A/N: Hello, my readers! I am so excited because after this chapter is the epilogue. Although I am sad because this fic is soon coming to an end, I'm still very proud of myself for actually writing a story, even if it meant staying up until midnight to get my school work done because I spent all my time writing this. I'm not done my epilogue, but I will definitely try to finish it as quick as I can, but I must warn you; I have a big poetry assignment (we have to write 20 poems!) so that might hold me up a bit. Regardless, I will try my best to get the epilogue finished in time for next Sunday. Now, let's get on with the fic!

I kissed her. Time seemed to freeze as I lay my lips on her. The outside world disappears and all I hear is a dull murmur of noise, most likely coming from other students, but I fail to notice them right now, my mouth too busy to concentrate on something else, as it is sealed across the perfect plump lips of another.

My hands are on her face, slowly caressing her face, my index finger running circles on her cheekbones for god knows how long. I'm not sure where Maya's arms are, but I swear I felt a pair of arms ghost across my waist, only for a fraction of a second, though. I may have even imagined, by the way it had appeared and vanished so quickly.

Kissing Maya was like...I'm not sure how to exactly explain it. It was totally different than kissing Lucas, that's for sure. When I kissed Lucas, it was nice. It was warm. But, when I kissed Maya?

It was butterflies and fireworks and everything out of a Nicholas Sparks book.

It was the feeling of being home. It was the feeling of comfort, and safety. It made me feel something that I had never before experienced in my whole life when I kissed someone. A feeling of 'why haven't we done this before?'

When I kissed Maya, it was like time slowed down to a stop, but at the same time, it was over in a flash. I don't how it can feel this way, but it does, and I don't know if that's good or not.

We've both pulled away from our lip lock, and I look all around me. I see every single student in the gym, even the teachers, staring at me, all with the same expression imprinted on their face. The realization that I, Riley Matthews, a supposed straight girl, had just made out with her best friend. A girl. They start to turn their heads away from me and whisper to friends and dates around them. Surprisingly, I can hear what they say over the erratic beating of my heart in my ears.

"Did that just happen?"

"Isn't Riley dating Lucas Friar? Captain of the Football team?"

And then I hear the one that makes me sprint out of the gym.

"I didn't know Riley Matthews was a fag,"

As I exit through the double doors, I can hear several of my friends calling my name, trying to persuade me to come back. Farkle, Isadora, Lucas, even Connor. The only person who I don't hear is Maya.

I don't know why, but it makes my heart throb painfully in my chest and causes the tears welling up in my eyes to finally fall, to not hear her call after me, to want me to return. As I leave the gym, I notice it's pouring rain. The tears streaming down my face mixes in with the rain coming down hard from the sky. Before too long, me, my hair, my dress, and my corsage are all soaked wet. I can't seem to make myself to care, to preoccupied to think of anything but what had just occurred in the gym.

tears streaming down my face mixes in with the rain coming down hard from the sky. Before too long, me, my hair, my dress, and my corsage are all soaked wet. I can't seem to make myself to care, to preoccupied to think of anything but what had just occurred in the gym.

The tears streaming down my face mixes in with the rain coming down hard from the sky. Before too long, me, my hair, my dress, and my corsage are all soaked wet. I can't seem to make myself to care, to preoccupied to think of anything but what had just occurred in the gym.

What's wrong with me? Why did I do that? What's everyone thinking? What's Lucas thinking? What's Maya thinking?

I don't know the answer to any of the questions I ask myself. And that's because I'm an idiot. The biggest idiot on the planet.

Why did I have so many drinks? I know myself very well, and I know that Riley Matthews, A student, would never do something as irresponsible as this. I knew that doing something as dumb as underage drinking would not go down well in the slightest. So why did I? Oh, yes. Because Maya wanted me to, and I'll do anything Maya wants me to.

As I stumble down the streets, my balance still not up to par, men and women, stare at me. I must look like a tragedy, going down the streets like this.

These pedestrians see a high school girl wearing a droopy, wet blue dress, with soaked through hair, and make-up running down her face. A girl who they can tell is highly intoxicated from the way she needs to steady herself with every ten steps, and how every so often, she holds her hands over her stomach, looking as if she's about to puke then and there.

