Friendly neighborhood galpal here, first of all thank you for the many reviews, messages, follows, and faves. They are always welcome. I'm going to do my best to keep updating daily (most likely in the evenings/night) but school is back in session so please if for some reason I miss a day, be patient. I won't leave you hanging long. ;)
"Now explain to me how this is better than picking up gorgeous girls all day long?"
Zay was standing on the sidelines in gym class watching Lucas channel his frustration into sports. He lifted the ball over his head and prepared to shoot.
"Because right now girls are the source of my problem," he let the ball fly and sink into the basket. He picked up another ball and took aim.
"Too bad you're not as good with girls as you are with sports," a familiar voice called out.
Charlie Gardner was suddenly standing against the doorway, a cocky grin on his face. Lucas was really starting to hate that face and the way it kept popping up like a human whack a mole. It was hard to believe there had been a time not too long ago when he wasn't constantly following Riley and provoking Lucas.
"Luke's good at everything he does. Everybody knows that." Zay stated matter-of-factly.
"Everything but keeping Riley," he taunted.
Zay pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. This fool clearly had no idea who he was messing with. Lucas had been slowly losing his cool ever since they'd come back from Texas. Whatever Ghandi mentality he'd picked up since moving to New York wouldn't last much longer if Souffle didn't backpedal fast.
Instead Lucas just smirked. "Feeling a little threatened Gardner?"
"By the brother?" he said mockingly, "not a chance."
Lucas pulled his hands into a fist. God what he wouldn't give to wipe that smug look off Charlie's face, but then how would Riley react? Lucas may not have any use for the guy but she seemed to like him. She was going on dates with him and inviting him to spend time with the group. He obviously meant something to her. He'd love to hurt Charlie, but not if it meant hurting Riley in the process. They were barely speaking as it was.
"So it doesn't bother you at all that I'm going to be alone with her in her bedroom today after school?" he asked knowingly.
Just because he couldn't punch him didn't mean he couldn't give just as good as he got.
Charlie's smile faltered for a moment, but then he remembered the ace in his back pocket. This was a perfect opportunity and he wasn't about to let it go to waste. His smile grew even wider, if that was possible and his eyes twinkled with malice.
"Why should it? She's only working with you because the teacher wouldn't let her change partners and I'm the one that's going to be kissing her goodnight this weekend." He dropped the bomb and then walked away, knowing he'd achieved the damage he'd intended. As long as Friar believed Riley was over him Charlie stood a chance.
Zay stood there mouth gaping open, eyes wide as saucers.
"That guy's as phony as a three dollar bill, and I think he's part ninja or something. Seriously do you ever hear him coming? Cause I sure don't. No one does. You just turn around and he's there. It's crazy, and kind of scary."
"Yeah, I don't like him."
Lucas just grabbed another ball and tried not to think about what Charlie had said. He knew that things with Riley were a little rocky at the moment, but what Gardner said couldn't be true…could it?
Riley was pacing in her bedroom anxiously awaiting Lucas. She had begged Harper to let her switch partners but she'd refused. "Whatever problems you're having as a group you'll have to work through together," she had said. 'I can do this. I can do this.' She repeated it like a mantra over and over again. All she had to do was avoid his eyes and put as much distance between them as possible.
She turned to find Lucas climbing through her window, just he had done a million times before, but for once he didn't seem happy to see her. 'That's good,' she told herself. That should make this easier, right?
"So I ran into your…Charlie, today. He said you asked to change partners?"
Riley's brows knit in confusion.
"How did he even know about that?"
"So it's true then?"
Lucas didn't really care how Charlie knew. What mattered is that Riley was slowly cutting him out of her life. First she didn't want to be with him anymore, then she stopped talking to him, and now she couldn't even be bothered to do a school project together?!
"Did I do something to you that I'm not aware of? Because I have done EVERYTHING that you've asked me to and you just keep pulling further and further away from me. You actually used to like spending time with me. You said that I was one of your favorite people to talk to. And now all of a sudden it's like you don't want anything to do with me!"
He hadn't meant to let her see this side of him again, but he couldn't help it. His frustration had been building ever since things had started changing. He wasn't angry that she didn't like him anymore, he was hurt and disappointed, but that wasn't what was setting him off.
"What are you talking about Lucas? We see each other all the time." She argued.
"Yeah, we see each other but Riley you don't talk to me anymore. You barely even look at me. And now you don't even want to work with me? Don't you miss me at all?!"
Of course she did, every second of every day. She would see something funny and want to tell him about it but know she couldn't. She would go over every memory they'd ever shared in her head when she was alone at night because it was the only time she was allowed to want to feel close to him. She'd watch him with Maya and slowly die inside a little, but she couldn't tell him any of those things.
Riley and Lucas both sat down at the window, needing it's magic to wash over them.
"I'm sorry that I yelled at you Riles, it's just…you're really important to me. I feel like I'm losing my best friend and that hurts me."
She looked up at him timidly. "I..I'm your best friend?"
Lucas couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from turning upward in a wry smile.
"Well yeah, I mean, we're all friends, really good friends, but you and I, I mean you know things about me that no one else does. I just kind of thought that was a mutual thing between us."
Did she really not know this? Why hadn't he ever told her before now? And how many other things had he held back that he should have said when he'd had the chance? Would things have been different if he had?
"I'm still your friend Lucas. I'll always be your friend. I'm sorry if it hasn't seemed like it lately. I just think it might be kind of weird for Maya, you know, us working together. She hasn't said anything but I remember what it was like when it was you and me, and then the two of you would have these intense moments that everyone would comment and speculate on. She doesn't deserve that.
A wave of guilt washed over him. It may not mean anything to her now, but it obviously had at the time. How had he missed that? And then he thought of Maya. If he and Maya were whatever he and Riley had been was he doing something wrong right now by seeking Riley out? Would this hurt Maya the way it had Riley? He really needed to figure out what the heck they were. He didn't like the idea of hurting either girl, or betraying the girl he was "dating." He wanted to be better than that.
"So you did this for Maya?" he asked.
She nodded and smiled weakly. "Not just Maya. I did it for us too; you and me. I wanted us to do well on the assignment and you and I can't even seem to agree on what stance to take on the paper. I just figured it would be easier for you to work with someone else. I really wasn't trying to hurt you. I was just trying to do what was…"
"Best for everyone involved," he cut her off. She glanced up at him questioningly. No one but Maya had ever read her mind before.
"You say that a lot lately."
She gave him another watery smile. "Maybe that's why I sympathize with Cyrano. It's kind of funny, isn't it? People always said that you and I didn't make a good couple because we're too much alike, and now we can't even agree on a stupid paper."
He'd never realized how invested everyone else had been in their unofficial thing. He'd never realized the things people were saying that she had heard.
He looked up at her again and caught her gaze. He couldn't help but smile.
"Guess we showed them," he said.
"Yeah, I guess we did."
They sat there silently trying to figure out where to go from here.
"Are you really okay with Cyrano's lie?"
"Not really, I mean, I know lying is wrong, and I'm sure he hated lying to the people he loved too, but if the end result is the happiness of those people, I think it could be worth it."
She was hoping at least.
"I still think he did the wrong thing," he said flatly, "but, I can understand why he did it."
She tilter her head toward him in that way she did when she had a question she couldn't answer.
"Did we just find a topic for our paper?"
He nodded, feeling strangely hopeful for the first time in months, though he wasn't sure why.
"Yeah, I think we did."