"Now that's what I'm talking about." Maya stood proudly, hands on her hips, admiring her handiwork. She'd hung lantern strings and lit a few candles, making the whole place glow in golden light. In the middle, she'd set up seats with drinks and snacks, though there'd be plenty extra when all was said and done. After all, this was a party for two. She leaned down under the table and flipped the switch for the speakers, connected by Bluetooth to her phone. Smackle had figured out how to rig their controls, and Zay had figured out the playlist. Everything was going according to plan.
"Are you sure it's not too much?" Riley asked, walking out behind her. She did a little twirl, her tulle skirt billowing around her. Her hair fell in soft waves around her face as she leaned over to fiddle with its suspender straps.
"It's perfect." Maya had dressed up herself, a yellow pleated dress with over the knee boots. She had to seal the deal for Riley after all. "Oh, I did forget to call for the pizza though. Why don't you get the table all set up?"
"Sure," Riley said, moving to set out the cups and silverware.
As soon as she was back down to the apartment, Maya pulled out her phone. "She's totally buying it. Is Farkle ready? You can send him up whenever."
"Yeah, we're on our way up, Maya," Lucas said, winking at Zay while Farkle walked ahead of them. "Good to go."
Maya was already waiting for them at the door when they arrived. "Hey guys," she whispered. "Riley's waiting in her room. She still doesn't know any of you are coming to surprise her, so we're all good. Farkle, why don't you take these streamers up and get ready? And Lucas and Zay, can you two go grab the pizzas? They're waiting downstairs."
"On it," Farkle said, heading up to the roof.
Lucas and Zay walked halfway to the elevator before Farkle was gone, then turned around and walked right back to Maya. She peered around the corner just to make sure Farkle was gone, then stepped back to invite Lucas and Zay in. "Riley's already up there. Come on, Smackle's got everything set up in Riley's room. Let's watch the magic happen."
/
Farkle stepped out onto the rooftop and dropped his streamers. "Oh, no! Uh, surprise, Riley!" He said, quickly jumping and posing, upset to she'd already found out about her secret party.
"What?" Riley asked, spinning to face him. He watched how she twirled, all dolled up. She didn't look like she'd just stumbled into a party. She looked like she'd dressed for one.
In that moment, the speakers went live, playing soft music.
"Um," Farkle said, backing up to the door. "I'll be right back." He pushed against the door, but it didn't budge. "Um," he said again, louder. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what's happening here."
"You mean Maya didn't invite you to our party?" Riley asked, confused.
"Of course she invited me to your surprise party," Farkle said, pushing against the door. "I just didn't realize she was so bad at surprises. Lucas and Zay are right downstairs, and they'll be back with the pizza any second."
"But Maya just left to order the pizza…and this isn't a surprise party," Riley said. "I've been planning it with Maya this whole time, she just said we had to keep it on the down-low to keep out…oh," Riley said, falling back into a seat.
"Oh?" Farkle asked, giving up on the door and walking over to sit with her.
"They tricked us," Riley said, gesturing to their surroundings. "I don't know why, but they set us up. They're not coming back with pizza anytime soon."
/
Meanwhile, from Riley's room, Zay, Smackle, Lucas, and Maya sat crowded around Smackle's laptop screen, hooked up to the camera, speakers, and automatic lock she'd set up on the rooftop.
"Took them long enough," Smackle laughed. She pulled up the controls for the speaker, and spoke into a mic. "Please enjoy the party, you two. You certainly have a lot to talk about."
"Great. Now everybody shh," Zay whispered. "This is where things get interesting."
/
"This is ridiculous," Farkle whined.
"So ridiculous!" Riley repeated, stomping her feet.
"It's absurd."
"So absurd!"
"It's practically diabolical," Farkle said, crossing his arms.
"So diabolical!"
"I mean, imagine how they got to thinking that we need to be locked out here all alone in order to have a proper conversation with each other! It's insane!"
"Well," Riley said quietly.
"Well?" Farkle leaned up from his seat, adjusting himself so he could see her properly. The light flickered on her face in the candlelight. She was glowing for real this time, not just in his head.
"Well, you have been kind of quiet recently." Riley had made herself a little plate of snacks, but only seemed to push them around her plate instead of eating them. Farkle watched her, silent, tracking the way the light wind blew her hair around her shoulders.
"You're only proving my point here," Riley said with a small laugh.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm paying attention." He said, looking back at her eyes. It'd been a while since he felt safe enough to really look at her. To be this close again.
"I guess it is kind of silly, since we're such good friends and all, but I was starting to think that you didn't want to hang out with me anymore or something. I thought maybe I ruined things."
Farkle's mouth opened despite himself. "How could you ever think that?"
Riley set her plate back down and shrugged. "I guess it's easy to imagine something like that when the other person just disappears."
"Oh," Farkle said, leaning back to look up at the sky. She knew that would sting him, and it did. The guilt forced him to look away from up, up towards the sky. It was a New York night, hardly any stars. But they were all there, hidden unlike the light from the moon above them, looking down over everything. "I'm not upset with you, Riley," he said simply. "Don't worry about it."
"Okay," she said.
"Okay," He agreed.
"So, we can go back to normal now?" He was surprised about how upset she seemed to be over this, her face still full of concern.
"Yeah, of course."
It was silent, except for the music they couldn't turn off, still playing quietly. Riley's foot was tapping, clearly anxious.
"Maybe I should try the door again now," Farkle offered.
"I'm sorry Lucas yelled at you," Riley said quickly. "You didn't deserve that, and I guess you might've talked to him about it, but I'm sorry that I had anything to do with it."
"Riley, I don't blame you for any of that. I'm alright, really."
"Okay."
"Okay…so we're fine now?"
"Yeah."
They stared at each other for a moment, both so uncomfortable, but refusing to break their eye contact.
"Riley, what is it?" Farkle finally asked, standing up to pace around.
"Aren't you going to apologize?" She was staring down at her lap now, humiliated.
"…apologize?" Farkle asked, pausing for a moment.
"You hurt my feelings. Normal people usually say they're sorry when that happens."
"Riley-"
"Look, I get it, okay? You can stay away from me. If that's the new normal, that's okay." Riley looked around the roof. "Now can you please let us out, now?"
/
"This is painful to watch," Maya said, shielding her eyes. "Just let them out of there already. This isn't solving anything. It might just be making things worse."
"I don't understand how I could be wrong about this. The logic is all there. If they're such good friends, they should be able to talk through this. It should click. They should be happy." Smackle said, hand hovering over the button to unlock the door.
"You've got the logic down, just maybe not the emotion," Lucas said. "We've got them started. Let's let them out and see what happens." He pressed the button, watching Riley and Farkle leave on the screen.
This was gonna be harder than they thought.