Part 1: Riarkle (Riley and Farkle)

The strong scent of stale alcohol wafted around the surroundings of Missy Bradford's house. Missy's parents were always absent from their house for long periods of time, leaving Missy alone to party her heart out.

This was not the first time, that she had decided to host another open-house party during the school day, the word would always spread of her new upcoming parties like wildfire and Missy pretty much let anyone who was of reasonably high status (in the school hierarchy) into her house for her "legendary" parties.

People who were usually invited consisted of jocks, cheerleaders, and those friendly with those invited. Because Lucas and Zay were both jocks they received immediate access to any new parties. As friends of them Maya, Farkle, Smackle and Riley (she was a cheerleader) were also invited to go along with them.

His heart beat furiously against his chest as her deep brown eyes met his azure ones. He stared into her eyes for what seemed like forever, he observed the way that millions of supernovas were hidden inside her irises, creating stunning illusions, that he wanted to delve into and never stop searching. He felt heat rise-up his neck and settle onto his rosy cheeks.

She had been off talking to Lucas, when watching her, he noted that her eyes crinkled when she smiled, her typical pastel smile. It was then when he felt a pang of jealousy as he watched her strike up a conversation with her boyfriend Lucas Friar.

The gang were in their Junior year at high school. It had taken Farkle a while, but he was starting to see Riley in a different way than before. He knew his feelings had changed from Secret Santa in their freshman year several years prior (GMACM). When Farkle was younger he was always expressive of his love for both Maya and Riley. His love for Maya then dissolved from romantic to platonic love whilst his feelings for Riley still developed further.

He knew he loved Riley, but was only now beginning to realise how serious and deep his feelings really were for her. He was also starting to reconsider dating Smackle. Together they were forces that worked well, they were one. But they was missing something. Farkle couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Maybe it was the feeling that he got when Riley smiled and his stomach turned to complete gloop. Or when she hugged him and his heart beat so fast in his chest that he thought he would explode. Farkle would also feel strangely complete whenever she laced their fingers together. He would feel electric currents running throughout his body, leaving him craving and wanting more physical contact.

Although Farkle didn't know much about love he knew that the feelings he had for Riley were different to the ones he had for Smackle, that he was certain. He was also 100 percent certain that Riley would never reciprocate the new feelings he had developed, for that he knew. Besides she had Lucas, they still had maintained their relationship throughout all the constant high school drama. He was sure that her romantic feelings were still for Lucas.

He also had a sneaking suspicion that Maya and Lucas still both had feelings for each other, their obvious banter and nicknames were still as frequent and had become even more flirtatious.

Riley watched Lucas and Maya's banter daily and secretly broke on the inside. She knew they still had hidden feelings for each other bubbling under the surface for the other and was stuck as the third wheel in a never-ending triangle (even though it had already ended). Riley seemed to have a mask on, one hiding herself and her true emotions and feelings, no one was able to reach out to her not even Farkle.

Riley knew that by continuing to like Lucas, she would finally understand that it's ok to be selfish, about your feelings and what you want. She figured it would be easy, but she found it wasn't so simple when she wasn't even certain about her own feelings for not only her boyfriend, but someone else.

Even though Riley knew it seemed crazy, she wasn't even sure if she liked Lucas as much as she thought she did. When she watched Maya and Lucas flirt uncontrollably, it did not seem to faze her as much as she thought it might. But whenever she saw Farkle or Smackle hug or even kiss she would feel her stomach drop and have the strong need to get out of wherever it was they were at. See she had weird instincts.

Maya found it had taken some time convincing Riley to come to Missy's house for the party. Riley remembered when Missy had tried to ask Lucas out back in middle school, even though it didn't seem to faze her as much anymore, she still had a bad feeling about Missy and Lucas being together in the same house with alcohol and loud music. Missy would still give Lucas a lot of unnecessary sexual attention and even though Riley wasn't certain about her feelings for him she knew the attention he received from Missy was never a good thing.

As it was half way through the school year, nearing the end of the school exam block period and the first party the cliche 6 had attended together, Maya and Riley both decided to dress up for the occasion. Maya wore a short navy dress with satin around the waist line, it had a sweetheart neckline with short flowy lace sleeves. She wore it with a heart locket she received from Katy and Shawn and a pair of black 5 inch heels. Maya had her hair lightly curled and wore blush, dark eyeshadow, and light pink lipstick.

Riley decided to wear a burgundy mid-thigh dress, a thick black belt was wrapped around her waist. The dress was made of lace and had lacy elbow length sleeves, with a high neckline. Riley wore a pair of neutral 3 inch heels. Her make-up consisted of nude lipstick, blush, contour on her cheeks and light pink eyeshadow. Her hair was tied back into a bun, a few tendrils of hair framed her face.

