A/N: It's my birthday, so I thought I'd gift y'all with a little something something. Hope you haven't lost hope in this story!
Part Three.
"Congratulations again, sugar," Zay repeated for the umpteenth time that morning to fill the uncomfortable spaces hanging between each of her group mates.
"Thanks Zay." The response was automatic, almost robot-like, and Riley couldn't even muster a smile this time around. She sat close to Is, with their arms lightly touching, on Farkle's couch, seated as far away from everyone else as the pair could manage. Is, being the evil genius that she was, felt a compelling need to stop by the Matthews residence earlier that morning to take the train to Farkle's together, sensing her best friend needed her and a steaming hot cup of coffee.
Lucas walked in with his own tray of coffee cups, eyes immediately trying to latch on to hers. But she couldn't. She couldn't even breathe with him in the room after what he said last night. Maya grumbled, "Thanks for getting here on time, Friar."
Avoiding eye contact with everyone else, Riley watched Farkle finish hooking up his computer to the big screen television. Is, with a teasing tone Riley noticed, asked, "You don't have something fancier? More technologically advanced? I thought this was the Farkle residence."
He stuck his tongue out at her, and the two girls giggled. She couldn't help herself, it was actually heartwarming to watch Farkle act like his old self. "I do, but I decided to go old school for this. How many assignments have we had in high school where we had to have actual in-person, one-on-one interviews? Everything is digital, and in a class about history—"
"—about going back to our roots, what's more fitting than moving backwards?" Riley joked, finishing her former best friend's thoughts.
"Not moving backwards. Understanding how the past affects our future." Farkle shook his head, "Sometimes I worry society is moving forward too quickly and we won't remember why we do things now."
"They'll forget how far we've come." The last thought came from Maya, who's arm was slung over Zay's knee. Riley finally summoned enough courage to look at her, the blonde beauty, her queen, and her heart sunk.
"Whose interviews are we starting with?" Lucas asked.
"Since Farkle has a fascination with the past, let's start with the first round."
Lucas put his flash drive in and turned to Is and winked, making her blush. "Ready?"
"Who are you?" Is's voice rang through the room, soft and uneasy. Hesitant. Riley clutched her best friend's arm a little tighter.
The golden-haired, western hero on Farkle's big screen chuckled. "You already know me, Smackle."
"I believe that's false. I knew you. But whoever you are now is quite the mystery to me."
"How do you figure?"
"Because we've all changed. It would be foolish to believe that any one of us hasn't changed since freshman year. And in my studies of human behavior, I've learned that big, traumatic events are the most likely to leave damaging, lasting effects. And the ski lodge…." she trailed off.
"I'm captain of the baseball team now, but I still love animals. I want to be a vet."
"You yell more in the halls," she noted.
He laughed at the ground. "It's true. I think our core identities still exist, the important parts of us are still around."
"Not Riley." At the sound of her name, she stiffened. "She doesn't trust people anymore."
"She trusts you."
"She already trusted me. If anything, I trust her now because of everything that happened." Is's eyes dropped on screen, probably fiddling with her hands, and continued. "I could have regressed after my break-up. But instead I went to Riley and I opened up to her. I-we had many conversations and I practiced vulnerability. Riley helped me. But I don't think I helped her as much."
Over the on-screen voices, Riley loudly asked, "Do you really think that, Is? That you haven't helped me?"
"Not nearly as m—"
"That's ridiculous! You've been by my side for the last three years."
"You don't trust people as easily or at all. I don't believe that my friendship helped save you the way you saved me."
"But I still have faith in people. Because of you, you idiot."
Isadora eyed her. "I-I haven't — I don't quite believe you."
"Me neither," Zay chimed with Farkle's agreement.
Riley, out of a defense, glanced around the room haphazardly. But Lucas offered an important piece of evidence on her behalf. "It's true. Sophomore year at the tutoring center, Riley set up an after-school program that worked with local businesses, the biggest one being the vet in downtown. Because she knew I wanted to be a vet."
She saw the question in everyone's eyes: you two spoke sophomore year? But she brushed them all off, rather brusquely, "That's a question for another time. We should get back to their interview."
Isadora looped her arm back through her's and rested her head on Riley's shoulder. What an idiot best friend.
"Trust me, Riley still believes in people. She'll always believe in people."
"You still love her."
