7: Revelations

"Maya? What are you doing here?" Lucas asked, taken aback by her sudden appearance.

His eyes flitted back and forth between the girl and her companion, who was none other than Joshua Matthews, with hair cut short and a puzzled expression written on his face. Maya had withdrawn her hand from the sleeve of his shirt, but it still lingered mid-air with the ghost of her touch.

She noticed Lucas staring and immediately crossed her arms, sticking her chin out. "I should be the one asking you that question," she said. "And who are they?"

Maya was referring to the two boys that sat with their backs toward her, although by then, they had both turned around to find out who the person who interrupted their conversation was. They seemed to be the same age as Lucas, perhaps even slightly older, but they were undoubtedly strong and muscular as evident from their athletic figures.

Lucas hesitated, something which was given away by his shifty eyes. "They're my friends from John Quincy Adams High," he explained, relenting. "We were having dinner, that's all."

Maya frowned as she tried to put the pieces together. Never once had she heard Lucas mention anything about having high school friends. She pressed him further. "How did that happen?"

The boy sitting on the right grinned, a dimple denting his right cheek. He had dark brown hair that could champion Josh's.

"You mean he hasn't told you about this?" He reached back to give Lucas a solid shake on the shoulder. "Our boy here was specially picked by our coach to join the football team when school starts this fall!"

Lucas smiled sheepishly, nodding his head towards the boy who just spoke. "That's Noah," he introduced, "and the other guy's Adam –"

"–Adamant for you to introduce yourself," the other boy butted in, winking at Maya. Unlike Noah, his hair was a light flaxen colour, a stark contrast to brown. It was oddly ironic, considering how similar they were in both appearance and size.

It took Maya all she had to stop herself from grimacing outwardly. If that had been Adam's attempt to flirt with her, it certainly wasn't working. Josh coughed from beside her in a feeble attempt to make his presence known.

"Oh right, where are my manners?" Maya rolled her eyes. "This is Josh, and I'm Maya."

Noah raised his hand in a show of solidarity. "Nice meeting ya'll…Josh and Maya." He spoke the two names slowly like he was trying to commit them to memory.

Lucas looked at Maya and asked if they wanted to join them at the table.

Unfortunately, she wasn't very interested in getting to know his friends – at least not on a personal level. What she did behind their backs was a different story. She shared a look with Josh that confirmed her suspicion that he didn't want to hang around either.

"It's alright," she told Lucas. "We'll just be getting our pizzas before heading home."

Lucas nodded. "See you around then. And oh, welcome back, Josh."

Josh flashed him a quick smile before going after Maya, who had already turned to leave and was subtly signalling for him to do the same.

From behind, one of the boys – Maya wasn't sure which one as they both sounded the same with their smug, boyish lilt – called after them. "Looking forward to seeing you two freshman year!"

Maya grabbed Josh's wrist, dragging him back where they came from as they were once again swallowed whole by the post-work crowd.

"Is it just me or are those two guys acting like their fathers own the ground we walk on?" She leaned in towards Josh and whispered through gritted teeth.

"Well, they certainly have a knack for making others feel small," Josh regarded bitterly, shaking his head in disbelief. "They thought I was your age! I'm pretty sure I'm at least two years older than them."

Maya led them to the start of the queue, which had shortened considerably since they first arrived. She used to have a venomous hatred for associations to age whenever it had to do with Josh, but it slackened quite a fair bit ever since she accepted the fact that they would always have this obstructive three-year gap between them no matter how much she avoided it.

"I just hope they aren't bad company," she spoke mostly to herself, pondering over the idea of Lucas joining the football team. It didn't take much for her to acknowledge that even if he hadn't been talent-spotted, he'd most likely still wind up there in due course anyway. She just wasn't sure why he didn't tell any of them about the presumably good news. A small part of her was disappointed by this, though he didn't owe it to her to inform her of every single detail of his life.

The line shuffled forward a few steps.

"Don't worry about it. High school's a mess ninety-percent of the time," Josh said upon seeing the pensive look on the girl's face.

Maya looked up at him. He was still a good few inches taller even though she was wearing heeled boots. "What's the other ten percent?" She asked, curious to find out.

Josh smirked, as if finding his answer clever even before he said it out loud. "That ten percent," he pointed towards Maya, "is you trying to figure that mess out."

