Maya sighed as she approached a neutral Lucas at his locker, refraining from slamming her fist into a locker as she squeezed her eyes shut and handed over a paper. A confused expression reached his face as he took it from her. "What's this?" He murmured before unfolding the piece of paper. His face lit up in surprise at the title of the paper he read in front of his very eyes.
The Rules of Pretending with Maya and Lucas.
1. We're doing this so you can end up with the one and only Riley Matthews. The minute she falls for you, it's done.
2. We only pretend when she's around us. No behind the scenes pretending. Ew. Unless we're practicing or whatever on our own FOR Riley, it doesn't go further than that.
3. We let Zay and Farkle know what's happening. I will not give them the satisfaction to think that they won some old bet they used to have on us. Err.. Don't know if you knew about that one.
4. Please, please, PLEASE, do not go overboard with PDA. We may be pretending, but that doesn't stop my boundaries.
5. Welcome. I'm your pretend kind of-girlfriend. I hate you for this. If Riley hurts, we're gonna end it.
A smile lit his face as he looked up at the girl, immediately grabbing her into an embrace. "Oof." she muttered as he caressed her back. "Okay okay." They pulled apart, Maya awkwardly fixing her hair. "So as you said, we're not jumping into a relationship."
Lucas nodded in agreement. "So like, what do we do? Hold hands?"
A small blush rose on her face, praying that he wouldn't notice generally. "I guess so." She held out her hand, but instead of all her fingers stretched out, her pinkie stuck out. A confused expression approached his face as he glanced at her questionably. He held out his hand as well, entwining her pinkie with his as they walked down the hallway. Maya silently ignored the massive beating her chest from the tingle that was sent from her pinkie up her spine. People immediately noticed their gesture, the friends noticing their facial expressions turning to utter excitement. That their class couple had finally gotten together. Oh brother. Maya was gonna suffer. It was only pretend, and it's not gonna be too long until Riley flips out.
She gave Lucas a look that basically read, help me, all over it. Lucas smiled in response, wanting to laugh at her helpless expression. Was this how it felt to hold hands with the Lucas Friar? They weren't even holding hands, and people were looking at them as if they had just stepped out on the red carpet. But Maya could tell that Lucas's lovely crush was about to walk down the hallway, seeing an inch of brown hair taking a turn. Riley walked down the hallway normally, until she met eyes with Maya, and then looked at their pinkies. If this was some classic MTV show, Riley would approach her, slap her, and fight her until chunks of their hair were on the floor. But this was reality. All that happened was when Riley walked passed them, she gave her a confused expression as the two both walked to class. The moment felt so slow when Riley stepped foot into the hallways- as if everything in the world had slowed down as the tension began to swarm around the one individual school hallway the three had just happened to be walking through at the same time.
Zay and Farkle approached the two with confused incredulous looks. But when Zay looked down at their pinkies, his expression immediately turned smug and mischievous. "You two-"
"Sorry Zay, but no, it didn't happen. It's not going to happen." Maya cut him off. Farkle just continued staring with his mouth gaping open.
"You guys are actually doing this. Holy crap." Farkle covered his mouth with his hands as Lucas shrugged. "Does that means I have dibs on Riley though?" He added, earning a punch on the arm from Lucas.
"I've had worse ideas." Maya turned and glared at his comment as Lucas sheepishly looked back at her. "Sorry..."
"Yeah yeah." She let go of his pinkie and folded her arms. "What he means is that, our idea could actually work. Riley will probably get upset, and then she'll burn into a furious rage of jealousy." Maya smiled, assuring herself that it'd work.
Farkle didn't exactly buy the plan by the looks of it. "Uh-huh. Good luck with that. Riley doesn't seem that dumb."
"You're right." Cory Matthews interrupted from behind them. "Didn't hear your whole story, but my daughter is not dumb." A smile was brought to his face as he gestured to the desks. "Have a seat, make yourself comfortable and enjoy 40 minutes of this guy." He pointed to himself. Maya chuckled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Hi Maya. I'm Cory, your new friend's father. Good to meet you. And I see you've made good friends with her Bay Window."
"I see that she has a thing for that." Maya responded as they all took their seats. Mr. Matthews nods before beginning his lecture. As she turned around to flick Farkle's nose from kicking her seat, she spotted Riley at the back of the room, a smile not on her face. She looked like a grey rainbow. Maya sighed as she turned back around, praying the plan would work.
Maya and Riley were lightly talking about classes, and how boring most of them were. At least Maya helped her with that additional spark of reality. And out of nowhere, Riley interrupted their conversation with a different topic.
"Maya, how long have you and Lucas known each other?" Riley asked. Maya froze at this, and calmly responded when she unfroze.
"Since 7th grade. How come?"
"Well, I'm getting that vibe that you're won of those classic-made-to-be couples-"
"No, Riley we're not. Trust me. We-" Maya almost choked on her words, but stopped talking. If she was going to pretend, she had to pretend there was going to be development. "I don't think we are, that's all." She shrugged off.
Riley intriguingly looked at her friend. "Would there be a problem dating him?"
"No. Not necessarily."
"Do you think that he likes you?" Riley pressed ever so softly. Maya shrugged unknowingly.
