Thanks for all the reviews guys!

So some of you didn't like Riley getting physically bullied, but I did warn you about it in an author's note in a previous chapter. Anyhow, I didn't want to focus this whole fic on bullying, it was just a way to give Rucas some kind of conflict. I'll admit, I did kind of get carried away with the bullying aspect. But as of this chapter, Riley's bully is done with her. Trust me. From here on out, it will be more Rucas-centric and not so much Riley-centric. Enjoy!

The Art of Letting Go

Chapter Seven

That night, Riley looked at her reflection in the mirror. She sighed.

"How am I going to cover this up?" she said, referring to her eye.

Riley walked over to her desk to grab a pair of scissors then returned to stand in front of the mirror. She grabbed some hair that framed her face and started cutting. She stopped when she was satisfied with the length. She had given herself relatively long bangs, stopping right underneath her nose. She swept her hair to the side to cover the affected eye.

The next morning, Riley was getting ready for school. She had put on a bit of makeup for the sake of covering her healing eye. The makeup worked quite well, it did a good job of hiding the discoloration of her skin, but upon closer inspection, it was still evident that she had some kind of trauma. She fixed her new side bangs, strategically covering her eye.

"Wow, Riley, new look?" Topanga said when she walked into her daughter's room.

"Yeah," she breathed. "I like it a lot."

"Me too, looks great," Topanga agreed. "Do you still feel sick?"

Riley shook her head.

"Are you voluntarily going to school today?" Topanga asked.

Riley nodded.

"Good," Topanga commented. She put her arm around Riley and kissed her hair. "I know high school's tough, Riley. But you'll get through it. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom. Thank you," Riley replied.

"Sunshine, I have a deal to make with you," Missy announced as she approached Riley at her locker.

The sound of Missy's voice made Riley tremble. Riley had developed a fear of Missy. But she turned to face her bully anyway.

"What is it?" Riley asked timidly, staring at her feet.

"I'll stop harassing you," Missy said, "if you break up with Lucas."

"What?"

"Yeah, that's all you need to do. Then I'll be out of your life forever," Missy replied.

Riley never put herself before her friends. But she figured that maybe just this one time, it would be the best for both herself and Lucas.

"I'll do it."

Riley went straight home after school, rehearsing what she wanted to say to Lucas. She didn't want to break up with him, she really didn't, but if it got her out of the pickle she was in, she had to do it for the sake of her own safety. When she felt prepared enough, she picked up her phone and called her soon to be ex-boyfriend.

"Hey, babe!" Lucas greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey, can you come over?" Riley requested monotonously.

"Now?"

"Yeah."

"I'll be there in twenty."

Riley didn't bother to say goodbye and ended the call. She sighed. She didn't want to do this, but she knew she had to. It wasn't just for her benefit, it was for his, too. She still couldn't get Missy's words out of her head. Riley knew that Lucas was better off without her. She honestly felt that she was holding him back.

Twenty minutes later, Lucas entered Riley's room through the window. Riley was already sitting at the bay window. Lucas joined her.

"We need to talk," Riley began, not bothering to give him a proper greeting.

Lucas started to worry. His heart pounded so hard in his chest that he thought it was trying to escape his body. His palms were sweaty. Nothing good ever came after those words. Ever.

"About what?" Lucas urged.

"Us."

"What about us?"

Riley saw the concern in Lucas's eyes become more evident. They stared at each other with mutual worry. Riley took a deep breath. Lucas bit his lip.

"I can't do this anymore, Lucas," Riley admitted, quickly avoiding his gaze.

"Excuse me, what?" Lucas was taken aback from Riley's words. Was she breaking up with him?

"It's not the same anymore," Riley continued.

"What do you mean?" Lucas wiped his clammy hands on his pants before taking her hands in his. He couldn't believe that this was happening right now.

"I just don't feel the same as we did when we first got together," Riley shrugged.

"Of course you don't, babe," Lucas said. "That was almost two years ago. We've come such a long way since then. We've grown. But your feelings are still there, aren't they?"

"Please leave," Riley demanded, ignoring his question. "Don't make it harder than it already is."

"It doesn't have to be hard, Riles," Lucas said. He stared at her as she looked away. He could tell that tears were starting to form in her eyes. He couldn't help but fight back his own.

They sat in silence for a while. When he realized that Riley had nothing else to say, he sighed.

"For what it's worth, I still love you," Lucas informed her. He didn't expect her to answer.

Defeated, Lucas exited the way he came in. He was so dumbfounded. He couldn't comprehend what happened in there. Did Riley really just break up with him? He walked back to his home with his hands in his pockets. He contemplated about it the whole way there. When he thought about it, the break up wasn't completely out of the blue. He felt that she was being distant from him lately. And the fact that Riley didn't answer Lucas's question confirmed to him that maybe she did lose feelings. But his feelings were still there.

When Lucas arrived back at his place, he went straight to his room and called Zay.

"Hey, man, what's up?" Zay questioned.

"You'll never guess what just happened," Lucas groaned.

"What?"

"Riley broke up with me."

"You're kidding," Zay said in disbelief.

"Nope."

"I'm coming over."

Within the next ten minutes, Zay was at Lucas's door. Lucas opened the door for his best friend, who had his hands on his knees and was panting.

