A/N: Thanks to everyone who left a review last chapter, they all made me super happy and wow look, here's your next update. :)

To the guest who left that beautiful review: Thank you. And I really wanted to introduce Charlie exactly like that. Because I honestly believe that every single person is complex and completely different, the only way we would even look twice at Charlie is if I told a story of him as a completely normal person who was easy to like. But don't you worry we'll see more of him.

And to answer the question from another guest; What is Iridescence? Lol, good question!
By dictionary definition: it is the property of certain surfaces that appear to change colour as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. I like this and chose this title because I again wanted to convey the message that people are layered. There's more to a person then just what we see on the outside. I thought it was a bit clever. Thanks for asking.

Wow, that was a long author's note.

Enjoy!

(Last time in Iridescence)

"You like her?" Maya asked, walking up to Lucas, easel in hand. She loved art, but she hated all the supplies that came along with it.

"W-What?" Lucas stuttered, coming out of his own little trance.

Maya chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I see it. You like her." Lucas again watched Riley sticking her nose up at a comment the other boy made.

"Of course I do. She's Riley, what's not to like," Lucas replied nonchalantly.

X

Charlie looked stunned as he stared back at him. "What the hell was that for?"

"That was for taking advantage of a girl."

"I wasn't taking advantage of her. She was loving it," Charlie said with a smirk, looking back at Riley. "Right Riles?"

X

"Oh man, I just realized that I still owe you takeout after your grand tour of the city."

"That's right," he grinned.

"How about tomorrow night? It'll be one huge thank you," Riley told him.

Chapter 7: Betrayal

In preparation for her fun night with Lucas, Riley walked into Burger Palace, which in her opinion grilled the best burgers in the city. She promised him a takeout meal in exchange for his perfectly executed tour and it was her turn to deliver. It was only a two minute wait in line before she was called to order.

Her mind was already made up and settled on two simple burger combos, so she paid and waited for the food to be cooked, taking a seat in one of the booths closest to the counter.

It had been a long day, she'd woken up with a head ache, and Maya was nowhere to be found. There was a text from her waiting on her phone when she checked, but all it said was that she had to head out and would talk to her on Monday at school. But the entire day was rather dull as she waited in excitement for Lucas to arrive.

Riley still was in shock of what had happened the night before. Not only had she drank a beer, and gotten tipsy off of it, Charlie had kissed her and she remembered every second of it. It was still horrifying and she dreaded the day she had to look at him in the eyes. It was mainly disappointment that surfaced, because she was still on good terms with Charlie up until that point, and he took advantage of her.

It wasn't right.

Just as Riley was about to put her head phones into her ears to listen to music, familiar laughing lodged itself into Riley's ears. She turned around to see Maya's back surrounded by all of her new friends from school. Pain surfaced, no matter how hard she tried to hold it in. This place was Riley and Maya's place, it was practically sacred ground.

She distracted herself with music, but it still wasn't enough to stop the wheels in her mind to spin faster than ever. Ten minutes seemed to stretch on forever before the cashier handed over the large paper bag full of hot, delicious smelling food.

Relief surfaced as she turned, finally able to leave one of the only places she never thought to be humiliated in, only to find her path blocked by Missy Bradford. "Missy," she said. The older girl's set jaw and icy glare sank her spirits even further. She wanted to crawl into a hole, wishing heartily that she'd gone somewhere – anywhere – else to pick up dinner.

"Matthews," Missy acknowledged. "My sources tell me that you are hanging with Lucas tonight," Missy began, looking around and raising her hands up in a shrug. "But I don't see him."

"What, are you spying on him now?" Riley asked, immediately wishing that she had just ignored the other girl.

Missy laughed coldly. "Just making sure he doesn't fall into the wrong crowd. Guess I need to have another talk with him."

"You don't own him, Missy. That's really possessive," Riley said, defending herself.

