So, this chapter is heavy on the Rucas, so if you'd like to skip it, be my guest. I do want you to know that further down the line there is a motive for this, so chill, this is a Lucaya story, a story without drama is no fun.
Re. to Guest: I was so sad that they couldn't find a different venue, because the show was an unfinished story. And those tweets telling us what he had in mind for the last season were the most unsatisfactory thing ever, I will always have it in my heart a Lucas and Maya ending.
KING LUCAS
CHAPTER 14
The bell had rang and of the students disappeared in a congestive hallway. As Lucas picked up his books, Maya was waiting for Riley and Farkle.
"Lucas," called Mr. Matthews, behind him. "I'd like to speak with you for a second."
"Dad, please don't." Riley said from his right side.
"You three can leave now." He said, looking at the small group of friends. Riley made a face of misery as the other two walked her out.
"What can I help you with, sir?" He asked approaching his desk.
"Don't 'sir' me!" He said pointing at Lucas. "I know what your trying to do!"
"I don't think I'm following..." Lucas frowned, "...sir." He added, just to mess a little with him, he knew what this was about, but he had to play the character he has built for him.
"You are going out with my daughter!" He said, in a mix between whispering and screaming. His index finger had touched Lucas' chest.
"We are just going to see a movie." Lucas explained, but Mr. Matthews only snorted.
"You think I don't know how it goes. Boy takes girl to the movies, boy buys popcorn, boy and girl put the hand in the popcorn at the same time and fingers interwind! Fingers interwind!" He said completely yelling now, out of breath and showing Lucas with both of his hands. Lucas could see the panic in his eyes.
"Sir, I can promise you that no hands will interwind." Lucas said, calmly. Mr. Matthews narrowed his eyes. "I don't understand, you like me."
"That was before." He said fixing his side bag on his shoulder. "Before your green eyes and perfect bone structure casted a spell on my daughter."
"You are aware that she was the one who asked me out?" Lucas asked innocently.
"The details don't matter!" He said. "This is my daughter we are talking about! I want to know what you hope to gain from your relationship with her." The problem was that Lucas didn't want any kind of relationship with Riley, but he couldn't tell his teacher that and let alone her father.
He suddenly remembered the lesson from last week, the one he kept on repeating whenever he could.
"People change people." Lucas said, Mr. Matthews' face changed completely, he frowned, his features softened, he seemed to grasp what was the point Lucas was trying to reach.
"What?" He still asked.
"You keep telling us how every person we meet changes our lives," he nodded. "Well, I'd like to know how your daughter will change mine." It wasn't entirely a lie, he did want to know how this "date" would affect his game.
He had no response for Lucas, he had noticed how hard it was for him to separate his career from his life. Specially when most of the lessons he tried to teach them were related to real life problems and not so much to history. He knew that his argument would break him, because he was right.
After a long pause, he finally gave up, he sighed and pointed at Lucas again.
"No popcorn." He warned him and walked to the door, but he stopped in the frame and turned around. "And no interwinding!" He left his sight and Lucas sighed, this plan just kept getting more and more obstacles along the way.
When he was out in the hallway he walked straight towards the school's entrance. Riley was sitting on the stairs waiting for him, she was throwing crackers to some birds that were pecking at the floor.
"I'm sorry you had to wait for me." He said, approaching her spot, she looked up when she saw his shadow.
"I'm sorry my dad made you talk to him." She said, looking down to the birds again.
"It's fine Riley, he is just looking out for you." She was still ambarrased by what had happened. "Are you ready to go?"
She stood up and smiled at him, thankful for how he had handled things.
They walked to the car that was parked in his usual spot, he could see the spark on her eyes shining brightly today, and why wouldn't they be, they were spending for the first time the day alone. He had thought about what kind of reaction he would have if he broke Riley's heart, she didn't seem like the type of girl that would get mad at him, God knew that Lucas had had a good share of bad reactions, mostly slaps and angry yelling.
But no amount of rage could hide the pain that lay underneath. Riley was a very protective child, that kind of pain would hurt her in a way that would be too much for her to handle, that's why Lucas didn't know how she would explode.
"Lucas?" Riley said, breaking his trance.
"Hmm?" He said glancing quickly at her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
She giggled, he often left conversations, putting too much thought into his troubles.
"That you can stop in front of that shop over there." Thankfully they were behind a red light and there was a spot near the little bakery she had pointed.
"Topanga's?" He said as they walked through the door, he found the strange word pleasent.
"Yeah." She said happily, putting her bag on one of the couches. "Hi, can I have two strawberry smoothies on the go?" The waitress smiled and got two large cups of strawberry smoothie from a large fridge behind her. He didn't know why they had stopped here, but he waited for her on the large couch in the middle of the shop.
Riley came back to him, with their drinks in hand. "You didn't have to buy me anything." He said, grabbing the cup for her.
"It cost me nothing," she said, sitting next to him. He was about to insist when he overheard the waitress behind the bar.
"Your daughter's here!" She said to a woman that came out of the door that lead to the kitchen. She was short with long wavy brown hair, he had already recognized it before she approached them.
"Hi, sweetie." Riley stood up and hugged her mother, her head almost resting above hers. When she let her go, Lucas stood up too, never forgetting his manners.