"Whoa, how'd you get here so fast?" Lucas asked.

"I ran," Zay said in between breaths. "This is an emergency. I had to get here as soon as possible. Let's go to your room."

Zay led Lucas to his room, as if it were his own house. But considering the amount of time Zay spent there, it might as well be.

"So, tell me what happened, bud," Zay said once he sat on the bed, patting the empty space beside him to invite Lucas over.

"She broke up with me," Lucas stated, sitting beside Zay. "She called me to come over and so I did and then she broke up with me."

"Did she tell you why she broke up with you?" Zay asked.

"She said she doesn't feel the same anymore," Lucas shrugged. "I kinda get it, I guess. I mean, we haven't spent too much time together lately."

"Was she sad when she did it?" Zay inquired.

"She couldn't even look at me after," Lucas replied. "She was holding back tears, I know that."

"Huh," Zay said. He looked down at his phone to check the time. "I have to go do something. I'll call you when I get home and then we can talk more, okay?"

"Alright, I'm going to go sulk in my sadness and eat ice cream," Lucas declared.

"I'll get it!" Riley announced when she heard the doorbell ring from her room. She was still sitting at the bay window. She cried after Lucas left. She wiped her face before getting up and leaving her room to answer the front door. It was her Uncle Josh.

"Niece!" Josh greeted and hugged Riley.

"Uncle Josh!" Riley smiled with tired eyes. She hadn't seen her uncle in a while. Maya had been seeing him more than she has. And he's her uncle. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and I wanted to visit my favorite niece," Josh explained as he entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. "Also, your dad invited me over for dinner. Haven't seen you guys in a while."

"Oh, good," Riley said. "I need to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"Bay window, bay window right now!" Riley declared, dragging her young uncle to her room.

Riley felt comfortable enough with Josh to voluntarily tell him about her situation. Although Josh was her uncle, the closeness in age gave them a strong bond.

"I have a bully," Riley admitted in one breath. She didn't bother saying 'again' because she never told Josh about the cyberbully from middle school.

"What?" Josh was shocked. How could someone hurt his niece? She was so precious, so pure, and saw the good in everybody! He just didn't understand.

"Yeah," Riley looked down at her hands. She hesitated to roll up her sleeves but she did, showing her bruises to Josh.

"What the hell!" Josh reacted. "Who did this to you, Riley? Do your parents know?!"

"Some girl at school," Riley answered with a shrug. "And no, they don't know."

"Why not? This isn't good, Riley," Josh said.

"I know, I know!" Riley replied. "My friends don't know either. Just Zay, he saw me get punched in the face yesterday."

"Punched?" Josh repeated, moving Riley's hair away from her face to reveal her eye. "Who is this guy? Does he know that it isn't socially or morally acceptable to hit girls?"

"Actually, it's a her," Riley corrected him.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," Riley nodded. "Please don't tell anyone."

"Riley, your family and friends care about you," Josh assured her. "They need to know."

"Actually, they don't!" Riley said. "I fixed it. She won't be bullying me anymore."

"And how are you so sure?"

"Because I broke up with Lucas," Riley confessed.

"How does that help?" Josh clearly didn't understand.

Riley sighed, "She said if I broke up with him she'll stop harassing me."

"And you believe her?" Josh questioned.

"Yeah…" Riley's voice trailed off. They sat in silence for a few seconds before Riley spoke again, "Uncle Josh?"

"Yes, Riley?"

"Did I do the right thing?"

Before Josh could answer her, Zay entered through the window, startling the two.

"Geez, Zay!" Josh said, "You scared me!"

"Good," Zay replied, sitting on Riley's other side.

"Why are you here, Zay?" Riley asked.

"Lucas told me you broke up with him," Zay stated.

Riley sighed, "Can we not talk about this now? I'm kinda in the middle of talking to my Uncle Josh."

"Watcha talkin' about?" Zay inquired.

"Missy," Riley confessed.

"Missy is your bully? The one that liked Lucas?" Josh asked. Riley nodded to confirm.

"You told him? Oh, good!" Zay said, moving to sit beside Josh. "Can you tell her that she needs to tell her friends? And her family? I think she's forgetting that her father is a teacher at our school and can easily get Missy the punishment she deserves."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Zay," Josh admitted. "If Cory does something about it then it's just going to add more fuel to the fire."

"How so?" Zay asked.

"Because Missy would come back," Josh explained. "And then she's going to see Riley as someone who's weak and needs her dad to do everything. It's just more bullying material, the way I see it."

"So what are you saying? You want Riley to confront Missy herself? Do you think that's a good idea? Have you not seen her eye?!"

"I have seen her eye," Josh confirmed. "But I do know my niece can stand up for herself and handle things on her own. She's a smart young lady, I'm sure she knows what she's doing."

"Don't worry, Zay," Riley said. "I fixed things with Missy. She said she'll stop bothering me if I broke up with Lucas."

"That's why you broke up with him?!" Zay snapped.

Riley nodded.

"You may have fixed things with your bully," Zay began, "but you're surely messing things up with you and Lucas."

"There's no 'me and Lucas' anymore," Riley responded.

Next: Zay tells someone of Riley's predicament.