I Write Sins, Not Tragedies
A Girl Meets World Fan Fiction
Chapter 4: Hart-to-Hart

A/N: So, apparently there's something wrong with my reviews. It says I have 8 but I can only read 5 of them no matter what I try. Somebody help because I really want to know what you guys think of the story and not being able to read your comments is killing me.

A/N2: Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Things are escalating quickly at the moment, but soon enough everything is going to simmer down. Things just have to boil over the top beforehand.

"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! HEY, EVERYBODY UP IN THE STANDS, YELL GO BOBCATS GO! COME ON, GO BOBCATS GO! LOUDER NOW, LET'S HEAR YOU SHOUT! BEAT THOSE MUSTANGS! COME ON, BEAT THOSE MUSTANGS!"

The Abigail Adams High School cheerleaders finished the final word of their new cheer, but Maya refused to allow her body to relax just yet. Technically speaking, she couldn't allow herself to relax, because she was being held up by three other teammates, as the center of the pyramid.

Positioned on one leg, with her left arm on her hip and her right arm extended outwards, pointing towards the crowd, she stood in a perfect liberty. Her Left foot was in her bases's hands, her backstop clinging to the back of her knee and clutching her ankle. Her right foot was pointed, brought up to her knee and her smile was bright.

The cheer consisted completely of stunts and it was absolutely exhausting. But Maya wanted every second to go perfectly because she had been the one to help create the cheer. She was the junior captain of the team and the favorite of the senior co-captains who constantly talked about how proud they were to leave their team in the capable hands of Maya Hart when they graduated. And Maya wanted to make sure they had put their faith in the right place.

It began with five stunt groups, Maya in the center. The two stunt groups on either side of her began with walk-in, step-up halves. Then, they grabbed onto Maya, who had been nestled into the hold of her bases, squatted down. The other two flyers helped her to flip up into her stunt where her bases caught her in a half liberty. As she got her balance, she switched legs with a simple tick-tock.

Meanwhile, the other two stunt groups entered with the flyer doing a back walkover, flipping over the backspot's shoulder to get into a half. When they were positioned, they turned around, glancing at the crowd from over their shoulders with one hand resting behind the head and the other one on their butt. As they stood there, their bases would turn the stunt group around. When they were facing the front, their hands snapped down to rest on their hips with their hands folded up into fists.

At the first "come on" Maya released her partner's hands and was pushed up into a full liberty, with her arms positioned into a high V. As she held onto her place, placing in a few simple moves, her fellow stunt groups were brought down into the re-take position and the ones closest to Maya spread out to give Maya's group a bit more space.

The other four groups were brought up into full awesome's, a quick flash of the flyer as they broadcasted the word BOBCAT across their uniform. Then, they were put up into full awesome's and held there this time, pointing out at the audience at the end. At the same time, Maya twisted her body into a scorpion. Her stunt group turned in a full circle. When they reached the front, Maya snapped back up into a straight lib with one hand on her hip and the other one pointed out towards the crowd.

"Alright, perfect. Cradle out and that's the end of practice for today," Coach Evans called out, a bright smile on her full, perfectly round face.

Maya loved their coach almost as much as she loved the rest of the her team. Coach Kelly had attempted to remain the coach of "her" cheerleaders when the girls had moved onto high school but there was already a coach at the high school. Besides that, not everybody went to the same high school after John Quincy Adams Middle School, which already split up the twelve girls she had selected back in the third grade. As a result, she was still at the middle school scaring girls away from becoming cheerleaders while the high school got Coach Margaret Evans, who was the sweetest woman in the entire world.

The short, slightly chubby, rosy cheeked blonde counted the girls out for the cradle and the five flyers twisted in the air, landed safely in their bases's arms. As the girls moved to go and roll up the mats, Maya couldn't help but overhear the bitter whispers made by Samantha Charles and Olivia Jenkins, the two remaining members of the John Quincy Adams Middle School School cheerleading team.

The girls hated Maya on the principle of the fact that they believed they should have been selected as the future captains of the team, over Maya. Sometimes Maya agreed with them, because she knew she lacked their experience. But, leadership meant a lot more than experience and Maya had all of those qualities. She was sure of it.

"I hate her, but that was a pretty decent cheer," Jenkins, who still went by her last name only, muttered, reaching up to tighten her glossy, dark chocolate brown ponytail.

"But of course she has to be the center of it all," Samantha laughed, rolling her eyes as her curly, ash-blonde ponytail bounced with every step that she took.

