I'm so thrilled with the response this fic has gotten! I'm glad everyone is enjoying it.

"So...where were we?"

"Riley was about to answer her question."

If she had any hope that her friends have forgotten the question she just drew, it goes out the window when Lucas answers Maya with a pointed look thrown in her direction. Riley's not even sure she can explain why she doesn't want to answer this particular question when everyone else in the room already pretty much knows what the answer is going to be thanks to the party, but she knows she doesn't, and she quickly turns to plan B to avoid it. "Actually, the timer was going off, so..." She does her best eyebrow communication across to Maya, silently pleading for her to back her up on this.

Riley realizes, as the innocent look creeps up on her friend's face (Maya is never that innocent), that she should have also included a some less subtle gestures to her ring. "Yeah, but that was just so we'd check in and see how we're feeling, Riles. And if we're doing that, I, for one, feel like we need your answer."

Of course she does. And Lucas is nodding emphatically alongside her.

It's all Riley can do to keep breathing. "I...I-I don't know if what...I mean..."Her mouth and brain stop communicating altogether. All she knows is if she answers the question, if she tells the truth and they confirm their suspicions, nothing will ever go back to the way it was ever again.

"Lucas, could you maybe give us a moment?" After nearly half a minute of her stammering and fumbling, Maya takes pity on her, and lays a hand across her knee.

"This involves all of us."

"It'll only be a minute." Maya assures. When Lucas still doesn't move she sighs and rolls her eyes. "I promise if she answers the question while you're gone I'll fill you in and we can talk all about it. After she and I get a moment alone."

Lucas gets drawn into his second stare down of the day. Unfortunately for him, if there's one thing Maya Hart always wins at, it's a staring contest. She never blinks first. Riley would know; most of her childhood timeouts stemmed from losing a staring contest with her best friend and having to give in to her plans. "Fine." He sighs, voice heavy with frustration, and starting to get to his feet. "I'm thirsty anyways."

"Great. We'll let you know when we're done in here." He leaves and Maya gets up as well. "All right, hon. Bay window, hop on up." She sits on the bench and pats the seat next to her twice.

Riley does as she's told. Not because she's all that eager to have whatever conversation this is going to be, but because having a talk in the bay window, just her and Maya, at least feels normal. Even if she's not sure that she's happy with Maya right now, she'll go to the bay window and talk. The bay window is good for answers, and if there's one thing Riley wants desperately at the moment, it's answers.

"Why don't you want to answer that question, Riles?" Maya asks.

"Maybe I don't know the answer." This reply comes out quick and it's not a total lie. She's fourteen. What does she know about love? When all of her experience comes from listening to her parents' story and two and a half dates? Who is she to call the way she feels about Lucas love?

"I think you do. But you're scared to tell us for some reason. And you don't have to be. No matter what happens, the one thing I know for sure is we're gonna be fine."

"Maya-,"

"Seriously, Riley. If you didn't get mad at me for all the crappy things I just told you about, I'm not gonna get mad at you for how you feel. And Lucas definitely isn't. If you just answer the question, we'll move on and figure out what happens next."

OK, so that makes sense. Maya would never punish her for her feelings, just like she can't punish Maya for hers. That's one less reason in the jumbled mess swimming around her head that Riley has not to answer the question. But that leaves Lucas' reaction. And suddenly Riley realizes how much more that scares her.

Lucas has to have feelings for Maya or he wouldn't have agreed to go out with her, so why would he care now what her feelings are? She may have told the brother lie in Texas to because she was scared of losing him as a friend, but it was also because she knew she wouldn't survive the heartache of having him choose Maya over her. Riley wasn't stupid. She had known the two had chemistry, but until the drama at the rodeo she had assumed that because they didn't think of each other like that, nothing would come of it; then when she figured out the truth about Maya's feelings (or what she realizes now was what she thought was the truth about Maya's feelings) it seemed so clear that it would only be a matter of time before Lucas realized that he'd rather be with his blonde beauty and she'd rather bow out gracefully than eventually hear the words come out of his mouth.

Only now she's doubting that reasoning. If Lucas is into Maya, why weren't his answers obviously about her? Riley has no idea what his answer about beauty meant, but he was looking at her when he gave it. Shouldn't he have been looking at Maya?

And what did Maya mean when Lucas definitely wouldn't be mad? Is that supposed to mean that he wants her to still have feelings for him?

