Sorry for not updating sooner. I actually do have free time now, since it's winter break for me. Thank you so much for all the reviews, follows, favorites, and reads! :)

CHAPTER 4

A few weeks passed since Lucas declared that he was done with her. Things had been very different between the group. They never thought it would happen, but their friendship actually did start to drift. Of course, Maya and Riley's friendship hadn't died, but it had been different because Maya felt terrible about what she did every time she was around Riley. Sitting on such a huge secret wasn't fun for her. The four of them seemed to be finding other people to spend time with.

But the holidays were right around the corner, and that also meant Riley's birthday was coming up. It was her 20th birthday, too, so there was definitely going to be some type of gathering or party to celebrate the occasion. The only part Maya was a little bit iffy about was that she would have to be in the same room as everyone else again for the first time. Although Riley and Lucas weren't exactly on the best of terms, there was no chance in hell that she wouldn't invite him to whatever party she had. Everyone in their group always celebrated their birthday together.

"Hey, I've barely been able to catch you alone.. like, only when we're about to go to sleep!" Riley cried as she entered the dorm room. "You're not going to be heading out right now, are you?"

"Um, I actually made plans with somebody," Maya lied, scratching her head.

"Maya, come on. I know what this is," Riley smirked proudly, as if she'd figured it out. "I know what's going on here."

"What?" Maya said in shock, feeling her heart rate grow. "Riles... you know?"

"I do," Riley nodded her head, and sat down next to her on her bed. "But, we can pretend like I don't know about it. It's better if I don't know, anyway."

"No, no.. I'm glad you know. I think we should talk about this, and not try to throw everything away—" Maya began.

"Talk about it?" Riley asked, raising her eyebrows. "Why would you want me to know the details of the surprise party?"

A feeling of relief surged through Maya. She took a deep breath. Surprise birthday party. Riley thought she was talking about a surprise party! And now that she mentioned it, Maya knew she'd probably have to figure some grand birthday plan out to make it seem like she knew exactly what Riley was talking about. As if this surprise party was real...

"You're right, that was stupid of me. Show up, and make it look like you were surprised all along," Maya smiled. "It sucks that you've figured it out. It completely takes the element of surprise out of the surprise party!"

"Don't worry, I can put on a good show," she said proudly. "As you know, I did a couple school plays back in high school and middle school. Fake a little surprised reaction? I can do that. No problem there."

"Farkle, Lucas, open up!" Maya cried out, knocking on their dorm room's door frantically.

She had no clue how she was going to plan a surprise party for Riley now. She was never good at planning things! She felt a little stupid for coming to Lucas after what happened between them, but she wanted to make herself believe that things were exactly the way they were before. Back when there was nothing wrong with them all planning a party for their dear friend Riley together, all as friends. It was expected that Lucas was going to be bitter towards her when she asked, but she knew he would do it for Riley.

A loud and annoyed groan came from Lucas as he opened the door. Maya couldn't help but lick her lips when she realized he wasn't wearing a shirt, and was clad in his sweatpants. She was afraid it may have been obvious that she was checking him out, but how could she stop herself? He was just standing there without a shirt. All that rodeo action from Texas must have paid off, because he had a fantastic body. And yes, she had already seen it before... twice, but she still found herself unable to look away each and every time.

"What do you want, Maya?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Um, I kinda slipped up and promised Riley a party.. it's supposed to be a surprise party, too. She thinks she's in on it, but I never had a party to begin with. I thought you, me, and Farkle could—"

"Could what?" he scoffed. "All work together and plan a big party? It's your problem. I'm sure Farkle could help you, since you've got him wrapped around your finger. But me? I've got things to do."

She pressed her lips together. Was he actually rejecting to help her? He was always the guy to help when things got difficult. That was just the kind of guy Lucas Friar had always been! She couldn't believe she had pissed him off to this point.

"Okay," she mumbled, scratching her head. "Okay, uh, where's Farkle?"

"I don't know. I told him to get lost for the afternoon since I've got company over," he said. And she swore she saw the slightest smirk form on his face. He knew what he was rubbing in. She figured he had a girl over.

"Company, huh?" she nodded.

"Yeah," he smirked.

Before she had the chance to turn away and avoid seeing what bitch he was spending all his time with, that very girl came to the doorway and wrapped her arms around Lucas's bare chest. She pecked his cheek, as if they were just so comfortable with each other. Maya raised her eyebrows at the sight. So, he was screwing around with another girl? He had every right, she knew that— it had even been weeks since he had ended things with Maya. Despite all this, she still found herself angered by the fact that he was sleeping with this other girl.

"Wow, nice," Maya quietly said. "Who's the girlfriend, Lucas? You never introduced me."

"Never had the chance," he chuckled bitterly. "But you're here now, so, this is Bethany."

"Bethany Ellis," the girl moved forward and introduced herself. "And you are?"

