"Maya?" Riley's voice made the blonde look up, eyes glossy and overwhelmed. Riley instantly knew what was wrong and sat by her side in the bay window of her bedroom.

"He's leaving now," she sniffled, "Josh is leaving after all his promises. I - I knew we weren't going to just date and be happy and move in with our lives but…" Maya broke off in a sob, lowering her head. "I didn't think it would hurt… And after I heard that that girl was going with him. He told me it was best to see other people."

"It isn't our time right now, Maya… Please understand."

"I know, Peaches. At least he isn't the only guy in the world, I mean, Lucas still hasn't chosen over us." The Mathews girl tried to comfort, putting her arm over Maya's shoulder and rubbing gently.

"I don't want Lucas, Riley, I never wanted him. The only reason he ever thought that was because Farkle wanted to see if he liked me. I like Josh, I want Josh, I need Josh. It's always been him…"

Riley hugged her close as she sniffled once more, "Remember what he said? Long game, not now game. Maybe you guys will see each other someday and run into your arms movie style." Riley imagined it in her head, seeing her uncle hold onto her chosen sister. It was lovely, but was it to be true?

"Yeah… But we saw how she dug her claws into him, Riles. If and when she gets Josh for herself," Maya looked down as she broke the hug. "I don't think I'll get him back." Riley blinked, trying to understand that deep fear that ran to the girl's core.

"I don't think I'll get him back."

Josh heard that very sentence come from his niece's room. Why she never bothered to close her door when he was around was a wonder to him. (Is it perhaps because Riley knows more about what they never truly say to each other, leaving the doors open for them to hear the lovely words for themselves - or merely forgetting, when she never has before?)

Josh wanted to go in there, assure Maya she wasn't to lose him. Hold her in his arms and wipe her tears for her, tell the beauty there was room for no one else in his heart. The girl going with him was just a friend, never to be anything more but how could he contradict his own words? "You live your life, I'll live mine…"

He would never live it down, that's for sure. Besides, this was for the better, right? Let Maya live her life and make her own decisions, choose what she wants and do what she needs before jumping in a relationship. Oh, how it hurt though. Especially after what he just told Topanga.

"You okay?" His brother's wife asked him, moving onto the roof where he looked down on the city.

Josh shook his head, trying to get over an ache in his chest, the guilty on his shoulders and the regret in his stomach. It was as if he'd caught a horrible fever just being up there, just telling the girl he loved more deeply than he even knew they had to separate.

"Nope… This is good, right? I'm doing the right thing?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. I think so. I can't make those decisions for you, Josh."

The said boy - however a man, by now - turned to face her, frowning. He was trying to be optimistic, he was, but God was it hard. "It doesn't feel like it. It feels like just seeing her after what I just did is ripping a hole in me."

"Give it some time. You like her, you really do, and she likes you back. But you have school - in a different city - and you both have lives to live. Maybe you'll come back someday, and find you still have feelings for each other. Or maybe time apart will evaporate them and you won't have to worry. Go to school, like you are, and come back later. No today, not this week but whenever you feel you need to."

Josh hugged his Sister-in-law, thankful for her speech. "Thank you…" Josh knew that she had initially come up to tell him it was time to go, probably, and he needed to. "See you soon, hopefully. Tell Riley," he moved away, "that I left her some gummy bears." He smiled fondly.

Time to rip both our hearts out, he thought, and maybe put them together.