and digs through the tote. "I brought Princess Bride, School of Rock, and Remember the Titans, but it's your choice so if you don't like any of those we can find something on Netflix." Lucas's room doesn't have a bay window that they can sit in to watch, but he has a couple of structured bean bag chairs and after she puts the DVD boxes with his laptop, Riley drops the tote to the floor and starts to push them together.

Lucas starts to help with the chairs. "And you really don't want me to talk about Texas?"

He sounds so skeptical that Riley stops. "I shouldn't have put so much pressure on you about that. I was hurt that you didn't tell me, but it's your business and you get to decide who you trust with it and when. You told me that you're worth it, and that's good enough for me."

"Thanks." Lucas grabs her hand, weaving his fingers between hers. "It means a lot that you still believe in me."

Riley's not sure what to say to that, so they stand in silence for several moments, staring at each other. When Riley realizes that they're still holding hands, she nearly jumps but just manages to stop herself, giggling nervously instead as she pulls away. "So you should pick a movie." She brushes her hair behind her ear as she spins around to grab her tote and get the candy. "I went and got the candy before I came. Normally the person who had the bad day gets to pick the color, but I wanted to surprise you so I didn't call to ask. And I realized when I was at the store that you've never actually told me your favorite color, so I went with blue. I figured since you wear it so often that at the very least you don't hate it."

She pulls her bag from the candy store out—a large cellophane one filled to the very top with every single type of blue candy she could find, and a few that were simply wrapped in blue—and spins again to find that Lucas is staring, all traces of his smile gone.

"What's wrong?" He doesn't answer. "Lucas?" Nothing. "Don't tell me you're allergic to Blue Dye number 73 or something." The nervous joke at least seems to get his attention and he shakes his head.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"To pick blue."

"Like I said," she shrugs, suddenly just as nervous as she had been before knocking on his door, "you wear a lot of it. I thought that meant you liked it."

Lucas visibly deflates when he sighs, and he falls heavily down onto one of the beanbag chairs. "I wear a lot of blue because…because my sister told me that she always thought I looked good in it."

Riley sits in the other chair. "You never said you have a sister."

"Had." Lucas corrects quietly. He pulls his phone from his pocket and starts tapping at the screen while he speaks. "Jessica Friar. Jess. She was two years older than me."

Riley's not entirely sure what to say or how to offer her condolences. She doesn't want to ask questions, even though she has so many, and come across as pushy and ruin their truce. She's just barely forming a thought when Lucas holds his phone out showing her picture. It's a beautiful blonde girl leaning over the shoulder of a younger Lucas, her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug. They're both sharing the same broad smiles and the same sparkling eyes. "She looks like she was really nice."

"She was." Lucas nods, taking the phone back. "She killed herself three years ago."

Oh God. Riley's heart, already aching for him for the loss of his sibling seems to snap at the revelation. She can't imagine the pain the Friar family must have gone through.

"She had problems at school. Bullies. A group of girls decided they didn't like her and instead of just not spending time with her they ruined her life. Called her every name they could think of, started ugly rumors…they turned the whole school against her." Lucas says, staring at his lap. "Jess couldn't handle it. She came home from school one day…told me that I looked good in blue and that I–," He breaks off, and Riley hesitates, but reaches out and puts her hand on his. "That I was the best brother she could have asked for. Then she went upstairs. My mom went to get her for dinner and found her on the bathroom floor. It was too late for anyone to do anything."

He starts to brush tears away from his eyes, and Riley doesn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him. She doesn't blink when she feels his shoulders start to shake, and doesn't make any comments. Saying that she's sorry won't make anything better. Riley knows that.

So much makes sense now. His reaction to Farkle's bully. His protectiveness over all of them. His secrecy. Riley can only imagine the stories that must have followed him in Texas as the boy whose sister killed herself. And to add on the reputation that Zay had alluded to…It had to be such a relief to be able to start with a blank slate somewhere that the idea of sharing his past and risking the loss of it all would have been terrifying.

Lucas pulls away abruptly, wiping at his face. "I started getting into a lot of fights after that. When I got kicked out of school, my parents sent me to one of those programs for troubled kids. And then we moved here."

"That must have been really hard." Riley's not sure if she's talking about what Lucas went through, or sharing it, and chooses to let him decide. "I get why you don't like to talk about it."

"I should though. Jess was amazing and she deserves to be remembered but we act like she never existed now. None of the people who are important to me here even know about her."

"I know now." Riley grabs his hand again. "And Zay knows. And if you want to tell Maya and Farkle or anyone else, I know they'll listen. But even if you don't, you can still come to me. You're right that she deserves to be remembered, and I'll remember her with you if you want me to."

He cracks a watery smile and squeezes her hand. "Jess would've really liked you, Riley."

"I wish I could have met her."

A long beat passes and Lucas surprises her when he pulls her a little closer, so she's practically leaning against him. "Thank you for coming over. I thought that I wanted to be alone but…I needed this."

Riley rests her head on his shoulder. "I'll always be here when you need me, Lucas."