A/N: Hey, guys! As much as it pains me to say this, this is the final chapter of Troublemaker. I have lots to say, but I don't want to crowd it up here, so please read the author's note at the bottom! Thanks!
. . .
"We're going into high school," I stated slowly. It was still difficult to comprehend, despite the fact that graduation had been about three weeks ago. Those first two weeks barely counted, considering how caught up I had gotten in my own personal teenage angst. Right now, though, it was finally beginning to sink in. And I couldn't possibly feel more terrified.
Lucas had been here for about a week. We were both pretty certain that his aunt was planning something, but neither of us were sure of what that might be. She came over to my house every other day and shooed me off to my bedroom or outside so she could talk to my parents alone. It was even stranger because Uncle Eric and Aunt Morgan were still staying in New York.
None of it was making any sense to me. But it was the type of thing I was trying to keep myself from dwelling on. I knew it was only a matter of time until Lucas would have to go back to California, and I was trying to enjoy whatever time I had left with him. I wasn't looking forward to having to say goodbye again, even though it had been inevitable all along, but it was getting harder and harder o consider the possibility of losing him again.
Maya shrugged, raising her eyebrows at me. "Honestly, sweetie, have you been living under a rock for the past couple months? Of course we're going into high school, that's something I've known all along. So has your father. I think that's why he's been acting crazier than normal."
"I could think of a different reason," Farkle suggested, gesturing towards Lucas with his hand. "No offense, Lucas, but you're basically the dictionary definition of the word "troublemaker." You're every father's worst nightmare."
Lucas stared at him blankly. "... Thanks. There's nothing offensive about that at all."
Farkle cleared his throat awkwardly, quickly continuing. "What I'm trying to say is that, sure, you might not actually be the typical troublemaker, but Mr. Matthews still views you as one. I'm pretty sure it's because of the clothes you wear - every adult is going to automatically interpret you as, well, trouble. Even kids will. People, as much as they try to deny it, judge people by their looks. It's become such an intense thing in modern society that it's almost reflexive for us to do this. Admittedly, even I did the first day I saw you. I'm sure that Maya and Riley did the same thing."
Maya smirked slightly. "Can you really blame me?"
"I didn't," I said, already feeling somewhat defensive. "Judging people by their outer appearances is absolutely insane. There's so much inside of someone you could be missing if you do anything like that."
My blond best friend snickered, nodding a bit. "Yeah, she's right. Like, if you judge Missy Bradford by her outer appearance, you would assume that she was a little ball of joy and happiness and niceties. When, in all actuality, she's the exact opposite. Here's to hoping we don't share any classes with her next year."
I paused for a moment, fiddling with my fingers nervously. "Yeah, about that. I think she just needs somebody to care about what's going on in her life. From what I've gathered, she has some pretty serious issues with her father, and it doesn't seem like her friends are the kinds of people to care very much."
"I don't mean to sound rude, but she shouldn't have surrounded herself with those people, then," Farkle said gently. Maya nodded in agreement, but Lucas stayed silent, pressing his lips together firmly.
"Maybe so, but it wouldn't be right of us to judge her by the facade she's been putting her all this time. She's still just a confused teenager like the rest of us, and maybe she just needs some people to care about her," I said hesitantly, reluctantly looking between my three best friends. No one said anything, not even Lucas, despite the fact that they used to act like really close friends. I blinked slowly, unsure how to reply to their lack of a response. Eventually I finally decided on simply standing up, taking a few steps away from my bay window. I glanced over at Farkle and Maya, who were both sitting on my bed, their eyebrows slightly raised.
"I'll prove it to you," I continued, almost cracking a smile. "I'm going to go find her and talk to her."
"Riley," Maya said, her tone warning.
I waved a single hand dismissively, flashing her another wide smile. "Nothing bad is going to happen to me, Maya. Missy honestly seems like a good person at heart, and maybe she just needs someone to bring the best out of her. Everyone has at least a tiny shred of goodness inside of themselves, and maybe she isn't the greatest person at the moment. But she has the potential to be, just like everybody else. I'm not giving up on her because she's said a few rude things to people in her past. Nobody is perfect, right?"
Lucas's cell phone buzzed and he quickly pulled it out, unlocking it in a flash. "Oh, hey, it's my aunt," he said, seemingly happy to change the subject. "She says she's at Shawn's place and she needs to talk to me about something."
"Do you think it has anything to do with going back to California?" Farkle asked.