Because as much as Riley doesn't want to answer the question and confirm anything, the fact is that they do already know, thanks to Farkle. He had been very clear on the rooftop. The only reason Maya and Lucas want her to confirm it so badly is so they can officially start the conversation. She's been assuming the conversation would be to cut her out of the friendship, but that's pretty much gone out the window. What if Lucas wants the conversation to be about how his feelings haven't changed either?

That prospect terrifies her more than anything.

"I can't." She says, staring straight ahead. Anything to avoid totally betraying her fears to Maya.

"Why not? I'm not lying Riley. You don't have to worry about anyone freaking out."

"I'm not worried about you freaking out, I'm worried about me freaking out!"

Maya's eyes widen, and Riley feels her cheeks flush. She definitely hadn't meant to have such an outburst. "What do you mean?"

Riley takes a deep breath to even herself back out. Her words still come out shakier than she would like. "All I know is if I answer that question, I'm making something real that I've been trying to convince myself wasn't for so long. And if it's real… If it's real everything's going to change."

"That's what you're worried about? Riles, it's not like you're gonna say that you love Lucas and he's gonna drag you down to city hall to get married and then it's back to Texas to make Huckle-bunny babies with you. There will at least be a serious conversation before that happens."

It's a little hard not to feel hurt by how amused Maya sounds or the soft smile on her friend's face. Maya might see things differently, but these have been very real concerns for her; Maya's response makes her feel like she's the little kid making mountains out of molehills. "This is serious Maya. Things have already been changing so much between all of us...And it's caused so many problems. Neither of us felt like we could talk to each other about any of it. Us! What if whatever happens next means we stop talking altogether? I don't want to lose any of you guys."

"Riley, you told me and Lucas more than once that we have to feel what we feel, right?" Maya waits for her to nod before she continues. "And you were totally prepared to stand by us no matter what it was. Are you saying you don't think we'd do the same thing for you?"

"It's a lot harder than-,"

Maya puts a hand on either side of Riley's face and turns her head so they're staring at each other. "Riley Matthews, you need to feel what you feel. If things change, we'll figure it out. But you can't keep sacrificing yourself to keep everyone else happy or just because you're scared. Because you're my best friend. It's you and me until we..." They both do the bleh together out of habit. "And if you're not happy, I'm not happy. Are we clear?"

Riley's stuck thinking about it with Maya still staring and holding onto her cheeks. Talk about pressure. Was Maya's message clear? Totally. Can she go along with it?

Riley could sit and think about that for ages. She knows how to analyze any subject to death, and one that affects her is no exception. There's a lot to consider. But her mom's words from before echo in her head. You can't go through life basing your choices on what-ifs. That's the only sure way I know you'll end up unhappy. At the time she couldn't understand how that lesson could possibly help her with her current problems. Now, maybe she can.

"We're clear."

"Good. Let's get Huckleberry back in here."

"OK, the question on the table is Riley's." Maya says once they're all settled again, in the bay window instead of on the floor this time. "Riley, have you ever been in love?"

Riley still takes a moment to remind herself that her choice is a good one—no matter what comes of it—before she starts to talk. "I have. Or...I am. I mean, I'm not totally sure that I really know what love is or anything, but I know whatever it is I'm feeling is real. It's real, and it's serious, and..." She takes the deepest breath she can manage and turns to face Lucas directly. "And it hurt so much when I tried to push you away and ignore it that I can't imagine it's anything but love."

"Then why'd you do it?"

The next moment is surreal. Riley can feel that Maya's still next to her but the way Lucas is staring at her, it's more like they're the only two in the room. Her heartbeat echoes loudly in her ears. "Because. I was scared. I had all these feelings with no idea what they meant or if you were feeling anything close to what I was. I was worried that when you figured out Maya was an option for you that you'd pick her and I'd get left behind and I was petrified that if we took a chance and things didn't work out that we'd lose each other entirely. I thought that being the one to step back would make it easier and at least we'd get to be friends. And even as I was saying all of that, I was realizing that it was love but...I couldn't go back on what I said."

"And what about now?"

"What about now?"

"If you could take back what you said, would you?"

If only it were that simple. Sure, she may not incur Maya's wrath for having her feelings, but that's still a whole different thing than actually doing anything about them. Riley's still not entirely sure what's going on between her friend and Lucas, but she knows that there's something there. Something that she can't just jump in between. Even if she's starting to think that there's still something lingering in Lucas' feelings for her, that doesn't make it any easier. There are three of them involved in this and it seems like everyone but her only wants to consider two of them at a time. No matter what somebody is gonna get hurt if they do it like that.

Maya jumps in before Riley can fumble out any sort of answer. "Nope. No more follow-ups."

