Wow that was brutal." Zay muttered. "That was like a massacre in there."

"More like a volcanic eruption. Now we know how the villagers of Pompeii felt." Farkle noted.

Zay just shot him a quizzical look. "I'm not following you."

"You know, Mt. Vesuvius, mass destruction, everything encased in lava." Farkle elaborated.

"Oh…yeah that sounds about right. Luke still has his deer in the headlights face on."

Now it was Farkle's turn to be confused.

"You know, when you're driving at night and a deer crosses your path and gets that oh crap they're gonna hit me look." Zay explained.

The words made sense but of course Farkle had no frame of reference, not many deer running around New York City.

Lucas hadn't even heard his name. He was busy observing Riley. He watched her carefully as she stood there waiting for any kind of reaction, but she remained eerily calm. She was just standing there lost in thought. He searched her face for a hint as to what she might be feeling but her expression was blank, unreadable. What he wouldn't give to know the inner workings of her mind!

"Hey."

Lucas's voice pulled Riley from the dark corner of her mind. She glanced up shyly, cautiously; afraid that with one look he would see everything she was trying so hard to hide.

"Hi."

He almost said "hey" again, but he caught himself. What had once been natural and habitual now felt awkward and self-conscious. That was the old them, the familiar them…He wanted to go back to the way things used to be. He missed their repetitive greetings, the flecks of gold in her eyes, the way they had once so effortlessly filled the silence between them. He wanted to be…whatever they were before, but that wasn't what Riley wanted. She wanted him to be her brother.

He stared into her eyes, taking in the way they reflected in the light, trying to read her emotions like signs as they flashed in front of him. He had expected the pain that was waiting there, but there was something else…something he couldn't name.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

That was part of the new rules, wasn't it? It was perfectly natural for a brother to care about his sister's feelings… though Riley was certainly no sister to him.

A shadow passed over her features.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just trying to decide what my next move is. You know do I wait for her out here or do I wait for her to come to me?"

Lucas fidgeted with his shoulder strap as he contemplated his next words very carefully. Riley and Maya were unbelievably close, possibly too close in his opinion. They were the very definition of a package deal. He had grown to care very deeply for both of them. He knew that Maya was in crisis right now, and he really did want to help her. Though Lucas tried to remain objective and sympathetic to the cause behind Maya's outburst, watching her go after Riley had reminded him of the person he used to be. In fact, if it had been anyone but Maya they probably would have found themselves staring down his rage.

"After the things she said in there, maybe giving her some space isn't such a bad idea," he suggested.

He instantly regretted his choice of words as Riley leapt to Maya's defense, her brown eyes now searing into him.

"Maya is my best friend. Whatever she says or does we will work through it. She's just hurt and angry right now."

"I know she's going through a lot and I want to help her, I really do. But that doesn't make what she did in there okay." He stated.

"She's just…" Riley groped for the right words, "throwing ice cream."

All three boys turned to look at Riley like she was crazy. They clearly didn't understand the reference.

Zay sent Riley a hard look.

"Well if you want to stay here and wait for her that's your business, but this outsider has class to get to."

Riley sighed "You know that's not how we think of you."

"She's right. From now on it's always been the six of us," Farkle said.

This was a reference Zay did actually understand. Deep down he knew Riley and Farkle were telling him the truth, but Maya's words still stung. He had seen from the very beginning how tightly knit their friendship was, and how his best friend from Texas had become one of them. He hadn't expected to be invited in, but they had welcomed him, embraced him. They had helped make New York home for him, as he suspected they had done for Luke too. But Maya's words were a stark they shared something he could never be a part of.

"I'm going to go too," Lucas said. "I really can't afford to keep missing this class."

Riley just nodded. She understood why they didn't want to wait for Maya. Her words may have been misguided but there was truth in them.

Not everything needs your obnoxious babbling commentary…

Zay did have an opinion about absolutely everything and he loved to voice it.

You've already got Farkle apologizing and feeling bad about himself…

Hadn't they all given him a hard time about his movie spoiler moments?

We've known each other almost our entire lives…

Though Zay wasn't the second rate friend she'd made him out to be they hadn't known him as long. It was an indisputable fact.

You can't stop trying to save everyone around you…

This wasn't the first time that Maya had said this about her. Riley couldn't stand to watch other people suffer, nor could she just sit back and allow injustice to happen. She was willing to admit that she had a tendency to take matters into her own hands, but was it really such a horrible thing to want to help the people around her? She didn't think so. Whether people appreciated her methods or not they always seemed to appreciate the end result. Most were happier and better off because she had intervened…especially Maya.

If she stayed in this hallway then she could confront Maya about the underlying issue. Whatever she had said or done, they would work it out because they were best friends and that's what friends do. Maybe she didn't want to talk about it but she needed to. She had been hurt before. She had been angry before, but never like this. Whatever this was Riley had a feeling it was going to get worse before it got better.

Despite Riley's efforts her mind began to drift to Lucas…next to herself he was the most important person in Maya's world right now. They were practically a couple or at the very least unofficially official. How could he not be here for her? That wasn't like the Lucas she knew. The Lucas she knew would do absolutely anything for the people he cared about. Was it what Maya had said?

And you can't seem to finish a single thing you start…

She had no idea what Maya had meant by that.