"A different topic for another time." He read off his notecard. "Where do you think you fit into the Abigail Adams hierarchy?"
As Isadora rattled about the social hierarchy, Riley looked at Lucas, her own face softening at the sound of his voice. The way he got soft around Is, like he was melting, or just cared so deeply for her, for his friends. No matter how long it'd been since the both of them were actually friends.
The rest of Is and Lucas's conversation unsurprisingly focused on the actual assignment and when the screen went black, Farkle immediately clicked the next file.
A wisp of blonde hair appeared on the screen and Riley couldn't help but notice the near-perfect camera quality. She blamed Shawn for that. Only the corner of her mouth and some locks of hair were in the shot as Farkle fiddled with the focus.
His voice carried out over the shot, loud and clear. "Maya Hart. The moon of my life."
"Former moon, Fark."
"I thought you and I were still friends? Or did that change because you're queen now?"
"What?"
"How did that happen by the way? How did Maya Hart, queen of the art empire, take over Abigail Adams?" The camera zoomed out and Maya glanced upwards, eyes wide as she stares at Farkle. Riley was mesmerized.
"I don't know, Farkle." She looked down again, away from the camera, lashes long and thick. "I showed up to school one day and suddenly I had a royal following."
"Logically, the next queen should have been a cheerleader since the one before was," Farkle explained. He wasn't wrong. The former queen was also former head cheerleader: when Nina Park left, Sarah was technically next in succession. The entire junior class had been slack-jawed when Nina chose Sarah as the next head cheerleader and Maya for queen. Come to think of it, Riley had seen Nina and Maya chatting occasionally but usually dismissed it as social classes integrating more.
"Nina and I were close; how was I supposed to know she was going to pick me over Sarah? Anyway, how about you? Where do you fit in?"
"President of the chess, robotics, and technology clubs and the vice-president of the Future Global Scientific Leaders club."
"Smarkle one-upped you?"
"She always does." Even with him outside the frame, Riley could hear the smile in his voice. She was sure Is heard it too, and Is squeezed her hand as confirmation. These crazy kids. Lucas was one thing, but Is and Farkle were meant to be. Even if he had been a huge jerk.
The interview soon switched to Riley's and Zay's — she'd forgotten nearly everything they talked about it. It felt so long ago. But she felt everyone around her tense up as soon as they came on.
"We said no bay window!" There was an apparent hurt in Maya's voice as she reminded them. "That was, like, the first rule! And you broke it in the first five minutes!"
She tuned her out and closed her eyes and listened to Zay's soothing voice."I'd say Lucas Friar is the king: he's earned it. He's baseball captain and vice-president of the honor society, and he volunteers at the animal shelter downtown."
"He does? How do you know that?"
"He's my best frie— I'm just the prince, even if I'm dating Maya Hart."
Riley opened her eyes and watched Zay and Lucas look at each other, really look at each other for the first time in forever. No more aggression, no more difficulty, no more anything.
"Coexistence means not confining ourselves to one label. That's why I joined extracurriculars I was interested in. Sports, journalism, math."
"Well said," Farkle applauded.
"Second of all, Is and I were there for each other when no one else was."
"Loyalty." Zay's voice paused."You know, Riles, I would've been there for ya. The same way I was there for Maya."
"I wasn't interested in being evened out then and I'm not interested now."
"Whoa there, didn't mean it like that. All I meant was after what happened up at the ski lodge, I would've been there for you too. Because you're my friend. It didn't have to just be you and Smackle against the rest of us."
"It was all of us against each other. Loyalty be damned."
The video cut out finally and, besides the echo of her last words, there wasn't a single sound in the room.
"You're the king, man. And not just because you're dating Maya," Lucas broke the silence. And Riley couldn't help but melt at his kind words. "If anything, Maya would've prevented you from becoming king."
There it was. "You always do this, man. Why can't you ever say anything nice about my girlfriend?"
"Don't answer," Maya commanded. "Play our video."
"Lucas Friar, as I live and breathe."
"You got something to say, my highness?" The sarcasm was undeniable, but as it slowly dawned on Riley, none of their conversations really had any sincerity anymore.
"Why can't you treat me like a real person anymore? You never say anything nice, let alone neutral, about me ever."
"I let you tease me and treat me like crap for years. I'm just finally returning the favor."
"So the golden hero finally gets a dark side? You can't be Mr. Moral Compass, Lucas the Good, anymore because of me?"