"Possessive?" Missy shot back. "I don't think so, hun. You really don't get it, do you? You and Lucas are never going to happen. You're just a boring brown haired loser. Maya doesn't even care about you anymore, why else do you think Lucas hangs out with you? You're his charity case," Missy spat.

Riley stood frozen, as she watched Missy turn on her feet and take a seat back with Maya and all of the other girls, she whispered something into another girl's ear just as Riley began to walk to the exit.

"Maya, you know that girl who you used to hang out with? Riley Matthews?" Missy asked innocently. Maya just nodded but didn't really say anything in response. There were posters spread out all over the table. But Riley only really wondered what Maya was doing hanging out with Missy.

"Ugh. She's a total loser ditz. Maya, she follows you around like a lost puppy, totally stalker-like, doesn't she have any friends?" one of the other girls screeched.

Missy laughed in response, along with most of the other girls, and Riley waited for one of the other girls to speak up – for Maya – to defend her. When she didn't, tears threatened to sting her eyes.

"Maya?" Riley asked in a small voice, coming only slightly closer to the booth where they were sitting.

The girls piped up and realized their mistake, and horror became of Maya's face.

"Riley," Maya whispered, trying to find the words, while the other girls only looked slightly uncomfortable as they waited for Maya to continue.

Riley flinched and dropped her gaze, trying to gain confidence. "No, we are done. Have fun with your new friends, Maya," Riley sneered, with her last bit of strength, before walking out of the building, putting her ear buds back in her ears, tightening her scarf, and letting the tears of betrayal fall from her eyes.

X

"Auggie?" she called loudly.

"What?" came his voice from the kitchen. Riley followed the sound, dumping her purse and coat at the entrance of their apartment along her way. She was unsurprised to find her brother standing at the island, a quarter of the way through a recently delivered pizza.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" she asked, setting the bag from the Burger Palace on the counter and starting to pull things out.

"Mom called and said she would be working late on a case, and Dad is going for drinks with Uncle Shaun and Uncle John," said Auggie with a shrug. He caught sight of Riley's face and frowned. "Have you been crying?"

"Uhm, yeah," Riley said wiping her eyes one last time to hide the evidence. "I had a stupid fight with Maya."

"You okay?" His eyes fell on the food she had just unpacked. "That's a lot of food."

"Oh," she said, "yeah, I have a, uh, a friend coming over."

"Good, because for a second there, I was worried you might be doing some kind of binge thing."

Riley rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm before heading out of the kitchen to put her stuff away. She barely had hung up her coat in her closet when the boor buzzed, letting her know Lucas had arrived. "I'll get it," she yelled. She took one quick look in her vanity mirror and despaired over her obvious post-cry face – at least her makeup wasn't smeared – then dashed out of her room. She descended the stairs two at a time, rendering her slightly flushed and out of breath when she reached the door.

Thinking she probably looked like a complete mess, she smoothed a few stray strands of hair away from her face, and pulled the door open. There stood Lucas, looking more gorgeous than ever before, his hair spiked up and he fitted blue sweater nearly making her drool.

"Hey, city girl," he said, teasing smirk firmly in place.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Come on in," she said stepping aside. "I've got everything set up in the kitchen, and we can watch a movie or something if you want."

"Sounds good to me," said Lucas with a grin. Riley led the way to the kitchen where Auggie was currently on his fourth slice of pizza. He froze when he saw Riley's company.

"This is your 'friend'?" he said, staring at Lucas with no small amount of mistrust.

"You must be the little brother, Auggie," Lucas said, unfazed by Auggie's reaction to him. "I'm Lucas."

"What are you, like twenty?" said Auggie. "What are you doing hanging out with my sister?"

"Auggie," said Riley. "Knock it off!"

"If you must know, Riley and I are planning to elope in Vegas," said Lucas, throwing an arm casually around Riley's shoulders as if he did it all the time. Heaving a dramatic sigh, he looked at Riley, who was now fighting back giggles at the appalled look on Auggie's face. "I guess we can't count on him to cover for us with you parent's like you were hoping, baby."

