Chapter 2- We Need to Talk

"We need to talk." Riley stopped walking to look at her phone, reading the text that just came through. Lucas. 'Wonder what that's about?' she thought to herself, putting her phone back in her backpack. 'I will see him at school in like 15 minutes.' She continued walking to meet Maya before school.

"Riley!" Maya shouted excitedly and ran to meet her at the sidewalk. Riley smiled widely and they started walking together to school.

"Lucas just texted me that we need to talk." Riley said. "The way the text sounded, it is about something serious." She started to sound worried. Maya took Riley's hand and squeezed it, reassuringly.

"He is probably just being a drama queen, Riles." Maya offered. "Don't let it bother you." Riley mulled this over and nodded.

"Yah, you're probably right. I will find out anyway when we get there." Riley pushed the thought out of her mind and they continued the rest of the way to school.

Lucas was not in front of his locker when the two girls walked in the door of the school. Riley checked the clock on her phone she had retrieved from her bookbag. No new messages and there was still 20 minutes before first bell. She texted him but he hadn't answered as of yet.

"I am gonna go get some breakfast. You coming?" Maya asked, heading toward the cafeteria.

Riley shook her head, looking worried again.

"No, I am going to wait here for Lucas. See you in class, Peaches." Maya smiled and gave Riley a peck on the cheek.

"I'm sure it's fine, Riles. I will see if he is in the cafeteria. I will send him your way if he's there." She gave Riley another squeeze of the hand and ran to the cafeteria before first class, leaving Riley to wait by the lockers.

The cafeteria was packed with last minute students. The line was long, but Maya didn't mind. Food was more important to her than the idle chit-chat of the classroom before the bell rang. She didn't listen to the gossip around her, normally. However, something caught her ear while she was dreaming about the crispy bacon behind the sneeze guard.

"Did you hear about Lucas?" Cheerleader #1 was talking to the rest of her group. They all shook their heads. 'Ugh! Lemmings!' thought Maya.

"No, I haven't heard anything yet, Steph. Why what happened?" Cheerleader #2 leaned in, curiously.

"I heard," Steph, or Cheerleader #1 lowered her voice to a whisper, "that his dad got arrested for something really bad, and now him and his mom have to move back to Texas." All the other girls gasped.

"No! Bad, like what?!" Cheerleader #3 replied. Steph looked around to make sure nobody was listening.

"Tax fraud, I think." Steph nodded, adding "that is federal time, too." Maya stopped listening after that. She suddenly was not so hungry anymore. She had to tell Riley. Excusing herself out of the breakfast line, she made her way to the lockers where she found Riley, still standing there, waiting. She was staring at her phone and tears were streaming down her face. 'Oh, no. She already knows.' Maya thought.

"He still hasn't texted me or called. What is going on?" Riley started pacing back and forth in front of the lockers. Maya stopped her and without saying a word, grabbed her in a hug, patting her back.

"He will call. Or text. Don't worry." Maya said. As if on cue, Lucas was half walking, half running down the hall, looking panicked and disheveled. Out of breath, he reached the lockers and rested one hand on the lockers, while trying to catch his breath. When he had regained composure, he approached Riley and Maya took this as a cue to leave.

"I'm gonna head to class, Riles. See you in there." She gave Riley a small smile and made her way down the hall.

"Lucas," Riley started, "What is going on? You send me this cryptic text and then nothing for, like, an hour. Then suddenly, you blow in here looking like you were being chased." Riley searched his face for answers, worried. Lucas took her hand and led her to the benches outside the school. He sat her down and kneeled in front of her, on the verge of tears. This really worried Riley, now. She felt she was about to cry as well.

"I have to tell you something. It's not good and you are not going to like it." He got up from the ground and sat next to Riley on the bench. She turned to face him and he took her hands in his.

"As you know, when we came here from Texas, my mom and dad had a business at home that they started running from here." Riley nodded. She was aware of this. "Well," he continued, taking a deep breath, "my dad was claiming untrue deductions on his tax returns. He got audited and we lost our house. He got fired because his job found out and he got arrested. He is facing a lot of time. Me and mom cannot afford it out here. We have to move. Two weeks from Friday." Riley was shell-shocked. This was a lot of information all at once. The main idea, however, that Riley got, was that he was moving. She started bawling and sobbing. All Lucas could do was console her and rub her back.

