Riley felt trapped inside the kitchen of her apartment. Maya and Farkle were upstairs in her room and Lucas and Zay were asleep in her living room while her parents were upstairs. She had made and eaten breakfast before washing the dishes and wiping off the counters until she could see her reflection in their usually dull surface. There was officially nothing left to do and nowhere left to go. With her options dwindling she decided to sit in one on the living room chairs and lay her head down on the arm rest. Her lack of sleep was finally catching up with her and she just needed to rest her eyes a moment.

Lucas lay there in the floor, hovering in that moment between sleep and waking when he heard a voice calling him from dreamland.

"Yo, Lucas if you don't get up man, I'm eating your portion of breakfast."

The blonde boy yawned and rubbed his eyes, attempting to wash the sleep from them.

"Alright, alright," he grumbled, "I'm up."

Where in the heck was he anyway? And why was he in the floor?

"Shh! Quiet dude! You'll wake Cotton Candy Face." Zay whispered pointing toward the chair closest to the kitchen.

Lucas turned around and there was Riley, beautiful, thoughtful, silly Riley, asleep in the arm chair. She looked so peaceful with her head resting on her clasped hands. Suddenly it all came back to him; being at Farkle's house, Mr. Minkus bringing them to the Mathews, Riley sneaking downstairs to do something in the kitchen.

"Riley must have made us all breakfast" he observed as Zay drenched his portion in syrup and began hacking away at the mound with a fork. It was a very Riley thing to do.

Zay shoveled a generous bite into his mouth, "Oh man!"

Another bite, "So good."

Lucas made his way to the counter and loaded a few flapjacks onto his plate.

"Man, it's a good thing you don't actually have to choose between those two or this would be really difficult."

Lucas looked over at his friend, still stuffing his face. "Where did that come from?"

"Because if this were a choice between Riley and Maya these pancakes would definitely be another check in little miss sunshine's pro category."

Leave it to Zay to say the most inappropriate thing he can possibly think of in that moment.

It had been months since Texas and nothing had been resolved. He still didn't have a clue where he and Maya stood with one another. Yes, she had admitted at the campfire that she liked him but that was only after Riley had forced her to and Lucas had almost kissed her. She had never acted as if she liked him, at least not that he could tell. She had never specified how she liked him or what she wanted them to be. Neither had he.

He knew that he cared about Maya, that much was obvious to him by now; but how did he care about her? Did he care about her like a sister? Lucas didn't have a sister, so he had no frame of reference for that relationship, but he was still pretty sure that brothers and sisters don't kiss…which they didn't….or almost kiss. He still couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that he had almost kissed Maya Hart.

Why had he done that? He honestly had no idea. It wasn't like he had spent the last year wondering what it would be like or wishing he could know. She had gotten up in his face plenty of times before and he'd never even had the thought let alone acted on it. Yet somehow her face had ended up in his hands, her lips mere inches away from his own. He hadn't planned it. He hadn't even decided it in that moment. It had just happened somehow.

Maya was his friend. He liked to think she considered him hers too. Lucas had always been fiercely loyal and protective over the people he cared about. It made sense to him that he would want her be able to love herself, even if her father couldn't. It made sense that he would want her to believe in herself and her talent, that he would want her to be able to learn and grow that talent and share it with others. It made sense that he would want her to be happy. That's what friends should want for each other, isn't it? Was it normal to be attracted to a friend? I mean, come on, the girl is gorgeous, anyone with eyes can see that. Were friends allowed to think other friends were attractive? Or did that mean they had to be something more?

"Look at that, sleeping beauty rose without the help of prince charming," he winked as Riley began to awaken.

She slowly sauntered over to the counter. She'd eaten her portion several hours ago and was already feeling mildly hungry again.

"Good morning," she greeted the boys with a smile, wondering how long she'd been asleep. She glanced over at the clock. She'd napped for a little less than an hour…not nearly long enough.

"Morning sugar, thanks for the flapjacks. They were delish!"

She giggled at his exaggerated response to instant pancake mix.

"You're very welcome Zay. I'm glad you enjoyed them."

Riley's gaze met Lucas's and that familiar warm tingle ran all throughout her. Why couldn't she just will these feelings away? Couldn't her heart understand that none of those glances or words were allowed to mean anything anymore?

"Hi," he all but whispered with a smile.

"Hi." She couldn't help but return his goofy grin with one of her own.

"Hey," it slipped out before he could even realize he'd done it, "so yeah, thanks for breakfast. These were great." He pointed to what was left of his pancakes on the plate with his fork.

She tilted her head in question…had he just? That had been their thing, a symbol of his more than friendly feelings for her; feelings he now had for Maya. So why was he doing their thing with her?

"I was nothing really. I was happy to do it."

At that moment Cory came walking down the stairs, Farkle and Maya following behind him. He rubbed his hands together and clapped just like he sometimes did in class. He was obviously preparing for an announcement of some kind.

"Alright boys, I need you to finish up your breakfast…do I smell pancakes" he asked his daughter with a smile before remembering the purpose of this conversation. "Nevermind, I need you boys to eat your breakfast and get cleaned up. I'll be taking you all home shortly. Farkle, your parents will be meeting us there."

"Yes sir," the boys all replied in unison.

Cory looked over hopefully at Riley.

"Did you by any chance save some for mommy and daddy?"

She smiled sweetly, "in the oven."

He grinned overenthusiastically and hugged her tightly. "You know you're my favorite daughter."

"I'm your only daughter," she corrected.

Maya watched the scene before her with mixed emotions. She loved Riley and wanted her to be happy more than anything in the world. And Riley was happy. She had every reason to be. Riley had everything she wanted, like her father's love and respect, a guy who thought she hung the moon, everyone's high opinion…and even things she didn't want, like Lucas's attention. Just once Maya would like to know what it feels like to be Riley Mathews. From where she was standing Farkle had no reason to be so concerned.