Riley pouted. "That's going to make it much riskier," she said placing a hand on Lucas's chest, looking into his eyes with the soppiest expression she could muster, though her entire body was shaking now with the effort not to laugh, "but we can still make this work. Our love can overcome anything!"

"What the hell?!" said Auggie furiously.

It was too much. Lucas and Riley both burst out laughing. Riley hadn't expected to laugh at all today, but now she had to cling to Lucas to keep from toppling over.

"You guys are such losers," Auggie grumbled, taking the pizza box over to the table instead.

It took at least a minute for them to recover.

"Nice improv," said Riley when she could finally speak again, now holding herself up with the edge of the counter.

"Messing around with the little guys is my specialty", Lucas told her. "I have younger cousins."

"Clearly not your only specialty," said Riley. "I thought I was supposed to be the one returning the favour tonight, not the other way around. You're totally stealing my thunder."

"I told you I was competitive," said Lucas smugly. "You shouldn't underestimate me."

They were still standing dangerously close to each other. Their eyes met, and the grin faded off Riley's face. After a couple of seconds, her gaze was drawn to his lips, which were still twisted in that smirk. If she just leaned a little closer, she'd be able to kiss him. But the thought had barely entered her head when everything about him having a girlfriend back in Texas flooded back into her mind like a bucketful of icy water.

"So, uh," she said, shaking herself, "I got us burgers." She gestured to the counter with all the food from the restaurant laid out. "If you need more condiments, they're in the fridge door." She briefly looked up at Lucas to see him staring again, but he recovered quickly.

"I'm hurt, Riley," said Lucas. "I bring you all over the city, play this little game with you, and all it's worth to you is a burger?"

"You're the one who specified that you wanted takeout," said Riley loftily. "In New York that basically leaves me choosing from a million different places." She opened the bag of fries and popped one into her mouth. "Besides, maybe I'd rather return the favour in multiple installments."

"I accept those terms," he replied, making his eyes do that playful flashing thing and snatching a couple of fries for himself.

Riley opened one of the packages with a burger taking a bite, then wrinkling her nose and lifting the bun.

"You don't like pickles?" said Lucas, watching her remove the offending dill slices while he unwrapped his own burger. "What's wrong with you?"

"If you want mine, you can have them," said Riley with raised eye brows. Lucas obliged.

Auggie returned to grab a coke out of the fridge when he turned to Riley and Lucas. "Just how old are you?" he asked.

"I'm 18," Lucas told him with a raised eye brow.

Auggie watched him closely, making Lucas slightly uncomfortable. "Does dad know about him?"

"Auggie," Riley groaned. "Of course he does. Now go call Ava or something."

Auggie huffed, still feeling protective of his sister before trudging away to the living room, muttering words under his breath that neither of the two could clearly make out.

"Is Ava his girlfriend or something?" Lucas asked in between bites obviously unsuspecting.

"Girlfriend," Riley confirmed, dipping some fries into ketchup. Lucas's face wore astonishment.

"Isn't he like 11?"

"Ten, he's been with Ava since he was five," she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"What?" Lucas replied with wide eyes. "What do they even do?"

"It's actually incredibly amusing. One week they are together and the next week they 'break up', and it's back and forth banter like they've been married for thirty years or something. Mom hates her, but she's the little sister I never had."

"I thought Maya was the sister you never had," said Lucas, causing Riley to tense up, which didn't go unnoticed by Lucas. "Sorry I didn't mean to bring it up, I'm assuming you two still aren't on very good terms."

Riley fiddled with her fries. "Yeah…" she replied, when she looked up at Lucas, she felt like she needed to explain herself more. "I saw her when I was picking up takeout, and it kind of made things worse."