"I tried to compromise with her." Lucas explained. "But there is nothing either of us can do at this point." This only made Riley cry harder. He pulled her close to him and she cried into his jacket, until her tears had dried up and she had none left. She looked up at him, nose running and red puffy eyes. She sniffed back a sob and he smiled sweetly at her, leaning down. He looked into her beautiful brown eyes and kissed her deeply, sliding his tongue in between her lips. She returned his kiss and caressed his tongue with her own. Lucas put his hand in Riley's hair and Riley pulled away suddenly.

"Not here. Lucas." Riley stopped him. "Not now. But I do want to spend some time with you before you have to-" Riley choked on the word. "-Leave." She kissed him quickly on the lips and ran back into the school, to her first class.

"Wow!" exclaimed Maya. "So the rumor was true?" Riley and Maya were sitting in the bay window, after school, discussing the events of the day. Topanga had made them a snack, but Riley was just not hungry. She was not able to focus the rest of the day and could not eat anything. She pushed the fruit around her plate and nibbled minimally on her sandwich. She nodded sadly and looked down.

"Apparently, not every rumor is lying gossip." Riley said, dryly. Maya was in shock herself. Tax fraud. Who would have thought? Maya finished her snack and Riley's sandwich and they laid in silence on Riley's bed. Maya held Riley's hand and stayed until her mother called her to come home. Maya slowly got up and started to leave.

"It's going to be ok, Riles. Just make the most of the time you have with him, until he leaves." She gave Riley a sympathetic smile and left. Riley sat for another hour in silence, until the sun went down. She thought about what Maya had said before she left. The words echoed in her head, repeating until they became a mantra.

"Make the most of the time you have." Suddenly, Riley shot up in bed. She looked at her bedside clock. 7:15. Plenty of time. She picked up her phone and texted Lucas, asking him to meet her at the apartment building in 30 minutes. She jumped in the shower and was out within 10 minutes. That was the quickest shower she had ever taken. She dressed and primped and was ready to walk out the door by 7:40.

"I will be right back Mom!" She shouted as she was closing the door. She bounded down the stairs, to the front door of the building, where Lucas was waiting. She let him in the building and led him down two floors.

"Where are we going, Riley?" Lucas asked, slightly worried. Riley laughed, quietly.

"Don't worry." She assured him. "This apartment has been vacant for years. I used to play hide and seek with Maya down here when I was younger. It's like it was forgotten or something." She shrugged and opened the door, leading them both into a dark apartment. "I figured we could talk down here." They made their way to a mattress in the corner of the room, where there was a lamp on the floor. Riley clicked it on and they sat on the bed, together.

"How long have you known about this, Lucas?" Riley asked.

"I just found out this past weekend." Lucas replied. "You were the first person I told. Believe me, I do not want to go. But I really don't have a choice, do I? I have to go where my mom goes." Riley nodded.

"I understand, Lucas, but I want to spend as much time with you as possible. I want to give you a going away present." She smiled coyly at him. Lucas looked around the room, searching for anything in this room that could be considered a gift. Lucas shook his head, not understanding. He looked back at Riley just as she was standing up to remove her clothes. It suddenly clicked in his brain.

"Oh, you mean-" he started to say as Riley nodded her head and smiled again. She was standing there in the low light of the lamp, with nothing but a pink bra and panties. Lucas looked at her in awe, admiring her beauty and wanting to touch her so bad, that it literally hurt. His member had swollen in his jeans and was begging to be set free. He didn't bring any protection with him, and he knew to go any further would be a mistake. He tried to look away, but her beauty was radiant. She appeared to actually be glowing. He stood up and wrapped his arms around her waist. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him, but he turned his face away. Feeling rejected, Riley stepped back, in shock.

"It's not like that, Riley. I love you too much to ruin our first time by making love on a dirty mattress, in a… crack house?" Lucas explained, gently. Riley, feeling embarrassed, quickly covered herself and kept a safe distance from Lucas. He sat on the edge of the bed, with his head in his hands. "I want our first time to be special. And safe. I did not bring any, uh, you know, condoms?" He looked at Riley, who was still red-faced with shame. "I love you so much, but I have to go get packed." He lay a kiss on the top of her head and walked out of the dark apartment, leaving Riley there to think.

"Maybe he is right." Riley thought to herself, out loud. "Maybe we should wait." With that, she dressed herself the rest of the way and slumped upstairs to hide under her covers.