Chapter Thirteen: Two on the Line

"Wait, let me get this straight…" Maya dropped her purse down on the counter, not giving the slightest care that its contents had spilled out. "I'm late to just one of our phone calls and suddenly we aren't allowed to talk anymore? What the fuck?" She cringed, not intending to cuss at Riley, however she was currently slave to her own mouth's control.

"Of course we can still talk, Maya, I didn't say we couldn't talk anymore. It's just that I can tell that I really hurt Lucas, and that I need to do a better job of making him feel appreciated. So maybe you and I just have to tone it down a little bit?"

The blonde couldn't believe her own ears. This was not her Riley—Riley was the one that suggested they even call every day in the first place, and now here she was asking for…what exactly? Space? They already had two thousand miles of space between them, how much more could possibly be needed? To say Maya was pissed would be an understatement. To say she was hurt would be even more of one. "I don't get it, Riles. We have always been there for each other, always been the one person we could each count on. Now you live so far away, and the only way we have of still staying close—of still staying relevant in each other's lives, you want to 'tone down'?"

"I don't want to," the younger girl admitted instantly, "but I need to. For Lucas...this is important to him, so I need to try."

"Well what about what I need? I need you to stay in my life; I need you to still be there for me. You're one of the few people that's ever truly given a shit about me or what happens to me, so how can I accept this?" She took a breath and waited for a response. "I mean doesn't my opinion count somewhere in here too?" Her eyes caught sight of the empty bay window across her apartment, looking like nothing more than a slap in the face in that moment. How many times had the girls sat in that very spot promising to always remain close and to always have each other's backs? Words that she had taken very seriously, and ones that she had thought her best friend had taken seriously as well.

Riley started to speak up and then stopped. She was lost as to what she should say…lost on what was even the right thing to do anymore. The girl had devoted all of her years to doing the right thing, and now 'right' seemed ambiguous and muddy. "I just don't know what to do, Maya…" More silence. It was without a doubt the worst phone call they'd ever had. "I try and make Lucas happy, and I hurt you. I try and make you happy, and I hurt him. If you can tell me how to fix this, or some magical solution to keep everyone happy, then by all means do it. I care about you both so much, and I've been racking my brain on the best way to handle this, I literally have a migraine. Everything just ends with me feeling guilty and like I'm letting one of you down."

Hating herself—she was hating herself for missing that call. If she'd just stayed home last night and not gone out, she'd have seen the call right at seven and Riley wouldn't have gotten into that stupid argument with Lucas, she wouldn't be having to make any of these decisions, and everyone could have just carried on exactly the same. Not that the situation had been perfect to begin with, as Maya still greatly missed living with Riley, but at least it was something. Begrudgingly, the blonde stepped towards that painful bay window and sat down, hoping that maybe there was still some magic left in it. "Honey?"

"Yeah?" Riley questioned.

"What do you want? Forget me. Forget Lucas. What do you want?" Inside, her tired mind kept repeating the phrase 'to go back home', thinking that maybe if she thought it hard enough, the other girl would say it back to her. If this were where she'd known it would have ended up all those months ago, she would have never encouraged Riley to move, never have supported it, not one bit. It wasn't fair. It was excruciating enough to step aside the first time, and now she'd have to do it again?

Riley closed her brown eyes, and ran her fingers through her hair. Everything was twisting out beyond her control within the past twenty-four hours and now she was faced with an ugly fork in the road—except there was no correct road to take. Both had huge 'caution' signs plastered among their separate entrances, but a 'dead end' on one would have been much more helpful given the current situation. "He's going to propose, Maya." The brunette blurted it out, unsure of how she even felt about that sentence herself. "Last night at dinner he was planning to propose. Then everything turned into a downright disaster, and I don't even know where we stand right now."

"Oh…" Maya sank down into the seat as her body numbed. She replayed the girl's words, making sure she'd registered them accurately. She didn't know why it was so surprising to her, considering Riley and Lucas had been together for so many years, nonetheless the news hit like an earthquake. "…I see." With that, so rapidly, it was over—a lost cause. Boyfriends don't come before best friends, but husbands do. And that's the way it should be. Two people that make those sacred vows to one another should be each other's first priority. Once again, Maya accepted that it was time to let Riley go—further now, in a way that was different than the time before. She took one more second to grip on to the tiny hope she'd still held in her heart, and then she let it fade out through every pore. "I'm sorry…" she breathed. "I'm sorry for making this so hard on you; I know it's not easy on you either. So don't feel guilty anymore, okay? I'll be just fine."

Riley ached. Maya was a book that she'd memorized by now, so it was no secret that the girl was only saying whatever she could to make it easier on her, despite her own brokenness. Her chest was tight, but not as tight as the hold she had on that phone. She wished they could be face-to-face, what a terrible conversation this was for a call. This was one where she'd want to be there to hold the other girl, and love her, and take away any pain she'd caused. How was this all happening? How could life change so drastically in a day? "Don't be sorry. I'm the one that's sorry," she hesitated, fumbling over anything that could fill the giant void and somehow undo it all. "I still want to be here for you, Maya. I still want to be the person that has your back. That's not going to change."

"I know," Maya said, though she didn't really know that at all. She heard another voice faintly in the background of the call, realizing Lucas had just gotten home. Not wanting to cause any more damage between the couple, her main focus now was to put her beautiful friend at ease and then send her back safely into her real life. "We'll be okay, Riley, we adapted when you moved, so now we'll just have to adapt again. Go and be happy, honey, that's the part that matters most to me—you being happy."

After recognizing Lucas's usual greeting upon his arrival, she was filled with nerves and relocated from the bedroom into the master bath, dropping down onto the cold hard floor and leaning solidly against the door. She wasn't ready for this phone call to end, understanding very clearly that everything would be changed once it did. This was a part of growing up that had never been foreseen, and Riley wanted more than anything again to go back to a simpler time in high school, before everything had gotten so damn complicated. "I love you, Maya," a whisper was all she could manage, "Please don't doubt that."

"I love you too, Riles. I promise you that I'll always be here for you in whatever way you need me."

Riley took small comfort that maybe she hadn't lost the girl entirely. "If I call you next week, will you answer?"

Laying a heavy head onto the pillow beside, Maya soaked up her favorite voice. She knew she'd be hearing it much less after tonight and needed to burn it into her memory as best she could, to pass the gaps in between its appearance. "As soon as I hear that first ring, I'll answer…Now get some rest, you need it—stop beating yourself up and let yourself off of the hook. You're doing the right thing."

"Goodnight, Maya…"

"Goodnight." Picking herself up, she walked down the small hallway that led to her bedroom, leaving her phone behind in the same place where she'd left her hope. Maya turned off the lights and buried herself beneath the covers of her bed. It was still fairly early, but this day had gone on for too long already, and she was eager for it to be over. At least in the morning her focus could be thrown into her gallery remodel, and distraction would be easy to find…but as for tonight Maya only wanted to find her eyelids, and that's exactly what she did.

A/N: Once again, I thank each of you so much for your thoughts! I'll never stop thanking you guys for that. I'm foreseeing about four or five chapters more to come in this, if all goes according to what I have in mind. Hope you stick around!

-Lauren