"Which one of you people is Shawn Hunter?"

Shawn raised his eyebrows before approaching the woman, who I assumed was Lucas's mother. After all, it was the same woman I had see in the gym during graduation. "That'd be me. What can I do to help you?"

She took a few steps towards him, her curly red hair bouncing up and down as she moved. I vaguely realized that she had the same bright green eyes that her son did, but I shrugged off the thought so I could focus. "For some strange reason my son is certain you can find some way to convince me that he should continue living with you. I figured I would give you a chance, if only to humor the boy, as well as myself."

"And who are you?" Shawn finally asked, crossing his arms.

"Isabella McGuire," she stated firmly, crossing her arms, as well. "Now, dazzle me."

"Waaaaait a minute," Uncle Eric said suddenly, striding towards Isabella. He seemed a little confused, and almost hopeful. "Your last name is McGuire, you've got that bright red hair and pretty little face-"

"Excuse me?" she cried, eyebrows raising immediately.

Uncle Eric waved his right hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, you're excused in a second. Seriously, though, would you happen to know a Rachel McGuire? She would be about my age, most likely taller than me, and a heck of a lot more beautiful?"

"That's my sister," she said in a deadpan before turning to face Uncle Shawn again. "We need to talk. What on earth made you think you could just suggest to my young, impressionable son that he could live with you instead of his actual family? He had perfectly stable living conditions. Why in the world would you want to screw that up?"

Shawn laughed humorlessly. "You're kidding me, right? Your jerk of an ex-husband kicked your son out of his house. How is that "perfectly stable living conditions"? It sounds more like being stuck out on the street because your parents can't understand what they're missing out on."

"And that would be?"

"Your son growing up!" Shawn exclaimed, obviously taken aback by her nonchalance over the subject. "You went across the country and left your son with his alcoholic father. What kind of mother do you think you are? Because I'm thinking you aren't a very fantastic one."

Maya and Farkle cautiously stepped inside, whereas Lucas hovered in the doorway. I was torn between wanting to talk to him and ask him what was going on, asking Eric about who exactly Rachel McGuire was, and continuing to watch the scene unfolding in front of all of us. Needless to say, it was a very difficult and complicated decision, but eventually I chose to "subtly" scoot over to where my Uncle Eric was lingering, apparently paralyzed in surprise.

"Uncle Eric?"

"Yes, Dorothy?" he asked after a moment, using his old nickname for a me - a Wizard of Oz reference, of course. I had never quite understood it, but I supposed it was better than some unusual nickname that was somewhat insulting. Then again, maybe it wouldn't be too horrible. Isn't that what some families did? It was only playful banter, nothing more, nothing less.

"Who is Rachel?" By now Farkle and Maya had come up from behind me, flanking me on either side. It might have appeared funny to someone if the atmosphere wasn't so painfully tense right now.

"Somebody I used to know," he muttered, pressing his lips together briefly. "Morgan, why don't you think Riley's two weird little friends, Auggie and Joshua out to bring us all back some food?"

"I'm not missing this," Morgan said, glancing between everyone. Joshua nodded in agreement, although his attention was fixated on Maya. I couldn't help but wonder if he was ever going to give up on her.

Eric sighed, pulling out his wallet and handing it to Aunt Morgan. "Buy whatever you guys want."

"Let's go!" Aunt Morgan trilled, hopping up and latching onto Uncle Josh. "Maya, the Farkle, Augster, come on. We gotta get out of here before he changes his mind."

"I'm not-"

Lucas exhaled, hesitantly stepping inside before leaning against the wall closest to the door. "Go, Maya. It's probably for the best anyways, right?"

Farkle and Maya exchanged a brief glance before they reluctantly followed Aunt Morgan, Auggie, and Joshua out of the apartment. Farkle looked back at us before shutting the door behind them, the soft sound seeming almost unrealistic in the awkward environment we were all somehow stuck in. Everyone seemingly hesitated before Uncle Eric cleared his throat, catching our attentions. "Sit," he said, gesturing at Shawn and Lucas's mother and then the couch. They shot each other a confused look before warily sitting down, gazes locked on Uncle Eric.

"You got this?" my dad asked quietly, leaning towards his brother. I bit back a yell of shock - I had all but forgotten that my parents were still here.

Uncle Eric nodded, cracking a small smile. "Trust me," he murmured, fleetingly looking between Lucas and I before facing my father again. "I've got this. I'm pretty good at handling people's issues, don't you know? Oh, but Riley, Riley's boyfriend?"

I shook my head quickly. "He's not my-"

"Hush, child. You're not helping. I want you two to go to your bedroom and do regular teenager things while I talk to these two," Uncle Eric explained, pointing towards the couch. Shawn rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't comment on my uncle's strange behavior.

"Uh, wait a minute-" my dad started.

Fortunately, my mom decided to step in before this could officially turn into World War III. "Listen to Eric, Cory. If only because you have to believe that everyone can be good at something. This might actually be his thing. Trust him."

My dad looked between Lucas and I before heaving a sigh. "Fine. But don't do regular teenager things. Just because you've graduated from middle school doesn't mean you have unlimited freedom," he said to me, eyebrows raised.

