A/N: I still have no idea how I'm ending this. Lmao. Enjoy though, leave a review. xx

Riley's POV

"He looks at you like all girls want to be looked at!" Arietta quietly gushed, with a stack of manilla folders that needed to be filed. In the break room, she plopped them right in front of me, and, while I was eating yogurt, continued to explain to me the in depth theory she had on my life.

"So once everything is all settled with Lucas, whether it be he cheats or-"

"-He would never cheat, but continue."

"-Whether he cheats or goes to college out of state or you just mutually end it on good terms, you'll find yourself working in the Museum of Art and Science-"

"-Which is where?"

"-Georgia. Let me finish. You'll be secretary of the art department, and he'll be a tourist in the science department, and one day, one day you'll both be scheduled for the same lunch, and you'll sit across from one another, and you'll look up, and you'll be like, 'Oh my gosh. Farkle Minkus?!' and then he'll propose. You'll send out invitations- err, let's say November, if the course we're going on holds out to be true, and I'll take a flight come December to be your maid in honor, considering I called this, and all."

I laughed. Arietta was extremely derogatory and demeaning towards me, but I could see the light in her eyes as she fantasized about my future and what it held, and considering she was attending college up in Colorado and wouldn't be here to see my life unfold, I figured, Why not?

Arietta looked up at the ceiling, a smile still painted upon her lips, and let out a sigh.

"I wish I could be loved."

Suddenly, the atmosphere of the room, the situation, our relationship, had all changed, and I'd realized why Arietta puts on the demeanor she did.

"Arietta, you can, don't-don't say that."

Arietta just smiled, but I could tell inside, she was hurting, and it broke me.

"Oh, boo-hoo, enough about me already. Let's talk about things with Lucas," Arietta quickly continued, changing the subject, and I frowned.

"Don't say you aren't capable of being loved. Anyone is capable of being loved, especially you. You're a great person Ari."

She just shrugged, and faked a smile.

"How was your grandfather's wake? I heard," she cleared her voice, quickly in order to lower it, "Farkle attended," she raised an eyebrow, "Is this true?"

I pursed my lips.

"And where are you hearing this from?"

"Farkle. He told me."

A knock had been heard at the door, and Arietta and I turned in our chairs to see Farkle, with a sweat towel casually draped over his neck.

"Back to work, ladies," he called out, and returned to his desk after. Arietta rolled her eyes, and groaned.

"Until we meet again," she dramatically exclaimed, holding out her hand as she skipped away, back to her filing cabinet.

I glanced down at my phone, and to my surprise, it was already six, meaning my shift had ended. I smiled, flipped my hair over my shoulder, and grabbed my bag to say goodnight to Farkle, but he stopped me, with a concerned expression.

"You're walking?"

"It's just 15 minutes."

"It's dark. This is Miami. You can't be walking these streets by yourself."

I smirked, and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you taking responsibility for the fact that your gender consists of man whores and pigs who don't respect a woman's body nor privacy?"

He returned the smirk.

"Let's discuss this on our walk back to the Matthews' apartment, shall we?"

And so we left, as he linked with arm with mine, and I laughed at his corny jokes and unrealistic theories of the universe. Arietta had been left alone at the shelter, god knows doing what, but I can guarantee she was ecstatic about all of this, whatever "this" was in her mind.

It was chilly, this April night, and Farkle was right— there were thugs everywhere. Gangs shoe-tossing, cocaine deals in dark alleys— it wasn't pretty, but it was granted, considering it was a Friday night and nearly 8:00 already.

"Do you ever miss him?"

Interrupting the solemn, peaceful silence was Farkle. I turned to him, and thought about it for a moment before answering.

"I always do."

I looked down at the ground as my boots scuffed up the sidewalk. Farkle was a real contemplator, as he looked up at the sky, almost as if he were asking what he should say next. What he should say to make me feel better. And somehow, the most perfect words left his mouth, leaving me speechless as to how swift this boy really was.

"You shouldn't. He didn't leave you. He's still right here, right next to you."

I just smiled. I was in awe by the maturity and grace of this eighteen year old boy, his elegance when handling emotional situations yet composure when handling stressful ones. It was impressive, really. He was going to win a Nobel Peace Prize some day, I swore it.

"1108, correct?"

I was snapped out of my trance when Farkle had realized my apartment was in front of me before I did. I gave an awkward laugh, which he reciprocated, and thanked him.

"You have a good night."

"Yeah."

I closed my door behind me quickly after unlocking it, sinking to my feet.

Lucas POV

Friday nights at Chester's pub were loud, rambunctious, full of booze and women, yet the only two women on my mind were Riley and Maya. As the waitress, with skimpy shorts and barely a belly shirt approached our table with drinks, I looked out the window.

I was drunk. I probably wasn't seeing straight. My vision, my perception, it was all off, but when I saw this girl, this girl who was the spitting image of Riley Matthews, I had to stand up.
"Woah, dude sit down-"

I pushed Zay away. Squinting to see, I could make out Farkle, or some scrawny kid with average looks and terrible haircut, escorting my girlfriend home. His arm was linked with hers, laughing as she spoke, and I could feel the buffalo dressing come up my throat, my stomach churning adamantly and my heart beating through my chest. My ears were red, my cheeks hot; I was embarrassed, I was scolding with anger, jealousy, sorrow, confusion— I couldn't make out what I was feeling, just that something was there, something inside me upsetting me.

"You're really getting jealous of the kid who's 5'5?"

I turned sharply towards his direction. He was right. The kid worked at a freaking animal shelter, his girlfriend had a mustache, and he had a bicep diameter of about 0.5 inches. I had nothing to worry about. Right?

"Could I get another uh- Sprite- please?"