"She's not even any good," Jenkins replied bitterly. "They only picked her because she's the easiest one to control. Ashleigh and Melody just want somebody who will do everything they next year when their gone. Notice that they're two of the other flyers?" she pointed out, shooting her cat-like, jade green eyes towards the co-captains who were whispering with their coach as the rest of the team worked on putting away the mats.

Still, she couldn't deny that the whisperings hurt her from time to time.

"You two do realize that I made both of you flyers for this cheer?" Maya snapped as the mat was finally completely rolled up. The thud as the mat was fallen onto the silver racks used to wheel the mat around only emphasized her anger.

She turned on her heel, storming off towards her bag and grabbing the dark blue Nike gym bag as she stalked out of the gym, she knew she was going to hear all about it from Melody and Ashleigh, but she didn't care. She stood up for herself and she removed herself from the situation before she said anything she may regret.

Besides, she had bigger fish to fry.

"We need to talk," Maya said, slamming Lucas's car door as she climbed into the truck.

He knew that she was angry due to the fact that she didn't ask him to help her into the truck or complain about having to get into the truck herself. She hadn't opened the backseat of the truck and put her bag down before hand. And she didn't immediately demand that they stop for frozen yogurt or ice cream or smoothies or something else full of high calories to counteract the work out she had just had.

She was pissed and as much as an angry Maya turned Lucas on, it also terrified him. Especially when the anger was directed towards him, because there was nothing he could do to get away from her when she was in one of her moods.

Maya had a tendency of following whoever she was pissed at around until she got everything that she needed to say out in the open. And if they dared to fight back and try to defend themselves? That only made her angrier. It made her scream and yell. Sometimes she even threw things when she was angry enough, although usually her violent tendencies were reserved for when she and Lucas were alone in her room or his room, where she could freely rant about everything that was bothering her.

"How could you do that to Riley?" Maya sighed. "She deserves so much better than that and you know it. And why would you wait so long before you decided to stand up for yourself? It would have been one thing if you told us all of that in the beginning, but you waited over a year. Lucas, you broke her heart and that's not fair. She's never going to get over this. Not completely, at least. She's always going to hold onto this and wonder why she couldn't be good enough for you," Maya went on, leaning her head against the window.

Lucas was a bit shocked at how calm she was being. She sounded more hurt than she did angry. She was clearly upset about what had happened, but she was not going to yell at Lucas. It was clear that she wanted answers, because she was concerned about Riley. But it was also clear that she wanted an explanation from Lucas, because she knew that whatever was going on affected him just as much as it was affecting Riley.

She was, without a doubt, acting as the perfect mutual party. She was the best friend of both and she was ensuring that she was caring for the both of them.

"I just don't get it, Ranger Rick. We're best friends, you know you can tell me anything. And out of all of the long talks we've had about anything and everything and all the time we spend together, you never once mentioned any of this to me. So, can you please try to explain this to me?" She asked, her voice soft.

He could tell that she was fighting back tears. She wasn't just concerned for her friends. She was just as concerned for herself. She was worried about losing her best friend, and she wasn't worried about losing Riley. She considered Lucas to be her best friend, or at least once of them. He'd never heard her talk about him like that. But, he figured that if she was going to be honest with him, he should give her the same respect.

"Maya…I was going to pick you, okay?" He sighed, his fists clutching the steering wheel and his knuckles turning white as he turned onto the street from the parking lot.

"What?" She froze, lifting her head up and turning to look at him.

"After graduation back in eighth grade? I was going to pick you. I knew from the second we kissed at the campfire back in Texas that I wanted you. I just….I didn't know how to let you know without making you think I was just doing what I thought I was supposed to do. And then, when I figured out what I wanted to say…Farkle told everyone that Riley still liked me. And then I didn't know how to tell you guys without hurting Riley. But I wanted to pick you. I always wanted to pick you," Lucas said, the words tumbling out of his mouth without any thought going into it.

He couldn't stop himself, but he also didn't care. Maya had every right to know all of what he was saying and he wasn't going to withhold the information from her anymore. He was telling her everything and he was no longer monitoring anything out of fear of hurting Riley.

"And then you were with Josh and you guys were telling me that I should be with Riley and all I could think was that you picked that idiot over me. So, I made a stupid mistake and I got myself in too deep. I didn't know how to say no without making it clear that I would have picked you and that would have crushed her. And then I would have had to break up with her and I was terrified of you picking her over me and losing you completely, but…I just couldn't do it anymore, Maya. I can't hold it in anymore. I'm in love with you, Maya Hart and I don't want to just sit on the sidelines anymore," He exclaimed, shocking even himself with the words leaving his mouth.