That girl is me. I'm the walking circus act that they see. The crazy girl that they will tell all their friends and family about. 'Well, one day I was walking down the street and I saw some girl that was drunk off her ass, about to puke her guts off in the alleyway of a building...'

I groan as something occurs to me, five minutes away from arriving home. My parents. When I come home, wet from the rain and without Lucas beside me, they'll wonder what happened, and they'll ask me questions, and sooner or later I'll spill the beans and tell them what I did at the dance, and how I'm drunk, and how I managed to turn the greatest night of my life into the worst night of my life.

I enter through the doors of the lobby, the person at the front desk watching me with a sad expression lining her face, obviously feeling terrible for what she can only assume happened to me tonight. The front desk woman, Linda Ackerman, knows where I was headed tonight from all the times Maya and I had passed through here, chatting about the Prom. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to me, probably asking me if I was okay, but the question quickly died on her lips as she noticed the look on my face. My face most likely said to her, 'please don't talk to me,' which couldn't be closer to what I'm feeling right this minute.

I made my way up to my house and, after much convincing from myself, opened the door, awaiting a shout from either one of my parents asking me what happened. But it doesn't come.

I pry open my once tightly closed eyes to find that my living room and kitchen are both deserted. It doesn't seem like anyone is home.

"Mom!" I call out, wanting to double check if anybody's here. "Dad!"

I don't get any sort of response, so I presume that my parents and little brother are all out.

After coming to the conclusion that no one is home, I have relief wash over, knowing that I'm safe from my parent's wrath, at least for a while. I slosh over to my bedroom where I strip out of my heels, my feet instantly thanking me once I do. I don't rid of my dress, though, too lazy to pull it off and find pajamas to put on, never mind needing to dry myself off.

I waddle to my bay window and take a seat, knowing that I'll be leaving a big wet patch on the cushion once I get up. I sit in silence.

I wonder what's going on at the dance. Is the room still buzzing with students talking about me? Or have they resumed the festivities, like nothing just happened? How have my friends taken it? How has Lucas taken it? I just kissed someone else, never mind a girl, in front of the whole entire school while we're still a couple. Is he angry? Upset? I could only imagine what he feels after seeing his girlfriend of four years kiss another at your senior prom.

And Maya. Maya's probably mortified.

I'm going to have to face everything when I have to go back to school on Monday, or even sooner if Lucas or Maya decide to visit me at home. I don't know how on earth I could face either one. Maybe I could pretend to be sick so I wouldn't have to go to school. But, even if that worked, I would have to go to school eventually, meaning that even if I missed Monday, I would still see them soon enough.

I get startled when I hear a knock on my window behind me. I turn around and find Maya on the other side of my window, rain pouring down on her while she's kneeling on the fire escape of the building. Quickly, I open my window and let her inside, not wanting her to get any wetter than she already is.

Her red dress now hangs heavy on her body and is a complete darker shade than when I last saw it from the Prom because of the heavy rain outside. Her hair is dripping and matted, how I imagine mine must look like at the moment.

I don't speak a word, nor does she, and I don't see myself opening my mouth anytime soon. She was the one who came to me, after all. All I want to do know is hide under my bed sheets and never leave their sanctuary again.

"Riley..." Maya finally pipes up. This breathy whisper causes me to look Maya straight in the eye, understanding the seriousness of our current situation.

I expect her to continue on, to tell me what's on her mind, but she doesn't. She just stares at me while I do the same to her, the only noise going on in the room being the heavy breathing coming from both of us, me from nervousness, and as for Maya, I'm not sure.

Then before I can do anything, Maya is leaning over towards me and places her lips upon mine. My arms circle around her shoulders subconsciously, as if we've done this times before. Maya rests her hands on my cheeks, and although they're cold and wet, my face is so red and warm that I don't notice it at all.

We kiss softly, not as rough or as forcefully as we had at Prom. Her lips feel warm and safe and everything that books and movies describe it as. Like everything has cliqued into place. As if we are the only two girls in the whole world, and, as cliche as it sounds, it's true. One hundred percent true.

