Maya pov

"Maya don't you love Christmas time!" Riley asked me while twirling in the snow. I couldn't help smiling at her. "Nobody loves this time more than you riles." She stops twirling and grabs my hands. "Oh no Matthews I don't twirl!" I shout to her. She just giggles and says "well today you do!"

"Come on honey we were supposed to meet everyone at the bakery." I grab her arm and we go to topangas. "Christmas time is my favorite time of the year!" Riley sings as we enter. I was giggling at her when I see Charlie standing off to the side with Sara. He looks over at me and smiles and then turns back to talking to Sara.

I smile slightly and walk over to the rest of our friends. "So I think since there are more of us now we should expand the secret Santa." Lucas suggests. Everyone groans and Riley squeals. "I love it Lucas but let's have a second one. Since I'm sure most of you bought your gifts already?" Riley tells us.

"Okay it's settled." Riley grabs a paper and pencil. "Sara do you want to do secret santa with us?" Sara and Charlie make there way to where we were seated and Sara says yes. "Okay so who else?" Lucas asks looking at Riley write down names. "Josh said he would do it." I add looking at them.

Riley looks at me and then glances at Charlie. I could feel his eyes on me and my cheeks heat up. Everyone gets quiet until Charlie starts chuckling. "We should have a Christmas party." He says looking at Riley. She admittedly starts smiling and writing ideas down. "We can have it here and everyone draws names now and whoever is left that's who josh will get." Riley adds.

We all draw names and I see Charlie smile and look at Sara. I didn't know why but I was getting angry. "Hey penny you alright?" Lucas asks sitting by me. I laugh and say "of course why wouldn't I be ranger rick." He looks at where I'm looking and chuckles. "Something funny huckleberry?"

He shakes his head and says "you know if it wasn't for you and Charlie giving Riley and I a little push every now and again I don't think we would have admitted our feelings for each other." I start laughing "yes you would have it would have taken awhile but you would have."

He nods his head and smiles at Riley. "Maybe your right but I wouldn't have wanted to waste the time we would have had if we did wait. I love Riley and I wouldn't want to wait to be with her. Does that make sense?" I laugh again and say "yes it does." I look over at Charlie talking to his cousin and Zay and say "by admitting it sooner you got to have more time with her than wasting it on what ifs."

He smiles and nudges me towards Charlie. I lightly punch him and walk towards Charlie. When he sees me coming he starts smiling at me. I couldn't help but smile back. "Hey soufflé." I say standing in front of him. "Hi My." He says back. Zay and Angie notice us looking at each other and walk away.

"So.. can we talk?" I ask him. He smiles at me and intertwines our hands. I look down and smile at him. He starts moving in towards me and I do the same. Just as we were about to kiss Josh comes in with his friends. I let go of Charlie's hand and he frowns. I try to say something but Josh calls my name.

"Hey Maya come here there's some people I want you to meet." He shouts to me. I look back at Charlie but see he is already walking out the door. Riley and Lucas look at me and they both go out after him. I put a smile on my face and walk to Josh. He wraps his arm around my shoulder and introduces me as his girlfriend. I gasps.

Charlie pov

"Hey Charlie wait!" Lucas shouts but I keep walking. I stop at the crosswalk and feel someone jump on me. "Riley what are you doing?" Lucas says to her. "I'm stopping him from leaving." I couldn't help but laugh at her. "Riley you could have just grabbed my arm you didn't have to jump on me." She giggles and slides off.

We go and sit on the steps of a nearby building. I see Lucas and Riley sharing a look and I chuckle. "It's fine guys Maya made her choice and as much as it pains me I need to get over her once and for all." Lucas pats my shoulder and Riley rests her head on my other side.

"She's just confused right now Charlie please don't give up on her!" Riley pleads with me. I shake my head "no she isn't. I was an idiot to think she would have gotten over your uncle." I sigh and stand up. "Look guys I want us to stay friends but it's going to take some time before I can be in the same place as both of them.

They look at each other and Lucas says "what are you saying Gardner?" I take a deep breath and say "I think I need to stay away awhile focus on other things maybe go out and meet someone." I laugh at that. "Just don't tell anyone I'll tell the rest of them. Okay?"

I start to walk away but Riley says "what about Maya?" I put my head down and turn around "can you tell her for me please?" Riley looks sad but nods her head yes and runs and hugs me. "Bye Riley." I nod at Lucas and head home.

Maya pov

To say things changed after Josh announced to his friends I was his girlfriend would be an understatement. I didn't really feel like his girlfriend. We did the same things we did when we were just friends. I didn't know what it was and I tried to talk to Riley but she didn't really want to hear it.

She was still holding a grudge against Josh for swooping in and messing things up. I told her it was my life and he didn't swoop in I let him in. We haven't really spoken since our fight. But tonight was the secret santa Christmas party at the Matthews apartment so I knew she would end up talking to me there.

I just wasn't ready to face Charlie and have him see me with Josh. "Hey ferret you ready to go?" Josh calls from my living room. I look in the mirror and say "yeah I'm coming." We hold hands all the way to Riley's and I couldn't help looking at our hands and how I didn't feel the same thing I felt when Charlie held mine.

We get upstairs and I brace myself for seeing Charlie. When Riley opens the door she hugs us and walks away. I start looking around for him and Josh says "looking for someone Maya?" I shake my head and say "oh no just my mom." I walk through the party and still haven't seen him yet.

I sit down at the living room bay window and watch everyone having a good time. Every time the door opens I would get happy thinking it was him but it wasn't. "He didn't come." Someone says to me. I look up and it's his cousin Angie. "Oh." Is all I say. She sits next to me and I turn to her and say "I'm sorry about threatening you at the movies. I don't know what got into me." She smiles and says "I do."

I wait for her to say more but Zay calls her name and she gets up."hey you having fun?" Josh asks sitting next to me. I smile and say "of course! Christmas here is like Disneyland!" He chuckles and says "yeah Riley does like to go all out. I think she tries to top the Christmas from last year."

I giggle and see Riley looking at me. "Secret santa time now." She cheers. We all sit down and everyone gets two presents. Riley makes us take turns opening the gifts we each got. It's my turn and I look at the gifts. I open the first and it's a silver necklace with a silver M and paint brush. I open the second one and find a new art set with my name engraved on it.

I look at everyone to see who gave it to me and Lucas says "the gifts were from Charlie. He was your secret santa." I look down at them and smile.