"Boy, high school sure sounds like a whole lot of fun," Maya deadpanned. If she had her reservations about high school before, she certainly wasn't looking forward to it now.

They reached the sales counter, the greasy yet appetizing scent of dollar pizzas hitting them like a train. The man that stood behind it looked Italian, complete with a moustache that one could twirl its ends with, and upon seeing Maya, his eyes brightened.

"Maya darling!" He exclaimed with a wave of his calloused hands. The front of his white apron was spotted with different shades of red from both new and old stains. "One slice of pizza for you? And with extra chili flakes on top!"

Maya grinned, gesturing towards Josh who was presently eyeing the chefs running back and forth in the back kitchen with platters of freshly-baked pizzas in their hands. "Make that two, Antonio," she corrected. "This is Riley's uncle, Josh."

The mention of his name drew his attention back to the man before him, who raised his eyebrows in recognition. "Ah, so you are the Joshua Matthews? Maya has told me a lot about you," he teased before whisking out two plates of pizza. "These are on the house, take them!"

"Please Antonio, you don't have to," Maya said, sliding two one dollar bills across the counter before he could protest. She picked the plates up and quickly handed one over to Josh as she tried to hide her reddening face, making way for the next customer to place her order. "See you soon!"

The two squeezed their way out of the front door and onto the sidewalk, which was currently scattered with other patrons wolfing down their pizzas whilst standing up. They leant their backs against the storefront and watched as passers-by scuttled hurriedly towards their next destination.

"Hey," Maya said out of the blue. She raised her pizza slice between them. "Cheers."

Josh grinned, flashing his set of pearly white teeth as he held up his own slice and knocked it against Maya's in the imitation of clinking wine glasses. "Cheers," he echoed before taking a bite of the pizza.

Maya watched as he savoured it, a blissful expression spreading across his face. "So how is it?" She asked.

"Really good," Josh licked his lips. "Why doesn't he just open a restaurant?"

"He doesn't believe in overcharging people for good food," Maya shrugged.

"That's why dollar pizza?"

She nodded, smiling. "That's why dollar pizza."

Then, as if recalling something, she suddenly frowned. "Oh and sorry we couldn't get a seat," she apologised.

Josh waved her apology away. "It's fine, seriously. Didn't I tell you that I want to get the authentic New York experience? I'm really liking the novelty of this dollar pizza thing."

Maya looked down at the plate that she had just wiped clean, not bothering to conceal her growing smile. She'd almost forgotten why she was so apprehensive about going out with Josh this afternoon.

See? She told herself, there was nothing to worry about in the first place.

Just a block away, Riley was cooped up at home babysitting Auggie, who frankly speaking, didn't really need much looking after at all. Beyond his frivolous curls and baby face, her brother was well matured beyond his years – at least compared to how Riley was when she was his age.

At present, he was draped across the sofa watching old re-runs of Blue's Clues on TV while Riley and Farkle were sitting on the floor, engaged in a heated discussion about what the latter should get for Smackle's upcoming birthday.

Farkle had conveniently invited himself over an hour ago – this time through the front door – to seek the girl's advice on such matters that were her areas of expertise.

"How about flowers to start it off?" Riley asked, spinning a purple marker in her hands. "Then you guys can go for dinner at a candle-lit restaurant and take a stroll in the park right after! Doesn't that sound romantic?"

She had laid a piece of paper down in front of them which was now filled to the edges with scribbles, cancellations and even more cancellations as they bounced suggestions back and forth one another.

"Smackle doesn't like gestures that are too romantic. She finds them cheesy," Farkle commented, crossing out the bouquet of flowers that Riley had just excitedly drawn.

Seeing her little masterpiece get scribbled over yet again made Riley feel slightly exasperated. "So she doesn't like presents that remind her too much of her science-y side and presents that are overly romantic? What's left!"

Farkle smiled at her outburst, though the second she looked at him, he wiped his expression clean and feigned seriousness.

"Yeah, well, that's why I came to you," he said. "You're probably the only person who can come up with something."

Riley pondered over this for a moment, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. From all her interactions with Smackle, she had always come across as someone who knew exactly what she wanted and made sure that she got it. It was not difficult for anyone to see that, especially considering her stellar report cards and frightfully colourful extra-curricular activities.

"Why don't…why don't you just give her what she wants?" Riley laid it out simply for him. "What does she want, Farkle?"