Maya eventually tears her lips off of mine. Once I regain my composure, my mind starts running with thoughts and questions. Why did Maya just kiss me? Was that a pity kiss because of what occurred at the dance? I don't understand what's going on around me, but this time, it's not because of a toe-curling kiss that possesses the power to rid me of all intelligible thoughts.

"Maya...Why did you..." I trail off, confused as to why she did what she did.

Maya looks uncomfortable and shifts around where she's sitting until she finally rises off her seat and turns around, her back facing towards me. I knew it. It was a pity kiss and now she can't even face me, too embarrassed. We'll never be able to talk again, after this experience, our minds most likely going to flash back to this moment whenever we see each other, or at least, I know mine will.

I can feel the tears start welling up in my eyes from the thought of losing my best friend when I hear Maya starting to speak up and raise my head to look at her, or at least the back of her.

"Riley," She says softly, repeating herself from a few minutes ago. And, just like the last time, doesn't seem to be willing to finish her sentence.

I stand up and place my hand on her shoulder, turning her around so that she would finally look at me.

"Maya, I need an answer," I cry out. "Was that a pity kiss? Are you totally grossed out at me because of what happened at the dance? Because I can't lose you, Maya. I just-"

"Shut up, Riley!" Maya burst out, interrupting me. "That wasn't a pity kiss."

"Then why did you kiss me?"

"B-Because," Maya stutters out. "I liked the kiss. Both of them. And, I've wanted to kiss you for a while, so when you did kiss me, I was shocked. I didn't know you felt this way. Wait... do you feel this way?"

I start processing what Maya just explained to me. She...liked the kiss? And she likes me? Did I hear that right or am I just going crazy? There's no way Maya wants me, I'm just making up things and hearing what I want to. But then I look right into Maya's beautiful blue eyes and see the sincerity and the raw emotion, and I instantly know that what I heard was true.

She liked the kiss. Did I like the kiss?

Of course, I liked the kiss. Saying anything otherwise would be an outright lie. I guess until this moment, and I had never stopped to think if I had enjoyed it and if I wanted Maya, too concerned about everyone else's feelings to be caught up in mine. But I did. I did like the kiss, and I liked Maya. It was weird admitting it to myself, even if it wasn't out loud.

I seemed to have zoned out for a bit, because when my eyed focus on Maya's face, a look of worry seemed to have consumed her features, most likely because of my silence after her confession. She looks like she wants some kind of closure to know how I feel. Just to know what's going on between us. To know if I'll go back to Lucas, and pretend that nothing had happened between us. Part of me did want to go back to Lucas. I know that going out in the world, being with Lucas, or any boy in general, would make life a whole lot easier.

And I need to decide if I want life to be easy, or if I want to really live.

Maya still craves a response, and I answer by wrapping my arms around her and kissing her with everything I have. It's not nearly as delicate as the one we shared just a few minutes prior, but it's amazing none the less. Maya responds by placing her hands on the small of my back and pulling me closer to her body. While Maya and I kiss and move our hands all over one another, touching places we had never placed our hands on before, I come to think about things. About how maybe life with a boy would be easy and safe, with Maya, it's new and exciting. And although in the future, it's likely that we'll face challenges, I know that we'll always have each other's backs like we have since we were young.

I live in the moment, something Maya is always telling me to do. To do something crazy and not worry about the future consequences, and although it doesn't always work out (like with the alcohol) and cannot deny that it's not always fun. So, by living in the moment, I decide to forget about everyone in the world except for Maya, not that it's hard with the kissing we're doing. I decide to forget about my parents, my friends, Lucas, the kids at school, the world and just worry about Maya. Maya and I.

We go on like this for a while, kissing, sucking, biting, occasionally coming up for air and to giggle, unbelievable to us both that we're doing this.

I've also finally come up with a way to describe kissing Maya.

Kissing Maya is perfect.

Kissing Maya is exhilarating.

Kissing Maya is beautiful.

A/N:I'm kind of tearing up just thinking that this is almost the end (I'm very emotional), so I'll probably be bawling while posting the epilogue. Once again, thank you, everyone, who has followed, favorited and reviewed this story. I couldn't do it without you!