"Is that why you were crying?" he asked. Riley looked up at Lucas embarrassed that it was so obvious. Not so discreetly, Lucas touched the skin underneath her eyes with his thumb, causing Riley to tense once again. He stroked her face carefully, which burned at his touch. "You're eyes are still a little red and puffy."

She tore her gaze, unable to handle the contact without wanting to kiss him.

"What did she say?" he said quietly. "May I ask?"

Riley paused for a moment, contemplating. She would have preferred not to relive the moment of Maya's betrayal, but maybe what she needed was Lucas's reassurance and comfort. "It's stupid, one of her friends saw me and called me a stalker, saying I was a loser for following Maya around," Riley took a deep breath, trying to control her breathing again. "I've learned to not really care what other's think of me. But Maya didn't defend me. That's all." Lucas looked at her with sad eyes, which she was hoping to avoid.

"That's not stupid, Riley. Betrayal is one of the worst feelings in the world. You have every right to be pissed. I know I would be."

"Really?"

"Absolutely," he confirmed.

"It's just that Maya has always been there for me. She would always go out of her way to make sure that I never heard what other people were saying about me, and I did the same for her. It was how we worked, we were a duet. Now? It just hurts so much."

Lucas nodded and extended his arms for a hug, something she really needed, so she complied.

They were just finishing their food with Auggie came back to put the remaining pizza in the fridge, and when they noticed his wary expression, they couldn't resist teasing him a little more. They started doing sickeningly sweet couple-y things like feeding each other the last few fries while calling each other ridiculous pet names.

"You two better pay me back for that pizza when you make me puke it all up," he said, scowling.

Riley laughed. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. We'll stop", she said.

"Thank you," Auggie said, heading into the living room.

"Spoilsport," Lucas muttered into Riley's ear, causing her to shiver, but he withdrew to a more respectable distance. "If you want to get that movie going, I can clean this up."

"I don't know," she said, looking at him suspiciously. "Is this going to count against me? I was supposed to be returning the favour."

"Only if you pick a vampire movie. But I'm a neat freak so you get the cleanup for free."

Riley snickered. "Okay." Auggie was sitting in the recliner when she went into the living room. She frowned at him. "You staying?"

"Until he goes," he said, a very stubborn expression on his face.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Don't be so paranoid. We're just friends."

"I don't care," he replied.

Feeling slightly guilty for harassing him so much in the kitchen, Riley made her movie selection partly for his benefit. She popped the disk in, grabbed the remotes for the TV and DVD player, and flopped onto the big couch.

Lucas was back by the time the menu screen came up. "The Breakfast Club," he said approvingly. "Haven't seen that one in a while." Instead of taking the unoccupied love seat, he shot Auggie a wicked grin. Before either Matthew's sibling could say a word, he had seized Riley by the ankles, hoisted her legs up off the third cushion, sat down, and dropped her caves across his lap.

"Seriously?" said Auggie, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Riley rolled her head around the armrest to look at him and shrugged, but offered no other reaction to Lucas's move.

X

The Breakfast Club was as fun to watch as it always was, but Riley found herself wishing now and then that she had picked something that she couldn't recite word for word instead. While she and Lucas had been talking, eating, and messing with Auggie, It had been easy to avoid miserable thoughts about Maya and her depressing lifestyle, but the movie wasn't nearly as good of a distraction; Especially with her feet touching his thighs so gracefully.

Lucas, however, seemed to be the most into the movie out of the three of them. Laughing out loud, and scoffing at overly cheesy moments, muttering words such as, 'that would never happen in real life'. Riley realized one thing more than anything else whilst watching the movie; she loved hearing Lucas laugh and react to things.

When it got to the part with Claire and Bender's final kiss before he walked away to the tune of her favourite song, Lucas let out a loud snort.

"What?" Riley asked.

"It's just that kiss was awful, and then he puts in her earing? That's messed up. They just met that day, and they are acting like it was true love."

"They're just actors," said Auggie. "It's not like it was real."

