This was not a date. This was absolutely, positively, without a doubt, not a date. At least that's what Maya was swearing up and down while looking at her reflection in the full length mirror on the back of her bedroom door. It was a gold dress that she'd found at a consignment shop and taken in herself - something she'd had to teach herself if she wanted to be able to build a wardrobe without going into debt. She smoothed her hand over the fabric and tilted her head to the side, watching her curls cascade over her shoulder. She almost didn't hear the knock on the apartment's front door. For all she knew he could have been knocking for five minutes.

The evening went by fairly quickly and the nerves died off almost instantly. It was just like any other time they hung out, except this time Lucas had given her a flower and Maya danced with him on purpose. There was really nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Aside from everything.

"Should we swear off boys for homecoming this year and just go together?" They were at the mall looking at dresses for Riley and the question came as she twirled in a short blue number in front of a three way mirror.

Maya wasn't really sure what to do. She hadn't considered that she would have to actually put words together to explain what was happening. "I'm kind of going with Lucas," she finally admitted, searching through her purse for her chapstick to busy herself.

"What do you mean you're going with Lucas? When did that happen?" The search for the perfect dress was forgotten and the only thing Riley was looking at in the mirror in front of her was Maya sitting in the chair behind her.

It wasn't like Riley still had any claim over Lucas. It had been years since that whole thing had ended. The two were the best of friends now and they'd each seen the other in silly little relationships since without any hints of jealousy. That wasn't a worry at all.

The worry was whether or not anyone else was going to be able to get past the fact that the best friends seemed to be passing him back and forth. That didn't even matter though because it wasn't a date. Maya and Lucas were not an item and this was not a thing.

"Nothing happened. He was getting harassed by some girl who wanted him to take her and he didn't know what to do so he asked me to be his buffer." Maybe that wasn't exactly how it had gone down but the truth was that Maya hadn't really paid much attention to it. She hadn't thought about it to really process how or why it did go down.

Riley seemed to accept this and the matter was once again put out of her head entirely. It probably shouldn't have been.

"Do you want to have an adventure," Lucas asked in the middle of some song Maya hadn't heard before and really didn't like. Dances weren't her thing and by the looks of it they weren't Lucas' either. They were both pretty popular though so they were always expected to show up. She'd never considered that he hadn't wanted to in the first place.

She considered his question but then nodded almost instantly. "Yes, please, I don't know how many more girls I can tell that they look so pretty and red is really their color. We know it isn't."

Lucas laughed and released his grip on her waist. "You're the only one here who can pull off the red lips, don't worry," he assured her with a mock smile, making it clear that he was just playing along with her act.

"It's because they're all playing with wet and wild when we all know allowances should be spent on NARS not shoes."

Lucas had no idea, again, what she was talking about and when he realized that asking was going to get him nowhere he settled for leading her out of the dance, stopping to say goodbye to Riley and Farkle first and promising to catch up with them later first of course.

Twenty minutes and one subway ride later and Maya was standing in a crowded McDonalds with her brows furrowed in confusion. "This doesn't seem like much of an adventure."

She was met with a pair of promising green eyes but not a word of assurance. He ordered for them and they sat at a booth in the far corner, Lucas insisting that they sit on the same side so that they could people watch with ease. The entire thing was just very strange.

Three thrown french fries and one almost incident between Lucas and a twenty something tough guy later Maya had instituted a no more engaging policy. They could people watch but they couldn't interfere, which took the fun out of the adventure she hadn't even realized he'd made good on in the first place.

"So hey," she began, nudging him with her elbow and leaning toward him as if ready to listen intently. "Why do you go to those things if you don't even like them?"

With a barely there shrug and eyes drifting toward their tray, Lucas let out a barely audible i-don't-know noise. "Everyone else does so why not?" He didn't seem to have much more of an answer, like it wasn't even something he'd considered he could skip out on.

Maya understood that. She was sure if she said she didn't want to go to a dance that Riley and Farkle both would have her head. "I guess I just wonder why people would do things they didn't want to do just because it's the expected thing to do."

He thought a second and finally seemed to humor her. "Fear of missing out I guess? I don't want to wake up in thirty years and wish I'd participated more or something equally as stupid."

"I think this is the stuff I'm scared of missing out on. I won't remember in thirty years who was on the homecoming court and the fact that some girl somehow had the same dress as mine even though I bought mine at a thrift shop," she joked. Her tone softened slightly as she continued. "I will probably remember you almost getting into it with some kid in a McDonald's dining room just because you threw a french fry at him though."

Lucas laughed and offered up a sly smile as if he was proud of his accomplishment. "Yeah but I'm definitely going to remember that dress so see? Something I would have missed out on."

Maya rolled her eyes dramatically to acknowledge that Lucas was very obviously flirting with her but that she didn't plan on playing along. Honestly, it was because she didn't know how serious he was and she didn't want to make anything awkward by going in the wrong direction with it. "Let's go to Zay's, Casanova, I'm sure the dance has let out and the keg is tapped by now."

"Just one thing." Lucas stopped her before she could get all the way out of the booth. "Did you have a fun adventure?"

Maya offered him a sincere smile and nodded her head before taking his hand and pulling him up with her. She didn't let go as they walked back to the subway.