A.N.- I decided not to torture you any longer, for those who wanted Lucas's perspective here it is. This chapter is dedicated to Courtney who has been amazing over the last couple weeks, I couldn't ask for a better friend. Italics are flashbacks. Hope you enjoy.


"We are not talking about this now." My mother hissed. The tension between the three of us soaked into the atmosphere. I hadn't seen the older blonde's lips be anything but a frown since he had arrived home.
"The Matthews are my friends, and I want everyone on their best behavior." I was looking forward to tonight before my father showed up. We had gotten in a little squabble on the way over here until Mom shut us down. Residue hard feelings still stirred between us, and if weren't careful we would duke it out before dinner.

I finished buttoning up my blue button up shirt. I was dressed up enough to make a good impression for any parent. I don't know why I was placing such importance on tonight.
"Lucas, are you ready, we need to leave soon or we'll be late." I rolled my eyes at my mother's worried words. We lived down the street from them how long would it take to walk over there.
"Mom I'll be ready in a minute." I glanced at my reflection in the mirror, and had to admit I looked pretty good. I was thankful for Josh being present at the dinner, he was sure to take some of the focus off of setting Riley and me up. I hadn't seen my mom this excited for something in a while, the dinner was all she was talking about this week. She didn't seem as disappointed when my father didn't come back so far this week. He said he was caught up with work.
"Lucas." I walked out of my room and stopped right when my mom was opening door to be greeted with a kiss on the cheek from my father.
"I wasn't expecting you to come home yet hun."
"It was a surprise to me too. I was going to get some work done." He placed the suitcase on the floor.
"Well, Lucas and I were planning on going to dinner at the Matthews, you should come." She cooed. I stood there just watching the whole thing. His eyes jumped up to the top of stairs where I stood. We exchanged a hard stare. That's when I knew that my father and I would talk later, it would only be a matter of time.

I was snapped back to reality when the door flew open in front of us.
"Welcome." I have never met Mrs. Matthews but what I saw before me matched what I pictured her as. Josh had told me numerous stories about her and it seemed to fall into place. The smells that hit my nose as I walked in were starting to make my mouth water.
"This is my husband Cory." He shook hands with my mother and father and I could have sworn he squinted at me with disdain and mouthed watching you, but I'm sure I was imagining things.
"Riley, come down stairs, we have company." Mrs. Matthews smiled politely before I heard her muttering that she was taking too long. I heard footsteps reach the top of my stairs and my eyes jumped up to her figure at the top of the stairs.
"Honey you look lovely, doesn't she?" I couldn't bring myself to answer as she started to descended down the stairs, not that she didn't look lovely, it was just the words wouldn't leave my mouth. Our eyes connected and I couldn't tear them away, it was almost surreal. This girl was a ghost for the past couple weeks and now she was 10 feet from me. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion, I watched her stumble and reached out to catch her; If she would have actually hit the ground she could have sprained her ankle. I caught her with relative ease and my body was highly aware of how close she was.
"Hi," I breathed out, she seemed all too real now, I stood her upright not wanting her family to get the wrong idea.
"Hey,"
"Hey," it was like I couldn't say anything else besides the greeting.
"I'm sorry I'm so clumsy." She apologized quietly, but it just lifted the corners of my lips.
"Don't be," I replied. The only thing that interrupted us was the cough that came from Mrs. Matthews.
"There's enough time for you two to flirt later." The words shot me back to reality the tips of my ears turned a bright pink, thankfully it seemed like no one noticed.
"Dinner is on the table, and where in the world is your brother Riley, he knows to be here." I turned my
attention back to Riley, but she didn't have me captivated.
"I told him to be here, I can't be responsible for his actions." She snapped back at her mother in a slightly sarcastic tone forgetting perhaps that they had guests.
"I can call him and see where he's at," I offered trying to diffuse the tension between Riley and her mother.
"No!" Riley nearly shouted, and I guess my intention to help failed.
"I mean I tried calling him earlier and it went straight to voicemail." She explained, I narrowed my vision, I had talked to Josh earlier that week, he should have been here.
"If you don't mind Lucas, just try again." I did what she asked, as I didn't seem the harm, I was halfway worried that something happened to the guy. I barely noticed Riley excused herself and more focused on pulling up Josh's number.
"Hello?" It sounded like he was fine, so the next question why wasn't he here?
"Josh, where are you? Fall dinner remember?"
"I have a 5,000-word paper that is due at midnight." What kind of teacher would be so cruel before we got a week off?
"Can you cover for me?" The poor guy, he sounded like he really needed help. I knew when I had a big paper due, I could never focus at my house. It was the least I could do to help him out.
"Fine, but you owe me."
"Thanks man." I closed the phone and turned back to the expecting adults.
"He's at school doing a paper." At my words Mrs. Matthews suddenly became super flustered.
"We'll how timely of him." It was almost as if she was looking for something nice to say, but her tone said otherwise, I would have to ask Josh about it later.
"Well how about some dinner." Topanga shouted upstairs up to Riley and then showed us to the table.