"Maya... Hart. Lucas's friend," she mumbled quietly. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Oh! You, too," Bethany smiled.

Maya felt enraged just looking at this girl. She was clearly beautiful— a real catch. She didn't want Lucas to be with a gorgeous girl that seemed sweet. Bethany had tanned skin, gorgeous hazel eyes, silky brown hair that went down to her waist, and a radiantly white smile. Maya wanted to be the girl that had the mindset of 'I just want him to be happy', but she couldn't bring herself to think that way. She truly, honestly wished Lucas had an ugly, horrible downgrade of a girlfriend. But instead, he had this beautiful girl. And of course, Maya didn't even know the girl, but she already felt threatened. Not that she had Lucas anymore...

She dragged her feet as she walked away from Lucas and Farkle's dorm room. It bugged her to hear Bethany turn back to him and flirtatiously speak. Through her peripheral vision, she could see Bethany throw her arms around Lucas's neck and kiss him. Ugh.

"Girlfriend, huh? We never discussed the whole girlfriend thing..." she heard Bethany quietly say and giggle after saying it.

"Sure, we can have a discussion after we finish what we started," Lucas laughed.

Maya heard the door close. They went inside to do God-knows-what. Well, she had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do, and it sucked. Bad.

Maya sat in her dorm room, twirling her hair in frustration as she tried to figure out what she could do to quickly plan a great surprise party for Riley. She hadn't even began studying for a single one of her finals, she destroyed her friendship with Lucas (and maybe even Farkle, too— she didn't know because she never saw him anymore), and now she had to plan this stressful surprise party to cover her ass. Not that she didn't love Riley, and not that she didn't want her best friend to have an amazing 20th birthday... She just didn't have the time or patience for this right now.

Luckily for her, help showed up at her door with a simple knock.

She got up from her bed and went to open the door. She was completely startled when she saw Lucas standing there, biting his lips, with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," he greeted, scratching his head awkwardly. "I'm sorry about what I did earlier today. Riley is really important to me, and I shouldn't have turned you down. I'll help you with planning the party, if you'll still have me."

A smile emerged on Maya's face as her eyes locked with Lucas's sharp blue orbs.

"Of course," she nodded her head. "I've gotten, like, nowhere in the past few hours of planning. I ordered a cake!"

"Well, at least you've done something so far, so we're not starting from nothing," Lucas shrugged his shoulders. He grinned and sat down on her bed. He sighed and continued, "Look, before we start this, I want to give you a much better apology for this afternoon. It was totally a dick move. I was trying to be mean to you because I wanted to be mad at you and stuff..."

"It's okay," she said, staring at the floor. "I kinda deserve it, you know, for how I acted a few weeks ago. You have every right to spend time with your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Lucas told her. "I mean, she wants to be, but she's not."

"You're a heartbreaker now, huh, Friar?" Maya joked.

Lucas chuckled and explained, "No, no.. in all honesty, I was trying to get over you. We did some not-so-PG stuff, but I couldn't stop thinking about you. I wanted to be done with you so bad."

Maya felt a knot grow in her stomach. She had all the feelings she didn't want to have for him at that moment! How could he possibly be thinking of her while sleeping with another girl? God, he was so terrible. How could he just tell her something like that?

"Oh," she mumbled.

"Oh?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh," she confirmed.

"Alright..." he scratched his head. "Well, thanks for letting me clear the air about that. And again, I'm sorry for trying to rub her in your face."

"I was worried about Riley," Maya lied. "I knew she'd be upset to see you with a new girlfriend at her party. It would really kill her to see you with another girl."

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows.

"She and I aren't dating," he reminded.

"I know, but that's why I was even the slightest bit concerned that you were with that girl," she lied again.

"I figured she'd be upset to see me with her," he shrugged his shoulders. He looked over at Maya, who was sitting next to him and looking straight into his eyes. "But, what about you? You didn't care?"

"No," she quietly answered, but it sounded so false.

What she was saying did not match with what her eyes were saying to him, because he was getting every response that meant 'yes' from the way she was looking at him. He knew he'd probably regret it later, but he couldn't help himself, so he slowly lifted his hands up to cup Maya's cheeks, and then leaned forward. She didn't even try and stop him. She couldn't believe after fighting with Lucas about this just a few weeks ago, they were falling right back into this pattern.

Their lips touched for a split second before Maya pulled back and picked up a piece of paper from the other side of her bed.

"So, let's get planning!" she exclaimed to change the subject. "This is where I'm writing down all the plans for Riley's party. So far, I've got the cake."

Lucas pressed his lips together.

"Okay," he nodded. "I'll call Farkle. We can all work on this together."

"Great!" Maya exclaimed, getting up from the bed so she could be as far away from Lucas as possible.

Sorry that this chapter was kind of short. I just thought this was a good place to end it. I'll try and make the next one longer. I hope you guys still like it! Leave a review and give me any thoughts you've got!