"Maya!"

"Not until we do the check-in thing." Maya shakes her head. "We were supposed to do it before she answered that, and we made her do it anyways. Time to move on."

"But-," The potential stare down between Lucas and Maya cuts off quickly, and he sighs, looking for all the world like he wants to throw his hands in the air. "OK, you're right. So...how do we do this?"

This, Riley can handle. She understood the purpose of the game and she also knows if she asks the question, she doesn't have to be the first person to answer—a definite bonus. "Well, we were playing to see if what we learned would make things less confusing. Are we still confused?"

One beat passes. Then two. Then, "I don't think I am." The quiet response comes from Maya. She runs a hand through her hair when she realizes everyone's looking at her now. "I've been confused because I thought my feelings for you," she gestures towards Lucas, "were romantic and I couldn't understand how we got along so well and had some sort of chemistry before we decided to give it a shot, but the moment we were alone with things out in the open it all went away and things were just uncomfortable. But I think I get it now."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You know how I said I was jealous that there's always something there to take care of you, Riley? So when I was talking about when I started having feelings for Lucas, I realized...it was when he was helping to take care of me. I mistook the feeling of someone I didn't consider family doing something like that as something more, because I had never had it before. And I did start caring more, just not in the way that I thought. I let myself get caught up in everything because the guy I really want is practically impossible and even though it was wrong, at least this was something that could happen."

"So you...don't like Lucas?"

"Not like a boyfriend, just like...a good friend. And I think that's why things got so awkward. We were trying to be something that we just...weren't ever going to be." Maya flashes a wry smile in his direction. "Sorry Ranger Rick."

Riley frowns. This isn't at all what she had been expecting. Maya doesn't really like Lucas, at least not romantically...What does that mean for them? She can understand her friend's confusion over what she was feeling (because it is so weird and disconcerting when you feel something for the first time and aren't sure what it is) but she's still not sure that she can overlook Maya embracing it all when she knew exactly how Riley felt or the way she seemed to do lots of little things to make herself feel better instead of just trying to resolve the situation. That hurts more than anything.

Riley's been working so hard to forget everything she felt for Lucas since Texas. Even though the feelings—the love- has still been there, she's done everything she can think of to try and stop feeling it because Maya was into him. Maya was with him. Why didn't Maya do the same for her?

Which isn't to say that this is Maya's fault. Riley knows she played a part too. Lucas wasn't officially taken. She's the one that was too scared of things becoming serious with Lucas to let things go further. So he was sort of available. And Maya certainly didn't ask Riley to give him up so they could be together; that was all Riley too.

And then there's Lucas' feelings. What does he think about this revelation? It always seemed like he felt the same for Maya that she did for him, but just now he also seemed so interested in her feelings. Which is it?

"That's OK, Maya." He returns the smile, and reaches over Riley to briefly pat Maya's knee. "I'm glad you've figured things out."

"Yeah. It feels pretty good."

"You don't think the two of you could ever happen?" Riley wants to hear the words. She has to be one hundred percent sure this time before she does anything (even if she still has no idea what she might do).

"Not really."

"No." Maya and Lucas answer at the same time. Maya continues. "Even if I hadn't just realized that all we are is friends, the other thing I learned from those questions is that we want completely different things."

"I tried things with Maya because you seemed to want me to really badly, Riley." Lucas adds. "And I didn't want to disappoint you. I thought if being with Maya was what kept you in my life, I needed to give it a shot." He sends Maya an apologetic look similar to the one she gave him. "Which wasn't fair to you." She waves him off, and he turns back to Riley. "But things with her would never work, because, like she said, we want different things. I want something simple and quiet. Something like...what we have."

Riley barely gets a moment to contemplate this before he speaks again.

"So we know what Maya wants, and we know what I want. The only question left is...what do you want Riley?"

What does she want?

Riley's head spins so fast it almost feels like a miracle that she's not throwing up. Maya and Lucas are officially over. That's one less complication to consider. And Lucas thinks it's possible they still have something between them and that's what he wants. That's another question answered.

But that still leaves so much...Yes she loves Lucas, but she still doesn't really know what that means. She doesn't know if she's ready for an actual relationship, or if she just wants to go back to being the unofficial thing, or something in between. She doesn't know that they can really do any of that.

And she can't figure out where this leaves any of her friendships. There's still problems with Maya, with Farkle...even with Lucas. How can she consider her love life when her friend life is still in crisis?

There are so many questions, and even with all of the answers she was just given by the game, Riley can't sort through them all.

"I...I want more time."