(Author's note: I've had this scene in my head for awhile. I really wanted to write more Smackle into the story because she wasn't in Girl meets Complicated very much, and I feel like she makes a nice foil to Maya in this chapter. Hope you like it. Thanks for reading 3 PS I claim no ownership of the song lyrics referred to in this chapter.)

Maya's POV

"Ow," I tried to swipe my finger across the severely cracked screen to answer Riley's call but I couldn't even swipe it all the way. It wouldn't connect. This phone is going to be useless unless I fix the screen. I guess I better go to the Apple Store.

I took a shower and got dressed and headed out towards the Apple Store. I could've taken the subway but it's not that far so I just walked. I guess I should probably get something to eat while I'm out and I'll need to pick up another bottle of Jameson on the way home. Luckily there's still a little left in the flask in my purse. Yes, I have a flask in my purse. Don't judge me.

I walked into the Apple Store and was shocked to see a familiar face on her way out.

"Maya?"

"Smackle?"

I opened my arms and she indulged me in a very quick, somewhat awkward hug. I guess she's still not big on hugging but that's okay. I noticed that she was wearing one of the Apple Store T shirts, the same kind the people at the Genius Bar wear. She must be working here. How appropriate.

"Congrats on graduating from Princeton and everything," I said.

"Thanks. I'm just working here temporarily until I decide if I want to go to graduate school right away or do some research first. I've applied for some fellowships and I'm waiting to hear back," she explained. I nodded. "What brings you here?" she asked. I showed her my phone and she understood. She took the phone from me. "I'll take care of this for you, be right back."

I hopped on facebook on one of the macbook air display models while she was gone. I just wanted to double to check…yup…Smackle really did unfriend me on Facebook. She didn't unfriend Riley, or Lucas, or Zay, just me. I hardly ever use my Facebook so I barely even noticed but I was surprised. Should I ask her about it? I mean she's being friendly to me right now, but I guess it's kind of her job to be. Ugh. Smack, what did I do?

She was walking back over to me so I quickly closed the browser.

"Good news," she said. "The damage was only superficial, to the screen, and we should be able to replace the screen and restore your phone back to full functionality."

"That's great!" I said.

"My shift just ended, but I got them started on it, it will probably just take an hour or two. Whenever I get the email saying it's ready, I'll forward it to you. I put it in the system as if it were my phone so it would be free for you."

"Aww Smack, you didn't have to, but thank you." I said graciously.

She's being so nice to me. Now I really want to why she unfriended me.

"Well, like I said, my shift is over so I was just heading out-"

I interrupted her , "Do you mind if I walk with you? I do have an hour or two to kill with no phone."

"Um, alright," she agreed.

We left the apple store and walked down the street. I tried to maintain casual conversation at first. "It's a beautiful day today."

"Yes, the weather is quite pleasant," she agreed.

"So tell me about your research."

"I would if I thought you would understand it."

Ouch. I don't know how to respond. She has a point though.

"I didn't mean that to come out as condescending as it sounds," she said, apologetically.

"Oh, its fine. I went to art school. They only required one science class. So unless your research is in the kind of physics that deals with optics and light, you're right, I probably wouldn't understand. I'm not offended by that."

"Tell me about your art," she replied.

"I would if I thought you would understand it." I smirked at her.

She raised her eyebrows. "Touche, Ms. Hart."

I followed her as we walked through a small park. She probably cuts through here because it saves 2.6 minutes of walking time on her commute, because she's precise and practical like that. Well, sorry to delay you today, Smackle, but we need to talk about this.

I jogged ahead, and turned around directly in front of her so she would have to stop walking and face me.

"Smackle, can we just talk for a minute? I mean without walking."

"What about?" she asked.

"Why we aren't friends anymore." I said.

"It's nothing personal. I just don't really have any friends anymore," she said.

"But you're still friends with everyone else from high school except me," I said.