"Hello Mrs. Matthews, I'm Lucas." He said, half smiling.
"Hi Lucas, Riley has told me all about you." She replied grinning, Riley closed her eyes, parents were always going to be parents.
"Only good things I hope." He charmingly said.
"Yes, and you're one of my husband's favorites, even if he won't admit it." She said, looking at Riley, she reminded him more of Cory but with her mother's hair, Riley showed her a shy smile.
"Topanga?" A guy asked from the bar, Riley's mom turned her back to him, Lucas frowned. "We need you back here, the meat provider is angry again."
"I have to go and check on that, but Lucas it was a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand and he took it gladly. "I hope we can see you around."
"You too." He said.
"Mom I..." Riley began, before Topanga turned around.
"Here are the keys to the bodega." She interrupted, handing her a set of keys with a Ukrainian flag keychain. "Close it when you get everything out." Riley nodded.
When she disappeared behind the door, Lucas looked at Riley with his brow lifted. "She is the Topanga?" He asked, Riley giggled.
"Yes," he was still surprised about this. "Come on, we have to take the stuff out from the bodega."
In the alley next to the shop there was a door that let to the basement, it was filled with shelves, but all of them organized perfectly. Riley took the plastic carpet off from a corner, to reveal some pieces of wood, they seemed like the rest of other projects, all irregular and cut in several places.
"This is the wood we have to take." She said, he lifted his brow and nodded slowly. He took his jacket off and handed it to her. He started moving the pieces to the cargo of his truck.
Thankfully they all fitted nicely but he still covered them with the plastic wrap and use the elastic strings he kept to hold them down, he didn't want the wood to get wet or humid.
"I asked and we can store them in the workshop at school." Lucas nodded and promised to take them there tomorrow morning.
"There is a function of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 at the Empire," he said smiling. "Do you want to see that one?"
"I don't really know a lot of superheroes." Riley said shily.
"That's fine, I'll explain it to you." She smiled at him. He was a big fan of superheroe movies, her mother used to buy him as much comics she could to keep him entertained, now all his comics sat in his grandfather's attic in a box, probably eaten by age and dust, but the source material had evolve too and he loved watching every movie.
"Okay, so little cute tree was a big tree in the first one..." She tried to explain.
"Groot." He corrected.
"But the big tree was blown up..." She continued.
"Groot." He stated again, as he parked in front of her building.
"But they found a seed, and planted a new baby Groot." She had finally said, he smiled. "And this movie is connected to all of the other movies?"
"Exactly." He congratulated her, she lifted a fist in victory for finally understanding the universe he had described for her. "See, now you're an expert."
"I should probably go usptairs", she paused, "my dad probably will be waiting for me, but I had a really nice time, thank you!" She said, avoinding his eyes.
"Sure I had fun, specially explaining the Marvel Universe." He smiled, she opened her door, he got down too, to say goodbye properly. When she was down he closed the door for her and leaned on his car.
"So... I'm going to go", she pointed to the door behind her. "Umm... don't forget to bring the wood tomorrow."
"I forgot to ask, what is the wood for?" He asked, glancing at the plastic carpet.
"What do you mean?" She frowned. "It's for you." She said, now it was his turn to frown.
"For me?" He didn't know what it could possibly be for. "I don't understand."
"Yeah, for the decorations?" He still had no clue. "For prom, you're making the decorations, right?"
"I honestly don't know what you're talking about." He explained.
"Maya told me you're really good at working with wood." Nothing else needed to be said, Maya had put him up for this. "You're supposed to meet up with her tomorrow, so she can show you the drawings we have for the designs... I thought she had told you." She finished.
"No she didn't." He clenched his jaw, he didn't want to do this.
"Will you still do them?" Riley asked, kind of embarrased about the situation.
"I don't know Riley, being in charge of the whole thing, doesn't sound very promising." She got closer to him, clasping her hands together begging for his help.
"Please, please, please, pleeease..." She said, she grabbed his hands to bring them closer to her. "Pleeease?" She asked, blinking fast, making a pouty face.
He looked at her and sighed, he lowered his head, defeated. Maya would pay for this, although if she was doing the sketches for the decorations this would mean that they would have to spend more time together to work on this. It was a good thing, he was going to get his revenge.
"Yes!" Riley exclamed, jumping a little on her place. "Thank you, Lucas." She said, moving forward and placing a kiss on his lips, it was fast and cute, like the first kiss her had had when he was younger. She quickly stepped back, glancing at him, waiting for his reaction.
This is what he was scared about happening, fuck, he thought. How was he supposed to do now, he couldn't break his heart, but he also couldn't encourage her to continue. He had to do something, so he simply smiled.
"Bye." She said, and hurriedly walked inside her apartment building, looking back at him for a second.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. He needed to move quickly on the Maya side of this equation. If he moved fast enough on that side and slow enough on Riley, he could break them both, he thought. Maybe this was his opportunity to really prove himself, two hearts, one shot.
Quick foot note: I want to thank you for your support, I crazy love writing and this platform and you guys give me the help to do that, so thanks from the bottom of my heart. Next on King Lucas: We're back to the Lucaya train and I'm hitting it hard.