Maya POV/chapter 7
I sat down with my cookie crisp cereal and started to eat it. I then felt the presence of somebody else; I looked up to see Lucas trying to sit down on one of the seats.
"Um no sorry all these seats are reserved for guys that don't break my best friends heart." I said while tilting my head a little and pouting my lips bitterly.
"Maya you know it isn't like that. I never wanted to hurt Riley. I really like her, and just because I'm not ready now it doesn't mean that I'm never gonna be ready." I felt a little bad for him; as much as I was pissed off with him for hurting my best friend I knew he deserved a second chance. He clearly meant what he said. I sighed a little, and turned to face him slightly.
"Okay kid, fine you can have a seat. But if you do anything to hurt Riley today I'm going to make sure that you go back to Texas, okay?" He slowly nodded his head and took his seat. I was happy because things were finally starting to become normal again, without the awkwardness or chagrin.
"Maya can I talk to you about something?"
"What is it?" I answered back with a groan, even though I had already guessed what he wanted to talk about.
"About the kiss," he went to continue what he was saying, but I didn't want to hear anything else about the kiss, so I stopped him by putting my hand up.
"We don't need to talk about this Lucas, we kissed for our fake date, and thanks for taking it so well, but there's nothing more to it." I stated with a straight faced expression.
"I know but do you feel weird about it or anything?"
"Seriously it's no big deal," I said while shrugging my shoulders, "I don't feel awkward, upset or anything…but if you keep bothering me about the kiss it might be." I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"Maya," he said, still persisting on talking about the kiss. Luckily just then Riley walked up to us.
"Hey," Lucas said while looking up at Riley. "I can move if you want?"
"Um it's okay, you're my friend." She stated with a seemingly cheery expression. 'Wow she bounced back fast,' I thought to myself. I couldn't say that I was surprised though; she always bounced back from arguments pretty quickly. Sometimes I wished that I could be more like her in that way.
"My grandma gave me some money to spend. I'm going to get something to drink, you guys want anything?" Riley asked.
"Yeah I can pay you back though. I'll get a peach iced tea thanks," Lucas replied.
"What about you M?" She asked while glancing at me.
"I'll have a peach iced tea too thanks," I mumbled casually.
"Okay, I'll be two ticks." Riley went up to the counter to get our drinks. I didn't want to talk to Lucas so I put my head down and checked my Instagram feed on my Samsung; I wanted him to think that I was busy and had better things to do other then think about him. A little while later Riley returned with our drinks.
"Here you go," she took a seat and passed us our drinks.
"Thanks Riley." I popped the cap and took a sip of my iced tea nonchalantly.
"I need to talk to you guys about something, you appear to be normal now, but what happened with you guys on Friday?" Riley asked intently. 'Oh no,' I thought to myself, 'Riley suspects something!'
"What do you mean?" He asked with a seemingly oblivious expression, though I knew he was faking it.
"Well on Friday after your guys fake date Maya was acting weird, and you were acting a little weird on the Saturday." I cringed a little; I didn't want Lucas to know that I had been weird after the kiss, I wanted him to think that I thought it was no big deal; I wanted everything to go back to our usual banter.
"I told you it was because of Ryan, he's a jerk, but other than that everything was good," Lucas replied with a straight face.
"Lucas, I could tell you weren't telling me everything that went on. What happened?" Riley asked.
"Ah, um…" He trailed off nervously; obviously he didn't know what to say.
"Ryles, we were both weird because during the fake date Lucas and I had to be really nice to each other and it was a bit weird I guess. I felt like throwing up!" I piped up, sparing Lucas from his embarrassment. I looked up and saw Lucas eyeing me; he looked guilty and a little offended. It's not that I wanted to lie to Riley; I hated lying to Riley, but I didn't want her to know about the kiss because I knew what it'd do to her.
"Oh ok, well can things get back to normal now?" Riley asked hopefully.
"Yep back to normal," Lucas replied. A little while later I was starting to feel like a cookie, they had free cookies at the cafeteria so I decided to get a cookie.
"I'm going to get a cookie, you guys want one?"
"No thanks," they replied simultaneously. I nodded my head in response and went off to get a cookie. After around two minutes at the counter I decided to get two cookies because I couldn't decide between the double chocolate chip and the regular chocolate chip. As I turned around with my cookies, which were in paper bags, I watched as Lucas and Riley shared a tender moment; Lucas held Riley's hand. 'Well,' I thought to myself, 'nothing has changed here; Lucas is still crazy about Riley.'
I couldn't help but feel disappointed with myself; Lucas had opened himself up to a conversation about the kiss, but I shrugged him off like I usually did. I didn't think I was mean or abusive in any way, but I almost felt like my cold dismissal of him was worse than my usual behaviour. I cared for him, there wasn't any doubt about that, but I couldn't allow myself to feel anything more than sisterly affection for him. He liked Riley, and she liked him too, and I didn't want to hurt her because I knew just how strong her feelings were for him. I was fine on the outside, but I had changed a lot in the inside. I had realised something after our kiss, what I realised was that I had been running from my true feelings for Lucas ever since we first met, and even though he annoyed me a lot, I couldn't help but feel my heart flutter when I kissed him. I was never going to speak of our kiss-or of my feelings- to anyone. I also didn't want to admit it to myself either. I was starting to get more jealous at how close Riley and Lucas were. I knew that I had no right to be jealous, but I couldn't help it. I walked over to the table with my cookies, I tried to take away my angry scowl but it still remained.
"Hey Maya are you okay?" Riley asked concernedly.
"Yeah I'm fine. When's Farkle coming back again?" I asked while sitting down on a seat.
"He's coming back the same day as Riley gets back from her vacation I'm pretty sure," Lucas answered.
"I wasn't asking you, I was asking Riley," I stated, my teeth clenched.
"Does it matter? I just answered your question." Lucas replied with a puzzled expression across his face.
"Yeah, I'd rather hear it from Riley, not you," I said with a bitter look.
"Listen Maya," he argued back defensibly.
"Listen Maya," I mocked. I knew that Lucas was going to flip, he hated when people mimicked me. I felt a little guilty for being mean to him, but this was the only way I knew how to get over my feelings for him.
"Stop it!" Lucas yelled.
"You stop it!" I retorted while wanting to lunge at him.
"Stop it you two!" Riley interrupted our drabble. "Things sure have got back to normal haven't they? You're bickering like children again."