Lucas shrugged simply. "Not a clue, but I'm about to find out. I'll tell you guys about whatever it is later," he added, sliding his phone back into his pocket before climbing out of my window and onto the fire escape. I pursed my lips, Farkle's question still ringing in my ears. It took me only a fraction of a second to spin around, quickly striding out of my bedroom, already heading to the front door.
Lucas was going to have to go back to California eventually. We were already three weeks into summer vacation, after all. There was no way his mother was going to let him stay until August, I might as well accept it while I might still be ahead. But that meant that I was going to need a bit of a distraction from the inevitable facts.
And what was a better distraction than a new friend?
. . .
I had never gotten Missy's cell phone number, but it was fairly easy to find her profiles on social media. She had her address listed on Facepage, which explained how I found myself pushing past dozens on people on the sidewalk. Missy's house wasn't as far away as I had expected it to be, but today seemed to be one of New York's busier days, meaning that it wasn't exactly going to be an easy trek. Still, I was determined to prove to Maya and Farkle that Missy had more depth than she was wiling to let on. I knew that Lucas had to know a little about her, which would explain why he had been so silent during my speech earlier. She had fleetingly mentioned something about her father one afternoon, and I figured that it wasn't good.
I wanted to be a positive influence on her. Farkle and even Maya would be great influences on her, as well. That much was obvious, and maybe if she opened up to us, they could finally see that there was more to people than there seemed to be.
Because Farkle was right. People did tend to judge others based on their outer appearances. But they also never looked deeper into who they might actually be. That was part of why people so rarely noticed if someone had depression. If you could fake a realistic smile, the odds of someone assuming that you're perfectly fine as very, very good.
I stumbled to a stop when I reached the house I had been looking for. This had the potential to be an extremely terrible idea. For all I knew, she may not even be home. But it was still worth a shot. And you never know if you never try, right?
That was my motivation while I climbed the stairs that led to her porch. That was also my motivation when I rang the doorbell, rocking back and forth on my heels nervously. It took a moment or two, but the door eventually swung open, just to reveal Missy Bradford herself, dressed in sweats with her hair in a messy bun. Well, there was something I never thought I would ever see.
"Riley Matthews?" she asked, her voice raising a couple octaves in obvious surprise. "What are you doing here?"
I felt my face flush bright red from embarrassment, but I decided to keep on trucking. Hopefully it was all going to be worth it in the end. "Hi, Missy. I was wondering if I could talk to you about something important? Possibly?"
She blanched, blinking quickly in shock before finally nodding slowly, taking a few steps back so I could come inside. I smiled gratefully, tentatively walking inside and politely glancing around her house. The walls were painted turquoise and the wooden floors were almost black, a contrast that somehow managed to work. There weren't any photographs on the walls, but there were a few paintings scattered around the house. I snapped my gaze back towards her when she cleared her throat.
"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" she pressed, twirling a loose strand of light brown hair around her pointer finger. She still seemed surprised, but fortunately wasn't asking me how I knew where to find her, which was a good thing. I was already feeling awkward enough. If she asked me about that, I might actually die of absolute humiliation.
"Back when we were in school, one afternoon you mentioned something about your dad. It seemed like you really needed somebody to talk to, and although I realize that I'm really late, I was wondering if you would be all right with me being that person," I said slowly, smiling nervously.
Missy paused for a long moment, seeming rather hesitant before eventually nodding again. "Okay," she muttered quietly. "How about we go to the living room? I sincerely doubt you'd like to just linger by my front door for however long."
I laughed lightly. "It's your choice, but sure. You have a lovely home, by the way."
"You're too nice, but thanks," she said, her tone faintly shocked still before she led the way into her living room. There were still no family photos that I could see, but there were a couple more paintings scattered among the wall. There was a single pale brown couch pressed against the wall, with a flat screen television hanging on the wall across from it. My eyes flitted between the fairly large glass coffee table in front of the sofa and the lounge chair, which was closer to the TV.
I hesitantly sat down on the sofa, fiddling with my fingers awkwardly. She sat besides me, crossing one leg over the other before heaving a soft sigh. "Are you really sure you want to hear about my dramas? It isn't exactly a pretty story, Riley."
"I'm positive."
"Okay," she whispered softly before taking a subtle deep breath. "My dad's cheated on my mom a couple years ago. I found out a few weeks before she did, overhearing a phone conversation between my father and his girlfriend, but he swore me to secrecy. I promised I would never tell her, but one day the guilt just got to me and I blurted it out while we were eating dinner one evening." Her voice was even quieter now, but at the same time, she seemed relieved to finally talk about it. "She freaked out, obviously, and after awhile he reluctantly admitted that it was true, but not without adding that I had known about it for a couple weeks."