"Well thank you for inviting us for this lovely meal Topanga, it all looks so lovely." My mom complimented the meal, and I couldn't help but agree. I saw the edges of Riley's lips twist up in a small smile.
"Riley, your mother has told me so much about you, that you're going to school to be a doctor, I bet that's exciting. How are you liking your classes?"
"My classes are going fine; I'm having trouble in chemistry though," she replied.
"I wasn't aware you were taking chemistry this year," her mother's voice sounded surprised. My gaze jumped to Riley started to fidget under the questioning.
"It was a last minute thing." I tilted my head to the side just watching her. There was something off about her answer like she was hiding something.
"Well that's my Riley, up for any challenge." An awkwardness spread across the table and I couldn't help myself; the girl only left me with more questions.
"Who's your teacher?" Right after the question I felt an elbow hit my arm. It would seem that she appreciated my line of questioning.
"Mr. Peck." She replied timidly. I gave her a brief nod but I had so many more questions. Did she have chemistry in the afternoon? I hadn't seen her linger from the class before or come into class for the class after me. I feel like I would have seen her name somewhere.

"But of course all work and no play…" Mrs. Matthews's sing song voice faded only for a second. I just had a gut feeling that the comments about how Riley and I would be perfect together were heading our way.

"Riley didn't you say there was a fair sometime this weekend?" Riley broke into a coughing fit and it provided a certain amount of relief that she wasn't in the loop on all of this.

"Sometimes all work and no play is a good thing." You could tell that Mr. Matthews was just as uncomfortable with this as we were.

"Uh yeah." She grabbed a napkin to wipe any remaining water droplets on her face. She seemed extremely hesitant to the idea which didn't bring me any comfort. There was an awkward silence that loomed over the table. I then got to watch the stalemate between mother and daughter and was questioning how good of an idea this dinner was. I started focusing on the plate in front of me, it must be awkward for her, I've been able to gather information about her but she doesn't know me.

"Would you, like to go Lucas?" My pulse quickened at the question. Maybe this was a sign, I mean only a couple days ago I had given up on the blonde goddess and now I have a beautiful girl across me asking to spend a night at a fair.

"Sure." We exchanged smiles quickly before the conversation drifted back to school and the exams that we had coming up after fall break.
"You should be proud of your career path Riley, I'm sure you'll make a fine Doctor. You'll make your parents proud." My father wasn't an extremely outspoken man, but he made his words count when he did. I know I physically cringed at his words. Why would he bring this up now?
"William," My mom hissed, embarrassed.

"What? I was just saying that it's nice to see someone who has a brains on their shoulders and not just following a whim. Maybe with any luck you'll show my boy a thing or two." I felt my fists curl tight, but before I could the brunette in front of me stood up glaring at my father.

"Any vet clinic would be lucky to have Lucas work there, he is passionate about what he does and if you were any sort of father you would see that." I had to admit it she had guts to stand up to him. After part of the shock wore off my mind started racing. How did she know about wanting to be a vet? That information wasn't necessarily floating around school by any stretch of the means.

"I beg your pardon." I watched her stand her ground to my father as he stood up. I knew this is where it was very likely to get ugly.

"Riley," Mrs. Matthews snapped at her daughter. It didn't seem like this happened all that often; so why was she getting all fired up on my behalf?

"I didn't mean disrespect sir, I just thought you would want your son happy, and working with animals is what brings him joy. It might not be as powerful of a career as a lawyer but it is certainly nothing to be ashamed of." She could have known the lawyer thing because that is common knowledge, but my mind kept running back to the vet comment.

"Sofia, get your purse, we're leaving. I have some business to attend to."

"But"- My mother started to protest but his glare silenced her. He stalked out the door in the direction of the house. My mother gathered her things looking guilty like she needed to apologize for his behavior, it rarely ever got this bad though. Riley's words must have rattled him.

"I'm so sorry about this." She pushed me in the direction of the door. My mind could barely comprehend what just happened. I turned back feeling the need to say something, anything.

"I'll uh, pick you up Friday at 6." I said trying to give her some comfort. She did after all stand up to my father. I knew better than to speak a word in the short trip home. Instead of answers, this dinner seemed to only offer more questions.


A.N.- And there you go. I hope it lived up to expectations at least some what. The fair chapters are really coming along, can't wait for you to read them.