"Lucas," She whispered.

She didn't need to say anything else. She had called him by his first name and that was enough. She never called him that. She always had a nickname and usually, even when she was upset or emotional with him, she still called him by one of those stupid nicknames she had made up back in the seventh grade.

Calling him by his first name meant something.

"Maya, I'm sorry…I shouldn't have said anything. I know the position this puts you in," Lucas sighed, releasing his iron-tight grip on the steering wheel and reaching out to take her hand in one of his.

When she didn't immediately recoil, yanking her hand away from him, he figured that it was okay to go on with everything that he had to say. But, just to be safe, he decided to test the waters. He wound his fingers through hers, allowing their hands to be completely intertwined. He used his thumb to rub reassuring circles around the back of her hand.

"You don't have to say anything. I know you don't feel the same way and I now that you've got Josh. I didn't break up with Riley expecting for us to suddenly get together. I did it because I couldn't lead her on anymore and I couldn't just sit by and act okay with your relationship. I'm going to fight for you, Maya….but, first I'm going to make things right with Riley so she knows not to blame you for any of this," Lucas assured her, giving her hand a tight squeeze.

"Lucas…it killed me to step aside. It hurt the first time, because I knew that you were something special from the second I saw you. But…after I thought I had a chance and then I found out I had to step aside for Riley again? It killed me, but I did it because I thought it would make everyone happy in the end…but…none of us are happy, are we? None of us have been truly happy since Texas, have we?" she asked, and this time Lucas knew that the tears were falling.

The strongest person that he knew was breaking down. He couldn't remember the last time Maya had cried, at least in front of anybody. He definitely knew that she had never cried in front of him. She was always strong in front of anybody other than Riley.

Yet, there she was, sitting in the passenger's seat of his truck crying like a little girl and it killed him because he didn't know what he could do to help her.

"Maya…how about we stop at Nighthawk Diner and I'll buy you the biggest tuna melt they have," Lucas asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes and flashing her a goofy grin.

She looked up from her lap, away from their intwined hands and a slow, small smile began to creep across her face as she nodded.

"Add in a triple chocolate milkshake and you've got yourself a deal, Hop-a-Long," She giggled as that glorious smile broke through her tears.

Riley was actually a little bit annoyed.

Maya was supposed to be her best friend and best friends were supposed to be there whenever one another needed anything.

Yet, Riley was sitting in her bay window, curled up in a ball with her forehead resting against her knees as she sobbed harder than she ever had in her life. Because she was heartbroken over her break up with Lucas.

She was heartbroken, and she was alone. She was left alone to her own devices. Her best friend, who had been supposed to come over as soon as her cheerleading practice was over, wasn't coming over. She had sent Riley a text that she'd had a rough night and was going to just head home because she'd prefer some alone time.

But Riley knew the truth. She wasn't stupid. She knew that Maya was ditching her plans with Riley to go and spend more time with Josh. On an ordinary day, that would be something that Riley could shrug off. Maybe she'd be a little hurt that Maya had picked a boy over their friendship but she had picked Lucas over Maya more than once, so it was understandable. Riley could get over it.

On this particular day, however, Riley was pissed. She was dealing with a breakup and Maya was ignoring her friend's pain to enjoy her own relationship. That was like pouring salt in an open wound. It was unfair and it was unkind. It was the exact opposite of what a good friend should do for their supposed best friend. There was no excuse and there was no explanation good enough for bailing on a heartbroken, recently dumped best friend.

Of course, it probably wasn't completely fair of Riley to be angry with Maya. After all, Maya had enough drama in her own life. If she was having a bad day, which wouldn't surprise Riley because Maya usually was in a bad mood after cheerleading practice, it would only add to her troubles to have to help Riley through a breakup.

And it had to be one of the worst days ever for Maya to actually turn around and tell Riley that she wasn't going to be able to hang out with her that day. Because ordinarily, Maya would drop absolutely anything and everything for Riley when the brunette really needed her best friend's help.

"RILEY! DINNER!" Topanga Matthews's voice broke Riley out of her thoughts, tearing Riley away from the internal debate in her mind.

"COMING!" She shouted back, rising to her feet.

Grabbing her phone, she started to fire off a reply to Maya's text message. With her head down, she walked out of her bedroom and towards the kitchen of her apartment, dropping down into her usual seat. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a figure dressed in dark clothing which shocked her enough to drop her phone into her lap and snap her head up.

