A/N: Since I felt so bad about continuously disappearing on y'all, I banged out another chapter(: It's not too long (it's actually incredibly short LOL) but in the grand scheme of the rest of the story, it's the length it needs to be. Hope you enjoy, and don't be too shy to leave a review ^_^

3 Years Ago. Ski Lodge.

Riley was sitting at her temporary bay window with Josh, watching the sky outside transform from the blackest of blacks into combinations of pretty blues and purples over the snow covered landscape. She'd lost track of her friends and classmates and Evan, but only because she was so much more fascinated by her uncle and his burgeoning feelings for her best friend.

"She's still 3 years younger than me, Riles," he was currently explaining to her, clearly trying to prevent the smile on her face from growing. "It'd almost feel like I was dating you."

"Ew."

"Exactly. It's one thing if I were 23 and she were 20, but right now, at your age? I remember what I was like at 14, and believe me, if a 17 year old tried to date me, I'd be confused as hell." He shook his head. "It's just not right."

"So…someday?"

"Someday," he admitted, avoiding her gaze. "But don't tell her that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want her holding on. If Sophie told me that someday might happen back on that subway train the night of your first date, I would've lost sleep. I can't do that to Maya."

She rested her head on his shoulder out of comfort, out of habit, out of love. "I won't do that to her either."

"Even if it meant pulling her away from Lucas?"

Her breath caught in her throat and she gulped. "Even if it meant that."

"Why?"

"If they like each other, I have no right to stand in between them."

"Even if it hurts?"

"Especially if it hurts." And this time, she was confessing, "It hurts a lot." Riley never said those words out loud because, in the grand scheme of everything, what did it matter? If the boy she loved and her best friend - the two people she cared about the most - wanted to be together, there wasn't anything she could do to stop them.

Josh put his arm around her and rubbed her shoulders with meek reassurance. She heard his lips part, he always made a sound when he opened his mouth, but before the words could come to life, she heard Lucas ask, "Excuse me?"

Riley looked up from her uncle's shoulder and Josh patted her on the back before walking away. The butterflies in her stomach awoke, reaching up all the way to the flowers in her heart and lungs. Breathless. That's what she felt whenever he soaked her in, igniting every nerve-ending beneath her skin. Only 14, but in love: she was willing to lose all sense and reason for this boy standing in the doorway, between her and her best friend.

"Lucas, hello."

The blond boy propped himself next to her, back incredibly straight and shoulders squared, and gave her a small smile. "Riley, can we talk?"

"Of course, whatever you want." I'll give you whatever you want, from the moon to my Maya.

"My favorite thing in this world is when you talk to me."

Her eyes flicked from her hands to his face. "It is?"

"It's okay for you to talk to whoever you want, Riley," he said, chuckling at the sheer surprise on her face, "but the important talks, the ones that we're going to think about an always remember. Can those just be between you and me?"

"Well, I don't know, Lucas," she joked, almost hesitantly, "How could that happen?"

Lucas's eyes were blinding now: she was melting under his steady gaze. "Well, I was thinking that if we were together a little more that you would only talk to other people a little bit and you would talk to me a lot."

"That's what you were thinking?" She said, smiling.

He took her hand. "Yeah, I think about it all the time."

"Me too."

"But we always said that the most important thing was that nobody got hurt."

And then she asked, "Will Maya be okay?"

"She's the one who sent me to you." And suddenly Riley felt her heart stop — no, she felt her heart lurch in her chest, like she was falling and tumbling over a cliff with nothing in sight to grab onto. "Riley?"

"Maya sent you to me?"

"She told me to go be with you."

"No." Riley stood up and stepped away, almost tripping over her boot. "No."

"Riles?" He got up too and followed her, reaching out to grab her arm to secure her, but she instinctively took another step back. There was something in his eyes that she couldn't quite read — hurt maybe? "I'm choosing you, I chose you. What's wrong?"

"No. This isn't you choosing me. This is Maya telling you to choose me. It's not the same." Riley's voice went up, echoing throughout the lodge now. She was aware that nearly everyone was watching them, and it made her nervous, but she couldn't care about that. "I wasn't your first choice."

"Honey?"

"Oh great, Maya, you couldn't have picked a more perfect time to show up, as usual."

Maya lifted her hands in self-defense. "What did I do, Riles?"

"What you always do: showing up during the important moments between me and Lucas."

"What?"

"Whenever something big happens, there you are."

"I thought you and I were a package deal, best friends. I thought we were forever."

"Some things are just mine, but that was never enough for you. My bay window, my mom, Lucas. It all needed to be yours if it was mine."

Farkle appeared, putting himself directly between the girls. "Riley, take a deep breath and calm down."

"I'm so tired of always being the one that has to be reasonable and sensical and calm, while Maya gets to do whatever she wants, and no one cares. I have to suffer silently, depressingly, and she gets my family and Shawn, every boy falls for her, every teacher adores her."

