For five months and six days, Lucas was in love.

Wake up happy type of love. Excited to go to school type of love. Smile through his parent's lectures type of love.

Lucas loved Riley. And he felt sure that he was going to love her forever.

His entire world revolved around her. He did dumb things and sent dumb text messages and went on dumb dates at dumb locations (which weren't dumb to him when he was with Riley) to make her happy. Nothing else mattered. Nothing but Riley, and slow make out sessions and the way she said his name.

Lucas.

No one else could say his name the way she could.

For five months and six days, Lucas was in love. For the remaining three and a half months of their relationship, he was in hell. Because after a while, Riley started to get scared.

Riley was terrified that someone would steal Lucas away from her. To her, she would never be good enough for him. She was painfully boring and he was endlessly fascinating. She was only moderately cute and he was a knockout. She just knew that he would grow tired of her and replace with someone else. Someone prettier, someone thinner, someone better.

Whenever she saw Lucas with another girl, it drove her crazy. Lucas had always been well liked, but once things between him and Riley started to get serious, suddenly he became hot.

Girls at school would make snide comments towards Riley, suggesting Lucas ditch her in favor of them. Parties were the worst. It wasn't Lucas's fault, but it seemed like every time he was left alone for even a second, another girl would hit on him.

"Why are you talking to her?" Riley would demand.

Gradually his responses changed from conciliatory ("I'm not, baby, let's go") to irritated ("We're just talking Riley. Back off"), which only made Riley even more worried.

At yet another party, Riley returned from the bathroom to find Lucas talking to yet another girl. Didn't he ever talk to guys? Riley felt anger bubbling up inside of her. She was getting tired of this. So was he. She crossed the room and the girl turned- it was Missy.

"Hey, Riley." Lucas greeted with a small smile.

"Hey, Riley." Missy echoed, a smirk on her face.

"Hey, Lucas." Riley said back, folding her arms across her chest. That's when Lucas realized he couldn't hear it anymore. That magical way she said his name, it was gone.

"I guess I should go." Missy laughed, throwing a catty glance at Riley before walking off.

"Why were you talking to her?" Riley demanded, not caring that Missy could still hear her.

"Um, she's my friend?"

"Um," Riley mimicked. "You have a crush on her!"

"I had a crush on her. In, like, seventh grade."

"Well we're not in seventh grade anymore, Lucas. She's probably trying to get with you."

Lucas stayed quiet for a few moments. He was so sick of this. Didn't she realize that she was pushing him away?

"Riley, not every girl I talk to is trying to 'get with me'!" He shouted, raking his hands through his hair.

Riley looked hurt, and Lucas immediately felt guilty.

"...I just want it to be the two of us." She said quietly. He reached for her hand and squeezed it lovingly.

"It is," He murmured, pulling her to him and kissing her forehead. "Just you and me, baby."

But it wasn't.

It wasn't just Lucas and Riley.

It was Lucas and Riley and her paranoia and fear that he would leave her.

In the weeks to come, Riley couldn't seem to stop herself. She became clingier than ever. She looked at his phone when he left the room. If he didn't answer her texts for an hour, she called and called until he picked up.

Lucas had stayed with her for so long because he didn't want to hurt her. He didn't want to make her cry, because he loved her. He did. Maybe he didn't love her the way he did at the start of their relationship, but he loved her. But he could only take so much.

Eventually, he ended it.

"I'm tired, Riley." He groaned in the middle of yet another argument. "I don't want to do this anymore."

It turned out forever lasted eight and a half months.

Riley was heartbroken. She just knew it was because Lucas had found someone better. She spent weeks crying into Maya's leather clad shoulder and watching sad movies.

When Lucas broke up with her, he had not thought about how it would effect his relationship with everyone else. Maya and Farkle had been best friends with Riley since the first grade. How could he have been so stupid to believe they wouldn't take her side? Why did they have to take sides, anyway?

He had honestly thought that Riley and him would be able to be friends and everything would be normal again. Sure, it might be a little bit awkward, but if Lucas was okay with it, why couldn't Riley be okay with it too?

He never expected his best- scratch that, his only- friends to just turn him away like they didn't share precious memories.

He walked into the lunchroom the Monday after he and Riley had broken up. He took his usual seat at their usual lunch table.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" He said nonchalantly. Maya and Farkle stared at him.

Maya looked pissed, and Farkle just looked confused- sad, almost. Riley kept her gaze fixed on her shoes.

"What's up?" He repeated.

"What's up? Seriously? What makes you think you can sit here?" Maya demanded loudly, though she wasn't quite yelling yet.

He had not yet connected the dots and realized they had taken Riley's side. It was such a small possibility to him, he hadn't even thought of it. He was honestly confused as to why Maya was so angry.

"Um... I always sit here?"

"Yeah? Well, you don't anymore." She smirked, standing up and carrying her tray over to him.

"Maya, don't." Riley cut in sternly. Maya ignored her best friend and proceeded to dump her plate of mashed potatoes and corn on his head.

Lucas stood up, feeling like an idiot for not realizing what was going on sooner. How could he have just sat with them like nothing had changed? He wasn't even angry. He deserved it. And he knew Maya was going easy on him. He brushed the excess mashed cafeteria food off of him and turned to face his friends. He started to apologize, but he was lost for words. He just stood there staring at them.

"Leave." Maya demanded. He remained silent. She rose from her seat again but kept her distance from him. "Leave." She repeated through gritted teeth.

"Farkle...?" He asked, desperately hoping his friend would stick up for him. Farkle just shook his head in response.

"I'm sorry, Riley." He said quietly before exiting the lunchroom.

He really did think this would all blow over and they could go back to being friends again. He thought Riley would get over him and they could just be happy being friends. Riley did get over him, but they never patched things up.

He was left to make all new friends. He was the new kid, he Maya, Riley, and Farkle were the only people he knew. Sure, he had 'friends' from football and baseball. He had people he talked to sometimes and went to parties with, but he never considered those people friends. He just couldn't find the same connection he did with the group.

He eventually decided that having popular friends who he secretly hated was better than eating lunch alone every day. This is probably where he began to lose himself. But that's just how things are sometimes.