"Ah, you're referring to facebook," she understood.

"Yeah, Smack. Why did you unfriend me and only me? Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

She sighed and sat down on the empty bench we had stopped in front of. I sat down on the bench too but not right next her. I remember she never liked being sat right next to except for Farkle.

"You're his best friend, Maya," she said.

"But I'm still your friend too. You know that right?" I asked.

"I unfriended you the same day I unfriended him. The day I broke up with him. Because you're his best friend and you were both here. He and I both graduated early but I was still doing an internship in New Jersey after and he came back here. I knew you were here. I knew he would need you. I broke his heart. He needed you more than I did. So I gave you up. I'm sorry if it hurt you."

Wow. I never thought about it like that.

"And while I'm apologizing to you, I should tell you that-" she turned to face me on the bench.

"That I'm really sorry about your mother, Maya."

I hate when I'm reminded that she's gone. If I can stay buzzed enough throughout the day, I usually don't notice. It's like she's just working late or something. But on the days that I'm made aware of the fact that she's really gone, I feel her absence like Smackle would feel the absence of her glasses if I took them off her face. It's the lack of something you need so much to function, and trying to adapt without it that just leaves you floundering.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you," Smackle said, earnestly.

"It's okay-" I started to say.

"-It's not. I should've reached out to you," she interjected.

"Smack, I totally get it now. You're right, Farkle did need me after you broke up. And I needed him after my mom died. And you couldn't possibly be there for me, knowing that he would be there for me, because you had just broken up with him and you needed your space from him. I completely understand," I assured her.

"But I didn't even call, or send you my condolences. I should've sent flowers or something. Gosh, you know I'm so bad with these social rituals." She seemed really frustrated with her self about this.

"Well that isn't your fault," I said. I wouldn't ever expect her to be good with social rituals. No one with Asperger's should be held to that expectation. But she's brilliant in so many other ways.

"That's why I had to end it with Farkle."

"Because you're bad with social rituals?" I asked, perplexed.

"Social rituals. Romance. Expressing my feelings. Being sensitive to a his feelings. Intimacy." She started shaking her head.

"I'm just not built for these things. I tried so hard to assimilate. To be like one of you. But if I'm being honest, I was just performing tasks, just playing the role of girlfriend without being able to really be a girlfriend to him in the moment. Because all of those things are so incomprehensible to me. I'm a master at physics, yet the intimacy of the physicality of interpersonal relationships baffles me."

This is the girl who explained sex to us in our ninth grade health class. It makes sense now. She could explain it because she didn't feel anything about it. It didn't make her nervous or uncomfortable. She understood the mechanics of it, just not the emotions. But it made Farkle drop like a fly. I think he passed out twice.

"Making love is awkward for everyone, Smackle," I said trying to console her.

"He deserves someone who can be more emotional with him, not someone like me. Our intellectual connection can only take us so far," she said with what I thought was a hint of regret in her voice.

I have to drink to numb my emotions enough to just get through the day and she's sitting her wishing she could feel them. What a pair we are.

"You're lucky. Emotions are terrible." I said.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm the tin man from the Wizard of Oz. Except there's no wonderful wizard who can give me a heart," she admitted.

"You're not heartless, Smackle." I told her.

"Might as well be. That's how I come off to people because of my lack of ability to have sensitivity to their feelings."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm the cowardly lion," I said.

"How so?"

"I can't face anything in my life, I can't deal with my emotions, so I escape them," I said, pulling out the flask from my purse and taking a shot of Jameson. I offer it to her, but she turns me down.

"I don't drink alcohol, it kills your brain cells," she said.

"Well, then I guess I'll never understand your research." She laughed at my joke.

"You came out as a lesbian at 14. You're not cowardly, Maya."

"Then what am I?"

"Grieving" she said.

A street musician was sitting across the walkway from us. I recognized him. He had a guitar with him today. How strange. I remember him as a drummer.