"Oh my God," I breathed.
Missy smiled humorlessly. "Yeah. Like I said, it isn't pretty. She filed for divorce, of course, but only wanted primary custody of my older brother, Robbie. He's a junior in high school, but he was only a freshman when all of this was happening. He was really angry at me for not telling our mom sooner, so we don't talk a lot anymore. I haven't even heard from my mother since Christmas," she added in a small, childlike voice, pursing her lips briefly. "She stopped loving me the day she stopped loving my father."
"Missy-"
"There's more, if you want to hear it," she murmured shyly. "The bits that I almost told you that one rainy afternoon."
"Of course I want to hear it."
She smiled again, but it didn't seem quite as blank and empty this time. "Okay. So ... my father. He's pretty much always away on business. His girlfriend -the same woman that helped break up my parents marriage- lives with us, so when he's gone she pretends to take care of me. Truthfully enough, I fend for myself, even when my dad actually is around. My dad doesn't know a single thing about me, and he hasn't since about a year before my mom found out about the affair. So I promised myself once he started acting so distant that I wouldn't let anyone know me. I just - I didn't want to feel hurt again by people taking an interest in me and then leaving, even if they only leave emotionally. So I push people out," she added, her voice even smaller now. She blinked quickly, and it wasn't until then that I noticed her eyes were watery.
I paused for a minute, at a complete loss for words. "I'm so, so sorry, Missy."
She shrugged, impatiently wiping her eyes before reluctantly turning to face me again. "You shouldn't apologize, it isn't like any of this was your fault, Riley. I'm just sorry for the way I treated you and your friends. I guess I was just envious that you guys all had each other. You can trust one another completely, no matter who you are or what you really feel inside. Everyone knows that about your group. And all I've ever wanted was something like that again."
"It's okay," I said softly. And to me, it was. Knowing her story gave me a completely different perspective on Missy Bradford. Besides, she had actually admitted to her mistakes and apologized. She was trying to be a better person, and that was good enough for me. "But you don't have to cut yourself off from people. If you had told all of us sooner, I know we could have been friends this entire time."
Missy shrugged, staring pointedly at the coffee table. "I doubt it. Maya and Farkle totally despise me, and Lucas doesn't want anything to do with me after the way I treated you. I can't blame them, either."
I was taken aback that she actually knew Maya and Farkle's names, but tried my hardest not to show it. "Despise is a strong word, Missy. But ... how about we try being friends first? We can tell each other about ourselves, even the simplest things, like our favorite colors and bands. And then maybe you won't feel so alone and isolated."
And so that's exactly what we did - we talked about everything.
Even our favorite colors.
. . .
Tap, tap.
I barely stifled a groan of annoyance and exhaustion, sitting upright and glancing towards my bay window, reluctantly opening my eyes. Just as I suspected, there was Lucas Friar, tapping on my window like it was four in the afternoon, as opposed to -I fleetingly looked over at my alarm clock- one in the morning.
He tapped again, louder this time, and I exhaled under my breath. I knew that I would have to get up now and unlock the window before the light tapping turned into banging, thus waking my mom and dad up and causing my father to turn into a murderer. I stumbled towards the window, clumsily plopping down on the seat and unlocking it. Fortunately, Lucas tugged it open, which meant less energy I would have to use. Yippee.
"What do you want?" I grumbled quietly, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
Lucas chuckled, clearly amused. "Someone's grouchy when they're woken up in the middle of the night," he mumbled teasingly before climbing inside my bedroom and sitting next to me.
I snorted lightly, resting my head on his shoulder. Although I was currently trying to be mad at him, it was harder than anticipated to keep myself upright. I was about two nanoseconds away from passing out again, so sitting straight seemed nearly impossible. But then again, so did actually thinking coherently.
"Remember how I told you my aunt wanted to talk to me about something?"
I blinked slowly, still struggling to keep my eyes wide open. "Mhm." He smelled like cinnamon and mint, per usual, which woke me up a little bit. Not a lot, but just enough to keep my eyes open long enough to let them adjust to the darkness of my bedroom.
He chuckled softly again, and I could have sworn I felt his lips press against my hair (which probably resembled an actual haystack at the moment) but I couldn't be certain. "It turns out she's been planning on moving to New York for awhile, which is why she had no problem tagging along with me on this little trip. She's been talking to your parents and your mom is helping her get a job as a waitress at some fancy restaurant. I guess your mom kept them from being turned into some kind of place that makes boxes, so they completely adore her already."