Maya's POV

"So, this is going to be like, a double date, right?" squealed Riley, at lunch as she was absolutely fascinated in the conversation she was having with Farkle and his girlfriend, Isabella, or whatever the hell her name was.

Isa-something just nodded, as if she had better places to be. Checking her bejeweled blackberry for the 67th time, she sighed a sigh of relief, and stood up.

"Hate to let you go, it's just that my father is here. To pick me up."

She quickly kissed her boyfriend's cheek, which was much more like a peck, like, a chicken peck, and fled the situation. Her heels obnoxiously clacked as she swung her hips walking down the hall, and she was gone. Farkle looked relieved.

"I can't believe I'm going on my first double date this weekend!" Riley said, clearly unbothered by Isa-something's lack of interest.

"May I remind you that I too am going," I interjected, awkwardly, and looked down at the table as Riley pondered on the thought for a moment.

"Why don't you invite Josh? It's not like you're single."

"Riley."

"What, Maya, can't spend time with your boyfriend in front of us?" said Lucas from behind, holding a lunch tray and a Sunny D in his hand. Sitting down beside Riley and biting into his apple, he kept his eyes locked with mine, until I finally had to break the silence and stand up for myself.

"He lives in Georgia, you inconsiderate scum. You expect him to waste mileage to drive all the way down here and watch a lousy movie with me?"

"Guys, let's not-"

"-That's what you said last year, too, when you won the art award and had that big ceremony to attend and speak at. It was just some lousy art show, just some lousy show giving you one of the most prestigious awards in the state of Florida?"

I bit my lip. I remembered that night, clear as day when I received the letter in the mail informing me of my award. I cried, cried tears of joy that night, jumping up and down with my mother in our third story apartment building, as she cried out, "My little girl's going somewhere in life, she's going somewhere!"

I called Josh after getting into my room later, holding in my urge to scream out the moment he answered. And when he did, he sounded flustered, out of breath, and I couldn't point out why. Maybe he was on a run, or something.

"Josh, you will not believe what I just received in the mail," I said, my voice squealing a bit as my excitement surged through me.

He didn't answer. He didn't guess like Lucas did when I told him. He just waited, waited the whole thirty seconds I gave him to answer, until he finally muttered,
"What?"

"I got- I got the Regional Art Award. I won for my piece that I submitted back in May, you remember that?"

"Mm-hm."

I sighed into the telephone, holding my breath and trying not to erupt into tears.

"Well, the ceremony is Thursday night, if you'd like to come-"

"-Maya, you can't seriously expect me to drive all that way for some lousy art award."

I bit my tongue then. At the time, I thought he was right, I thought what he was saying is reasonable, so we mutually agreed and hung up after that. And the next day at school, I just told Lucas he wasn't able to make it. Too busy being a real estate agent, and all.

"Let's not do this," Riley suddenly announced, interrupting my train of thought. I looked up from the ground and at her, nodding quickly in agreement.

Saturday night, 11 pm

Rolling over in my dark room after hearing yet another knock on my window, I contemplated getting up and letting Lucas in, considering the way things went last time. Dragging my blanket with me, I opened the window, squinting as the moonlight spilled into my room, and Lucas jumped in, awkwardly sitting in my chair. I laid back in bed, closing my eyes.

"I get it," he said softly, a moment of silence following after.

"Get what?"

"Us. You don't like me that way. I get it."

Suddenly, a cloud, a big, grey, heavy cloud had been lifted off of my shoulders, and I smiled a smile of relief. I rolled over, facing him, and opened an eye.
"That's very mature of you."

"I miss you, Maya. Us. Our relationship, whether it be completely platonic or-"

"-Let's not go there tonight, alright?"

The boy chuckled, as did I, and I closed my eyes again.

"What made you change your mind?"

"Some deep thinking. And tonight."

I opened my other eye. Tonight? Tonight was Riley's acclaimed "double date," in which her and Lucas have a romantic, sappy date night, while also having the causality of hanging with friends at a bowling alley, since The Longest Ride was sold out.

"Tonight?"

"I realized I love Riley. A lot. And you, you obviously have some unresolved feelings for Josh, which I understand. I just want the two of us to be happy, don't you?"

I choked up. I don't know why I did, but I did, and I was lucky it was dark in my room.

"So you- you don't 'like' me anymore?"

"I'll always be in love with you Maya. But like you said, we'll have to save it for another lifetime."

After that I didn't say anything. I bit my tongue, listening to the quaint sound of the owls in the distance and the rustling of people and cars beneath my window. I didn't know what to say, and if I did say something, I feared bursting into tears, for some reason I did not know.

He jumped into bed with me after that, falling asleep beside me like the good old days, which, now I'd presume Riley would not be very happy with. But it felt nice, having my best friend sleep next to me again— listening to his quiet snore, his deep breathing. And when I woke up and rolled over to find him still next to me, a feeling of warmth was restored inside of me, knowing that, my life was back again, and Maya Hart was no longer a lost girl needing saving.

A/N: LOL, little does she know.

OK, so I have up to a certain point of the plot completed, which is basically the climax, which basically happens towards the end of the story, which is basically soon. I can't see this going on to be more than 20 chapters honestly.

I have an idea for another fanfic. It's Teen Wolf, though, minus the whole supernatural shit they've got going on that makes zero sense. It would be stydia centric, about Stiles losing his memories and him either only remembering Lydia or Lydia trying to help him restore his memories. Idk yet, but I don't really need to, considering I'm not starting that (if I decide on writing it) until I finish this.

Does anybody watch Teen Wolf? Or would anybody be interested in reading this? Let me know, and also let me know what you think of this chapter. Sorry my chapters are a little short, by the way :/