Chapter 11/Lucas POV
The next morning dawned much too early; I had barely slept all night. Maya was constantly on my mind and the hurt expression she had shown me before she left was unable to leave my thoughts. I believed that things had changed between Maya and me, but the consequence of my reluctance to admit my true feelings on our kiss was a harmful one. I could tell that I had hurt Maya and I knew that when Maya was upset she instantly became furious and defensive; it was a wonder that she hadn't hit me. I looked at my alarm clock and saw that it was 8:30; I knew that Riley was leaving at ten, so I figured that I could go and visit her before she left for Philadelphia.
Around half an hour ago I arrived at Riley's apartment. I saw Maya sitting down on the couch, a bowl of Lucky Charms in her one hand, and a medium sized spoon in the other.
"Sup Ranger rick," she greeted me as I carefully approached her. I was surprised about how normal she was acting.
"Hey Maya," I greeted, trying to sound as casual as possible. I turned around to see Riley packing some of her hand luggage. "Hi Riley," I added as she paused what she was doing and turned around to greet me.
"Good morning Lucas!" Riley greeted me cheerfully, and the involuntary smile that I often adopted around her sprang to my face.
"Are you okay? You look a little tired," she added and my smile dropped just as quickly as it had emerged.
"Uh yeah," I paused for a moment, "I, uh, I didn't get much sleep last night…" I dropped my eyes to the couch in order not to look Riley in the eye. I felt guilty; I knew that I didn't cheat on Riley, but I also couldn't stop thinking about Maya, and I knew that wasn't a good thing.
"Is there a reason why you didn't sleep well?" Riley asked me as she walked to me. "Did you end up going to the movie?"
I tensed at her question and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Maya do the same.
"No, I stayed home," I said quickly, trying to distract Riley from getting the real reasons out of me.
"Oh okay," Riley smiled pleasantly and pecked me on the lips. "Feel better now?" She asked while stroking my arm.
"Uh yeah, I do." I forced a smile. It wasn't that I didn't like her, but I felt weird showing affection for Riley in front of Maya.
"Ok, what's going on with you today?" She asked as she placed her hands on her hips. She reminded me of her mum when she was suspicious of something.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"Well, I dunno, you're just acting different today. You're acting like I'm a bad smell or something."
"Of course I like you Riley, I do. I'm going to miss you though. It kind of sucks that we get together like a day before you leave."
"Yeah talk about bad timing, but don't worry, seriously. I'll be back before you know it!" She exclaimed perkily. "Oh I gotta go pack my toilet trees. I'll be down soon." She said as she walked up the stairway. I walked towards Maya, who was still sitting on the couch. I figured that it would be good if I grabbed the opportunity to talk to Maya privately.
"Maya can I talk to you?" I asked her.
"Ugh fine," she said with a growl.
"About last night," I started, "I'm sorry that I hurt you. I didn't mean to…it's just-"
"Lucas you don't have anything to explain. I'm not pissed at anything, what are you piping on about?"
"Maya, I think…no, I know I hurt you last night somehow and I'm sorry for that."
"I'm out of here. You need some extra sleep son, you're not thinking straight." She rolled her eyes, stood up and left Riley's apartment with no hesitation. A little while later Riley walked down with a puzzled expression displayed on her face.
"Where's Maya?" She asked.
"Oh, um, I think she had somewhere to be, she left a couple of minutes ago."
"That's strange. I didn't get to say goodbye to her! Well I'll probably get to skype her on vacation anyway. I'm all packed now, do you wanna do anything before I leave?"
"Yeah, why don't we go for a walk or something?" I asked, and she smiled a little while holding my right hand.
"Yeah I'll love that," she answered. I looked into her brown eyes, and there was no doubt about it, she was beautiful. 'Maybe Riley's the girl that I'm destined to be with. I've heard a tonne of Cory and Topanga stories, and maybe Riley is my Topanga,' I thought to myself as we walked out of her apartment, ready for the walk.