"Mhmm," I mumbled quietly, already dozing off again. I wasn't understanding why he felt the need to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me all of this. It seemed like the type of thing that could wait awhile.
"Liiiisten," he pleaded, although he still sounded fairly amused. "My aunt's also been talking to Eric and Morgan a lot, and they're helping her find the perfect apartment. Eric's trying to convince her to let him live with her, something about history needing to repeat itself, but she isn't loving the idea."
I groaned quietly in irritation. Why did he have to wake me up? What did I ever do to him to deserve this agonizing punishment? "Lucaaaas," I whined.
"Patience, sunshine. She's looking for a two bedroom apartment. And although it isn't going to be the same building as this one ..." he trailed off, seemingly wanted me to put all the puzzle pieces together.
"Yeah, your aunt's going to live here, yaaay," I mumbled somewhat sarcastically. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Aunt Rachel talked to my mom," he continued as if I had not even spoken. "It took a lot of convincing, but earlier this afternoon -well, yesterday afternoon, actually- she finally agreed to my aunt's idea."
"Which is?"
Lucas chuckled, although it sounded somewhat breathless this time. "I'm staying in New York, sunshine. I'm going to live with my aunt."
It took a moment for what he said to finally sink in. I jerked my head up once it did, my eyes widening slightly in surprise. "Seriously?!" I exclaimed, causing us both to cringe. That was not a good way to make sure my mom and dad didn't hear us.
He nodded after awhile, once we were both sure that my dad wasn't going to barge in with a chainsaw. "Dead serious."
I laughed shakily, unsure of how to respond. It was as if there weren't enough positive words to describe how happy I was feeling.
And maybe that's how I ended up leaning up and pressing my lips against his, my hands already tangling in his hair. Right now, nothing mattered but this. Not my tiredness or the fact that my parents were sound asleep just a room away. Nothing mattered except the realization that Lucas was staying, no one was planning on dragging him across the country again.
Maya and Farkle were together and nothing could ever break them apart. Joshua had told me a couple weeks ago that he had met a new girl, someone who was a few months older than him and brighter than the sun. I had a new friendship with Missy Bradford, of all people, and although I knew it might take a little time, I knew that she would fit in perfectly with my other friends. There were finally no more painful complications or misunderstandings - everything was okay.
Lucas broke the kiss after a few seconds, obviously reluctant, but chuckling breathlessly. "Would now be a good time to officially ask you to be my girlfriend, sunshine?"
I smiled widely. "Now's a perfect time to ask."
"Aww, Riles, I think that I just did."
I rolled my eyes teasingly, lightly pecking his lips. "Then I say yes," I whispered softly, somehow smiling even wider. This was what life was all about - the moments when you feel like everything is perfectly fine, and you're just content with how your life is going. You know that there's inevitably going to be tons of complications in the near future, but at the moment, everything is all right. You can breathe without worrying about a single thing, because it's okay. It's all okay.
It was when his lips pressed against mine again, cutting off my train of thought, that I realized that maybe people do change people. There's no way I would have ever seen myself as the type of girl I was now, and I was fairly certain Lucas Friar never could have seen himself as the type of boy he was now.
People changed people. The secret of life.
My troublemaker was still a troublemaker at heart. But he was different than he was when he first got here. He cared about things, believed in people. He was even smiling rather frequently, for crying out loud.
He was okay. And so was I.
Everything was finally okay again.
A/N: I'm drowning in a puddle of my own tears over here. I've known for awhile that I would have to end this story eventually. but ... sigh. It still crushes my soul.
I wanted to thank you guys so much for all of your encouraging words! I couldn't possibly ask for greater readers, and I cannot thank you enough for actually taking an actual interest in this story. It means so much to me that you guys actually leave your thoughts and opinions, and I literally love you all so, so much. You are all incredible and beautiful people, perfect in your own unique ways, and please never let anyone tell you otherwise. You're awesome, guys, and if you dream it, you can achieve it. Thank you so much for reading and being there through this ride!
Also, shout out to AngelGirl - like you said awhile back ago, you're one of the people that have been here since the beginning, and that's so awesome. Thanks for reading!
Another shout out to anybody who's been reading this story! I hope you enjoyed it. I loved writing this, and you guys made it even better. You're all amazing!
I don't own Girl Meets Wooorld. Last time I'm writing a disclaimer for this story - yikes. Thank you again for reading!
