Chapter 6

Farkle paid the cab driver then climbed from the backseat of the car. He didn't linger on the sidewalk but headed straight for his destination. He'd been to Lucas's house enough times now to be familiar with his neighborhood, and it wasn't a bad neighborhood by any means, but that still didn't mean he felt completely safe walking around it at night by himself.

It wasn't Lucas's house he was headed for this time. He'd texted ahead to see if his best friend would be where he'd thought he might be before making the trip over from Topanga's. He'd given Lucas enough time to see Maya home after the two of them had left the cafe themselves. They'd cut their night short, not that Farkle could blame them. Their date hadn't gone very well, judging by what he'd seen of it, and he'd thought Lucas might stop off at the tiny park a few blocks from his house instead of going straight home afterwards.

It wasn't much of a park, really. Just a few trees, some swings, and a makeshift basketball court. Lucas had told him once that he caught a game of pick-up there every once in awhile and it was a place he went to sometimes when he needed to be alone. Farkle was taking the chance that he might want to talk rather than be alone right now.

There was a bench over to one side of the court, and Farkle found him there, perched on the edge of its seat, leaning forward with his forearms braced on splayed thighs. He looked dejected, Farkle couldn't help but think, as he silently approached the bench.

"I thought this might be where you'd be," he said by way of greeting.

Lucas's head jerked up at the sound of his voice and he acknowledged him with a shadow of a smile

"Yeah, I just...needed to think," he replied as Farkle sat down beside him and mirrored his pose.

The two boys shared a moment of contemplative silence.

Lucas was the one to break it. "How did things get so messed up, Farkle?" he asked with a slight shake of his head. "I mean, it was just last week that I was walking Riley to practice after school and Maya was mocking us for looking like the stereotypical jock with a cheerleader girlfriend. Now, the girl I thought I was falling in love with has effectively dumped me, and practically the next day wants me to move on with her best friend." His expression was baffled. "That's messed up, right? If nothing else, it goes against some kind of girl code or something, doesn't it?"

The corner of Farkle's lips lifted in a lopsided smile. "You think Riley's going to follow some code if it's not what she thinks is right? Riley has her own code."

Lucas gave a little huff of laughter that sounded somewhat sad. "Yeah, that's definitely true."

Farkle watched as his friend seemed to study his loosely folded hands, sympathy stirring his heart. "So you were falling in love with her?" he asked quietly.

Lucas sighed. "I thought I was. I mean, I know we're young. And we decided we weren't even ready for dating after we tried it last time. But I thought we kinda had an understanding. You know? That we were just waiting until we got a little older and got a little more comfortable with the idea and then we'd try again. I thought that was where we stood, but then the whole fiasco with the dance happened, and Charlie Gardner," the name was said with a bitter twist, "came swoopin' in outta nowhere. And now she's going on an actual date with the guy when she told me she wasn't ready for that," he ended on a note of hurt and anger, his face still turned downward.

"Well, in all fairness, it didn't really sound like it was going to be much of a date if the rules were that they couldn't hold hands or even talk," Farkle pointed out, trying to make him feel better.

Lucas conceded the point with a tilt of his head, silently acknowledging that that was something at least. And he really couldn't say anything about it when he, himself had been having a non-hand-holding, non-talking date.

"Now, on top of all that there's Maya." Lucas shook his head. "It's hard for me to believe she even likes me. I know what we do is all in fun, that thing where she makes fun of me and I act like it doesn't get to me. And it is fun. I mean, I wouldn't keep doing it if I didn't get a kick out of it." He smiled fondly. "But still...she mocks everything about me- where I come from, the way I do things- how is it possible that underneath all that she really likes me?"

He looked at Farkle as if he could provide him answers, but Farkle could only shrug. He hadn't really seen that one coming either. He thought he knew both girls pretty well, but when Riley had told Lucas that Maya liked him that night by the campfire Farkle would've thought she was joking if she hadn't been so dead serious when she'd said it.

In retrospect, he thought maybe it made sense. Maya would never have allowed herself to have feelings for the boy her best friend liked, so maybe the way she'd acted toward Lucas had been her way of keeping a distance from him. Maybe she mocked all those things about him because she was trying to keep herself from admiring them.

He didn't have a chance to say any of those things to Lucas though because the other boy had started talking again.

"Of course, I only have Riley's word for it that Maya does like me. She's never admitted it to me herself. Not that I think Riley would lie about it or anything, but I might've thought she'd gotten it wrong or something except- Maya did agree to go on a date with me."

"Yeah, how'd that happen so quickly?" Farkle asked curiously.

Lucas sighed again. "It was my fault really. It made me kind of crazy when Riley told Charlie she'd go out with him," he confessed. Adding with a helpless shrug, "I just don't get how she could go from what I thought we had together last week to deciding she only thinks of me like a brother. And then the next day she's dating someone else. Honestly it ticked me off a little. So I decided if she can dismiss what I thought we had and move on so fast, so can I. So I asked Maya out."

Regret stole over his features. "I think it was a mistake though. I did it for all the wrong reasons. And even though Riley's made it clear we're only friends now, it still felt wrong to be going out with her best friend. I know she's all but given us her permission, and it's obvious she wants us to give it a chance and see what happens, but... Maya and I just feel so uncomfortable with the whole thing. Without our little game we don't even seem to know how to talk to each other. We've never really had a meaningful conversation that I can remember. The things I know about her personally is stuff I've picked up from being around her, or it came from you and Riley. It's not like Maya told them to me. So... I just don't know what to say to her. I feel like if I try to say anything serious or personal about myself she'll only make fun of me for it or I'll end up with smoothie over my head," he said wryly, making Farkle snicker. "And I don't know how to get her to let her guard down enough to say anything real to me either."

