A/N: This chapter is half in Riley's POV and half in Maya's. (They're basically the same person, right? haha)

Riley refused to get out of bed. She was going to pretend like she was sick long enough for her parents to leave and then she would spend the day binge watching Gossip Girl on Netflix and eating chocolate. But if she knew Maya, she knew she'd be here any minute.

"Good morning sunshine!"

Right on cue. "Go to school, Maya. I'm not going. *Cough cough.* I'm sick."

"Finally! Rub some of your germs on me so I can be sick too."

"Okay I'm not really sick, but I'm not going to school. And my parents are still here so they have to believe I'm really sick."

"Wait, why would you not want to go to school?"

Riley had thought about calling Maya after Lucas hadn't shown up for their date but she didn't feel like talking to anyone. She didn't think that Lucas was going to be the kind of guy that would stand her up that way.

"Lucas didn't show up at the coffee shop yesterday."

"Wait, what? Oh when I get my hands on him..."

"Maya, please don't. I just want to forget the last two weeks ever happened."

"That will be much easier when Lucas is nowhere to be found, Riles."

Riley couldn't stop Maya as she bolted out the window.

GMWGMWGMWGMWGMWGMWGMWGMWGMW

Maya walked through the hallways trying to spot Lucas. He wasn't in his usual spots around school. Maya remembered that Riley usually found him out on the baseball field so she thought she would try there. Sure enough, there sat Friar in the dugout.

"Lucas Friar, you have got some serious explaining to do."

"Maya, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, Huckleberry. I'm not sure who you think you are but if you think you can just make my best friend fall for you and then drop her like nothing happened, you have got another think coming."

"Maya, trust me. The last thing I want to do is hurt Riley. That's why I'm staying away from her. She is way better off without me."

Maya noticed Lucas looking down at his fist. It seemed bruised.

"What did you do to your hand?"

"Maya, please. If you knew, you wouldn't want Riley anywhere near me either."

"Okay, I don't know whats going on with you, but you owe Riley an explanation. And I won't drop this until you give her one. She's at home. She's faking sick so she doesn't have to face you."

Maya was determined to get Lucas back to Riley's house. She told Lucas to wait on the balcony and peeked in to Riley's room to make sure she was decent. Riley was still in her sweats with her hair pulled into a messy bun on top of her hair. But she looked as great as she always did.

"Maya, what did you do?" Riley asked her.

"There's someone here who owes you an explanation."

And with that, Maya backed out of the window and Lucas popped in instead. Even though he was the last person she wanted to see right now, she still got butterflies when she saw his face. But there was something different about him. He looked sad and maybe even a little bit scared.

"Lucas, you don't have to say anything. It's totally fine. I just have a little cold and my mom thought it would be best if I stayed home. Really. It's not that big of a deal."

"Riley. You didn't deserve what happened yesterday."

"Lucas, what are you talking about? It's fine, we aren't a couple. We're not dating. We were just meeting for a smoothie, things come up. I totally understand. In fact, I would have had to cut it short because my mom called right after we were supposed to meet and needed me home anyway. So really, no worries."

"Riley. Can I just talk to you about what happened yesterday?"

"Well, if you feel like you need to, but you really don't. If you don't want to."

"I got into a fight."

Riley wasn't expecting that. She was expecting him to say something like, I realized I had better prospects than you, or my friends wanted me to come hang out.

"I went out to the baseball field to look for something I had lost and Billy was there. He made a comment about how he was going to replace me as pitcher. I didn't think much of it until he made a comment about something else."

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'I'm going to take your spot and your girl. Whether she likes it or not.' I didn't like the way he said it. It was like he was hinting that he was going to take advantage of you. I got so mad, I just. I went to another place. It scared me because it's the same place I went to in Texas. It's the reason that I'm here."

Riley didn't know what to say. She couldn't believe Billy had something like that about her. He was always so nice to her. And Riley was not happy about the fact that they had gotten into a fight.

"Is Billy okay?"

"He's fine. He'll have a sore jaw for a few days."

Riley glanced down at the fist that Lucas seemed to be favoring. It was slightly swollen and still a little red.

"That's why I didn't show yesterday. I knew you wouldn't like that side of me. You deserve someone who makes you feel safe. I'm sure after hearing what happened between me and Billy you don't feel that way with me. But I am sorry if I hurt you. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do."

And with that, Lucas got up and went out the window.