His head hung low, voice almost an angry whisper. "I'm not good. Not after what happened."
"What, Friar? What happened?" She barked at him. "What did I do that was so wrong?"
"You developed feelings for your best friend's unofficial boyfriend! And I, I let her push me into exploring something with you while she watched, completely heartbroken. We- we did that to her. To Riley of all people. How can you even live with yourself?"
"If she had a problem with it, she would've said—"
"No she wouldn't have. Because she loves us too much to stand in our way. We hurt her. We fucked up."
"As far as I'm concerned, as soon as she broke our friendship over you - over a boy for fucks' sake - I lost all sympathy for her."
"You-you don't even miss her?"
Maya leapt from her seat, out of Zay's arms, and rushed out of the room, more emotional than she wanted to let on. Farkle bluntly asked, "Does your interview adhere to the assignment at all, or should we just skip it?"
Lucas grumbled. "I'd skip it."
"Got it, Freak Face." Farkle closed out of the video file and pulled up Is and Zay's.
"I always thought the two of you would end up being Mr. and Mrs. Minkus-Smackle."
"That is not the purpose of this interview, Zay. I know you've already gotten Riley to speak to you openly and honestly about unrelated events, but I would much rather focus on the assignment."
"Sugar told you all that?"
"She didn't need to tell me. No one in our group is so unintelligent that they wouldn't have noticed how comfortable she is around you again. It's a matter of logic."
Riley turned to Zay, alone and nearly scowling at Lucas, and knew his interview with Isadora wasn't going to yield anything dramatic. They honestly should've just let Is conduct all the interviews, she thought, that would've kept them on track. The cheerleader decided to make her way further into the Minkus residence, to look for a particular blonde artist, but Maya returned in the shadowy doorway, listening to the scientific and analytical interview on-screen. Feelings and dramatics were excised as Is interviewed Zay about his actual perspective and understandings of the Abigail Adams hierarchy.
She didn't want to admit it, but the video was boring compared to everyone else's. But maybe that's what Dad wanted. For us to explore and get the closure we needed. After a solid twenty minutes of insight, the room, like the on-screen Zay, were exhausted.
"Alright, guys. I may have a solution to our little tiredness."
"What do you got, Fark?"
"Mine and Riley's accidental interview. The first few minutes weren't recorded so bear with us."
"Academics takes priority over the people you fucking care about?" Her voice boomed through tv's speakers — it was the loudest interview yet.
"People I care about? Try people who have refused to acknowledge my presence for two years, Riley." Farkle hit the end table with his palm and angrily added, "And her name is Smackle."
Besides her, she expected Is to flinch at her former nickname, but she didn't. Isadora never wavered as the argument took place on screen. "You don't think I know that? You don't think I know that Smackle freaked out about our future together when we spent that summer apart? That even being away from each other for three months was hard on her? I knew everything, Riley!"
"I pushed you away once. You were there every day for Maya, and you never came back for me after everything got messed up! You and Is breaking up was just the last straw."
"Everything is fucked up because of you," he yelled, "You made it hard for us all to stay friends. You refused to look at Lucas or your best friend, you practically made everyone take a side and it was ridiculous! None of us wanted that shit: friends don't draw battle lines and force everyone else to play along!"
"Dude, I know you and I had our differences, especially after you punched me for defending Lucas, but that was mad harsh," Zay remarked. "Riley was right. Loyalty didn't mean anything to any of us after we got back down from the ski lodge."
"Precisely! Riley was hurt; why was it expected of her to simply deny the pain and suffer silently, continuing her friendships with both Lucas and Maya?"
Farkle gulped. "I was angry, I'm sorry, Riley. Those words, they're something I can never take back. I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me. I thought you picked Isadora over me. That you believed in her more than you believed in me."
She knew her next words were absolutely true. As angry as she'd been, as awful as he'd behaved, Farkle just wanted to be heard. "I forgive you."
"That's it?" It was Lucas who said it. "I've tried so hard to get you to even look at me, and just like that, you forgive Farkle? All those awful things he said to you, the way he paraded himself in front of Is? After all that, you can forgive him and not me?"
"I hurt him first. And while he reacted like an asshole, I can still forgive him for that. Not without consequence, of course, because there's a lot of trust lost on both sides, but…. It's a start," she shrugged.
"Unbelievable!" Maya muttered, storming out of the room. Again.