For once, he was at a loss for words. "I-I don't know," he finally answered, a hint of shame in his voice.

Riley didn't let her surprise translate over to her face. His response was bewildering because to her, Farkle had always been the silent observer – the one who took notice of the little things and went out of the way to get to know his friends and loved ones inside out. And even if they didn't tell him how they felt straight to his face, he always just knew.

But he didn't have to know that.

Riley didn't want him to feel any worse than he already did, so she just cupped her hand over his and gave it a tight, reassuring squeeze.

"Just ask her then," she said gently. "You still have a couple of days."

Farkle looked down at their hands before meeting her eyes. Without knowing it, her thumb had started stroking his hand comfortingly, gliding across his skin – up, down, up, down. It wasn't the first time she did that, but it felt different somehow. He tried his best to ignore it, refocusing his thoughts back on Smackle.

He sighed. "I just want to make it good enough for her, you know? Especially after that video she made to help me with my speech –"

Riley suddenly recoiled, cutting Farkle's sentence short. A rush of questions begged for release. But first, she had to make sure she wasn't hearing it wrong.

"What did you say?" She clarified.

Farkle had no clue what brought about that reaction from her, so he just decided to follow along.

"You should know what I'm talking about, right?" He said. "I'm sure Smackle enlisted your help to get some of the pictures and footage. The inspiration video she got you to slip into my bag? It was why I managed to come up with my valedictorian speech in the first place."

Riley wasn't sure how to respond, much less how she should feel about the sudden discovery. One part of her screamed 'BETRAYAL!' and yet the other stayed calm and composed, searching furiously for the most logical thing to do.

That would have worked out fine except for the fact that Riley was never one to be logical. And whenever she did try to be logical, her judgements were often skewed. It was mostly because she was driven by her love for her friends, and she cared too much about them to ever think straight, what more logically.

Forcing out her squinty-eyed grin, she laughed, slapping Farkle on his arm.

"Oh right!" She chastised herself. "How could I forget? Silly me. Ignore what just happened."

Farkle eyed her puzzledly. "Riley…are you okay?"

The soft chatter of the television in the background suddenly grew much louder as it came into focus. Remembering her job for the evening, Riley turned to the sofa and saw that Auggie had fallen asleep, his mouth slightly open.

She got up to tuck a cushion under his head before answering Farkle. "I'm fine, really. You should go. My parents will be coming home any time now."

Farkle got up to his feet and dusted off his jeans, throwing Riley a knowing look. He wanted to know what she was really thinking, but after the events that unfolded on New Years' Eve, he thought better against it.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" He told her as she walked him to the front door.

Riley had her lips drawn into a thin line. "I know," she replied, pulling the door open.

Farkle was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the timely arrival of Joshua Matthews, who had just returned home from his day out with Maya. Josh broke out into a huge grin upon seeing the boy.

"Hey, man," he greeted, briefly pulling Farkle into a hug. "You've grown into quite the handsome young man since I last saw you."

Farkle smiled shyly, still unused to the increasing number of compliments that he had been receiving over the last couple of months. "Says the handsome young man himself," he replied before stepping out into the hallway.

Not wanting to intrude any longer, he bid farewell to the two Matthews and made his way to the lift, the echoes of Riley and Josh's conversation at the doorway continuing to travel down to him.

"Where's Maya?" Riley asked.

"I walked her home. She brought me to get dollar pizza for dinner. And guess what…"

There was a soft click as their front door swung shut, and their voices disappeared all at once. Farkle turned back to look at it, a furrow appearing between his eyebrows as he tried to comprehend what just happened.

Riley never really was as simple as she seemed.

A/N: Hey guys! The previous chapter got me pumping so I couldn't help but dive straight into writing the next one - no complaints there, right? Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoyed this little chapter. It appears that both Riley and Maya's day couldn't have played out more differently. Also, Adam and Noah are my OCs and they'll probably be making more appearances later into the story. I wasn't planning on introducing them so early on but one of the reviews just got me thinking about who I should have Maya find Lucas with. It was initially supposed to be Zay and Farkle but I guess.. :) Anyway, I managed to watch Girl Meets Bay Window today and call me whatever but I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the elements that I touch on in this story with regards to high school and graduation so far brought up in the episode :') Maybe you can try making the links after watching it! Alright, that's enough of rambling - thanks for all the support so far and do tell me what you think about this chapter! Till next time :)