"Maya didn't do anything wrong, Riley."

"She rejected Lucas, and once he didn't have a shot with her, he came running back to me."

"You said that to her?" Farkle's voice was getting louder now as he turned angrily to his own best friend.

"What? No. That's not what happened—"

"—That's basically what happened—"

"—All I said was that Maya sent me to her after she asked if Maya would be okay!"

"You idiot!"

"Whoa, Farkle, you need to take a step back from my boy," Zay piped up, his chest puffing out.

"Back off, Zay. This doesn't involve you. But what is wrong with you, Freak Face?" He shouted, walking closer to Lucas in long, easy strides. "You had one job: not to hurt my friends!"

"I- What did Riley tell you? What was she muttering?" he pleaded. "I tried—" But Farkle put his hands up and pushed him against his chest. "What happened to talking it out instead of violence?"

"You moved here," he argued, shoving the blond again, "and you made Riley fall for you," another shove, "and then Maya," a push, "and you tore them apart."

She kept her ground at the bottom of the stairs, but gripped the banister to steady herself, and felt tears forming in her eyes. Maya was across the room now, moving backwards every now and then, avoiding all eye contact and the physical fight in front of them.

Zay easily moved between the two boys, and shouted, "Don't push him, Fark!"

But Farkle lifted his face and swung.

"Oh shit!" Someone from the forming crowd yelped. Zay bounced back and landed a punch right in the middle of the genius's chest. Soon they were tumbling around on the floor and Lucas was barely trying to pull them apart, but she knew what he was really doing. He was trying not to blow up.

Her eyes met her father's as soon as he entered the room and she mouthed, "I'm sorry, Dad." And ran away.

The Next Night. Matthews' Residence.

The next night, she was sitting at her bay window, where everything that reminded her of Maya was finally gone. She never showed up, but Riley didn't make a move either. As far as she was concerned, they were done.

Her phone lit up again; there were dozens of messages and missed calls from Josh and Smackle, a few texts from Zay, and one single 9-minute and 37-second voicemail from Lucas. Farkle had visited her earlier in the day, but she turned him away. How could she even begin to apologize for the damaged friendships he now had to work through because of her? Because he tried to defend her and all she did was run? She couldn't face him, not yet.

Riley grabbed her phone and sunk into her bed, digging into her blankets and pillows, hoping to disappear under the weight of everything. And she laid there all night, waiting for the sobs to take over until she felt like her skin was forcibly shed and she was a new person.

But the tears, like Maya, never came.

Some Time Later. Sophie Salazar's House Party.

Here she was at yet another high school party. Riley didn't even have to convince her parents to let her go — they were just excited to see her leaving the house for something that wasn't academic related. Besides, they knew how badly she wanted to make the cheerleading squad. And to do that, she needed to do some serious kissing-up to the current head cheerleader, Sophie Salazar, who was hosting the party, and the next one, Nina Park, who would definitely be there.

At this point though, Riley had a red cup filled with non-alcoholic lemonade in her hand, had already chatted with both girls and a few others from the squad, and felt like a teenage stereotype. The kind that wanted to be anywhere but here.

But then she saw a glimmer of a blond hair in the dark room, bobbing over the heads of the rest of her peers, and her heart skipped. Maybe it'd been the false confidence she gained from drinking out of a typical party cup or the facade she put on when trying to impress Nina and Sophie, but Riley was determined to talk to Lucas tonight.

Until, of course, she saw his arm resting gently (almost lovingly?) around Missy Bradford and witnessed him kissing her. Shit.

One Week Before Sophomore Year. Matthews' Residence.

There was a knock at her window. Riley jumped at the sound, startled, because even before she started locking it, no one ever knocked. But when she looked over, she saw Isadora Smackle with red eyes and a forlorn expression on her face. And she immediately let her in.

But Smackle didn't say anything, she just sat quietly at the bay window, her eyes puffy and wet. She kept her hands folded in her lap and her knees pressed tightly against each other.

Riley thought she looked like a baby bird trying to hold herself together and after handing her another tissue to wipe her tears, she asked, "Do you wanna talk about it, Smackle?"

The dark-haired genius simply shook her head. "Can you hug me?"

"What was that?" she asked, stunned.

"I need a hug, Riley."

Without pause, she wrapped her arms around her friend, and was reminded of how much she missed this. A friend. "What happened?"

"Farkle and I broke up."

I thought you two were forever. "O-oh. What h-happened?"

"This summer apart was the hardest experience in my lifetime. How could the two of us realistically last if being away from each other - each of us achieving our goals and making advancements in the scientific and social communities - was this difficult and distracting?"

Riley didn't know how to respond — she didn't have an answer for Smackle. So she continued to hold on to her. For nearly an hour, Isadora never shifted away or asked to be let go. She cried here and there, but never wanted to be released. So Riley held on tight.