"No, I'm with Lucas," said Riley. "We should be able to see their passion if they are really in love."

"But that's not the point of the movie," Auggie argued. "It's five completely different people bonding over detention, that's it."

"So?" said Lucas. "I'd rather see the real deal than something uncomfortable like that. We don't even know if they are going to see each other again!"

"What, so you think you could've done it better, then?" said Auggie.

"Hell yes I could've!" said Lucas indignantly. He looked over at Riley and waggled his eyebrows. "What do you say, wanna be my demonstration buddy?"

"Why not?" said Riley, swinging her legs down so she could sit up and scooting closer to him.

"Okay, I am so done here," said Auggie loudly, before jumping up and practically running out of the room.

Riley wanted to laugh this one off like they had the other fake couple pranks but it seemed that all the humor of the situation had fled with Auggie, and she was left painfully aware of the fact that she was once again within kissing distance of the most attractive guy she'd ever seen. Auggie's presence had made it all safe and easy not to think about the implications of anything, but now the air was think with tension and Lucas's beautiful, piercing eyes were locked on hers and all she could think about was how amazing of a kisser he probably was. They leaned closer. One of Lucas's hands came up to cradle the base of her neck, and her eyes drifted shut.

At first it was just a ghost of a kiss, lingering slightly, as they became comfortable with the touch of the other, but then it grew hungry, neither of them entirely realizing how much they truly needed each other. Lucas's hands were still careful, and his kisses left her enchanted. She had waited so long, wondering what it might feel like to have her lips pressed to his, and now that they knew, she never wanted to know a life without them.

He was such a good kisser, which she knew could only be granted by experience. Girlfriend. Lucas had a girlfriend.

"Lucas, wait," she pushed him away slightly.

"What's wrong? Are we going to fast?" he asked, a concerned expression lurking on his face.

She smiled. "No, that's not it." She put some distance between the two of them. "You have a girlfriend, Lucas. Back in Texas." He shook his head, leaning to kiss her neck slowly.

"No," he whispered sending shivers up her spine. "I ended things with her last week."

"Really?" Riley asked, relief saturating her body.

"There's only you," he repeated, returning his lips to their rightful place against hers.

For the next half an hour, the two laughed and shared their hopes and dreams, whilst stealing kisses every once and a while, and bonding more than ever before.

Riley heard the sound of a vehicle door shutting outside the house, and she stood up. "I think my parents are home," she said picking up the morsels of popcorn that fell onto the couch.

"Want me to go?" asked Lucas, also getting to his feet.

"Wait," said Riley. "I'll introduce you. They'll want to know whose car is parked out there anyway." He nodded, and they started to make their way towards the door, but it opened before they reached the hall. "We're home!" Cory called loudly.

"Thank God!" came Auggie's muffled response from upstairs, which made Lucas smirk and Riley giggle in spite of herself. Another couple of steps and they were in the hall. Cory and Topanga broke off whatever they were talking about when they saw Lucas.

"Who's this, honey?" asked Topanga.

"Mr. Friar," Cory acknowledge at the same time. The two exchanged a look.

"I told you about Lucas, Mom, he's the one who brought me home the night of that disaster party." Understanding overcame Topanga's face and she smiled brightly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lucas," Topanga said pleasantly. She looked over at Cory who was glaring at Lucas with narrowed eyes.

"Um…" Lucas paused, before looking back at Topanga with a smile. "It's great to meet you as well Mrs. Matthews. It's good to see you again, sir" He looked down at Riley who looked the most uncomfortable of all of them. "I should get going, I'll see you Monday, Riley?" Lucas asked hopeful.

She nodded, and grinned. For the first time in a while, she was excited for Monday to come. "Bye Lucas."

A/N: Hi, all. Thanks so much for reading. I added a little Auggie in there for you. Quick question: What do we think of Maya right now? What on earth is she doing with Missy?