"I don't know. Either way, he'd probably like you better."
"Oh."
"Yep."
"So why are you trying to end things with Lucas?" Maya figured while she was here, she could get some answers out of this girl.
"Because I kind of like him in a way where I'm just starting to get those bubbly emotions. It's nothing crazy." But somewhere in the girl's expression, Maya could tell that she feared her. Feared she'd take him. That's how she needed to be right now. Now Riley just had to take him in some way.
Maya could swear that the glint in her friend's eye was probably a dead giveaway that she knew something was happening between her and Lucas. She just had to keep playing the game to win. And by the look of Riley's expression, maybe she'd want to be a player two.
Lucas looked down at their parted hands, and took a deep breath before taking one of hers in his own. "This okay? Can we move on from pinkies?"
It was eight o'clock that night, and he called her over to make sure they were comfortable with doing certain things since they were going to be pretending for a while now. They sat across from each other on Lucas's bed. Maya sighed and nodded, waiting for this to be over soon so she could go home and finish up her physics homework. "How much do you like this girl?" She asked, a chuckle coming up at the same time. Lucas shrugged and blushed deeply. So maybe Maya had spilled some tea on why Riley didn't want to be with him- because she kind of liked him. This made Lucas hella happy, quiet obviously. He couldn't stop blushing. His grip on her hand tightened as he thought about Riley.
"Okay okay. So, can I go home yet?"
"No." Lucas replied. Maya huffed in annoyance. "You never mentioned what we can do in terms of PDA. Like what are we allowed to do?"
"Well, we're good to hold hands now, since we don't have a problem. Not like we'd actually anyway." Maya responded. "Umm, you're allowed to put your hands around my neck, and around my waist. But no other places." She guided his hands, bringing them around her neck. His hands were suddenly slightly buried in her blonde curls. They were nice and cool against her neck.
"You have long hair."
"Thanks for acknowledging. And.." She placed his hands on her waist. Maya had almost sucked in a breath. There was something in his touch that hasn't been there before. Oh shut up Maya. "Here is fine." She blurted as electricity lit in her stomach, and she still didn't know why. Lucas's hands felt like fire on her skin. Lucas himself didn't know if it was his obsessive Riley thoughts or if it just happened to be really hot in his room. Gulping, he nodded and broke out of her touch. "So what about me?"
He guided her own hand to his upright part of his arm as she nodded, the back of his neck, and then the center of his chest-which felt borderline weird and unfamiliar. Maya was surprised at his choice of spot as she glanced at the center of his chest, lips slightly parted. "Um," she cleared her throat awkwardly. "Okay. Fair enough."
"So since we've acknowledged that, did you think that maybe we should like.. Practice ki-"
"You want to?" Maya cautiously asked back, feeling her heart thump hard in her chest as they both began leaning over from across one another, reaching for the areas they were okay to reach for. He let his hands rest into her hair as she began wrapping her arms around his neck. This was only pretend, they agreed. When suddenly, a knock was heard at his bedroom door. The color from Maya's face immediately drained when they pulled apart before even pressing their lips against each one another's.
"Lucas- Oh, hi Maya." Lucas's mother greeted. "What're you guys doing?"
"Uh, talking-" They both began quite awkwardly. Maya chuckled at him.
"Talking about school, obviously. Physic homework can be such a bitch, you know?"
"No. I definitely agree." She shook her head furiously. "I hated that subject. I dropped out of the class after two days." Maya laughed at this again. Gotta love Lucas' mom. Especially with the accent, giving Maya additional reasons to like her. "Don't stay up too late!" She said, winking at Lucas before closing the door.
"Jesus, my mom can be so-"
"Your mom is awesome. Shut your trap." Maya rolled her eyes as she flicked his forehead. "Anyway, we'll do that some other time, Fuckboi Friar?" She walked over to the window, a trivial expression painted in her eyes and on her witty-comment filled lips.
"Yeah, but for now," He leaned over close as her face heated fifty degrees higher than normal. Lucas gently placed a kiss on her forehead, like he used to when they were in the eighth grade and Maya had needed comfort; due to her father's absence. A smile lifted on her lips as she nodded; the tension slipping away.
"Good enough. See you tomorrow." She replied before climbing out of his window, a warm feeling taking over her heart, though she didn't really feel it.
This plan was so obviously gonna work out in everyone's favor. Isn't it obvious?
...
AH! I loved this chapter a lot more. Last chapter was like... MEGA filler. Sorry that I'm a failure ): haha. I think I know what I'm doing. I appreciate some of your likes/comments [I posted this on as well, so i'm not talking about any like... Mysterious invisible commens on my wattpad. Hahaha. I love you all! Your sweet, votes, reviews, and amount of views is astounding. Keep reading for more dramaaa! HAHA. I laugh a lot, my apologies. I'm just a barrel of laughs. This is a lucaya-set story, so even tho Rucas may make you wanna pull your hair out, DON'T WORRY! Good stuff is coming. ;)
It's only a matter of... Time...
I'm sorry I'm a dork. x(. Hamilton references will keep filling my mind for like the rest of eternity.
Till next time!
-A