"It takes a while to gain Maya's trust," Farkle agreed with a nod. "I've been after her and Riley since the first grade, and it wasn't until last year that I felt like she truly let me in and see the real Maya. And even then, it wasn't all the time."

Looking at the smaller boy, a sudden thought occurred to Lucas. And it made him feel like a bad friend for not thinking of it before now.

"Does it bother you to talk about them like this?" he asked worriedly. "I mean, you've been in love with them both for forever. Are you okay with everything that's happening?"

Lucas had always thought it was a testament to Farkle's good nature that he'd never held a grudge against him for catching Riley's eye in the first place, considering Farkle had sort of wanted her for himself. Not only had he not held a grudge, but he'd welcomed Lucas into their group from the beginning and had become one of his closest friends. He thought maybe the fact that he'd still had his 'other one' to pursue might've helped with that. But now she seemed to be expressing an interest in Lucas, too. If both the girls he loved had picked his best friend over him how could he possibly not resent Lucas for that?

But it didn't seem as though he did as he answered Lucas's question with a smile.

"If this had happened last year, I'm not gonna lie, I probably would've been pretty upset. But now that I've got Isadora everything's different. I do still love Maya and Riley, but I guess I love them more like a brother would."

Lucas groaned. "Please don't say love like a brother," he complained, "If I hear it one more time I might have to rip my ears off or something."

Farkle chuckled. "She has said it a couple hundred times this past week, hasn't she? Makes you wonder who exactly she's trying to convince."

Farkle bit his lip as his eyes darted over to Lucas. He hadn't meant to say that, it had just slipped out. And it came perilously close to spilling Riley's secret, which he'd agreed not to do for the time being.

But when Lucas murmured a considering, "Yeah," and fell deep into thought, Farkle decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he did figure it out.

Riley had said she needed some time before confessing her feelings herself. But it seemed to Farkle that it would be more fair to everyone involved if they all knew exactly how each other felt. You can't make an informed decision without all the facts, but Riley seemed insistent that Maya and Lucas decide what they wanted to be to each other without considering her role in it at all. It wouldn't be a sound decision though. Once her true feelings came out they might come to regret what they'd decided and everyone would end up hurt. So if Lucas figured it out, Farkle couldn't regret giving it away even though he'd promised.

Lucas was on his way towards figuring it out, though he didn't know it. What Farkle had said had sent his thoughts churning and he was suddenly questioning things though.

Was it suspicious that Riley had sort of harped on the brother thing the way Farkle's words had seemed to suggest? Could it be possible that it wasn't completely true that that was what she was feeling and she was trying to convince herself of it just as much as she was him? He couldn't believe she would blatantly lie to him about it, but if she was lying to herself first, she might not even see it as a lie.

He needed to pay more attention and see if she gave any hints that what he was thinking was true. He hadn't seen evidence of it this past week, but he hadn't had any reason to doubt then, and he might not have been looking close enough.

"So how did you leave things with Maya? Were you guys able to talk after you left Topanga's earlier?" Farkle inquired.

Lucas emitted a dry note of laughter. "No. Not a single word. I thought it might take some of the pressure off if no one was watching us, but it doesn't seem like anything takes the pressure off. And I'm honestly not sure where we left things. We pretty much just said thank you and goodbye when I left her at her door. So I guess whatever it is we've been this past week that's what we still are. At least until we can talk about it and one of us says different. And I don't see that happening any time soon," he said with an ironic thread of laughter, shaking his head.

Farkle's lips twisted in sympathy, but he had to ask. "You don't think you should tell her that you think it was a mistake to ask her out?"

"Do you?" Lucas looked at him a bit wide-eyed, hints of disbelief, fear, and honest inquiry in his gaze.

"It's the truth, isn't it? That's what you said."

"Well, yeah, but I don't want to hurt her. Maya's my friend, if nothing else."

"You never know though, she might be thinking it was a mistake, too. You won't know that unless you ask her."

"True. But if she's not thinking that, me saying it would only hurt her," he brought the point back around, showing that it was a circular argument.

Farkle made a face of exasperation. "Then the way I see it you only have two options: ask her out again or try and act like the first date never happened."

"Or, there's a third option," Lucas offered hopefully, "Just wait and see what she does next."

Farkle gave him a look of dawning understanding. "You're afraid of her."

Lucas looked like he wanted to deny it, then confessed the obvious. "Yes, I'm afraid of her, are you trying to say you're not?"

"Yeah, she can be scary," the other boy conceded, "but that's just her tough act. That's not really who she is. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I know it, but the trouble is, the tough act is usually all I get. That, or the teasing."

"That's not what you've been getting this week," Farkle pointed out.

"No," he agreed with a negative movement of his head. "But the Maya who's been around this week has hardly seemed like Maya at all. The only time she's really seemed like herself has been when she was around you or Riley. And I miss the Maya that was my friend. I hate what this is doing to us."

"You should tell her that."

"You think she'd listen?" Lucas asked tiredly.

"You'll never know unless you try," he pointed out again. "And you're gonna have to be the first to talk, Lucas, she won't ever do it."

The other boy looked both bleak and apprehensive at the prospect.

"So strap on a pair and go face the scary blonde," he encouraged with cheerful vigor. "She's only 5'1", you can take her."

Lucas laughed. "Yeah, but what she lacks in height she makes up for in teeth."

"Eh, her bark is worse than her bite," the smaller boy waved the concern away.

"Nooo. Actually her bark has bite," Lucas jokingly corrected.

"Yeah," Farkle agreed with an affectionate chuckle. "That's why we love her."

Lucas fondly agreed.