Since it was a Friday, the weekend was in their favour, so they could party all night. The gang decided to meet at Missy's at 8:30pm. The group had now been at the party for a few hours and Maya was on the verge of drunk she became more aggressive as well as flirty. Farkle and Smackle had just finished dancing and Smackle had gone over to talk to Zay. Maya was busy on the dance floor 'dancing' (more like grinding) on a guy.

Riley was making small talk with Lucas, she attempted to ignore that Farkle was eavesdropping on their conversation and watching her every move. She tried to ignore Lucas who was constantly moving his gaze from her onto Maya and the guy she was 'dancing' with, who was grinning like he had just won the lottery. Riley noticed Lucas's normal sea-foam green eyes turn dark and his eyes flashed a murderous look towards the other guy.

Lucas pulled Riley closer to him and began to kiss her neck. Riley glanced at Maya and saw that she had stopped dancing and was shooting death glares at them. Riley pushed Lucas off her and murmured to him.

"I'm going to go over and give Farkle some company."

Moments later after Riley walked over to Farkle she spotted Lucas march over to the other guy and Maya, he spat out a few stern words towards the other guy and asked Maya to dance. The beat of On My Mind filled the house and they started to sexually grind on each other.

Farkle watched and Maya and Lucas began to dance. He allowed curiosity to overthrow him as he asked the brunette beauty beside him

"Are you okay with Maya and Lucas dancing like that, with such close proximity?". He gestured to their vulgar behaviour and dance moves.

In response to Farkle Riley responded with

"It was bound to happen eventually, all their pent up sexual tension and stuff would finally let loose."

Riley and Farkle both glanced over at Zay and Smackle who are both deeply engrossed in a conversation.

Farkle didn't know what had gotten into him, but before he could fully comprehend what he was doing, he was on the dancefloor with Riley. The close proximity between the two of them was starting to make his heart pound crazy fast. As a new slower song started to play, Farkle placed both his hands on her tiny waist and her hands trailed up his chest and then wrapped around his neck. Riley didn't know how long they had stood there swaying. Both were in their own little bubble and neither wanted to ever come out of it. They stood there in the other's embrace for the continuity of several more songs.

Both however were snapped out of their dreamy trance to a disagreement turned violent in the other side of the room. Missy Bradford's boyfriend had just caught her making out with another guy. Her boyfriend began beating up the other guy for kissing his girlfriend. In avoidance of the fight Farkle lead Riley onto the balcony, attached to the master bedroom on the 2nd floor. Riley noted that Lucas and Maya and Zay with Smackle have also disappeared else-where.

While standing on the balcony and looking out at the breath-taking night view of New York City, Riley and Farkle began to make small conversation about the beautiful night and the troubles of upcoming school exams. They both noticed how easily it was for them to talk to each other, and how comfortable they felt around the other.

Without thinking Riley asked Farkle

"are you worried to leave Zay and Smackle alone, together?"

He simply answered her question with a shake of his head. As odd as it seemed with that small sense of reassurance from Farkle Riley knew that they would be alone and with no disruptions. Their conversation turned deep within a matter of moments and the proximity between the two became smaller.

Farkle's heart was beating abnormally fast in his chest as his blue eyes locked with Riley's brown ones, he was certain he had never felt that way about anyone before especially Smackle. All his logic vanished as their noses touched in anticipation.

But he pulled away from her, despite the strong urge he had to kiss her, he watched her eyes flash a strange emotion briefly and she furrowed her eyebrows for only a split second at his sudden movement. Riley then returned to her normal cheery self within a matter of seconds and her usual blinding smile spread across her face like it always has. He had-to admit that she looked absolutely adorable and let out a chuckle at her cute actions. Riley scrunched up her face at his reaction but began to laugh along with him at her own behaviour.

She questioned why neither of them felt uncomfortable after their almost kiss (and crazily enough the entire night), after all the built-up tension that developed throughout the evening, which appeared to be for nothing. She admitted that she did feel the slightest bit of remorse when he refused to kiss her.

Riley didn't know what she wanted but it hurt a little to know that Farkle wasn't reciprocating whatever strong feelings she had towards him at that current moment. However, she started to reason with herself and her seemingly foolish behaviour, knowing that it was Farkle the guy she's been best friends with since the first grade. There was nothing but friendship between them up until that point, despite her slowly developing feelings for him which were completely unnecessary and irrelevant.

He had made it clear that they were stuck in the friend zone for heaven knows how long and Riley continued to do what she had done since her feelings first appeared, she continued to bury them far in the back of her brain in hope that they will disappear so they can both go back to being just friends.

He doesn't know why he refused to kiss her. Maybe he knew he would appear disloyal to Smackle if he went and kissed one of his best friends. Though Farkle did believe there was something going on between Zay and Smackle he refused to let it ruin what he had with Smackle.

Riley and Lucas were still dating and Farkle knew that despite the clear chemistry that he shared with Riley, she would never express the same feelings that he had for her. He knew that Riley was still head over heels for Lucas, and knew it wouldn't change.

If he only knew how wrong he was…