"Do you like country music, Smack?"

She followed my gaze across to his guitar.

"You're gonna sing aren't you?" she predicted.

"You're such a genius."

I grabbed her hand and lead her over to the street musician's bench

"Hey Weasel."

His eyes lit up when he saw me. He used to play drums in the Bleecker street subway station. I used to see him all the time on my way to school.

"Maya! Look at you, all grown up, yet you haven't grown an inch."

I narrowed my eyes at his comment.

"I'm just messing with you. Who's the new chic?" he asked

"This is my friend, Isadora." They smiled and nodded at each other.

"Where's your old chic?" he asked. He means Riley.

"She's in Texas now. What happened to your drums?" I asked.

"They're in Texas now,"

Ha! He's got jokes.

"Hey Weasel, you mind if I borrow your guitar to play my friend a song?"

He picked up his guitar and handed it to me. "Go for it"

Smackle and I sat down on the bench and I started playing Miranda Lambert's song, Tin Man.

"Hey there Mr. Tin Man," I started singing to Smackle. She smiled.

"You don't know how lucky you are,

You shouldn't spend your whole life wishin'

For something bound to fall apart

Every time you're feeling empty

Better thank your lucky stars

If you ever felt one breakin'

You'd never want a heart

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh.

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh.

Hey there, Mr. Tin Man

You don't know how lucky you are

I've been on the road that you're on

It didn't get me very far

You ain't missin' nothin'

'Cause love is so damn hard

Take it from me, darlin'

You don't want a heart

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh.

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh.

Hey there, Mr. Tin Man

I'm glad we talked this out

You can take mine if you want it

It's in pieces now

By the way there, Mr. Tin Man

If you don't mind the scars

You give me your armor

And you can have my heart

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh.

OOooooh, Ooooh, ooh."

I finished the song and handed the guitar back to Weasel and said "Thanks."

"Anytime. That was beautiful."

I looked back at Smackle and she had taken her glasses off and was wiping her eyes.

"Smack, are those tears?"

She looked at up me, and I definitely spotted tear tracks on her cheeks. I wanted to wipe them away but I didn't know if she'd be comfortable with me touching her face.

"Well Tin man, looks like you've got a heart in there after all," I said.

"Maya," she sniffled. "Do you remember that broken clock I gave you for secret santa?"

I smiled. She made me cry when she explained why she was giving that to me. I guess we're even now. That clock is still one of the most beautiful and thoughtful gifts I've ever received from anyone in my life.

"Of course. I still have it. It's very special to me," I told her.

"Did you ever fix it?" she asked.

I nodded. "I did."

"It's going to return the favor," she said.

"Time is gonna fix me?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded. "It will."

"Thanks." I smiled.

"Hey Maya, please don't mention to Farkle that I'm back from New Jersey. I wouldn't want him to think that I came back for him," she said.

"Did you?" I boldly asked.

She looked at me for a moment with a look I'd never seen on her before. It looked like uncertainty. Then her phone dinged. She pulled it out and checked the notification. She showed it to me. "That's the email from the store. Your phone is ready."

"I guess I should go pick it up," I said, standing up from the bench. "But it was really great to see you again, Smackle."

"Yeah, well you know where to find me now, so don't be a stranger," she said.

She stood up and awkwardly opened her arms. I held up my hands and shook my head.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to perform any social rituals for me-"

"Shut up and get over here." She moved in closer and hugged me. A real hug. Our first ever real hug in all the years we've known each other. And she initiated it. Wow.

"I love you, genius." I told her, without expectation.

We said goodbye, and I headed back to the Apple store to pick up my phone.

When I got it back, I had a facebook friend request from Smackle, which I quickly accepted, and a text message from Riley:

"Hey. I called you earlier but you didn't answer and your voicemail was full. Sorry if I'm interrupting anything, I was just wondering if we could talk. Can you call me tonight?"

Okay, Riles. Whatever you want.