Sitting besides her was a tall, lanky, pale skinned boy with a crooked smile and eyes almost as dark as his dark chocolate, thick and wavy hair, carelessly gelled and styled to peak out from beneath a black beanie. A black ROLLING STONES tee shirt was nestled underneath a plaid shirt in various shades of grey and dark, straight leg jeans finished off his outfit with a pair of beat up, black Converse sneakers.

"Uncle Josh? What are you doing here?" She asked, eyes growing wide.

"You dad called and asked me if I wanted to come over for dinner since my late class got cancelled tonight," He shrugged, not even taking a second to pause from using his fork and knife as a set of drum sticks against the table.

"But I thought you and Maya were hanging out tonight," Riley frowned.

"Did she say we were? She knows I have that introduction to media class every Thursday night," Josh frowned.

"No…she just cancelled on sleeping over here tonight because she had a bad day, but I figured she was just making up a excuse so she could go and see you…"Riley frowned. "I don't get why she'd bail when she knows Lucas broke up with me," Riley whispered to herself.

"Lucas broke up with you?" Cory asked, perking up from his seat at the head of the table.

"Why?" her recently turned 8 year old brother, Auggie, frowned.

"Riley, why didn't you tell us when you got home?" Topanga asked, sitting down at her usual seat at the table.

"He said that Maya and I decided for him, before he and I started dating…he said that he was only dating me because he didn't want to hurt either of, but that he wasn't going to pick me," Riley whispered, biting down on her bottom lip when she finished to fight back the tears.

"So what? He broke up with you and now he's going to go after Maya?" Josh's chair squeaked as he slid back, away from the table, throwing his silverware down and jumping to his feet. "Where's this Lucas kid live, anyways? I'm going to go have a talk with him. He made my niece cry and now he's going to go after my girlfriend? No, no way," Josh glared, staring at his brother.

"Josh, sit down. You're eighteen and he's sixteen. You can't touch him," Topanga, always looking at things from the legal side, sighed, rolling her eyes. "And besides, violence is never the answer and nobody said he's going to go after Maya," She reminded him.

"He said he doesn't like Maya," Riley shook her head. "He just didn't want to pretend to want to date me anymore," She swallowed, working as hard as she could to fight back the tears.

"I need to go see Maya," Josh insisted.

"Why?" Auggie asked sweetly and innocently.

"Because Riley's a mess right now and Maya would never just leave her here on her own when she's this upset. Something is seriously wrong with my girl and I need to make sure she's okay," Josh sighed.

Riley agreed with him.

If Maya wasn't there and if she wasn't with Josh, it meant that she was upset. It meant that there was something seriously wrong. Riley was in no condition to go and make sure her best friend was safe and sound. But, she had her parents by her side to make sure she was okay. Maya needed Josh.

"Go…and tell her to call me, no matter what's wrong with her. Because we're supposed to help each other through everything. It doesn't matter if she's worried about taking away from my pain by being upset herself. She's allowed to be sad and I'm allowed to be sad and sometimes it's going to happen at the same time. So…just make sure she's alright and either bring her here or tell her to call me, please?" Riley asked, looking up at her uncle with tear filled eyes.

"Of course," Josh nodded, leaning down to hug his niece goodbye. "And if I run into that asshole, I'm punching him in the face. Criminal record be damned," He whispered in her ear, proud of himself for making her laugh a little bit.

Farkle got the phone call from Maya and was out his front door, in the backseat of his father's town car, and on his way to Riley's house within seconds.

Maya had called him to inform him that she was too upset after practice to go over and give Riley the help she would need. So, the blonde had asked Farkle if it would be possible for him to go and visit Riley and make sure that she had somebody to talk to other than her parents, who wouldn't allow her to properly rant about the boy who had broken her heart.

It was a sign that Maya truly did care about Riley. She went out of her way to make sure that Riley had somebody to console her, despite the fact that Riley would be sitting in a house full of people while Maya went home to an empty apartment, left to her own devices. But, Maya knew that Riley hadn't had the practice with pain and heartbreak that Maya had had, and that meant she needed some help to deal with it.

He had always been amazed with the friendship that Maya and Riley had. It was something special and even though he was a part of their group, he knew that he did not have the connection with either of them that they had with one another.

Lucas and Farkle didn't have a connection like that.

Zay and Lucas didn't even have a friendship like that.

Nobody would ever have a friendship like the friendship that Maya and Riley had, because it was close to impossible to find a person that could complete somebody else. And that was what Maya and Riley did. They were the piece that the other one was missing in their life-everything that the other one needed.