I smiled awkwardly, coming to the realization that he was unaware of my current complications with Lucas. In fact, aside from Lucas himself, the only other two people that knew about any of that had just left. I was completely on my own here. "Okaaaay," I mumbled, quickly escaping to my bedroom before my dad could say anything else that might possibly make me want to light myself on fire. I didn't bother looking back, already sure that Lucas wouldn't be right behind me.

I sat down at my sacred bay window, biting my bottom lip hard. It was times like this I wished everything wasn't so tense with everybody in my life. I needed to talk to Maya or Farkle, because they would understood how I was feeling right now better than even I could. That was how it had always worked. But then life started getting complicated, and although I knew that nothing would ever be the same, I couldn't keep myself for longing for some semblance of normalcy. Just for a couple minutes, I wanted to be certain of everything again.

"Riley."

I jerked my head up, my eyes widening slightly. Apparently I was not as talented at predicting things as I used to be. "Lucas."

He paused in my doorway for a minute before hesitantly walking over and sitting besides me at my bay window. "I just thought I ought to apologize for the things I said earlier. It was unfair to treat you that way when you were only trying to do what you thought was best. I know that your intentions were good, and it isn't your fault that my mom is the way that she is."

I smiled slightly, glancing over at him. "It's okay."

"But it really isn't. I shouldn't have treated you that way, and I'm really, really sorry that I did but you shouldn't forgive me that fast. At least yell at me for a little while, tell me that you wish you had never met me, anything like that."

I raised my eyebrows quizzically. "Why would I lie to you?"

Lucas groaned in exasperation, resting the back of his head against the window. "Because of how I treated you before graduation. I ruined everything, and like I said, sorry doesn't always fix everything. That applies to me, too, sunshine."

I shrugged. "Sometimes we're going to have complications. But we can't let our mistakes define us, can we? I knew that I shouldn't have called your mother, and I did it anyway. I should be apologizing, too."

"No, you should not be, Riley. Because I've been messing up a lot lately, and that's something we're both well aware of. Today wasn't the first time I've said or done something to hurt you, and I'm sorry. But you shouldn't forgive me so quickly. Take some time to think about-"

I held both of my hands up, silencing him. Huh. I hadn't been expecting that to actually work. "About what? Whether or not we're worth it? Whether or not you're worth it? We are, and so are you, Lucas. I'm not giving up on our relationship or you just because we're teenagers and sometimes we say certain things that we don't mean. Even adults say stuff they don't mean sometimes, Lucas. No one is perfect. But that's okay."

Lucas bit his lower lip lightly, looking over at me. Green eyes met brown, and I almost sighed in relief. Those were the green eyes I had grown to love - the green eyes that were full of so many different emotions that it was nearly impossible to name them all. He was still my Lucas. Nothing had changed. "Why don't you ever give up on me?"

"Because I love you," I said softly. "And you're worth fighting for to me."

Lucas laughed, but it sounded almost breathless. It sounded like he was relieved, which was shocking to me, but then again, I had sounded the same way a few thousand times, too. "I love you, too. And ... just in case Shawn can't convince my mom that I would be better off staying here, there's something I want to give you."

I swallowed hard, not liking the sound of that. It was beginning to sound like goodbye to me. My least favorite word in the entire world. "You don't need to give me anything, Lucas."

"But I want to," he said, his tone fairly teasing, although there was a trace of seriousness in his statement. He tugged his tattered leather jacket off, brushing it off a couple times before handing it to me. "This is one of my favorite things in the world, besides you, of course. I've had it for a pretty long time, and it has a lot of sentimental value-"

"Lucas, don't-"

"-and I want you to keep it," he continued as if I hadn't even spoken. "It means a lot to me, sure. But you mean even more to me. And just in case life spirals out of control again and things don't go as planned, I'm doing this. Besides, I had been wanting to give it to you, anyway. It was just hard to work up the nerve to do so."

I chewed my bottom lip nervously, hesitantly accepting the jacket. "Are you really sure about this?"

"I'm sure. Oh, and it's the jacket I was wearing the day that I met you," he added, laughing quietly. "So I guess that might be why it has so much sentimental value to me."

I pulled it own was far too big for me, and I had the cuff the sleeves so my hands could manage to poke through. Still, it was comfortable and warm, and smelled faintly of cinnamon and mint. Just like Lucas. I smiled halfheartedly the reality of the situation finally catching up to me. This could be goodbye. "Thank you, Lucas."

"Sure, but you shouldn't even thank-"

"Lucas?" I asked tentatively, raising my eyebrows ever so slightly.

He glanced down at my floor, feigning interest in the carpeting before eventually responding. "Yeah, sunshine?"

"Don't ruin the moment."

. . .

A/N; Hi, guys! Thank you all so much for your amazing reviews. I absolutely love hearing what you think, and it makes my day every time I get a review. Stay awesome! Also, I felt like leaving you guys with a little spoiler - soon enough Riley will realize something surprising (to her) about Maya and Lucas. Hmm.

Truthfully, I don't know if Rachel is an only child or not. I've only seen a couple episodes of BMW with her in it and the Wiki isn't very thorough, so I apologize I'm basically just winging it. Let's say it's part of the AU. xD

I don't own Girl Meets Woooorld.