They had a friendship that was written about in movies and tv shows and books. It was displayed all over the place, but nobody got it quite right. Nobody else was able to get the true essence of a friendship like that.

That was why Farkle was so grateful for having Maya and Riley in his life. They knew what true friendship was and they showed everybody around them what true friendship was. Due to their knowledge of what friendship really was, they passed that on to everybody else who was considered a friend to them. And having one another made Maya and Riley each a better person, whether or not they knew it.

All he could hope for was that whatever was happening with Maya and Lucas wouldn't ruin it.

"So…when did you realize you liked me?" Maya asked, a coy smile on her face as she pulled her large, whipped cream covered milkshake towards her. She wrapped her mouth around the straw and looked up at him beneath her eyelashes, waiting expectedly.

"Do you remember when we first met? You came and sat next to me on the subway so full on confidence and grace….and you told me-"

"Hi, I'M Maya. You're really cute. We should hang out sometime. You make me happy. You don't pay enough attention to me. This isn't working out. It's you, not me. We can still be friends. Not really," Maya laughed, snorting a little bit as she pulled away from her milkshake, whipped cream stuck to her nose.

"Yeah, something like that," Lucas chuckled, leaning across the table and swiping his finger across her nose, helping himself to a taste of the whipped cream accenting her drink.

"But…you and Riley immediately started your little thing after that. That can't have been when you first realized you liked me," Maya insisted, running a hand through her hair and looking down towards her tuna melt.

"And then, exactly one week later on September fifteenth, you made fun of me for being from Texas for the first time, when Mr. Matthews took away our phones," Lucas explained.

"Me making fun of you made you realize you liked me?" Maya asked. "And…you still had that whole thing with Riley after…."

"Maya, everybody just assumed I was into Riley and eventually, I started to think that I had no choice. I heard about how we were supposed to be together nonstop. And she was cute and I guess I kind of did like her, but I loved you, Maya. It was why I never got bothered whenever you teased me. Until…."he trailed off, choosing instead to help himself to a french fry smothered in ketchup.

"Until you called me shortstop and we got into that fight," Maya finished for him. "What made you snap?" She asked.

"You got back from Philadelphia with Riley, after they dug up that time capsule? And you couldn't shut up about Josh and it killed me because I hated that some other guy could get your attention like that. And it killed me even more that I had met the guy and he didn't even give you the time of day. Some asshole who couldn't give you the attention you deserved got your heart when it was the only thing I wanted," Lucas explained, clenching a tight fist as his knuckles turned while.

"You're jealous of Josh," Maya said.

It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"I'm not jealous, exactly," He shrugged. "I just don't think he's good enough for you. I think that you could do better and I think you deserve better. You and Josh work. You work about as well as Riley and I worked. You can be together and one of you is always going to know that there's somebody else out there for you that could fill that emptiness inside of you. Or, you could be apart and put all of your energy into making sure that you both with the person who makes you whole inside," Lucas explained, dragging a french fry through his ketchup.

"Riley would never forgive me for being with you," Maya whispered.

"But you want to be?" Lucas asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I've always wanted that," Maya nodded. "From the second I saw you on the subway and pointed you out to Riley. I liked you so much that I made up all of those nicknames and started making fun of you to hide it. I liked you enough to pay attention to all the small details and even started acting like you a little. I liked you enough to want you to hate me for the nicknames, which is why I always got so mad that I couldn't break you with our little game. I liked you enough to keep that stupid flower you gave me at that stupid dance," Maya explained, growing more and more animated with every sentence.

She paused, taking a bite of her tuna melt as she thought about what she was going to say next.

"I liked you so much that I didn't want you to kiss Riley during the play because I wanted to be your first kiss. I loved the fact that you were so protective of me that you slapped a hand over Farkle's mouth when he asked about the painting of my mom at the diner. I was even jealous of Smackle when she was flirting with you after we gave her that makeover. I liked you enough to write a song about you-a goofy one, but that was what I chose to do with the first song I played on my guitar. I liked you enough to pick your side and defend you with the muffin project and I got so excited when I thought you were actually taking me out on Hallo-"

"Alright, Maya, I get it," Lucas laughed, having finished off his burger. "But, can I ask you one thing? If you like me so much, why are you with Josh?" he asked.

"Because I needed to get over you and Josh was….well, he was Josh and he was the first guy I really liked. The only guy I was ever able to actively voice my attraction to," Maya whispered.

"And….why are you still with him?" Lucas asked.

Maya didn't have an answer to that one.